Hiring for lawyers at highest since pre-pandemic March 25, 2021 Recruitment for lawyers is at its highest level since before the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, new labour market data for England and Wales has found. Professional legal recruitment took a big hit during the UK’s first national lockdown, resulting in hiring levels in Q2 2020 falling by 74.3 per cent quarter-on-quarter. Year-on-year vacancies across [...]
Burford Capital restores dividend following record year for realised gains March 24, 2021 Burford Capital has restored its dividend to its pre-pandemic level of 12.5 cents per share, and plans to pay out a full dividend in June, despite not paying an interim dividend in December 2020. The litigation founder enjoyed a record year for realised gains. The group saw asset realisations up 72 per cent this year [...]
Manpower CEO: Remote working isn’t unsustainable but it’s certainly not desirable March 24, 2021 Reports on the death of office working have been exaggerated, according to Manpower CEO Jonas Prising. However, so too has the backlash against remote working exemplified by the bosses of Barclays and Goldman Sachs (who labelled the work-from-home era an abheration). So, one year on from the Prime Minister’s orders to “work from home if [...]
Surging services demand boosts UK business activity rebound in March March 24, 2021 Surging services demand boosts UK business activity rebound in March
Deloitte offers up to £2,000 ‘thank you’ bonus to firm’s non-partners March 24, 2021 After taking austerity measures last year to navigate the pandemic, Big Four firm Deloitte plans to hand out ‘thank you’ bonuses to all firm employees. ‘Thank you’ payments of between £500 and £2,000 will be paid to all UK staff below partner level at the end of April, with the amount paid determined by the [...]
Barrister banned for six months for lewd sexual language towards trainee March 23, 2021 A barrister has been suspended from practice for six months after making lewd sexual comments towards a trainee who at the time was undertaking a mini-pupillage. The Bar Tribunals & Adjudication Service (BATs) found Robert Kearney, a veteran criminal barrister, had “failed to act with integrity” when he was in a position of trust. BATs [...]
Linklaters offers voluntary redundancy to all legal secretaries and PAs in London March 22, 2021 Law firm Linklaters has offered voluntary redundancy to all 225 legal secretaries and business team personal assistants in London. It is understood there will be no compulsory redundancies, nor are there targets or plans to make redundancies at the firm compulsory. In a statement Linklaters said: “This is a voluntary programme which we are offering [...]
Incoming stockbroker CEO: ‘The UK still looks cheap to me’ March 22, 2021 It is an exciting time to be a stockbroker, according to Cenkos Securities incoming CEO Julian Morse, who reckons UK markets are cheap and investors have no other option than to invest in equities. AIM-listed Cenkos performed well last year. The institutional stockbroking firm secured an underlying profit of £4m and revenue of £31.9m – [...]
Listed law firm Knights buys 60-year-old Surrey firm March 22, 2021 UK law firm Knights will acquire Surrey-based Mundays for £5.3m in a move that will increase the group’s presence in the South East. Knights will pay £3.93m up front for the smaller law firm, followed by cash payments worth £1.375m to be paid over two years. Knights CEO David Beech said: “The acquisition of Mundays [...]
Grant Thornton caught up in conflict of interest accusations over Greensill Capital appointment March 21, 2021 Grant Thornton is facing accusations of a conflict of interest connected to its role as administrator of Greensill Capital, after it emerged the auditor had previously advised the firm’s biggest debtor Sanjeev Gupta on a string of deals. Grant Thornton was appointed as Greensill’s administrator on Monday after the finance firm collapsed when Credit Suisse [...]