Banning non-competes is a hollow victory — firms will just ramp up gardening leave Legal The Prime Minister revealed last Friday that the government will curb non-compete clauses in employment contracts, a move that has raised some eyebrows in the City. But despite business pushback over yet another overhaul of employment laws, City lawyers have already been 10 steps ahead with alternatives, Maria Ward-Brennan writes. Andy Burnham, in his speech [...]
City firms mandate phone and face-to-face comms bootcamps for Gen Z lawyers Legal City Law firms are rolling out mandatory programmes to train their junior lawyers in communication skills, including how to speak on the phone and deal with clients in person. Addleshaw Goddard’s ‘early careers’ team introduced a training programme after identifying that some early-career lawyers “may have had limited exposure to a professional services environment and [...]
City leaders weigh employment policy alternatives to non-competes Law City businesses are expecting non-compete agreements to become less effective, looking instead to alternatives such as deferred bonus payments or share incentive plans to keep employees on board. In 2025, the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) launched a consultation to consider restrictions on non-compete clauses in employment contracts. The consultation closed for feedback in [...]
If Burnham wants growth he’ll have to save the City July 9, 2026 Quite the roll call: Beazley, Tate & Lyle, Intertek, Schroders, easyjet. Companies abandon their public listing for their own reasons but the cumulative impact cannot be ignored and, given the dearth of any substantial new entrants, it cannot be dismissed as the healthy churn of dynamic capital markets. Far from it. A typically punchy note [...]
‘Moment of jeopardy’: City leaders issue rallying cry to safeguard London’s future as top financial hub July 9, 2026 London stands at a “moment of jeopardy”, top business leaders have warned, as they issued a rallying cry to secure the Square Mile’s future as a top global financial hub. The City bigwigs, including Soc Gen UK chief executive Thierry d’Argent, London Metal Exchange boss Matthew Chamberlain and former City minister Bim Afolami, have called [...]
Burges Salmon and Wexler roll out firm-wide legal AI partnership May 11, 2026 Leading UK law firm Burges Salmon is rolling out a new company-wide partnership with legal tech startup Wexler to aid lawyers in litigation work, City AM can reveal. The Bristol-headquartered legal practice said Wexler is “a reliable option” and the firm-wide partnership follows “a successful integration” of adopting Wexler in the Dispute Resolution team in [...]
Birthday cookies and fine dining: Inside the law firm aiming for 5-Star service December 4, 2025 There are not many office buildings in the City where, just five feet in the door, you receive a personalised greeting, but Addleshaw Goddard’s client services team would put The Ritz to shame. How to stand out in a crowded field? That is the question plaguing most law firms as they battle to grow in [...]
Court rejects Getty Images’ core claim in historic case against AI image generator November 4, 2025 The High Court dismissed Getty Images’ core intellectual property claims against an AI image generator, but also granted it limited historic success in a landmark UK lawsuit. US giant Getty Images sued UK-based AI image generator Stability AI, alleging it unlawfully copied and processed millions of copyrighted images to train its image generation technology. The [...]
City law firm Addleshaw Goddard prioritises bonuses over junior pay raises August 28, 2025 City law firm Addleshaw Goddard has pulled out of the junior salary war by freezing pay and relocating those funds to its bonus pot. As reported by trade publication The Lawyer, Addleshaw Goddard has reallocated £1m that would have been spent on higher salaries for newly qualified (NQ) lawyers, into its bonus pot, now worth [...]
Football to flowers: Law firms (finally) wake up to the importance of branding May 22, 2025 Branding is key; that is why some sponsorship deals can run into millions of pounds, and now some law firms are starting to realise its importance.