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International Edition

Crown Prosecution Service London chief to replace Starmer as DPP

Alison Saunders, the chief of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) in London, has been appointed to succeed Keir Starmer as the director of public prosecutions (DPP). Saunders becomes the first DPP directly appointed from within the CPS, and only the second woman in the history of the position.
2 minute read

International Edition

Irwin Mitchell DLA moves continue with Manchester restructuring hire

Irwin Mitchell is strengthening its restructuring practice through the hire of DLA Piper partner John Vickery as the firm continues to build the commercial arm of its business. Manchester-based Vickery, who leaves DLA Piper after ten years with the firm, will join Irwin Mitchell's Business Legal Services (BLS) division on ? Vickery specialises in all areas of corporate restructuring and recovery with an emphasis on contentious work. In 2008, Vickery led a DLA team on the administration of music, games and DVD chain Zavvi.
2 minute read

International Edition

Bakers rejigs London management board adding two new partners

Baker & McKenzie has revamped its management board in London, electing partners Monica Kurnatowska and Helen Bradley to two years terms. The appointments, which are effective 1 September, bring the number of women on Bakers' eight-member UK board to three. Kurnatowska (pictured) and Bradley replace former London managing partner Gary Senior and Peter Strivens, who step down after ten and five years on the committee, respectively. Dispute resolution
2 minute read

International Edition

Eversheds secures multimillion-pound EMEA contract with Pentair on back of Tyco deal

The top 10 UK firm has signed a two-year fixed-fee contract with the valve manufacturer following its spin-off last year from Tyco, with which Eversheds also has an exclusive agreement to provide legal advice. Although the value of the Pentair contract is undisclosed, it is believed to be worth more than the estimated £13m two-year contract Eversheds recently signed with Tyco.
2 minute read

International Edition

Mixed messages – what clients mean, and what law firms think they mean

What do clients want? As a lawyer, you are doing something wrong if you can't go a long way towards answering this question. But standing in a room full of senior City partners and general counsel debating the lack of diversity in the legal profession last week, it became apparent quite how nuanced the answer can be. The event – organised by Obelisk, a commercial venture aimed at getting senior City lawyers back into work, particularly after motherhood – looked to address the main issues hindering the rise of women to the top of leading law firms. For as much as the in-house community was quick to denigrate their less diverse private practice colleagues, law firm representatives countered that clients are doing little to help the situation: what clients say they want and what clients actually want are two different things.
3 minute read

International Edition

Partners favour accuracy of hourly rate as fixed-fee billing presents value challenge

The majority of law firm partners favour the traditional hourly rate model as a more accurate way of billing, despite a continued push from clients to use fixed fees and other alternative billing methods, according to Legal Week research. The results of the latest Big Question survey show that while 63% of respondents find it 'quite easy' or 'very easy' to place an accurate value on work delivered when using hourly billing, 80% described such valuations as either 'quite hard' or 'very hard' when using fixed fees.
5 minute read

International Edition

CC recruits efficiency 'black belts' for firmwide push to streamline work

Clifford Chance (CC) has rolled out an ambitious firmwide initiative to improve lawyers' efficiency alongside a drive to more effectively allocate its fee earners' workloads. The magic circle firm has recruited three external coaches, known as 'black belts' in efficiency, to lead training workshops to help the firm's lawyers identify inefficiencies in the way they work, mimicking cost-cutting initiatives developed for the manufacturing industry. The training, which forms part of CC's existing 'Continuous Improvement' programme, has been adapted from 'lean' and 'six sigma' techniques used in the manufacturing sector, with the initiative stemming from a meeting CC managing partner David Childs had with logistics and manufacturing company Unipart.
2 minute read

International Edition

Parabis posts 5% revenue growth as 12 make partner

Parabis Group has posted a 5% rise in revenue for the 2012-13 financial year while also making a dozen promotions from within its Plexus Law and recently-acquired Greenwoods subsidiaries. Total income for the group amounted to £110.6m, a figure which doesn't included the recent acquisition of insurance dispute resolution firm Greenwoods. The result is set against the previous 12 month's income of £105.8m and comes after a year in which the firm converted to an alternative business structure and sold a majority stake of the business to private equity house Duke Street.
2 minute read

International Edition

DAC Beachcroft cuts five fee earner jobs in latest law firm layoffs

DAC Beachcroft has cut five City fee-earning roles, the latest in a series of redundancy rounds at UK law firms. The DAC reductions are part of a restructuring of its London employment and pensions practice, after a review concluded that the team was overstaffed at a senior level.
2 minute read

International Edition

Two firms appointed to Crown Estate energy and infra roster after tender

Bond Dickinson and Norton Rose Fulbright have been appointed to the Crown Estate's slimmed down energy and infrastructure panel. The appointments to the new panel, which run until April 2016, follow a competitive tender process. The former line-up included legacy Bond Pearce and legacy Norton Rose, both of which have since gone through mergers to form Bond Dickinson and Norton Rose Fulbright respectively.
2 minute read

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