From mergers to panels, office openings and closures – all the top news from 2015 month by month

January
Dentons started the year as it meant to go on with news of its first – and largest – combination of the year: a tie-up with China's largest law firm, Dacheng. The ground-breaking move was the best read story on Legal Week in January.

Not on quite the same scale but still a bold signal of intent, Cooley confirmed details of its long-awaited London launch, with the firm opening with 55 lawyers from Edwards Wildman and Morrison & Foerster. 

Clifford Chance started what would become two trends, launching a review of its lockstep in a bid to better reward star performers and confirming a number of partner exits in Germany. Lockstep was one area of change highlighted by managing partner Matthew Layton as part of the firm's ten-year strategy.

Other top stores this month included:

• Allen & Overy cutting its staff bill by £15m through shipping support jobs to Belfast and cutting headcount

• Lloyds to hand more specialist work to main panel firms following sub panel shake up

• India's largest law firm Amarchand to split following brothers' dispute

• Hogan Lovells promotes five partners in London in 24-strong round

• Freshfields dominating Euro and Asia-Pacific M&A in 2014 as global deal markets soar to post-crisis high

• Fried Frank bucks trend for Asian expansion but proves to be an early mover on office closures by pulling out of Asia.

February
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer announces fundamental shift in its UK strategy, with the firm consulting on plans to open a low-cost centre in Manchester. Can any firm ignore the nearshoring trend?

• Latham & Watkins confirms global leadership position as it posts record high revenue and PEP for 2014.

• Latham raids Clifford Chance for German buyout practice.

• Berwin Leighton Paisner elects first female managing partner.

• Lloyds appoints over 50 firms to sub panel spots.

• Herbert Smith Freehills considers new legal services support centres on back of Belfast success.

• Legal Week analysed the partner promotion rounds of the largest US firms, with London promotions significantly on the rise.

March
• Magic circle partner promotions piqued readers' interests in March as Freshfields added 17 to its partnership and Slaughter and May promoted four.

• Meanwhile Pinsent Masons' bumper promotions round took the firm past 400 partners as it raised 29 to the partnership.

• News broke that Latham & Watkins was planning to pull out of its offices in Abu Dhabi and Doha by the end of the year, leaving it with two bases in the Middle East.

• Chicago firm Jenner & Block announced it intended to launch in London in 2015, with the goal of tapping into the City's lucrative litigation market.

• Further office launches included Hogan Lovells and Pinsent Masons' expansion into Australia and DLA Piper finally entering the Canadian market through a merger with Davis.

• Major in-house stories included Shell's global litigation and downstream general counsel stepping down and the Co-operative Bank bolstering its legal team with hires from Eversheds and Nationwide.

April

• April's story of the month saw Legal Week research demonstrating that 80% of senior lawyers believe their health is being damaged by firms' long-hours culture.

• Dentons approved its second merger in three months, with a combination with US firm McKenna Long & Aldridge.

• And the UK partner promotion round kicked off in earnest with Allen & Overy, Clifford Chance and Linklaters announcing details of their internal promotion rounds. We analysed the magic circle promotions here.

• Other magic circle news saw Clifford Chance cut its Moscow headcount by 11.

• New research revealed Linklaters to be the most generous law firm employer as UK top 30 spend up to 55% of revenue on staff.

• While Slaughter and May associates learned they were set for bumper pay rises of up to 10%.

• Elsewhere, problems became visible at now failed firm Parabis, with four more partners to leave amid a restructuring. 

• In-house news included RBS setting out to trim its UK legal roster and Lloyds to cut 25 in-house litigation jobs to save money.

May
• May brought news of a tool that could potentially revolutionise the graduate recruitment market and improve social mobility in the profession – a new contextual hiring tool from Rare.

• Legal Week research analysed partner promotions across the UK's largest law firms.

• Firm specific news included Fried Frank hiring a UK funds trio from Kirkland as three of its partners left.

• Eversheds handed voting rights to fixed-share partners.

• Clifford Chance voted through a lockstep overhaul to retain talent.

