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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ICO opens probe into Elon Musk’s Grok AI over sexualised content

February 3, 2026

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has opened investigations in relation to the Grok AI system and its potential to produce harmful sexualised image and video content. The probe into the tech tool owned by Elon Musk’s Internet Unlimited Company (XIUC) and X.AI comes after the chatbot made headlines last month over the generation of explicit, [...]
Mandelson eyes ‘outsider’ role after quitting Labour over Epstein fallout

February 3, 2026

Lord Peter Mandelson had declared a “sea change” in his career after resigning from the Labour Party following the latest batch of Epstein files released last week. Speaking to The Times, Mandelson, freshly departed from Labour after 40 years at the top, said he now wants to “contribute ideas that enable Britain to strengthen and [...]
EY avoids judgment in £2bn case as Alvarez & Marsal reach ‘confidential agreement’

February 2, 2026

The mammoth legal fight against the Big Four giant EY over its auditing of a former London-listed health giant that collapsed amid fraud allegations has been withdrawn following a settlement. Private hospital operator NMC Health Plc collapsed in April 2020 after being placed into administration, and was delisted from the London Stock Exchange in the [...]
Chair of elite law firm Paul Weiss made personal requests to Jeffrey Epstein

February 2, 2026

The chairman of one of the most prominent law firms in America, Paul Weiss, was included in the US Department of Justice’s latest round of bombshell revelations in relation to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. One of the US’s leading litigators and corporate advisers, Brad Karp has been Paul Weiss’s chairman since 2008. Paul Weiss is [...]
CBI board member Peter Hogg to lead Arcadis’ UK and Ireland business

February 2, 2026

The CBI’s senior council chair, Peter Hogg, has been appointed as Arcadis’ country director for the UK and Ireland, City AM can reveal. Hogg is a 28-year veteran of the global design and consultancy firm and will succeed Simon Bimpson, with a focus on leveraging Arcadis’ position in sustainable design to deliver infrastructure that improves [...]
Hundreds of Treasury jobs at risk in civil servant cost-cutting shakeup

February 2, 2026

Rachel Reeves wants to slash about 300 of her department’s roughly 2,100 staff by 2030, as HM Treasury plans to offer officials up to £100,000 to take voluntary leave.The proposed cuts to the Treasury are part of a wider drive to reduce Whitehall’s administrative costs by 16 per cent, according to the Financial Times. The [...]
FTSE 100 Live: Miners lead stock fall as gold rout deepens

February 2, 2026

Good morning and welcome back to the City AM liveblog. There’s one big event the City is looking towards this week but all signs point to zero surprises. On Thursday, the Bank of England’s monetary policy committee will meet for the first time this year and decide whether to take the chop to interest rates. [...]
‘No comment’: City firms on Starmer China trip keep schtum

January 29, 2026

When Sir Keir Starmer boarded a British Airways flight to Beijing earlier this week, he brought with him a coterie of leaders from British industry to help fly the flag. More than 50 delegates were invited on the PM’s trip, many from top City institutions such as law firm Clifford Chance and accounting giant PwC. [...]
Labour urged to rethink donor incentives for museums amid non-dom exodus

January 29, 2026

The exodus of non-doms from the UK is having a knock-on effect on philanthropy, with museums now urging the government to bring back generous donors. Museums, such as the British Museum and Tate Modern, acquire expensive, world-class paintings primarily through a mix of public funding, major grants from organisations and private philanthropy. However, with the [...]
FTSE 100 Live: Miners lead stock rally; Pound holds onto gains

January 29, 2026

Good morning and welcome back to the City AM liveblog. Is President Donald Trump trying to devalue the dollar? That’s the question many in the City and across global markets were asking yesterday after Trump referred to the dollar dropping 1.3 per cent against a basket of currencies as “great”. The President’s triggered another 0.2 [...]

FTSE 100 Live: Stocks to rise as oil falls back after Trump’s Iran war pledge

Will on-pitch woes force Harlequins fans and sponsors away?

Rogue Trooper review: Duncan Jones’ best film in decades

By: Maria Ward-Brennan

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