Annabel joined The Lawyer in May 2022 as a reporter. She primarily covers litigation and the Bar. You can follow her on both LinkedIn and Twitter.
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has hit back at the Legal Services Board (LSB) following the announcement it will be taking enforcement action against it for its handling of the Axiom Ince scandal. When Axiom Ince collapsed in October 2023, around £60m in client money was missing and 1,400 people lost their jobs. The Serious […]
Howard Kennedy has successfully defended an Employment Tribunal claim made by a former equity partner, defeating allegations of unauthorised wage deductions. James Townsend was an employment law partner from January 2020 to January 2022. Now co-head of employment at Payne Hicks Beach, Townsend brought his claim in March 2023. Townsend joined Howard Kennedy as a […]
Class representative Walter Merricks has been ordered to pay £6.7m in interim costs to Mastercard, following the latest decision in the long-running interchange fee class action. Merricks, represented by Willkie Farr & Gallagher partners Boris Bronfentrinker and Nicola Chesaites, launched the collective action on behalf of 45.5 million UK consumers in the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) […]
Boutique Stewarts Law has matured and now must invest in expansion
The founder of IP boutique Powell Gilbert, Tim Powell, has joined Morgan Lewis to expand the firm’s UK and European intellectual property (IP) practice in what is a competitive patent litigation landscape. Powell, who co-founded Powell Gilbert in 2007 alongside fellow patent litigator Penny Gilbert, told The Lawyer he was looking forward to a “new […]
Covington & Burling is defending Amazon from a class action brought by two separate proposed class representatives, who will be battling it out for carriage of the claim in the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT). On 6 June, Willkie Farr & Gallagher announced it would be bringing a £1bn claim against Amazon regarding its “Buy Box” […]
In the first Spotlight of the Michaelmas term, The Lawyer zeroes in on a Herbert Smith Freehills team that has defended the most carriage disputes in class actions being brought in the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT). The market: In the late 2000s, follow-on damages actions began to increase in pace, and US law firms and […]
A long-running case between luxury hotel company Macdonald Hotels (MHL), represented by Enyo, versus Bank of Scotland (BOS), defended by Herbert Smith Freehills, hit the courts yesterday (9 October) for a six-week showdown. The claimants, represented in the Commercial Court by Brick Court’s Tim Lord KC, argue the case is “strikingly different from a run-of-the-mill […]
Covington & Burling has replaced PCB Byrne in the high-profile dispute between the widow and daughters of Russian oligarch Oleg Bourlakov versus his estate, his sister and brother-in-law. Globally, Loudmila Bourlakova and Veronica Bourlakova, the deceased billionaire’s widow and daughter represented by Mishcon de Reya, are battling for a share of his £3bn fortune. Most […]
Rosenblatt prepares Amazon group claim in High Court Rosenblatt has said it will soon file a High Court claim on behalf of hundreds of Amazon sellers, who allege they have had funds of up to £300,000 wrongfully and unlawfully frozen by the online retail giant. Dean Nicholls, the Rosenblatt partner representing the affected sellers, said […]
3 Verulam Buildings (3VB) has lost its third junior barrister in a year to a magic circle set, as the war for talent among chambers heats up. The latest leaver is Tariq Baloch, a senior junior of 2001 call, who joined Essex Court Chambers yesterday (7 October) and practises in international arbitration, public international law […]
Hogan Lovells and the London Metal Exchange (LME) have secured a victory for the second time in the nickel trades dispute brought by Akin Gump-repped Elliott Associates. On 8 March 2023, an unprecedented spike in the price of nickel during the early hours of trading drove the LME to conclude that the market had become […]