White & Case hires Deloitte Legal innovation pro
White & Case has hired a partner from Deloitte Legal to support its innovation efforts in a new global role. Isabel Parker has left Deloitte Legal after just under two years at the Big Four outfit. She is moving to White & Case, where she will take on the position of chief innovation officer. Here, she will lead the firm’s business intelligence, practice technology, research and market intelligence, and knowledge management functions. Parker joined Deloitte in 2022, after nearly 15 […]
Revealed: Deloitte’s revenue leaps after Kemp Little deal
Deloitte Legal’s UK revenue has soared over the financial year 2020/21, just two years after operations launched in the region. The Lawyer can reveal that the Big Four’s legal arm made an estimated £40m. The unit kicked off operations in early 2019 after the hire of former Allen & Overy partner Michael Castle. Due to the infancy of its growth trajectory, details of the financial performance of the arm were previously unavailable. The information forms part of The Lawyer‘s latest […]
Kemp Little partners bound to three-year lock-in in Deloitte deal
Partners from legacy Kemp Little are facing a three-year lock-in period as part of the firm’s arrangements with acquirer Deloitte Legal, The Lawyer has learnt. It is understood that the partners have accepted a condition that was counterbalanced with a boost in remuneration both at partner and associate levels. Sources said that, following the deal, the two parties encountered some client conflicts during the integration period that created issues in some of the practices. Over the past few months, there […]
Deloitte Legal chief sets out new strategy for 2025
Deloitte Legal’s UK managing partner Michael Castle has formulated a growth plan for the business until 2025, following the firm’s takeover of Kemp Little this year. The strategy comes after, this February, the firm purchased the tech-focused boutique, adding 29 partners and 57 lawyers as well as its business services ranks in a mammoth transaction. In the past few months, the layout of the Deloitte 2 office in New Street Square, which houses the firm’s legal headcount, was redesigned to […]
The Passport: No firm is safe in Italy’s red-hot lateral market
Welcome to The Passport, your regular round-up of the most important stories to come from the European legal market. In this week’s edition, BonelliErede and Chiomenti battle it out in pursuit of PE dominance; White & Case provides a blueprint for growth in Sweden; and Wolf Theiss’ new Brussels office highlights the firm’s growing ambitions. BonelliErede’s latest partner raid on Chiomenti highlights their intensifying rivalry The sharp end of the Italian legal market has seen two firms trading blows in […]
“I want to tell you we were in a smoky room of a NY hotel, but we weren’t”: How HSF got its merger
At the end of May, Herbert Smith Freehills’s executive partner for EMEA, UK and US flew to New York with a proposition. Alison Brown was preparing to present an opportunity to a firm that had come top of an HSF-commissioned external audit of the US market. It was a firm that had virtually no platform overlap and teams in three of the UK firm’s four preferred US locations of New York, Washington DC, Silicon Valley and Texas. That firm was […]
Addleshaws acts as Homebase falls into administration
Addleshaw Goddard is leading for DIY retailer Homebase as it collapses into administration. On the other side of the table, Browne Jacobson is advising The Range’s owner CDS Superstores in its acquisition of the Homebase brand, a move that safeguards nearly 1,500 jobs. Addleshaws’ team for Homebase is led by Manchester-based restructuring partner Tim Taylor. Corporate partner Nigel Blackwell is at the helm of Browne Jacobson’s team for CDS. This is not the first time Taylor has acted for Homebase, […]
SDT suspends ex-Freshfields partner for “inappropriate” conduct
A former partner of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has been suspended for 24 months after a case was brought to the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT) over “inappropriate” conduct. Nick Williams was made up as a partner in the magic circle firm’s disputes and investigations team in March 2017, but left Freshfields two years later following the outcome of an internal probe. The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) investigated the matter and referred to the SDT earlier this year. In its decision statement, the SRA […]