Hayward sent off to Siberia July 26, 2010 BP’S BELEAGUERED chief executive Tony Hayward will stand down in October and is expected to be nominated for a non-executive board directorship with TNK-BP, the group’s Russian joint venture. The oil major is set to announce Hayward’s departure this morning and will reveal that Mississippi-born Bob Dudley, the man in charge of the oil spill [...]
H&S LAW July 22, 2010 Q. Does my company need to worry about health and safety law? A.The main requirement for small companies is to draw up a written risk assessment if you employ five or more people. There is no legally required form that a risk assessment must take, but it must involve assessing potential risks to one’s employees, [...]
Pressure from the bottom line will make firms female-friendly July 20, 2010 A COUPLE of weeks ago I was told a story about a law firm Christmas party. The senior partners took part in a game where pictures of their children were projected onto a screen, and they were asked to identify the cute faces. Presumably this was meant to show them to be rounded human beings, [...]
Our national neuroses require a subtle cure July 13, 2010 LAST week, David Cameron condemned what he calls a “national neurosis” driving health and safety regulation. He was quoted in the Daily Mail saying: “The rulebooks keep getting thicker. The restrictions keep getting sillier.” Presumably, he is paving the way for the summer release of Lord Young’s inquiry into “the rise of compensation culture (and) [...]
Stewarts Law signs merger with Masseys July 8, 2010 LITIGATION specialist Stewarts Law has acquired City banking disputes boutique firm Masseys. The merger, which is set to go live next month, will see Massey’s founding partners Jane Colston and Sean Upson alongside, Fiona Gillett and Fiona Stewart move their team to Stewarts to create a new 35 partner law firm. Massey’s, which was launched [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING June 23, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES NISSAN’S GHOSN TOPS JAPAN PAY LEAGUE Nissan’s Carlos Ghosn has taken top spot on a list of Japan’s best-paid executives after the carmaker revealed it paid its Brazil-born chief executive Y890m ($9.9m) last year. Nissan and other quoted Japanese companies are being forced to report the compensation of individual executives for the first [...]
In-house lawyers should defend themselves June 23, 2010 A RECENT opinion handed down by the advocate general in Brussels rejecting privilege for communications with in-house counsel threatens the status and future of in-house solicitors, and has caused significant concern to major companies and City lawyers. The background to the case was a dawn raid carried out by the Office of Fair Trading and [...]
How to deal with missing out on your big promotion June 23, 2010 I have been passed over for promotion – I think unfairly – and it is becoming clear to me that my future at my current firm is not going to be as I hoped. My area is fairly specialised, and I am not entirely sure that I can easily find work elsewhere. What can I [...]
BP’s a great company. I know. I worked there June 10, 2010 TRYING to defend BP during the last six weeks has been a lonely and isolating experience. As a former employee I have been accused of being biased or emotionally attached. But having seen posts on US websites demanding all BP employees be thrown into jail, it’s hard not to take the world’s hatred of my [...]
Denton votes for US tie-up June 9, 2010 Partners at City law firm Denton Wilde Sapte and its US rival Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal voted in favour of a merger yesterday that will create a business with sales of £500m employing 1,400 lawyers worldwide. The management at both firms asked their partners to vote on the tie-up that was negotiated in secret and [...]