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International Edition

Bird & Bird CEO set for 20-year stint as partners re-elect management team

Bird & Bird has re-elected its senior management team, with chief executive David Kerr and chairman Michael Frie both seeing their terms extended for a further three years. The reappointment will enable Kerr, one of the longest-serving leaders of a UK law firm, to continue his 17-year management role until at least the 20-year point. Frie meanwhile joined Bird & Bird in 2000 when it merged with Sweden's Gedda & Ekdahl, where he was managing partner, and has been chairman since 2007.
2 minute read

International Edition

Keystone Law to launch temp service for US firms

Keystone Law is moving into the temp lawyer market with a new service that will offer partner-level support to the City arms of US law firms. The new Law Firm Support service will enable firms to instruct Keystone's 120 lawyers to work on specific transactions and longer-term projects. This includes a guarantee from Keystone that no further instructions will be accepted by lawyers working for the client during the course of the temp assignment.
2 minute read

International Edition

CC and Links lead as Co-op sells life insurance arm for £219m

Clifford Chance (CC) and Linklaters have played lead roles on Royal London's £219m purchase of the Co-operative Banking Group's life insurance business. The deal is set to see Royal London, the UK's largest mutual life and pensions company, acquire Co-operative Insurance Society (CIS) and The Co-operative Asset Management.
2 minute read

International Edition

Numbers game – LLPs offer chance to look beyond PEP and revenue

It's all about the numbers this week, with our monthly news analysis drawing on the annual accounts of the UK's 30 largest law firms to create a comparison across, well, so many financial metrics it's almost impossible to decide what to highlight. Statistics can, of course, be manipulated in all manner of ways to produce all manner of results. But, hopefully, by comparing all of the firms on the same measures, we have removed some of the fuzziness around the edges.
3 minute read

International Edition

Addleshaws ramps up paralegal hiring with 30 set to join in three months

Addleshaw Goddard is set to increase the size of its Manchester transaction services team (TST) by almost 50% over the coming months, as it looks to step up the amount of work carried out by the paralegal service. The firm is planning to hire 10 paralegals each month for the next three months, in a recruitment drive intended to bring headcount to 100. The team has already grown from five to 70 paralegals since launch in 2010, and the firm is considering relocating it to a separate Manchester base. The increase in manpower comes as part of a firmwide efficiency drive intended to result in the TST delivering at least 10% of its work by 2015.
2 minute read

International Edition

HSF and Pinsents act as £14bn nuclear site gets go-ahead

Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) and Pinsent Masons have advised as EDF Energy secured planning consent to build and operate the proposed £14bn Hinkley Point C nuclear power station. The Somerset development, which was green-lit by energy and climate change secretary Ed Davey last week, comprises two nuclear reactors capable of generating up to 3,260 megawatts of electricity. The development consent order also permits EDF to carry out associated development work and includes measures amounting to around £100m to manage the impact of the development.
2 minute read

International Edition

The changing face of environmental law has set the scene for an exciting 2013

2013 presents an exciting horizon for environmental lawyers, both domestically and internationally. Unsurprisingly, natural resources remain the focus; securing access to these resources is the key to growth, particularly in the fastest-developing economies. However, such growth comes at a cost – Deepwater Horizon, Bohai Bay and Fukushima are just a few examples. The globalisation of these issues has inevitably resulted in the globalisation of environmental law. It is no wonder that we face such a changing landscape. So what can we expect for the rest of 2013?
5 minute read

International Edition

Herbert Smith exits continue as top disputes partner Greeno joins Quinn

Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) is to lose another high profile City partner, with highly-rated disputes partner Ted Greeno to leave the firm. Greeno, who has experience of commercial litigation and arbitration in sectors including oil, gas and power, is joining the London arm of US litigation specialists Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan.
3 minute read

International Edition

Withers and Speechly Bircham confirm preliminary merger talks

Withers and Speechly Bircham have confirmed that they are in early stage talks over a possible combination that could create a top 25 firm with revenues of around £170m. The firms issued a joint statement today confirming preliminary discussions are taking place after RollonFriday first reported the pair were talking about a combination on Friday (22 March).
3 minute read

International Edition

Down payment – should firms face up to reality and cut NQ pay?

A report this week by City recruitment company Edwards Gibson arguing that law firms need to reassess pay for junior lawyers is particularly timely, given our cover story today. The recruiter's claim that top law firms should consider substantially cutting newly qualified salaries comes as Legal Week research shows staff costs at the UK's leading law firms are continuing to soar, with total costs across the bulk of the top 30 up 7% year-on-year to a grand total of £4.5bn – well over a third of total fee income.
3 minute read

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