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 snaps up construction cost boutique to target infrastructure boom

August 4, 2026

Deloitte has snapped up a niche construction consultancy as the Big Four firm looks to capitalise on the growing demand for tighter financial controls on major infrastructure projects. Deloitte has acquired The Orange Partnership, a Midlands-based consultancy specialising in cost verification and cost assurance in the construction sector, City AM can reveal. The deal comes [...]
Offshore legal giant Mourant eyes expansion with private equity boost

August 4, 2026

Offshore legal heavyweight Mourant is the latest professional services firm to take on private equity investment after MML Capital made a minority investment in the firm. Mourant, an offshore firm that advises on the laws of the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Guernsey, Jersey, and Luxembourg for the financial industry and institutional investors, has taken [...]
Apple gears up for fresh legal fight with government

August 4, 2026

Whitehall’s pursuit of a backdoor into Apple’s encrypted data could trigger yet another transatlantic bust-up after the US tech giant launched a new legal challenge against the UK government. The tech giant has launched fresh legal action against the UK government at the Investigatory Powers Tribunal, which specialises in surveillance complaints, after the Home Office [...]
Meet the top lawyer challenging Gianni Infantino’s Fifa power play

August 3, 2026

Uefa has enlisted a leading US white-collar expert as legal tensions escalate over Gianni Infantino’s unsuccessful Fifa World Cup sell-off. US legal giant Dechert’s former Chair, Andrew Levander, has been nabbed by the European body, which informed Zurich-headquartered Fifa his client was “actively considering legal action, arbitration, and/or regulatory complaints”. Fifa has promised that raising [...]
Global advisory giant Brunswick explores capital raise

August 3, 2026

City PR and advisory heavyweight Brunswick is reportedly weighing up a fresh cash injection via a sale of a stake in the firm, setting the stage for a punchy windfall for its top executives. Five years after securing a £500m valuation following the sale of a 10.7 per cent stake to US private bank BDT [...]
Goldman Sachs criticises £1.45m paternity payout

July 31, 2026

Goldman Sachs has criticised a ruling to hand one of its former senior executives a £1.45m payout over his dismissal while on paternity leave. Jonathan Reeves, who served as the deputy global head of the Wall Street bank’s compliance ‘control room’ in London, was dismissed from his job in 2022 when he was due to [...]
Watchdog probes KPMG over Wood Group audit

July 30, 2026

The audit watchdog has opened an investigation into Big Four giant KPMG and two accountants over the accounts belonging to engineering and consulting firm John Wood Group. The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) revealed on Thursday that it officially launched two separate regulatory investigations concerning the financial reporting and statutory auditing of the former London-listed group. [...]
While rivals scramble to merge, the world’s biggest law firm is playing the long game

July 30, 2026

While rival law firms grapple with mergers and headline tie‑ups, Dentons, the world’s largest law firm by size, is quietly betting that an ‘already there’ strategy will play in its favour. Dentons’ global chief executive Kate Barton told City AM the firm, like much of Big Law, is focused on globalised client relationships: “We have [...]
Grant Thornton set for $5bn CBIZ buyout in landmark accountancy deal

July 29, 2026

Grant Thornton is set to buy New York-listed management consulting firm CBIZ in a proposed $5bn deal, one of the largest transactions of its kind in the accountancy sector, creating the fifth-largest professional services firm in the US. CBIZ, the only audit firm listed on the US stock market, is set to be acquired by [...]
PwC thought leadership reports ‘100 per cent AI generated’

July 29, 2026

The Big Four giant PwC has been found to have published four ‘thought leadership’ reports that show a pattern of irresponsible AI usage, including hallucinated citations and fabricated claims. A probe by GPTZero, a company that makes AI detection software, focused on four reports published between 2024 and 2026 by PwC Middle East and found [...]

Unleash growth or you’ll have to hike taxes even higher, FTSE 100 boss warns Healey

Nottingham Forest reportedly terminate Edu contract

City of London’s Rolls-Royce limo converted to electric power

By: Maria Ward-Brennan

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