SThree half-year profits sputter on banking hiring slowdown ahead of Brexit vote July 11, 2016 Less hiring in the banking sector in the run-up to the EU referendum has taken its toll on SThree's profits, the staffing company revealed in its interim results today. The figures The company, which is focused on finding staff to fill STEM roles, reported profits before tax of £12.8m for the half year to May, down seven per [...]
Lawyers call for safeguards to protect legal professional privilege in Investigatory Powers Bill July 11, 2016 Lawyers are today calling on the House of Lords to do more to protect their clients' "fundamental" rights under the Investigatory Powers Bill. The Law Society is urging the House of Lords to ensure the Bill contains provisions that will protect legal professional privilege and allow clients to communicate confidentially with their lawyers. "Legal professional privilege [...]
Now Tom Hayes’ crowdfunding campaign has broken the £25,000 mark July 10, 2016 A campaign to raise legal fees for former trader Tom Hayes has recently broken the £25,000 mark. At time of writing, the Fundrazr campaign for the former UBS and Citigroup trader had raised £26,705 – or 18 per cent – of its £150,000 target, with a number of four-figure donations coming in over the last week. [...]
European Parliament votes for a tax haven blacklist and better support for whistleblowers July 6, 2016 Members of the European Parliament have today voted through measures to make corporation tax fairer, which include drawing up a blacklist of tax havens. Proposed punishments for appearing on the list of so-called uncooperative jurisdictions include reviews and potential suspensions of free trade agreements and prohibiting access to EU funds. Sanctions were also proposed for companies, banks, [...]
DAC Beachcroft unlocks the path to profit growth July 6, 2016 A focus on improving its cash position has helped profits per member to rocket at international law firm DAC Beachcroft, its provisional results revealed today. The figures The firm's total turnover for the year to April came in at £202m, up two per cent on the year before, while profit before tax rose to £35m, an increase of nine per cent. [...]
Clifford Chance celebrates a record breaking year, with revenues reaching a new high July 6, 2016 Clifford Chance has a reason to crack open the champagne this afternoon, after the magic circle outfit revealed its highest levels of revenues for a financial year yet. The figures The law firm announced revenues for its years to April of £1.39bn, up three per cent on the year before. Meanwhile partnership profit hit £494m [...]
KPMG has appointed senior partner Karen Briggs to be the firm’s “head of Brexit” July 6, 2016 KPMG has appointed one of its senior partners as the firm's official "head of Brexit". Ahead of many other companies and indeed the Conservative Party, the Big Four firm announced today that Karen Briggs will lead its work in advising its clients on how to manage their businesses in the wake of the surprise pro-Brexit referendum result two weeks ago. She [...]
Allen & Overy financials hold steady in face of Brexit uncertainty July 6, 2016 Magic circle outfit Allen & Overy today revealed a small dip in its reported profits, as EU referendum uncertainty caused work to tail off in the second half of its financial year. The figures Profit before tax for the year to April slid by 1.4 per cent to £562m, although the figure was also affected by changes to [...]
714 new partners worldwide for Big Four firm EY, with a focus on emerging markets and women July 5, 2016 Big Four firm EY announced today that it had promoted 714 to partner worldwide, with women and those from emerging markets accounting for a substantial chunk of the number. Over a third (35 per cent) of the new partners came from emerging markets, while just less than three in 10 (29 per cent) were women. The [...]
Why not just anything can be a MACCOFFEE – EU court rules in favour of McDonald’s trademark July 5, 2016 Fast food mainstay McDonald's today received a boost to its branding, after a Singapore rival failed in a bid to secure rights to the MACCOFFEE trademark. The General Court of the European Union decided that Future Enterprises' EU trademark application for MACCOFFEE could not be approved because of an earlier trademark application made by McDonald's, which covered the affixing of [...]