For elite firms with ties to big banks, the first half of 2024 has been fruitful for corporate transactions. Sainsbury’s banking business was sold to NatWest Group last month, with Linklaters and A&O Shearman advising, while Addleshaw Goddard, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Paul Hastings led on Co-operative Bank’s sale to Coventry Building Society in an […]
Kirkland & Ellis is introducing three key changes for departing partners, with amendments to notice period rules and the payout of distributions. From this month, the firm brought in a new measure to its partnership agreement, which will allow the firm to hold onto an exiting member’s potential distributions. The payout of a partner’s distributions […]
Baker McKenzie is the latest firm to increase its London newly-qualified (NQ) solicitor pay, with the new rate jumping 18.6 per cent from £118,000 to £140,000. The new NQ rate took effect on 1 July and will also be soon followed by an increase to Bakers’ trainee pay. From 1 September this year the firm […]
Clyde & Co has seen its global topline grow by 10 per cent over 2023/24, rising from the previous year’s £788.6m to £845m. In its second full financial year since its £11m acquisition of BLM, the firm’s profit has also increased by 3 per cent to £174.4m. The UK now accounts for 47 per cent […]
Shoosmiths has capped off the 2023/24 financial year with a 6 per cent rise in revenue to £206.7m, taking the firm’s topline past £200m for the first time. Profits and average profit per equity partner were also recorded to have gone up at the firm, the former climbing by 5 per cent to £66m and […]
Baker McKenzie and Linklaters have sealed an agreement between brewing company Carlsberg and soft drinks producer Britvic, after the latter rejected two acquisition offers from its suitor. The £3.3bn takeover comes after Britvic rejected Carlsberg’s last offer of £3.1bn on 11 June as well as a first offer that was made on 6 June. Bakers […]
Taylor Rose MW has refreshed its leadership team with eight senior-level appointments including the firm’s first chief operating officer and first director of professional standards. The news follows what was a rocky 2023 for the firm after it launched a redundancy round last September to “carefully manage costs” in a difficult economic climate. According to […]
Any City firm wanting to get serious in the transactional legal market has to be prepared to make considerable investments into its private equity practice, whether by attracting key hires or wooing big-ticket clients. But as firms compete for the attention of a Blackstone or EQT, Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe is staying out of the […]
Burges Salmon and Covington & Burling have led the listing of US-based medical technology group AOTI on the AIM market, as the London IPO space picks up. Burges Salmon corporate partners Dominic Davis and AJ Venter led for AOTI on the main ECM piece, along with associate Dan Wood. Support was provided by senior associate […]
Concerns over Royal Mail’s £3.5bn takeover by Czech-owned business EP Group have bubbled up over the weeks since the agreement was announced, with each side’s legal team coming up against a range of issues. Slaughter and May corporate partner Claire Jackson has been leading the transaction for Royal Mail’s parent company International Distribution Services (IDS) […]
American firms in London have seen a sharp slowdown in their City headcount growth rate, according to The Lawyer’s latest US 50 report. After the last five years saw the US firms reliably adding some 300 to 800 lawyers to their ranks annually, 2023 brought on all of 22 additional lawyers to the overall mix. […]
Following the raft of newly-qualified salary rises in recent weeks, Slaughter and May is holding its pay for NQs at £125,000 – at least until November this year. Slaughters reviews its salary scales bi-annually in April and November and in its most recent review decided to keep pay for its most junior lawyers as is. […]