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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Rolex is London’s most stolen luxury watch, but few recovered by Met Police

October 21, 2025

Over 5,000 luxury watches have been stolen in London over the last three years, but barely one in 88 of these watches has been recovered by the Metropolitan Police. According to a Freedom of Information request seen by City AM, there have been 5,180 high-value watches, worth £3,000 or more, stolen between January 2022 and [...]
Waymo’s driverless taxi UK rollout puts legal system to the test

October 21, 2025

The UK is set to become the first European country to welcome Waymo’s driverless taxis but lawyers caution that current laws are fundamentally incompatible with the technology. Last week, Waymo announced its UK launch will start with a small fleet of human-supervised Jaguar I-PACE electric vehicles “in the coming weeks,” before moving to fully autonomous [...]
Execs see pound signs in AI tech, not just efficiency

October 20, 2025

C-suite business executives are even more enthusiastic about AI than the lawyers and accountants at the professional services firms advising them. According to research by Thomson Reuters, 90 per cent of corporate C-suite leaders say AI will have ‘high’ or ‘transformational’ impact in the next five years, compared to just 80 per cent of lawyers [...]
UK legal sector sees strong growth but AI puts pressure on hourly billing system

October 20, 2025

The legal sector in the UK continues to outperform despite challenging market conditions but the uncertainty around cyber attacks could impede firms’ strategic objectives. According to the PwC Law Firm Survey 2025, the Top 10 law firms have reported UK fee income growth of 8.1 per cent, compared to 5.2 per cent across all international [...]
Reed Smith latest to enter fledgling Saudi legal market

October 20, 2025

Transatlantic law firm Reed Smith has stormed into Saudi Arabia, becoming the latest international law firm to plant its flag in the Kingdom’s new legal market. Two years ago, Saudi Arabia changed its law to allow foreign law firms to operate independently. The Saudi government’s strategy was to attract international business and legal expertise for [...]
Square Mile bespoke tailor Tom James takes legal action against ex-employee

October 16, 2025

Tailoring giant Tom James launched legal action in London against a former employee, seeking to enforce restrictive covenants and confidentiality obligations. Tom James Company, the UK entity of its US giant, located on Old Jewry, has launched legal action against a former sales professional, Max Potter. The company alleged in its claim, seen by City [...]
Ousted CEO and mounting debts: the lawyers behind £36bn BHP lawsuit

October 16, 2025

The law firm behind the most significant litigation to ever hit the English High Court has been lighting up headlines recently due to allegations around internal issues at the group. Back in 2018, in Liverpool, barrister Tom Goodhead and US lawyer Harris Pogust founded a law firm using an alternative business structure that focused on large-scale group [...]
Credit Suisse’s legal bid to recover Greensill losses from Softbank fails

October 15, 2025

Swiss lender Credit Suisse has failed in its attempt to recover $440m from Softbank following the collapse of financial firm Greensill Capital. Credit Suisse – now UBS – was hit hardest by Greensill’s collapse, owing to its significant exposure through various funding and investment vehicles. Greensill Capital, founded by Alexander (Lex) Greensill, went under in [...]
Richard Desmond’s group makes Rothschild allegation in £1.3bn National Lottery dispute

October 15, 2025

A high-stakes legal showdown has kicked off over the Gambling Commission’s handling of the fourth National Lottery licence, as the role of financial advisor Rothschild and its prior ties to the winning bidder take centre stage in court. Media baron Richard Desmond’s group Northern and Shell and its subsidiary, the New Lottery Company, launched legal [...]
EY accused of missing ‘red flag’ in NMC collapse

October 14, 2025

Big Four firm EY UK was accused of being “grossly negligent” and failing in its most fundamental audit duties over seven years, allowing a massive fraud to continue and ultimately causing NMC’s financial collapse. The mammoth £2.7bn legal battle between EY and its former clients, a London-listed health giant that collapsed after allegations of fraud, [...]

Consultancy’s multi-billion-dollar AI gamble, but where is the real return?

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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