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 [...]
Compliance isn’t the easy path to fortune March 21, 2012 A RECENT Thomson Reuters survey of 500 compliance officers at financial services firms emphasised two things about the extraordinary growth in the importance of the profession in today’s job market. Firstly, it showed how lucrative compliance roles have become – 70 per cent expected the cost of senior compliance staff to be higher in 2012. [...]
Cable’s plan for pay votes splits the City March 14, 2012 VINCE Cable’s plans to crack down on executive pay split opinion yesterday, with shareholder groups welcoming the proposals as business leaders warned that the plans risk “micro-managing”. The business secretary yesterday laid out plans to force firms to hold binding votes on its future remuneration and for “golden parachute” payments worth more than one year’s [...]
It’s not just lawyers who prosper in law March 14, 2012 LAW is bigger business than ever. Freshfields employs 5,000 people and has twenty-seven offices in sixteen countries. Linklaters also has twenty-seven offices in twenty countries. Its revenues in 2010-11 were £1.2bn. Of course, this is good news for lawyers. But non-lawyers work for law firms too. Of Freshfields’ 5,000 staff members, 2,000 are business services [...]
Keeping the world’s most complex event on the right side of the law March 14, 2012 COUNTDOWN TO THE LONDON 2012 OLYMPIC GAMES 135 DAYS TO GO Tim Jones explains why Freshfields is the official legal services provider to the 2012 London Olympics Q. what was your brand’s primary reason for being involved with the games? A. We’d been involved for a long time, since 2003 when we worked on the [...]
Lawyers: Removing pension tax relief will hit savers twice March 7, 2012 LAWYERS and pension funds yesterday hit out at proposals to remove tax relief from high-earners’ pension contributions, arguing it would be unfair and overly complicated. Removing the relief on employee contributions for those earning over £150,000 a year could be a tempting move for the government, raising around £8bn per year for the Treasury. However, [...]