Wedlake Bell’s rising star on how tech is changing they way City law firms work January 13, 2023 Technology is increasingly changing the way we work, and law firms are no exception. Innovation and new technical solutions are rapidly penetrating the City’s legal powerhouses. At the same time, barristers and other lawyers feel they are not compensated sufficiently for the hard work they put in, prompting thousands to strike earlier this year. To [...]
PPI scandal: Supreme Court case could ‘open door’ for hundreds-of-thousands of new claims for UK banks January 12, 2023 British banks could face a new wave of payment protection insurance (PPI) claims following a hearing at the UK’s Supreme Court. The Supreme Court will decide whether to expand the reach of a six-year time limit to let thousands more PPI claims be heard in UK courts. PPI policies cover the costs of debt repayments [...]
City Exclusive: How rising legal star Natasha Harrison is taking on London’s Magic Circle firms January 12, 2023 As 2022 has come to a close, City lawyers undoubtedly remember last year as the time the pay war among London’s biggest firms heated up in earnest, as the war for talent reached new highs. But away from the Square Mile’s biggest legal teams, 2022 will also go down as an incredibly exciting year for [...]
Bain & Co snaps up London tech consultancy Enterprise Blueprints January 12, 2023 Bain & Co has acquired London consultancy Enterprise Blueprints as pushes forwards with efforts to bolster its tech advice offerings, City A.M. can exclusively reveal. The Boston consultancy’s deal for an undisclosed sum comes as the world’s top professional firms have sought to profit on the global push to digitalise the economy by selling advice [...]
FCA to expand guidance for insurers on protecting cash-strapped customers January 11, 2023 The City watchdog has vowed to update guidance for insurers on protecting customers amid the UK’s cost-of-living crisis. The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) today set out plans to expand guidance, which was first introduced during the pandemic, to ensure all struggling customers are protected. Under the FCA’s proposed new guidance, insurers will be [...]
Direct Line shares plummet after insurer scraps 2022 dividend January 11, 2023 Shares in Direct Line plummeted today after the insurer said it expects to scrap its 2022 dividend due to facing a “challenging and volatile operating environment in the fourth quarter”. The insurance company said its board “no longer expects to declare a final dividend for 2022” due to it facing a series of challenges related [...]
City law firms may be forced to make layoffs as UK downturn hits, recruiters say January 11, 2023 The City’s top law firms could soon be set to follow their US counterparts in laying off staff, recruiters have said. The UK’s corporate law firms may be forced to make lawyers redundant due to the wider economic downturn and a lull in M&A activity, recruiters told City A.M. Scot Gibson, director of legal sector [...]
EY appoints ex-Cargill exec as newly-separated advisory firm’s CFO January 10, 2023 EY has appointed former Cargill and General Electric exec Jamie Miller as chief financial officer (CFO) of its split-off global advisory firm. Miller’s appointment as CFO of EY’s soon-to-be separate consultancy firm comes as the Big Four firm pushes forwards with plans to float the newly spun-out business in New York. EY chief executive Carmine [...]
Dechert hires ‘high stakes’ litigator to fight journalist’s ‘hack-and-smear’ lawsuit January 10, 2023 US law firm Dechert has hired “high-stakes” litigator Kaplan, Hecker & Fink to defend it from being sued by a former Wall Street Journal reporter, over claims it hired hackers to tarnish his reputation and push him out of a job. Dechert is being sued by the WSJ’s former chief foreign correspondent, Jay Solomon, over [...]
Clawback: How Barclays is chasing down Covid-19 business loan cash January 10, 2023 Barclays has teamed up with a specialist insolvency practitioner to recover money loaned to small businesses through the UK’s Covid support schemes. The British bank has joined forces with insolvency firm Manolete Partners to recover emergency loans paid through the UK government backed Bounce Back Loan Scheme (BBLS), the Financial Times first reported. The UK’s [...]