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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Companies to shoulder responsibility for harassment outside the office

October 21, 2026

Businesses will face harassment risks beyond their own workplaces, including at client meetings, events, and in interactions with suppliers and service providers, as new employment laws take effect at the end of this month. Currently, employers face direct liability only for harassment committed by their own staff. But on 30 October the UK government will [...]
How Hill Dickinson’s Everton stadium gamble redefined law’s marketing playbook

October 21, 2026

Hill Dickinson is a rare law firm to gain cut through on the terraces, but its unusual approach to marketing is paying off, writes Maria Ward-Brennan It’s rare to hear a law firm’s name come up in chat among football fans, but Hill Dickinson’s was dropped while I was standing in the home end at [...]
London Stock Exchange Group fails to shake off £131m fraud lawsuit

October 19, 2026

LSEG will face a $175m (£131m) fraud and breach of contract lawsuit brought by the former chief executive of a company it acquired, after a US judge denied the London stock exchange-owner’s attempt to dismiss the case. LSEG’s subsidiary Refinitiv, which it bought from Thomson Reuters in 2020, acquired US analytics firm Maystreet in 2022 [...]
Robert Jenrick hits out at Deloitte and KPMG over job cuts

October 15, 2026

Reform UK’s Robert Jenrick has criticised Big Four giants Deloitte and KPMG for laying off British staff, alleging they did so while “importing thousands of migrant workers”. In his latest video post, standing outside Deloitte’s London HQ, the MP said Deloitte “laid off 800 UK staff” but that “over the last five years, they have [...]
Big Four scoop £1.5bn in government contracts despite Labour’s pledge to cut spend

October 15, 2026

The Big Four have collectively secured over £1.5bn in public contracts so far this year despite the UK government’s pledge to cut spending on external consultants to save taxpayers’ money. An investigation by market intelligence platform Tussell found the government has awarded KPMG, Deloitte, EY and PwC over £1.5bn in contracts so far in 2026, [...]
American Airlines sues London travel consortium

October 15, 2026

Aviation titan American Airlines and one of its special purpose vehicles have filed a lawsuit against a group of British travel agents at the London High Court. The US airline and its subsidiary, AAdvantage Loyalty IP, filed a claim against against Advantage Travel Centres on Tuesday, according to filings in the High Court’s Intellectual Property [...]
British firms reshape workforce for AI amid staff resistance to office return

October 15, 2026

Top bosses at British businesses have said lingering resistance to returning to the office remains a challenge, as City firms focus on redesigning roles to support human-AI collaboration. According to KPMG’s 2026 global CEO outlook, investment in AI remains a top priority for global business leaders, as most British bosses (87 per cent) expect to [...]
Government’s AI tool eases probation work amid prison overcrowding measures

October 14, 2026

The government introduced an AI transcription tool designed to help probation officers focus on reducing reoffending, as a second wave of prisoners were released early from overcrowded prisons. The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and HM Prison & Probation Service (HMPPS) developed an AI transcription tool, ‘Justice Transcribe’, to help probation officers record meeting notes. After [...]
Banning non-competes is a hollow victory — firms will just ramp up gardening leave

October 14, 2026

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 lawyers say GPU financing is the new data centre gold rush

October 14, 2026

As AI drives demand for larger data centres, lenders are increasingly financing the costly Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) inside them, which can cost almost as much as the buildings themselves. Data suggests that since the generative AI boom took off in 2023, global investment in GPUs and AI chip infrastructure has been staggering, with figures [...]

Nandy flags downsides of closer EU relations

Women’s football doesn’t need to become men’s football to succeed

The Capitalist: City AM reporter gets royal trashing by AI slop

By: Maria Ward-Brennan

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