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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FTSE 100 Live: London house prices fall amid Budget jitters

November 28, 2025

Welcome back to the City AM liveblog. Markets were still digesting the twist, turns and taxes of the Autumn Budget on Thursday, with ministers taking to the media to defend the £26bn cash raid. A number of businesses began weighing in, including Britain’s bookies, which were in the firing line when Reeves took to the [...]
Reeves criticised over lack of action on ballooning clinical negligence costs in Budget

November 27, 2025

A leading medical defence organisation has criticised the Chancellor for missing the opportunity to tackle the ‘eye-watering’ NHS clinical negligence bill. In a statement following the Budget, Tom Reynolds, director of policy and communications at Medical Defence Union (MDU), explained that the “current system has led to legal fees ballooning to nearly four times the [...]
David Lammy avoids urgent questions on jury scrapping plans

November 27, 2025

Justice secretary David Lammy was a no-show at urgent questions in the House of Commons on Thursday, prompting Robert Jenrick to ask about his whereabouts as the justice minister took his place. The questions stem from a leaked memo reported on Tuesday, in which Lammy proposed scrapping some jury trials to tackle the backlog of [...]
Budget: Treasury focused on ‘closing tax gap’ with US-style whistleblower scheme

November 26, 2025

Rachel Reeves revealed in her Budget that the government continues to focus on closing the tax gap, with new measures set to raise an additional £2bn in tax revenue by 2029-30. The Chancellor pledged that the government will target “fraudulent businesses” that don’t pay their tax by providing HMRC with new compliance powers. A large [...]
Autumn Budget: Professional services sector dodged ‘damaging’ tax hikes

November 26, 2025

The professional services sector breathed a sigh of relief after dodging tax hikes on LLPs in Rachel Reeves’s Autumn Budget. It was rumoured that Reeves was looking to add a layer of tax on limited liability partnerships (LLPs), a move that sparked a flurry of anger from the broader professional services industry, including the legal [...]
Robert Jenrick leads pushback against David Lammy’s plans to scrap jury trials

November 25, 2025

The justice secretary is facing accusations of hypocrisy over his proposed scrapping of jury trials, after his Tory opposite number Robert Jenrick said it was a system David Lammy once ‘proudly defended’ before coming to power. Jenrick stated, “Now [Lammy is] in office, he’s getting rid of them in virtually every case. “Scrapping this pillar [...]
David Lammy proposing to scrap some jury trials to tackle backlog

November 25, 2025

As the criminal justice system continues to crumble, the justice secretary David Lammy is reportedly proposing a major shake-up that would scrap some jury trials. Currently, all criminal trials are heard in front of a jury that decides on the accused’s fate; however, Lammy’s proposal will see jury trials only for murder, rape or manslaughter [...]
Big Four giants poised to benefit from booming tech consulting spend

November 24, 2025

The technology consulting market is anticipated to grow by 7 per cent in 2026, reaching over $400bn (£312bn) as businesses race to upgrade legacy infrastructure to align with new tech. According to a new report by Source Global Research, technology consultants are in high demand, with the market growing 4 per cent in 2024 and expected [...]
New York law firm Cohen & Gresser in talks over £30m private equity deal

November 24, 2025

New York law firm Cohen & Gresser is in talks to sell a stake to a private equity group, weeks after McDermott Will & Schulte expressed interest in restructuring the firm to secure outside funding. The firm has been in talks around the sale of a $40m (£30.5m) convertible note that would ultimately be swapped [...]
Clifford Chance AI-driven redundancies hit London business service roles

November 21, 2025

Law firm Clifford Chance is preparing for dozens of redundancies after launching a restructuring of its London business services team. Around 10 per cent of the 550 employees are set to lose their jobs, according to the Financial Times. It was reported that the magic circle firm told staff last month that greater use of [...]

Giving Neets jobs in hospitality would generate £2.3bn, Hilton claims

All Hundred owners expected to explore bids for Big Bash cricket franchises

Are Peugeot’s 208, 2008 and 3008 good enough for the city?

By: Maria Ward-Brennan

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