Matt is The Lawyer’s deputy editor. He has a particular focus on the US legal market. He also leads many of The Lawyer’s market reports, including the UK 200.
Macfarlanes has unveiled a 6.7 per cent revenue fall for the 2009-10 financial year, with fees dropping from £99m to £92.4m. This is the first time the London firm has reported its financial results during the reporting season and follows the firm’s convertion to a limited liability partnership in 2008 (16 November 2009). The previous […]
Two of the senior construction partners snared by Reed Smith from Pinsent Masons as part of a four-partner team have joined the US firm, but the other two partners remain temporarily locked-in at the national firm. Peter Cassidy and Keith Hartley joined Reed Smith earlier this month. No clear date has been set, however, for […]
Halliwells executive chairman Ian Austin is to leave the troubled firm to run the commercial litigation department at Manchester firm Heatons. Until 2009 Austin was managing partner at Halliwells, a role he gave up at the end of last year to take on the newly created role of executive chairman. In 2005 Austin secured Halliwells’ […]
Watson Farley & Williams (WFW) has broken through the £80m revenue barrier, after posting growth of 9 per cent. In 2008-09 the firm made £73.5m (see story) a total that has now increased to £80.2m. The firm has also increased fee-earner headcount and opened an office in Madrid during the year. This is the third […]
Beachcroft has revealed an 8 per cent rise in turnover at the 2009-10 year end to £131m from £121m a year earlier. The firm’s profit increased to £24.5m from £22.8m. This equates to an average profit per equity partner of £314,000, 4.3 per cent up on the 2008-09 level of £301,000. Managing partner Paul Murray […]
Dutch firm Houthoff Buruma has strengthened its corporate practice with a three-lawyer team from Simmons & Simmons. Partner Willem de Nijs Bik, who began his career with Simmons legacy firm Nolst Trenité, is a specialist in M&A and energy will join the firms transactions practice group in Amsterdam. De Nijs Bik brings with him two […]
DLA Piper’s Brazilian alliance firm Campos Mello Advogados (CMA) has continued its hiring spree, with the addition of a 14-strong team including two partners from a rival firm. Luiz Antonio Maia Espínola de Lemos and Fabiano Gallo join the Rio de Janeiro office from Brazil’s largest firm Tozzini Freire Advogados. They bring with them a […]
Speechly Bircham has posted a 29 per cent increase in both turnover and average profit per equity partner (PEP) for the 2009-10 financial year. The firm’s total revenue grew from £45.4m to £58.4m while PEP was up from £331,000 to £428,000. Speechly’s managing partner Michael Lingens said the results were “particularly pleasing” in the context […]
Hampshire-based Coffin Mew has bolstered its corporate and insolvency teams with two new partner hires. The highest-profile capture is that of Philip Stephenson, the former head of corporate at Penningtons. Stephenson joined Penningtons as a partner in 2005 and became head of corporate in 2008. His practice focuses on M&A, joint ventures, start-ups and venture […]
McGuire Woods has strengthened its London office with the arrival of two former Squire Sanders & Dempsey partners, including former managing partner Andrew Visintin. McGuire Woods has strengthened its London office with the arrival of two former Squire Sanders & Dempsey partners, including former managing partner Andrew Visintin. He will be joined at McGuire by […]
The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has withdrawn criminal proceedings against four British Airways (BA) executives who were alleged to have been involved in a multinational price-fixing scam. The OFT, which instructed 7 Bedford Row barrister Richard Latham QC, halted court proceedings yesterday after it emerged it had not reviewed 70,000 documents, including 12,000 to […]
Olswang has lost one of its rising star litigation partners to the growing London office of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan. Commercial litigator Alex Gerbi, who became a partner at Olswang three years ago, has resigned and is set to join the 400-lawyer US firm’s London office next month. Gerbi said the Quinn Emanuel litigation […]