By: Maria Ward-Brennan

Professional Services Editor Maria Ward-Brennan is the Professional Services Editor at CityAM, focused on law, Big Four, and other management and accounting consulting firms. She was previously a litigation reporter at The Lawyer. Contact her via email at [email protected] or X (Twitter) @MariaW_B.

All 1612 Articles

CBI board member Peter Hogg to lead Arcadis’ UK and Ireland business

February 2, 2026

The CBI’s senior council chair, Peter Hogg, has been appointed as Arcadis’ country director for the UK and Ireland, CityAM can reveal. Hogg is a 28-year veteran of the global design and consultancy firm and will succeed Simon Bimpson, with a focus on leveraging Arcadis’ position in sustainable design to deliver infrastructure that improves [...]
Hundreds of Treasury jobs at risk in civil servant cost-cutting shakeup

February 2, 2026

Rachel Reeves wants to slash about 300 of her department’s roughly 2,100 staff by 2030, as HM Treasury plans to offer officials up to £100,000 to take voluntary leave.The proposed cuts to the Treasury are part of a wider drive to reduce Whitehall’s administrative costs by 16 per cent, according to the Financial Times. The [...]
FTSE 100 Live: Miners lead stock fall as gold rout deepens

February 2, 2026

Good morning and welcome back to the CityAM liveblog. There’s one big event the City is looking towards this week but all signs point to zero surprises. On Thursday, the Bank of England’s monetary policy committee will meet for the first time this year and decide whether to take the chop to interest rates. [...]
‘No comment’: City firms on Starmer China trip keep schtum

January 29, 2026

When Sir Keir Starmer boarded a British Airways flight to Beijing earlier this week, he brought with him a coterie of leaders from British industry to help fly the flag. More than 50 delegates were invited on the PM’s trip, many from top City institutions such as law firm Clifford Chance and accounting giant PwC. [...]
Labour urged to rethink donor incentives for museums amid non-dom exodus

January 29, 2026

The exodus of non-doms from the UK is having a knock-on effect on philanthropy, with museums now urging the government to bring back generous donors. Museums, such as the British Museum and Tate Modern, acquire expensive, world-class paintings primarily through a mix of public funding, major grants from organisations and private philanthropy. However, with the [...]
FTSE 100 Live: Miners lead stock rally; Pound holds onto gains

January 29, 2026

Good morning and welcome back to the CityAM liveblog. Is President Donald Trump trying to devalue the dollar? That’s the question many in the City and across global markets were asking yesterday after Trump referred to the dollar dropping 1.3 per cent against a basket of currencies as “great”. The President’s triggered another 0.2 [...]
Law firms, legal tech, and the branding battle royale

January 29, 2026

It seems like every week brings a new AI player on the scene, but now there’s a trend of legal spats over what exactly to call them. AI-focused businesses have been popping up everywhere as demand for the tech surges. According to LawtechUK’s data, the number of UK-founded lawtech companies on its tracker climbed from [...]
KPMG posts strong revenue growth in first UK-Swiss results

January 28, 2026

Big Four giant KPMG has reported revenue of £3.6bn for its year ended 30 September 2025, in its first year of results since the combination of its UK and Swiss businesses. These are the firm’s first results following the merger of the UK and Swiss businesses on 1 October 2024, which showed revenue rose to [...]
Professional services firms facing ‘polycrisis of confidence’

January 28, 2026

A major study of C-suite attitudes among professional services firms has revealed a complicated landscape of increasing AI use, growth fears, worries about cash flow and concerns over staff motivation. According to the Managing Partners Forum Winter 2025 Quarterly, shared exclusively with CityAM, all firms surveyed have integrated Gen AI into their daily operations, but [...]
High Court grants urgent hearing on Labour’s inheritance tax overhaul

January 28, 2026

The High Court has green-lit an urgent hearing at the High Court over the government’s inheritance tax raid on agricultural assets and family firms. The proposed changes to agricultural property relief (APR) and business property relief (BPR) represent one of the biggest shifts in UK inheritance tax (IHT) policy in decades, following the government’s initial [...]

Professional services firms the ‘flavour of the month’ for cyberattacks

MotoGP and manufacturers sign first Formula 1-style Concorde agreement

Should museums in London start charging (again) for entry?

By: Maria Ward-Brennan

All 1612 Articles