• And Gateley announcing its intention to become the first UK listed law firm by floating on London's AIM exchange.

June

Associate pay reviews continued in June as Clifford Chance hiked lawyer pay by up to 5% to keep pace with magic circle rivals, Allen & Overy kicked off a review of junior lawyer pay, Freshfields froze junior lawyer salary bands but still topped magic circle pay levels and US firm White & Case hiked junior lawyer pay by up to 20% in London.

Other stories of the month incuded:

• Norton Rose partners prepare for pay scrutiny as firm aims to boost profits for star performers

• Freshfields set to open two more low-cost centres after Manchester move with firm also hiring Kirkland high-yield partner Ward McKimm 

• Magic circle trio braced for key elections in 2016 as Freshfields confirms Braham as new senior partner

• Gateley shares open 10% up on asking price as firm raises £30m in first ever UK IPO

• Thirteen partners exit Olswang in Germany

• Stephenson Harwood and Nabarro see PEP and revenue jump as does Pinsent Masons

• Mayer Brown launches first City-based apprenticeship scheme

• Herbert Smith Freehills to close Abu Dhabi office.

July
Top stories this month saw the magic circle announce financial results showing the impact of currency fluctuations  as Linklaters' managing partner Simon Davies stepped down a year early.

• Linklaters managing partner Simon Davies set to jump to Lloyds Bank as firm reports 1% revenue increase. Partners reacted to news of his exit here – 'He wasn't everyone's cup of tea'.

• Clifford Chance PEP dips 2% against static revenue as firm cuts Ukraine base.

• Freshfields' PEP falls 8% putting Linklaters at top of profit chart and Allen & Overy nudges ahead of Linklaters as revenue rises 4%.

Other key stories this month included: 

• Deutsche Bank selects legal panel with A&O, Ashurst and Hogan Lovells securing roles

• Wragges name to go as firm seals union with Canada's Gowlings

• Allen & Overy rolls associate bonus into salaries with £20k hike in base pay

• Satisfaction survey finds majority of junior lawyers feel fulfilled despite career concerns

• KWM set for string of departures as it concludes partnership review

• RBS demands freeze on fees as it kicks off panel review.

August

• As Linklaters' confirmed its new managing partner contenders, we looked at the runners and riders.

• Six firms cut as National Grid slims down its panel.

• Ashurst plans move to Spitalfields in 2019.

• BLP refocuses corporate practice around real estate and litigation clients.

• Another Barclays in-house lawyer exits as Simmons hires bank's M&A chief.

• DLA Piper scraps South African alliance as it plots Johannesburg opening.

• Simmons & Simmons to close Rome office.

September

• Top story this month was Legal Week's analysis of the financial results of the UK's 50 largest law firms.

• Efficiency was on the agenda at Clifford Chance as firm hired more 'black belts' and saved more than £6m in 2014.

• Diversity received a boost as the entire magic circle pledged to use Rare's contextual hiring tool. 

• Meanwhile in the wake of five firms announcing office closures over the summer we looked at the politics of shutting up shop.

• The march of the accountants pushed on with news of KPMG boosting its UK legal capability with Birmingham launch.

• DLA Piper revamped its sector strategy to focus on seven key areas, with the firm also snaring a 20-lawyer Hamburg team from Bird & Bird this month.

• In-house stories this month included The Co-operative Bank revealing its inaugural legal panel, while embattled Volkswagen turned to Kirkland on its emissions scandal.

• Key October moves saw Gibson Dunn hire Herbert Smith Freehills capital markets chief Steve Thierbach in London, while another Linklaters partner made the move to Kirkland & Ellis, Shearman & Sterling hired Freshfields' TMT co-head in London and the exits continued from Linklaters alliance partner Webber Wentzel as it lost two further practice heads.

October

• Legal Week's most-read story in October concerned King & Wood Mallesons' delay of its quarterly profit distributions to its UK partners.

• Royal Bank of Scotland's legal panel review moved towards its final stage in October as some of the lead advisers learned that they had won places on the panel.

• Meanwhile Barclays finalised its contract lawyer panel with Clifford Chance and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer winning places.

