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 Beazley profit plunges as war roils insurance market

August 5, 2026

FTSE 100 insurer Beazley said war and rising global risks were hitting the insurance market as it revealed that its profit more than halved in the first half of 2026. The insurer reported a pre-tax profit of $237.7m (£176.6m) for the first half of 2026, a 53 per cent fall from the $502.5m reported in [...]
Luton Airport expansion set for take-off after environmental challenge dismissed

August 4, 2026

London Luton Airport’s growth plan has received judicial approval after a campaign group’s legal challenge was rejected by the UK’s top court. The Supreme Court has given the plans the green light after dismissing a challenge from Luton and District Association for the Control of Aircraft Noise (LADACAN), which had argued the decision was unlawful [...]
Gatwick expansion green-lit as court throws out activists’ appeal

August 4, 2026

Work on Gatwick Airport’s second runway can get under way after the Court of Appeal kicked out a legal challenge against the expansion project. Legal appeals brought by local resident Peter Barclay and the environmental group Communities Against Gatwick Noise Emissions (CAGNE) against the expansion of Gatwick Airport have failed in court for the second [...]
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. [...]

John Healey ‘poised’ to target banks with Budget tax raid

Fifa still refusing to share World Cup sell-off papers, says FA chair

Cloth Cornhill review: A London icon returns – and it’s fabulous

By: Maria Ward-Brennan

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