United Kingdom

Management Recommends Merger of Lovells and Hogan & Hartson

The management committees of London-based Lovells and Hogan & Hartson have voted to recommend that the entire partnerships approve a merger of the two law firms. Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal Law Blog have the stories. The vote had been expected. If the partnerships approve the merger in a…

Oct 29, 2009 3:20 PM CDT

Merger Talks Between Lovells and Hogan & Hartson Expected to Advance Today

Merger talks between Hogan & Hartson and Lovells are likely to advance significantly soon. The management committee of Lovells is expected to vote today to recommend that the entire partnership of the London-based international firm vote in favor of the proposed merger with Hogan & Hartson, reports the Wall Street…

Oct 28, 2009 9:57 PM CDT

Mom Tailed in School Registration Case Pursues Privacy Complaint

Suspected of improperly registering her child at a local school in Poole, England, 40-year-old Jenny Paton became the target of an undercover surveillance mission. Authorities obtained her phone records and tailed her for weeks as she went about her daily activities, driving her daughter to school. As it turned out,…

Oct 26, 2009 8:10 PM CDT

Ropes & Gray to Launch in London With 2 Former Freshfields Finance Partners

Ropes & Gray plans to launch a new office in London early next year, headed by two former finance partners at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer. This will be the fourth new international office that Ropes & Gray has opened in the past two years, as the more than 1,000-attorney Boston-based law…

Oct 22, 2009 5:24 PM CDT

Oral Testimony May Be Obsolete in 15 Years, Top Judge Warns

A top judge in the United Kingdom is calling for courts to consider whether oral testimony is becoming obsolete as the younger generation increasingly relies on the Internet to communicate. In 15 years, the Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales predicted this week, it may be necessary to present…

Oct 21, 2009 11:50 PM CDT

In-House Counsel Defrauded Bank of $12M, Court Finds

A former deputy head of the legal department defrauded the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi out of some $12 million (7.4 million in British pounds, at the current exchange rate) by conning colleagues into signing off on large investments in a friend’s Indonesian airline, London’s Southwark Crown Court decided yesterday. Kate Johns,…

Oct 21, 2009 11:15 PM CDT

Litigation-Financing Fund Raises a Record $130M in London IPO

An initial public offering for the Burford Capital litigation-financing fund has raised $130 million through the sale of 80 million shares on London’s junior exchange. Participation by large institutional investors accounted for much of the record-breaking amount raised by a litigation fund, reports the Am Law Litigation Daily. Invesco UK…

Oct 16, 2009 8:11 PM CDT

Law Firm Ponders 29 More Staff Cuts Following 76 Earlier Layoffs

After letting 76 lawyers and staff go earlier this year, a United Kingdom law firm is mulling another round of layoffs. This time Denton Wilde Sapte says it is launching redundancy consultations concerning 20 secretaries and 9 additional support staff, reports Legal Week. Most of the possible layoffs are expected…

Oct 13, 2009 5:43 PM CDT

Novel About Wily 16th-Century Lawyer & Adviser to Henry VIII Wins Rave Reviews

It may not be the best choice for those seeking winter resort reading. But a challenging novel about a 16th-century lawyer who served as a top advisor to Henry VIII is winning rave reviews both in the United Kingdom and the United States. Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall brings Thomas Cromwell…

Oct 9, 2009 11:10 PM CDT

How DLA Piper Plans to Save $1M a Year in Travel Costs

It’s going to cost $500,000 annually for five years. But DLA Piper expects to save $1 million a year in travel expenses and lost productivity by upgrading from videoconferencing to telepresence equipment at six of its United States offices. The virtual meetings the new setup makes possible allow lawyers in…

Oct 8, 2009 5:31 PM CDT

Hogan & Hartson and Lovells in Merger Talks

The Washington, D.C.-based law firm Hogan & Hartson is in merger talks with Lovells, a law firm based in the United Kingdom. The two law firms have confirmed the merger talks, informally initiated several months ago, according to The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times. The combined law firms would…

Oct 8, 2009 3:43 PM CDT

UK & Australia Firms Mull Megamergers to Amp Up in Asia

A planned 2010 merger of London-based Norton Rose with Australia’s Deacons law firm is giving their competitors on both continents considerable food for thought. Together, the Norton Rose-Deacons combination will have some 1,500 lawyers, but the major import of the planned merger is the head start it could provide for…

Oct 7, 2009 10:54 PM CDT

UK’s High Court OKs Serving Injunction on Anonymous Blogger Via Twitter

In what reportedly is the first such use of the Internet authorized by any court in the country, the United Kingdom’s High Court has permitted an injunction on an anonymous blogger to be served via Twitter. The injunction demands that the unknown blogger stop impersonating on the Internet a well-known…

Oct 2, 2009 5:29 PM CDT

Firm Calls Meeting to Remove Partner, But Doesn’t Get Enough Votes

Oops. Senior executive partners at LG called a meeting last month in order to vote to remove an equity partner who allegedly was under-performing. But when the ballots were tallied there weren’t enough, so the unidentified partner remains with the law firm, reports Legal Week. Because a number of partners…

Oct 1, 2009 7:01 PM CDT

Worst of Recession is Over for Law Firms, Says PricewaterhouseCoopers Survey

After the economic carnage earlier this year, financial statistics show law firms were on more solid ground by the summer. A survey of more than 50 law firms conducted by the PricewaterhouseCoopers accounting firm found that legal work and law firm profits increased during a three-month period that ended on…

Sep 23, 2009 11:46 PM CDT