United Kingdom

Owners Post Video to ID Woman Who Apparently Dropped Their Cat Into Trash Bin

Strolling down a British sidewalk, an unknown middle-aged woman spots a gray tabby cat, looks around, pets it, looks around again—and then picks up the cat by the scruff of its neck, drops it into a trash bin and shuts the lid. Then she calmly continues on her walk, according…

Aug 23, 2010 7:09 PM CDT

BigLaw Firm’s Secret to Success in Retaining Women Partners: 82 Holidays a Year

One of the United Kingdom’s biggest and best-known corporate law firms has little difficulty retaining talented women lawyers as partners, reports the Daily Mail. Allen & Overy’s secret to success? Offering 82 holidays a year, in exchange for reduced pay. Men can also opt for a reduced schedule for up…

Aug 19, 2010 2:00 AM CDT

Cashier Stole $2.7M from Law Firm, But ‘Kept Man’ Hubby Beats Money-Launder Rap

A trusted 20-year employee stole nearly $2.7 million from a British law firm between 2002 and 2009, allegedly forging checks to help fund a lavish lifestyle for herself and her husband and purchasing Chanel jewelery, Jimmy Choo shoes and shares in a racehorse, among other nonessentials. Louise Martini, 36, had…

Aug 16, 2010 5:16 PM CDT

Survey: US Firms Losing Biz Because In-House Counsel Prefer British Firms

In-house counsel are opting in surprising numbers to take their legal business to British firms rather than seek the counsel of U.S.-based firms. This according to Corporate Counsel, which reports that 88 percent of companies surveyed require international legal advice. That’s up from 70 percent last year. And in this…

Aug 12, 2010 10:30 PM CDT

Law Firm’s New Fee Scheme Includes Billings Tied to Price of Oil for an Energy Client

Can this be the future of BigLaw billing practices? A major law firm based in the United Kingdom has unveiled new fixed-fee arrangements it is suggesting to some 3,500 clients. Innovation is the name of the game. For example, CMS Cameron McKenna is offering an oil client a capped fee…

Aug 5, 2010 8:17 PM CDT

Hunger Striker Settles UK Libel Suit Over False Burger Report

A hunger striker outside Britain’s parliament has settled a libel suit against two newspapers that claimed he had secretly eaten McDonald’s hamburgers. Parameswaran Subramanyam was trying to call attention to Tamils in Sri Lanka’s civil war, and had to be hospitalized after his 23-day protest, Reuters reports. He will receive…

Jul 30, 2010 11:00 AM CDT

UK Lawyer Debuts New ‘Annuity-Based’ Law Firm Whose Clients are Also Law Firm Investors

Forget cash flow. Equity is where it’s at, as far as the law firm of the future is concerned, predicts a well-known lawyer who is now venturing out to stake his claim to this brave new world. Only three years ago, Matthew Hudson was about to take the helm of…

Jul 19, 2010 10:43 PM CDT

Clifford Chance Edges Out Linklaters as UK’s Top-Paid Firm, Earning $1.8B in FY 2009

Megafirm Clifford Chance edged out Linklaters as the United Kingdom’s top-grossing law firm in 2009, reporting about $1.8 billion in revenue for the fiscal year that ended April 30, 2010. That represented a 5 percent decline from the previous year. Linklaters, which was No. 1 the prior year, racked up…

Jul 8, 2010 6:26 PM CDT

Are iPads Better than BlackBerrys? UK Law Firm Plans to Find Out

U.K. law firm Eversheds is testing iPads for its lawyers in a two-month pilot program. The law firm currently equips its lawyers with BlackBerrys but there’s “a lot you can’t do on Blackberry that you can do on an iPad,” a spokesperson told The Lawyer. About 50 people at the…

Jul 2, 2010 11:00 AM CDT

Halliwells Folds After Renting ‘Fancy-Pants HQ’; Did MP Have ‘Too Much Vision’?

The British law firm Halliwells had record profits during good economic times, but now it has filed for administration and is in negotiations to sell its assets to rival Hill Dickinson. Some attributed Halliwells’ problems to its new high-rent headquarters in Manchester and its decision to distribute most of a…

Jun 28, 2010 2:00 PM CDT

No Marriage for Us, Say Olswang and Cooley Firms; We’ll Just Be Close Friends

An international wedding of two well-known law firms isn’t a match made in heaven. But Cooley and Olswang plan to be close friends in a nonexclusive relationship, Legal Week reports. “We have significant sector overlap and strong service line synergies,” says David Stewart, chief executive officer of the United Kingdom’s…

Jun 24, 2010 9:01 PM CDT

Fired Top In-House Lawyer Testifies She Was Bullied by Underling

A London lawyer who headed the legal department at insurance giant Zurich UK Services claims in a lawsuit that bullying from an underling led to her mental breakdown and firing. Caroline Cowper, 53, says her company failed to support her, leading to her mental breakdown and dismissal after she took…

Jun 23, 2010 12:44 PM CDT

UK’s Biggest Immigration Firm Not Too Big to Fail, Leaving 10,000 Cases in Limbo

Saying that it was crippled by a lack of cash flow from unpaid government-funded representations, the United Kingdom’s biggest immigration law firm has failed, leaving some 10,000 cases in limbo. The U.K.’s Ministry of Justice refused calls by legal experts and the Archbishop of Canterbury to intervene and shore up…

Jun 17, 2010 5:51 PM CDT

Seeming Case-Related Slayings This Week: 3 Judges, 2 Clerks, 1 Lawyer, 11 Others

A magistrate judge and a court clerk were shot to death today in Belgium as they were in a courtroom working on a civil case near the Palais de Justice in Brussels. It is the first time in the country’s history that a magistrate has been killed in a courtroom,…

Jun 3, 2010 7:06 PM CDT

Will Dispute May Have Sparked Slayings of Lawyer and 11 Others; Another 25 Wounded

A dispute with his twin brother over a family will may have sparked a taxi driver’s shooting spree yesterday in a quiet corner of England. The twin, David Bird, and family solicitor Kevin Commons, 60, of Kevin J. Commons & Co. were reportedly among the first people shot to death…

Jun 3, 2010 4:36 PM CDT