JD Journal » City of London

Speechly Bircham Hires 90 from Campbell Hooper

Erik Even — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 17:33:00 +0000

London law firm Speechly Bircham has hired 90 people, including 17 partners, from the dissolving Campbell Hooper.

The hirings, which are not being characterized as a merger, give Speechly Bircham a total of over 400 employees. The firm says the move makes Speechly Bircham on of the top 50 UK firms.

Speechly Bircham has also reorganized, creating three groups — business law with 120 lawyers, real estate with 70 lawyers, and private clients with 60 lawyers.

Founded in the 19th century, Speechly Bircham is a 200-lawyer firm based in the City of London, with a strong reputation for both commercial and private client work.

Law Firm Hirings & Firings

Erik Even — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 18:34:44 +0000

Recent laterals and layoffs in the legal sector:

Tom Reilly joins Cooley Manion Jones in Boston, from Greenberg Traurig. He joins the firm as of counsel. Cooley is a former two-term Massachusetts state attorney general

Gordon Peilow joins the City of London’s Cubism Law, where he will advise on trademark & copyright matters, IT contracts & litigation, and employment law issues in the IT sector. He is a graduate of the University of Oxford.

Denton Aud joins Carmi, Illinois’ Endicott, Finch & Barnhart from private practice. He earned his JD at Southern Illinois University School of Law. He was recently appointed the conflict public defender for White County, meaning when regular public defender Jerry Crisel has a conflict that precludes him from taking a public defender case, Aud is called upon by the court.

Herbert Smith Sees Profits Plummet

Erik Even — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 18:05:25 +0000

City of London law firm Herbert Smith saw profits fall 22% in 2008, plummeting below £1 million ($1.65 million).

Partners will see earnings drop from £1.04 million to between as low as £808,000 ($1.33 million) for financial 2008-09.

The firm made a profit last year.

Herbert Smith in April announced a redundancy consultation at its London HQ, targeting 84 positions; but no one was fired after staff members signed on for voluntary redundancy or alternative working arrangements.

Herbert Smith was founded in the City of London in 1882 by Norman Herbert Smith, and today has 230 partners and 1,200 fee-earners. It is widely considered to be the UK’s leading litigation practice.

Herbert Smith Avoids Involuntary Redundancies

Erik Even — Sat, 30 May 2009 20:55:03 +0000

Herbert Smith, which announced in April a redundancy consultation at its London HQ, targeting 84 positions, will not need to lay anyone off after all, after 84 staff members signed on for voluntary redundancy or alternative working arrangements.

The firm offered staffers 3.5 weeks salary per year of service to leave the firm.

Hill Dickinson, Middleton Potts to Merge

Erik Even — Thu, 21 May 2009 17:02:57 +0000

Hill Dickinson will merge with City of London-based law firm Middleton Potts.

The merged firm will be known as Hill Dickinson LLP. The deal finalizes July 1st. Middleton Potts’ senior partner, David Lucas, will head the firm, which will employ 200 in London.

Middleton Potts, a long established City practice, specialized in international trade, commodities and shipping; cross-border banking, corporate and commercial and projects work; and commercial dispute resolution.

Established in 1810, Hill Dickinson LLP has over 150 Partners and more than 1,000 staff, across offices in Liverpool, Manchester, London, and Chester, UK; Piraeus, Greece; and Singapore.

UBS Loses Two Top In-House Counsel

Erik Even — Tue, 19 May 2009 19:12:49 +0000

Two top lawyers at Switzerland’s UBS have left the firm.

Ash Gulati, executive director of UBS’s UK-based prime brokerage & equity derivatives legal team, will join the London office of Akin Gump as senior counsel.

Matthew French, head of UBS’s distressed investment team, will leave after less than a year, to join the Nomura Group. He will work in mergers & acquisitions.

The moves leave 70 lawyers at UBS’s City of London legal team.

UBS AG is a diversified global financial services company, with its main headquarters in Basel and Zürich, Switzerland. It is the world’s largest manager of private wealth assets.

Charles Russell Launches Redundancy Consultation

Erik Even — Tue, 19 May 2009 17:14:15 +0000

London’s Charles Russell has targeted an undisclosed number of employees for redundancy, despite higher-than-expected billings.

Laid off staff will be expected to work during their notice period, and will get only the statutory minimum redundancy pay.

If you have any details about layoffs at Charles Russell, please — send us a confidential tip!

Charles Russell LLP is a top 50 City of London legal practice formed by the merger of three long established firms, with offices in Guildford, Cheltenham, Cambridge, and Oxford; Geneva, Switzerland and The Kingdom of Bahrain. It employs over 300 lawyers.

CMS Cameron McKenna Targeting Equity Partners

Erik Even — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 18:12:33 +0000

Earlier this month, UK City firm CMS Cameron McKenna asked its equity partners to volunteer to become fixed-share partners.

Now the firm has confirmed that “voluntary” could become “mandatory,” as they target less productive members.

Partners have until the end of March to decide on changing to fixed-share.

It’s not deequitization, the firm says, because fixed-share partners will be paid from the general profit pool, and remain members of the limited liability partnership.

CMS Cameron McKenna LLP is an international law firm with over 130 partners and offices throughout the United Kingdom and Central and Eastern Europe.