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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Accountancy body warns Finance Bill could criminalise honest mistakes

December 19, 2025

A body has expressed serious concerns that measures in the upcoming Finance Bill could pose an “existential threat” to professional firms and cause significant harm to compliant taxpayers. The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) pointed out several effects the Bill has on tax advisers, including introducing a criminal offence for promoting [...]
Hogan Lovells and Cadwalader join the transatlantic wave of mergers

December 19, 2025

London-based Hogan Lovells has announced its intention to merge with Wall Street’s oldest law firm, Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, to create a nearly £2.7bn law firm, as the trend of mega-mergers continues in the market. The firm, which will be known as Hogan Lovells Cadwalader, is subject to customary closing conditions, including a vote by [...]
FCA probe and bonus clawbacks: WH Smith acts against former directors as North America profit plunges

December 19, 2025

WH Smith’s board will trigger clawback provisions for senior executives following accounting errors woes that had resulted in a probe by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). WH Smith chief executive Carl Cowling stepped down with immediate effect last month after the report, produced by Big Four audit firm Deloitte, identified weaknesses in the operations of [...]
Northern Line closures to impact midweek after-work drinks until May

December 18, 2025

The Transport for London (TfL) has planned closures of the Northern line starting from January, which will affect Bank, London Bridge, and Borough for four months. Starting on 12 January, eight stations will be out of action on weeknights from 10pm until the end of May, as TfL carries out engineering work for track replacements. [...]
Rugby league woes as Oldham RLFC faces winding-up by HMRC

December 17, 2025

Oldham RLFC, a club in rugby league’s Championship, was hit with formal legal action by the British tax authority this week, City AM can reveal. In the High Court system, HMRC filed a winding-up petition against Oldham Rugby League Football Club 1876 (Oldham RLFC) on Tuesday. A winding-up petition is a formal notice by a [...]
Labour government moves to protect litigation funding

December 17, 2025

The UK government plans to legislate to reverse the impact of a Supreme Court judgment on the litigation funding industry. The top court ruled in a 2023 case, known as PACCAR, that percentages of damage recovered were not enforceable. This ruling threw the litigation funding industry into uncertainty, as it brought its funding into the [...]
Employment Rights Bill will become law – as Tories vow to repeal it

December 16, 2025

The controversial Employment Rights Bill will become law after legislation cleared Parliament on Tuesday afternoon. After weeks of the Bill ping-ponging from the House of Lords to the Commons over controversial ‘day one’ rights, the government agreed earlier this month to drop its pledge of ‘day one’ rights in exchange for certain protections kicking in [...]
Fowl play: Morrisons loses £17m VAT battle over rotisserie chickens

December 16, 2025

Supermarket giant Morrisons faces a £17m tax bill after the First-Tier Tax Tribunal threw out its dispute over VAT on cool-down rotisserie chickens. The dispute arose from George Osborne’s controversial 2012 Finance Act changes that sought to clarify the VAT treatment of hot takeaway food, famously known as the “pasty tax” debacle. Morrisons tried to [...]
Shoosmiths to give staff extra £1m after hitting AI target

December 16, 2025

Law firm Shoosmiths will give staff an extra £1m in bonuses after they hit the firm’s annual target for 1m Microsoft Copilot prompts more than four months ahead of schedule, City AM can reveal. The firm told City AM in April that it had set a “clear and ambitious annual target” of 1m on its [...]
Trump sues BBC for $10bn in Florida, citing producers trips to Mar-a-Lago

December 16, 2025

US Donald Trump has filed a lawsuit against the BBC in the Southern District of Florida, alleging that BBC producers travelled to Florida to film “significant portions of the [Panorama] documentary”. Last month, Trump threatened to sue the BBC for $1bn over the misleading edit of a Panorama programme, which spliced together two parts of [...]

Serie A won’t catch the Premier League by selling its rights better

Serie A won’t catch the Premier League by selling its rights better

Lotus, Porsche and Corvette: the best sports cars to buy in 2026

By: Maria Ward-Brennan

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