Dave and Nick fight back ahead of Queen’s Speech May 8, 2012 PRIME Minister David Cameron and his deputy Nick Clegg launched their coalition fight-back yesterday, visiting small firms in Essex ahead of a Queen’s Speech that they hope will boost business and reaffirm faith in the City. Today’s announcement of the coalition government’s plans will include a bill to slash red tape and may involve reforms [...]
Meet this year’s judging panel May 7, 2012 Once again the judging panel for the City A.M. awards brings together some of the best known and brightest minds in the City. Our already excellent panel is this year joined by Katherine Garrett-Cox, chief executive of Alliance Trust. ALLISTER HEATH Allister, editor of City A.M., chairs the judging session. Last year’s session lasted nearly [...]
Legal firms hit by fresh downturn April 30, 2012 LONDON’S increasingly embattled legal sector suffered a further blow yesterday, as magic circle stalwart Slaughter and May froze associate salaries and Herbert Smith announced 51 redundancies in its City office. Only second-year associates at Slaughters will see their pay packets rise, though by less than one per cent, while salary bands for the firm’s other [...]
Warning over graduate job adverts after new legal ruling April 25, 2012 THE FREEDOM of companies to advertise graduate level jobs has been cast into doubt by a Supreme Court ruling over age discrimination towards an ex-policeman. Judges said Terence Homer, a former detective inspector who worked at the Police National legal Database, had faced indirect discrimination following the introduction of a new system of three salary [...]
The big trends in hiring and how they affect you April 18, 2012 RICHARD JOHNSON INSURANCE: The insurance recruitment market remains buoyant, with a continuous requirement for finance, risk and compliance professionals at all salary levels. The sector has been the subject of significant recent regulatory change, through the well publicised Solvency II requirements, new products, new insurance companies, a constant flow of mergers and acquisition activity, growth [...]
Banks plot to sue EU over bonuses April 17, 2012 Banks have hired lawyers to look into suing the EU if Brussels imposes new restrictions on bonuses that they say would wreck their businesses, City A.M. has learned. The Association for Financial Markets in Europe (AFME), an industry group representing banks across the continent, has brought in top law firm Clifford Chance to see whether [...]
Graduates face earnings slump April 15, 2012 AFTER being battered by high tuition fees and soaring youth unemployment, new figures out today show young people are set to suffer further as real graduate pay falls to its lowest level in almost a decade. Starting salaries for university leavers are unchanged this year at an average of £25,000, a significant fall once rising [...]
Lawyers turning to US firms for higher pay and career prospects April 10, 2012 UK-QUALIFIED lawyers have cited higher salaries and better career prospects as the key drivers for joining US firms, according to a survey out yesterday. Despite expecting to work longer hours when working for an American firm, more than 23 per cent of associates surveyed by The Lawyer magazine said they joined the London offices of [...]
You can check out anytime – but can the clients follow? April 4, 2012 WOULD the City be better if it was more like California? Obviously, the sunshine and beaches would be nice. But what about the Golden State’s employment law? Restrictive covenants (RC) are contracts that many people in the City sign when they start a job, which tell them what they can and can’t do when they [...]
City lawyer admits expense fraud March 27, 2012 A City lawyer faces a jail sentence after pleading guilty to defrauding his employer of almost £1.3m in false travel expense claims. Christopher Grierson, a former litigation partner at Hogan Lovells, admitted four counts of fraud yesterday at Southwark Crown Court, and will be sentenced on 3 May. The judge said it was “inevitable” that [...]