• Legal Week broke the news that Eversheds was in talks with US firm Foley & Lardner in a bid to pull off a £815m ($1.25bn) merger. The talks subsequently ended.

• Linklaters' managing partner election neared completion as the remaining candidates outlined their strategies around issues such as lockstep and the US. The firm also launched a crowdsourcing initiative to address work/life balance issues.

• Meanwhile, former Linklaters private equity stalwarts Bagshaw and Youle were promoted to co-leadership roles at White & Case's new global private equity group.

• Latham & Watkins saw two partners depart in Germany as the firm reshuffled its European operations following a number of high profile hires.

• Fellow US firm White & Case saw four partners leave its Warsaw office amid a performance crackdown.

• Shipping and insurance firm Ince & Co sounded out its own partnership about potential merger targets, but denied approaching other firms about a deal.

• Herbert Smith Freehills expanded internationally with office launches in Saudi Arabia and South Africa.

November

• Then struggling defendant insurance firm Plexus Law kicked off the month by asking its partners to agree to a two-year lock-in which could have seen them hit with financial penalties for leaving any earlier, with the news coming as Keoghs neared a deal to take over the business. However, the merger did not go ahead and umbrella company Parabis was carved up in pre-pack administration.

• White & Case unveiled plans to boost lawyer count in the City from roughly 350 at present to more than 500 within five years, with its New York office expected to house around the same number of lawyers.

• Norton Rose's management opted to hold meetings for City partners in a bid to make them feel more involved in shaping the merged firm's strategy.

• Addleshaw Goddard is in merger talks with Scottish firm Maclay Murray & Spens. 

• Meanwhile, there were further closures in the competitive German legal market with White & Case closing its Munich office and Freshfields announcing it would merge its Duesseldorf and Cologne offices. 

• Stand out partner hires this month included Paul Hastings taking on Linklaters' restructuring and debt finance heavyweight David Ereira as part of its City hiring drive. Ereira joined Linklaters in 2007 as a partner from Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer.

• Meanwhile Dentons continued its run of global combinations with news it was in merger talks with firms in Singapore and Australia, Colombia and Mexico. The South America tie-ups (its sixth and seventh of 2015) were agreed in December.

• Combinations of a very different nature this month saw Irwin Mitchell and Thomas Eggar unveil their merger plans 

• At the British Legal Awards this year, big winners included RPC which took home  the much sought-after Law Firm of the Year award, while Allen & Overy (A&O) senior partner David Morley scooped the Editor's Award for Managing/Senior Partner of the Year.

December

• Clifford Chance caused a stir by announcing plans to match Cravath Swaine & Moore's US associate bonus levels with its top-level associates across the Atlantic set to take home bonuses of $100,000 (£66,000).

• Freshfields hit the headlines again this month as it began cracking down on partner performance in Germany as part of a global drive to boost firm-wide profitability, with partners in the country set to see their profit share reduced.

• The news emerged just after Freshfields announced it was merging its Cologne and Duesseldorf offices. The firm subsequently also confirmed that it would be making 30 Duesseldorf IT support staff redundant as part of the move and transfer all of its global IT team, based in Germany, to its Manchester back-office centre. At the same time, Clifford Chance opened a new support centre in Canary Wharf.

• Insurance giant Clyde & Co could more than double in size over the next 10 years, under ambitious expansion plans outlined by the firm's senior partner James Burns.

• And Slaughters' associates learned they would have a happier Christmas as the firm unveiled bonus hikes of up to 16% of annual salary for top performing associates.

• Stand out in-house moves included RBS general counsel John Collins resigning to join rival bank Santander UK as director of legal, compliance, regulatory affairs and anti-money laundering.

• And drawing 2015 to a close with news that will play out in 2016. After a year of intense focus on magic circle lockstep systems, Linklaters partners are expecting to be given more details about the firm's ongoing review in May next year. Allen & Overy meanwhile confirmed the contenders set to slug it out for its top management positions, with the firm gearing up for leadership elections early next year. 

See you in 2016.