UK law clears hurdle for airlines to ban unruly passengers from travelling June 2, 2026 Airlines and the UK government are eyeing a proposal to create a national blacklist of disruptive passengers using their personal data, potentially curbing their access to flights. The scheme, currently being developed by officials from the Department for Transport and the Home Office, would require airlines to notify the government when a passenger is disruptive. [...]
How do professional footballers keep their divorces private? May 30, 2026 For footballers and other high-profile athletes, relationship breakdown may start as a personal matter, but where there is fame, wealth, public interest and commercial pressure, it can quickly become something much larger. A messy divorce can dominate headlines, distract from performance, and affect relationships with clubs, sponsors, agents and other commercial partners. The risks are [...]
Private equity boom slows down as the deal bar rises for City firms May 29, 2026 Private equity interest in professional services remains, but the era of easy deals is over as most attractive targets have already been acquired, and investors are now more selective, writes Maria Ward-Brennan. The bubble around private equity interest in the professional services industry has started to deflate, as most of the “low-hanging fruit” has already [...]
Pinsent Masons is not the only City law firm walking a dangerous AI tightrope May 28, 2026 A junior lawyer at Pinsent Masons used AI to draft misleading emails for a High Court case, highlighting how generational attitudes and lack of training risk new mistakes as law firms rush to adopt new technology, writes Maria Ward-Brennan. It has been a slow burner, but we finally have the first notable UK law firm [...]
Mia Drennan: I was selling Macks in Debenhams – now I run a unicorn May 26, 2026 It took Mia Drennan 400 meetings to get her loan agency off the ground. Over 15 years later, she speaks to Ali Lyon about the recent investment that took the firm to fabled unicorn status, and what lies next. It is half-past-five on a balmy Thursday evening and in a cavernous central London office, a [...]
US law firms jostle for highest-stakes London disputes May 25, 2026 US law firms are securing some of the biggest legal disputes in London and positioning themselves at the top of the litigation food chain, according to a new report from consultancy Solomonic. Over 100 US legal outfits have “evidently established themselves as a go-to choice for the most complex, highest-value and most trial-intensive disputes in [...]
Ex-KPMG led accounting giant stalls £1bn sale May 25, 2026 One of the UK’s largest accounting firms founded by a former KPMG head has put a £1bn auction on hold despite receiving a wealth of interest from investors. Sumer, a ‘consolidator’ firm that buys majority stakes in smaller independent accounting companies, had hired advisors at boutique advisory Continuum last September to oversee a review on [...]
Lawyers say fee hikes punishes profession for regulator blunders May 21, 2026 The legal watchdog plans to raise its funding by increasing lawyer fees to address past shortfalls, but the legal profession is frustrated, arguing they are being forced to pay for the regulator’s own failures and legacy issues, writes Maria Ward-Brennan. Lawyers are not chuffed at the regulator’s plan to increase its fees in the upcoming [...]
On this day in 1940: McDonald’s is born in a strange kitchen in California May 15, 2026 On this day in 1940, Mac and Dick McDonald opened an octagonal kitchen in San Bernardino and changed food forever, writes Eliot Wilson.
Mobix Labs to Acquire U.S. Rare Earth and Critical Minerals Company Powering Defense and National Security May 14, 2026 Proposed Acquisition Would Position Mobix Labs Inside Strategic U.S. Supply Chains Powering Defense, National Security, and AI Infrastructure