London law firm Laytons buys up real estate specialist Cannings Connolly March 10, 2022 London law firm Laytons has acquired commercial law firm Cannings Connolly, just months after Laytons joined German professional services group ETL Global. In a statement, Laytons said it had agreed to acquire property litigation specialist Cannings Connolly, with a view to boosting its commercial real estate and construction offerings. The deal comes after Laytons joined [...]
Chinese government advisor says ‘fake news’ is fuelling China’s hostility towards the West March 10, 2022 A leading advisor to the Chinese government has called on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to crack down on people spreading false information online, after claiming that fake news is polarising Chinese public opinion and fuelling hostility towards the West. Jia Qingguo, a senior government advisor and the former dean of the School of International [...]
UK financial watchdog tells British firms to boost cybersecurity following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine March 10, 2022 The UK’s financial regulator has told British companies to strengthen their cybersecurity systems, amid fears Russia’s invasion of Ukraine may spark an increase in hacking. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said firms should take measures to boost their resilience to cyber attacks and be wary of people sharing false information on social media. The comments [...]
Government workers union threatens ‘mass disruption’ to force Legal Ombudsman to recognise staffing crisis March 10, 2022 The UK’s sixth biggest union has threatened to launch a campaign of “mass disruption” to force the Legal Ombudsman to formally acknowledge its staffing issues, after more than a fifth of the government body’s staff left within a year. The threat comes after talks collapsed between staff at the Legal Ombudsman and the senior management [...]
DLA Piper elects M&A dealmaker Jon Hayes to replace company lifer Andrew Darwin as head of UK arm March 10, 2022 Anglo-American law giant DLA Piper has said M&A lawyer Jon Hayes will take over from DLA veteran Andrew Darwin as the head of DLA’s London partnership. DLA Piper said Hayes, who joined the firm from Linklaters in 2009, had been elected as co-chair of DLA Piper. Hayes will take over from longtime DLA partner Andrew [...]
Magic Circle law firm Freshfields drops sanctioned Russian bank as client in battle over sacred Jewish manuscripts March 9, 2022 One of London’s oldest law firms, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, has pulled out of representing Russia’s state-backed development bank, VEB.RF, in a legal battle between the Russian bank and a Hasidic Jewish group, over a collection of thousands of sacred Jewish texts that fell into the hands of the Soviet Union during the Bolshevik revolution. Freshfields [...]
London law firm BCL Solicitors sent legal threats to Foreign Office on behalf of Russian oligarch March 9, 2022 London law firm BCL Solicitors has been named as one of the law firms that sent letters to the Foreign Office, on behalf of Russian oligarchs seeking to challenge the government’s sanctions regime. In a written response to Labour MP Margaret Hodge, Conservative minister James Cleverly said BCL Solicitors had sent letters to the Foreign [...]
Eversheds Sutherland pledges to fully exit Russia as law firms face pressure to cut ties March 9, 2022 Anglo-American law firm Eversheds Sutherland has said it will completely cut its ties to Russia, as law firms face mounting pressure to sever all links they have to the country in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In a statement, Eversheds said the firm had decided that it will “no longer have a presence in [...]
Russian government rolls back intellectual property rights in response to Western sanctions March 9, 2022 The Russian government is pushing forwards with plans to undermine intellectual property rules and reverse the rights of Western patent holders, in an effort to counter the impacts of Western sanctions. The Russian government this week said Russian companies have no obligation to pay patent holders from countries that sanctioned Russia for use of their [...]
BDO follows Big Four auditors in distancing itself from Russia March 9, 2022 Belgian auditor BDO has become the latest big accountancy firm to distance itself from Russia and Belarus, in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In a statement, the firm said it would cut all existing ties with sanctioned entities, including Russian and Belarusian state-owned companies and sanctioned individuals. The Belgian auditor noted that its Russian [...]