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 was previously a litigation reporter at The Lawyer. Contact her via email at maria.ward-brennan@cityam.com or X (Twitter) @MariaW_B.

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Big Four carnage as KPMG swings the jobs axe on both sides of the Pond

April 24, 2026

On the back of KPMG taking the shears to its partners’ headcount in the UK, around 140 audit partners across the Atlantic are now set to lose their jobs. The Big Four firm is set to cut about 10 per cent of its 1,400 US audit partners to reduce its bloated headcount. The move comes [...]
Magic circle Freshfields to co-build legal AI with Anthropic

April 24, 2026

Magic circle law firm Freshfields has signed a multi-year agreement with AI giant Anthropic, giving the firm easy access to Anthropic’s latest AI models and collaborating to help design Anthropic’s next-generation offerings. As part of the deal, Freshfields has rolled out Anthropic’s Claude models to its entire global workforce of 5,700 users across 33 offices, [...]
Aer Lingus slashes Summer schedule as Hormuz blockade bites

April 23, 2026

Irish commercial darling Aer Lingus has cancelled hundreds of flights from its summer schedule amid growing jet fuel fears stemming from the blockade at the Strait of Hormuz. The airline is axing scheduled transatlantic, European, and local flights on various days over the coming weeks, according to the Irish Independent. Services set to be affected [...]
Regulator fines PwC £95m over Chinese Evergrande audit

April 23, 2026

The Hong Kong regulator fined PwC Hong Kong a landmark HK$1bn (£95m) for its role as auditor for the now-liquidated property giant, China Evergrande Group. Back in Janaury 2023, PwC resigned as Evergrande’s auditor following a series of disagreements with the heavily-indebted property developer over its audit of the firm’s 2021 accounts. This came after [...]
AI-focused services make up 40 per cent of BCG’s 2025 revenue

April 23, 2026

The global revenue of the consultancy group Boston Consulting Group (BCG) reached $14.4bn (£10.6bn), a single-digit increase over the previous year, credited to AI. BCG reported seven per cent global revenue growth, rising to $14.4bn in 2025 from $13.5bn in 2024, marking its 22nd consecutive year of growth. The firm said its AI-and tech-focused services [...]
Asos shares uptick despite narrowing losses

April 23, 2026

Asos shares are up by more than 3 per cent on Thursday as the online fashion giant focuses on efforts to bear down on its losses. The group cut its pre-tax loss by more than £100m to £137.9m for the six months to the beginning of March, while revenue slid 14 per cent to £1.1bn. [...]
The AI cracks are starting to show at law firms

April 23, 2026

Law firms have poured vast sums into AI in a race to modernise, but ‘hallucinations‘ and security concerns are exposing the technology’s risks, writes Maria Ward-Brennan. There has been intense pressure on legal, advisory, and consultancy firms to invest in, embed, and deploy AI over the last couple of years, but this pressure is now [...]
Eight London sites raided in peer-to-peer crypto trading bust

April 22, 2026

The City watchdogs, working with HMRC and the Regional Organised Crime Unit, have carried out the first crackdown on illegal crypto trading across multiple London locations. The enforcement targeted eight premises in London suspected of illegal peer-to-peer crypto trading by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). The traders were issued cease-and-desist letters at each site, notifying [...]
Elite law firm apologises for AI ‘hallucinations’ in bankruptcy case

April 22, 2026

An elite US law firm has had to apologise to a judge after its restructuring team made a filing in a high-profile case that contained multiple AI generated ‘hallucinations’. The head of Sullivan & Cromwell’s restructuring practice, Andrew Dietderich, apologised in a letter to the New York federal judge for mistakes that included misquoting the [...]
FTSE 100 Live: Stocks jitter as inflation surges; Trump extends ceasefire

April 22, 2026

Good morning and welcome back to the City AM liveblog. Inflation has surged this morning follow the outbreak of war in Iran. Fresh figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has shown the consumer price index rose by 3.3 per cent in the 12 months to March 2026. That’s up from three per cent [...]

Revolut pays compensation for waking customer up with push notifications

2026 World Cup: England only attract half as many bets as Norway to lift trophy

Old Pulteney releases 50-year-old whisky for 200th anniversary

By: Maria Ward-Brennan

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