E-mail has taken over as the primary source of business communication among UK heads of legal, according to a snapshot survey looking at the personal use of technology among general counsel in the UK’s top companies. An overwhelming majority (80%) of the 100 general counsel questioned said that e-mail is the method of communication they […]

The move highlights the difficulties that the large accountancy firms face in trying to retain tax work revenues following last year’s clampdown on the non-audit services they can offer audit clients. Regulators and politicians became concerned in the wave of corporate scandal that the independence of audits was being jeopardised by accountancy firms gaining lucrative

While bankers, brokers and dealers have seen earnings slashed and thousands of colleagues made redundant, latest figures show that the City’s corporate lawyers are still earning huge amounts. Of the six-strong ‘magic circle’ of top firms, only Slaughter & May – a specialist in mergers & acquisitions work – reported a fall in turnover, and

The Financial Times was yesterday accused of a “hatchet job” and “muckraking” in a potentially record-breaking defamation claim by Collins Stewart Tullett, a City stockbroking firm. The broker is at the centre of a row over allegations of insider dealing and share ramping made by a former employee. Collins is run by outspoken chief executive

Radical plans being drawn up by the Commission for Judicial Appointments (CJA), which advises the Government on legal matters, would see all judges up to the level of the High Court being selected by an independent panel of experts, most of whom would be drawn from outside the legal profession. The dramatic move to take

Masons calls time on tech-boom salary war as Hammonds and Osborne Clarke rein in assistant pay. Masons has slashed its pay benchmark for junior lawyers by nearly 10% — becoming the first top 50 UK firm to seriously reverse the “unsustainable” pay hikes of 2000 and 2001. The shake-up of the national firm’s pay structure,

It has been decades since Tony Blair had his day in court. That expertise could prove invaluable, particularly as there is only one precedent for a serving prime minister appearing in public before a judicial inquiry. John Major, the former Tory prime minister, gave evidence at the Scott Inquiry into the arms-to-Iraq scandal and was

In an initiative to be rolled out across Allen + Overy, all associates and partners will be set personal hourly plans for the first time. A&O’s associate chargeable hour targets – between 1,600 and 1,700 hours – are not the highest in the City, but A&O has fuelled disquiet among its associates by setting new

The lawsuit, filed by Mylan Pharmaceuticals on 8 August, arose as a result of an antitrust case that Clifford Chance’s US office had acted on since 1999 and which settled last year. Mylan is claiming that the firm acted wrongly on the settlement and the $19m (£11.8m) fee was too high. Mylan is claiming damages,

The family suing Walt Disney Co. in a decade-old case over marketing rights to children’s book character Winnie the Pooh has hired a new team of attorneys, including a former state appeals court judge, it said in a statement on Friday. Stephen Slesinger Inc., the corporation that represents the Slesinger family’s interests, said it had