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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‘Moral hazard’ – Lawyers warn SFO whistleblowing rewards could backfire

October 12, 2026

The UK government has launched a consultation on reforming whistleblowing laws, seeking to give the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) powers to reward individuals who report economic crime, a move experts view with scepticism. On Monday, business secretary Jonathan Reynolds and minister for the future of work, Kate Dearden, revealed the government’s plans for a “whistleblowing [...]
McKinsey senior partner demoted over controversial social media post

October 12, 2026

Management consulting giant McKinsey & Company has stripped one of its directors at its business and economics research arm of his leadership role after his post on LinkedIn about the battle female executives face in the workplace. Chris Bradley, a senior partner in Australia, was removed from leadership roles after an internal review of his [...]
Big Four giant Deloitte accused of faking paperwork to hide Roman Abramovich wealth

October 12, 2026

The Cyprus branch of Big Four giant Deloitte and its spin-off are alleged to have falsified corporate paperwork to protect former Chelsea FC owner Roman Abramovich’s assets before the UK government sanctioned him. According to a joint investigation by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ) and BBC Panorama, it is alleged that accounts signed off [...]
EY global revenue hits $57bn as AI demand fuels Big Four giant’s growth

October 8, 2026

Big Four giant EY’s global revenue has hit $57bn (£43bn), up nearly 5 per cent on the previous financial year. EY-Parthenon’s strategy arm led the firm’s overall growth across all services lines, with a 7 per cent increase. Tax grew by 6 per cent, consulting by over 4 per cent, and assurance by 3 per [...]
Deloitte hit with £11m fine after missing £30m taxpayer fraud at UK transport giant

October 8, 2026

Big Four giant Deloitte has been fined £11m for failing to raise concerns about fraud in its statutory audits of the transport business, the Go-Ahead Group (GAG), which operates multiple train services across the UK. The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) said on Thursday the fine, which was discounted to £6.05m for early admission and co-operation, [...]
‘Sick at the desk’ workforce crisis costs UK economy billions every year

October 8, 2026

Britain’s workforce health crisis isn’t happening on sick leave; it’s happening at the desk, as employees are working through illness and stress. Poor workforce health is estimated to cost the UK economy £241bn in lost productivity annually, according to claims in a new report by healthcare insurer Vitality, with mental ill-health being the single largest [...]
Labour’s band-aid won’t save the justice system from collapse

October 7, 2026

When the buildings designed to deliver justice are infested with rats, it is no surprise that the system itself is rotting from the inside out, writes Maria Ward-Brennan. The terrible state of the justice system is by now well understood, but with the government’s most controversial plan to relive the pressure now partially scrapped, the [...]
Dutch consulting disruptor takes aim at City’s ‘five-to-one’ markup

October 7, 2026

Sweav, a Dutch-founded freelance consulting platform, is launching in the UK to challenge the traditional professional services sector on pricing. Speaking to City AM, Joeri Schouten, co-founder of Sweav, said: “The UK is the biggest professional services market in Europe [but] the culture is still much more traditional, very hierarchical, and has an even more [...]
City watchdog launches probe after whistleblower’s death raises questions

October 6, 2026

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has launched a probe into how the regulatory body interacted with a whistleblower who recently took his own life. Simon Andriesz, a former managing director at BGC Partners, had blown the whistle on alleged links between the US secretary of commerce Howard Lutnick and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. He [...]
The sugar rush is over: The Big Four must wake up from their pandemic dream

September 30, 2026

The pandemic was the worst thing that could have happened to the Big Four giants and the overall consultancy market. At the time, these firms were flying high, flooded with inquiries from businesses needing help to navigate the ‘once-in-a-lifetime ‘ event, but this ‘sugar rush’ didn’t last forever, and it gave the industry a false [...]

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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