By: Maria Ward-Brennan

Professional Services Editor Maria Ward-Brennan is the Professional Services Editor at City AM, focused on law, Big Four, and other management and accounting consulting firms. She edits the Beyond The Billable newsletter and column. She was previously a litigation reporter at The Lawyer. Contact her via email at maria.ward-brennan@cityam.com or on X @MariaW_B.

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Deloitte’s tech consulting division weighs on growth

Big Four

Deloitte reported a rise in revenue in its latest financial year even as growth in its technology and transformation division slipped lower, as the consultancy sector comes under pressure from artificial intelligence. The Big Four firm reported global revenue of $74.5bn (£56.37bn) for the 12 months to the end of May, up from $70.5bn the [...]
Hugging Face hack spells ’emergency for the City of London’, warns top lawyer

AI

Everything companies have done to prepare for a cyber attack is now “completely old world” following the OpenAI–Hugging Face hack over the summer, a top City lawyer has warned. The “unpredecented” July hack, in which OpenAI’s model escaped a controlled test by itself and broke into the AI platform Hugging Face, prompted a probe from [...]
How AI is forcing the Big Four to rethink graduate training

Big Four

The Big Four giants – KPMG, Deloitte, EY, and PwC – have for decades played an important role in shaping the next generation of City workers. As one of the largest graduate trainers in the UK, their approach to restructuring graduate programmes in the age of AI will be crucial to the future of financial [...]

Drone strikes and noise disputes: The soaring risks of the global data centre boom

September 18, 2026

As data centres scale, consume more power, and draw tighter community scrutiny, insurance risks are becoming increasingly complex. As AI infrastructure grows, so do legal risks: large lawsuits involving data centres more than tripled from four in all of 2021 to 14 in the first half of 2026, according to a Howden report. Planning and [...]
Tories consult senior barrister over ‘outrageous’ Wandsworth tax hike

September 18, 2026

Kemi Badenoch has said the Conservative party has consulted a senior barrister to challenge the government over local funding cuts, following the recent controversy over looming tax hikes at Wandsworth Council. Wandsworth Council, which is Tory-run, has recently announced that taxes will rise by 94 per cent for ‘band D’ residents, resulting in taxpayers having [...]
Family of suspected ‘Putney pusher’ hit out at Met Police ‘pressure’

September 17, 2026

The family of the multi-millionaire banker accused of being the ‘Putney pusher’ have hit out at the Metropolitan Police over his death, insisting on his innocence. Nicholas Brandram, who worked as a director at a private bank and was a former British Army officer, serving in several major conflicts, was discovered dead in his West [...]
Why it could now cost more to sack an executive in the UK than FRANCE

September 17, 2026

Labour’s overhaul of employment rights, particularly the removal of the unfair dismissal compensation cap, could leave British businesses facing a higher bill for dismissing executives than their European counterparts. As the government pushed its Employment Rights Bill into law, it ditched the £118,000 compensation limit on unfair dismissal claims to appease unions after the House [...]
As it happened: FTSE 100 soars after Bank of England holds interest rates

September 17, 2026

Welcome back to City AM‘s FTSE 100 liveblog. Investors responded positively to the Bank of England’s widely tipped decision to leave interest rates unchanged at 3.75 per cent on Thursday. Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey said that volatile energy prices caused by the Iran war will push inflation up further than its current 3.1 [...]
Costa del Court: City law firm follows wealthy Brits to Mallorca

September 16, 2026

London-based family law firm AFP Bloom has opened an office in Mallorca to serve the growing number of British families relocating to the Spanish island. The law firm, known for its work with high-net-worth and international families, has opened a new Palma office, allowing clients to receive specialist English legal advice in-person on the island [...]
Clean up or lawyer up: The FCA’s culture war gets real

September 16, 2026

With the City watchdog empowered to penalise non-financial misconduct and fresh off a win at the Upper Tribunal, lawyers now expect to be flooded with work from businesses that are grappling with the focus on culture, as bullying, harassment, and serious misconduct are no longer just HR matters, writes Maria Ward-Brennan. The Financial Conduct Authority [...]

Burnham: Social care reforms to be paid by new taxes

Should Vuori ditch Draper over injury-hit tennis season?

Two countries, one holiday: Turkey’s glitzy Bodrum and Greece’s unbuttoned Kos

By: Maria Ward-Brennan

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