United Kingdom

Goldberg Segalla announces partner’s firing on YouTube after he insulted Liverpool fans on camera

A well-known corporate insurance partner in the London office of a U.S. law firm has been publicly fired on YouTube, due to his use of insulting language in front of a video camera after a British soccer match last month. Although Clive O’Connell later apologized for what he said in…

Nov 10, 2015 2:35 PM CST

Hacktivist group’s ‘Million Mask March’ sparks protests at US federal courthouses

A “Million Mask March” on Thursday organized by the hacktivist group Anonymous on the anniversary of a failed British rebellion in 1605 reportedly created chaos in London. But it also sparked apparently non-violent protests in the U.S. by individuals wearing the white mask associated with Anonymous and would-be assassin Guy…

Nov 6, 2015 12:40 PM CST

Goodwin Procter opens Frankfurt office with 4 partners from Ashurst

Goodwin Procter an office in Frankfurt, Germany, with four Ashurst partners. It is the firm’s second European office, David Hashmall, who serves as chairman of the U.S.-based firm, said the German outpost resulted from needs of clients of the firm’s London office, Bloomberg BNA’s Big Law Business blog reports. It…

Nov 5, 2015 3:25 PM CST

Choir of lawyers is a hit at Magna Carta celebration

When the ABA was planning the Opening Session for its London Sessions commemorating the 800th anniversary of the Magna Carta this summer, it wanted to strike just the right note for musical interludes. But rather than reach out into the ranks of London's professional ensembles, then-ABA President William C. Hubbard decided to stay within the family, so to speak.

Nov 1, 2015 12:50 AM CDT

Lawyer who dodged train fare will pay restitution based on discounted weekly pass rate

A British lawyer who cut the cost of commuting to London by pretending to travel from a station much closer to the city’s center would have had to—over a period of more than 2½ years— pay tens of thousands of pounds in train fare at the daily rate. But a…

Sep 30, 2015 1:50 PM CDT

Allen & Overy, first UK Magic Circle firm to open in Toronto, is closing its office there

Only a year after Allen & Overy became the first of London’s leading corporate law firms to open an office in Toronto, the so-called Magic Circle firm is closing the Canadian outpost. The move follows the announced plan of founding Toronto partner Francois Duquette to take an in-house job at…

Sep 29, 2015 11:35 AM CDT

After UK kills citizens in Syria in drone strike, critics question policy

Four years after a U.S. killing of an American-born cleric in Yemen through a drone strike sparked concern and criticism, the U.K. is facing similar questions about the drone-strike deaths last month of two British men in Syria. The target, Reynaad Khan, 21, was said to be an Islamic State…

Sep 9, 2015 2:44 PM CDT

Was it ‘misogynistic behavior’? BigLaw partner is chided for comment on ‘stunning’ LinkedIn photo

A human rights lawyer in the United Kingdom has accused a Brown Rudnick partner of “unacceptable and misogynistic behavior” for his comment about her “stunning” photo on LinkedIn. The human rights lawyer, 27-year-old Charlotte Proudman, used Twitter to post a screen shot of the comment by 57-year-old Alexander Carter-Silk, who…

Sep 9, 2015 8:24 AM CDT

Citing twin law firm websites (1 real, 1 fake), bar group urges public to beware

Add another law firm to the growing list of those whose partners have been horrified to discover that they have an Internet twin. For anyone who might happen to see both the Hughes Dowdall website for an actual Scottish law firm and the purported London-based Damian Alden Law Chambers site,…

Aug 7, 2015 11:45 AM CDT

Royalty joins the ABA in marking the 800th birthday of the Magna Carta

With much honor and ceremonial display, the Magna Carta celebrated its 800th birthday on June 15 on the same hallowed ground where King John originally sealed it. Dignitaries from around the world met at historic Runnymede, England, to celebrate the Magna Carta’s worldwide impact while promising to rededicate themselves to…

Aug 1, 2015 1:30 AM CDT

Political powers blunt good law, human rights lawyer says

The inspirational, and aspirational, template of the Magna Carta for the constitutions and legal documents that succeeded it was a recurring theme at the ABA London Sessions. But words and phrases are only as good as the intentions of government institutions tasked with upholding and enforcing them. That was hammered…

Aug 1, 2015 1:20 AM CDT

Speakers consider the grand sweep of the Great Charter

As with most historical occasions, the Magna Carta’s birthday was a time for looking back at what could have been and forward at what may be in the future. At an early program of the 2015 ABA London Sessions, the question pondered was: What if King John had decided to…

Aug 1, 2015 1:10 AM CDT

UK trade envoy: ‘I’d give anything’ for the ABA to work with the Iraqi judiciary

The rule of law as embodied in the Magna Carta needs to be brought to the people who need it most, said Baroness Emma Nicholson during her luncheon speech at the ABA London Sessions. “People want freedom. People want the rule of law,” Nicholson said. “They want these two things,…

Aug 1, 2015 1:00 AM CDT

What can US, UK lawyers learn from each other?

American and British lawyers can learn from each other and borrow examples of good practice to improve litigation and arbitration overall, attorneys said at a panel discussion at the ABA London Sessions. In recent years, international arbitration has borrowed good practices from both the U.S. and the U.K. legal systems,…

Aug 1, 2015 12:50 AM CDT

Laws need to catch up to high-speed trading

Insider trading and the laws needed to prosecute those illegal trades continue to evolve as new issues and technologies emerge, attorneys said during a panel discussion at the ABA London Sessions. The fast-changing landscape is best illustrated by the recent case of Navinder Singh Sarao, the British man who is…

Aug 1, 2015 12:45 AM CDT