It’s not too late to apply for January!
Want to be a successful solicitor? Applications for the January 2018 “>University of Law are closing soon.
Why study the LPC at the University of Law?
* Practice-focused: develop the professional skills to handle the challenges of being a lawyer
* Study your LPC with a Masters and you could be eligible for a postgraduate student loan
* Gain an MSc in Law, Business and Management or LLM in Professional Legal Practice at no extra cost
* Exceptional face-to-face teaching and individual tutor support
* Award-winning employability support from the moment you accept
Hurry and apply now. Deadlines to apply for the January courses are as follows:
* Full-time Accelerated LPC: Monday 18 December 2017
* Full-time LPC (London Bloomsbury only): Thursday 18 January 2018
Any Questions?
If you have any queries about the application process, contact the friendly Admissions Team who will be happy to help. Email
Following the trend of tech incubator programmes set by City firms, insurance heavyweight Clyde & Co has launched a data analytics lab to develop products and services for its clients. The new initiative is being ran in conjunction with University College London (UCL), with which the firm has a longstanding relationship. Insurance partner Mark Wing and Clyde & Co’s innovation board are overseeing the project. The board, which was established in 2016, was designed to improve Clyde’s relationships with its clients by creating new products and services. It comprises Wing and fellow partners Nigel Brook, Lee Bacon, Carolena Gordon, Leon Alexander, Patrick Murphy and Sally Sfeir-Tait , as well as chief strategy officer William Isaac, chief information officer Chris White and senior strategy manager Nadine Bairle. Overall, the lab will be staffed by Clyde legal, data science and strategy staff in addition to students from UCL’s computer science department. The team will combine data analysis with machine-learning technology to develop new products. So far, projects at the lab have explored predicting fraud in relation to claims, the likelihood of disputes going to trial or settlement, as well as potential litigation outcomes. Wing said: ‘A large part of the value that law firms provide to their clients is the knowledge and expertise of their lawyers. As a global firm we have heaps of knowledge but the question we always challenge ourselves with is how we harness it as quickly and efficiently as we can for our clients. Having a data analytics lab provides us with another mechanism for unlocking insight, value and solutions for our clients.’ The data analytics lab launch caps off a productive year for Clydes in terms of tech innovation, with the firm launching Clyde Code in September, a consultancy focused on advising mainly insurers on smart contracts, blockchain and distributed ledger technologies. It has also been an internationally expansive year for the firm, announcing yesterday (11 December), that it had established a best-friends association with five-partner New Zealand boutique insurance litigation firm Fee Langstone. Over the past year, Clydes has opened offices in Chicago, Washington DC , Los Angeles and also formed an association with Malaysian firm Shaikh David & Co in Kuala Lumpur. A Bristol office is also slated to launch in the New Year. Addleshaw Goddard and Ashurst are acting as gaming and betting company GVC Holdings launches a proposed £3.9bn takeover of rival Ladbrokes Coral. The proposed deal, announced 7 December, would create a global online gambling group that the boards of the two companies claim would have strong growth prospects and an enhanced position in some of the world’s largest regulated online gaming markets, including the UK, Italy and Australia. GVC, which also owned the Sportingbet and Bwin brands, would own 53.5% of the combined business and has until early January to make a firm offer. Addleshaws is representing existing client GVC on the deal, led by corporate partner Nick Pearey, while Ashurst is advising Ladbrokes on another significant transaction, led by corporate partners Simon Beddow, Tom Mercer and James Fletcher. Competition partner Ross Mackenzie and tax partner Alex Cox are also advising. Jones Day is advising Houlihan Lokey as financial adviser to GVC, with team led by Leon Ferera. Addleshaws previously acted for GVC in its £1.1bn contested takeover of gambling company Bwin, which was completed in 2016, as well as its £485m takeover of Sportingbet in 2013.It also advised GVC on its transfer to a premium listing last year. Ashurst, meanwhile, previously advised Gala Coral on its £2.3bn merger with Ladbrokes in 2015. Gaming and betting has been a lucrative sector for law firms in recent years after a spate of consolidation, including a £5bn tie-up between Paddy Power and Betfair in 2015. Then last year, William Hill rejected a £3.6bn takeover bid from Rank Group and 888 Holdings, after 888 had failed in its bid to take over Bwin in mid-2015 for £898m. The Charles Russell Speechlys application process is now open! The firm is now accepting applications for the 2020 training contract commencing and 2018 summer placement scheme for each of their UK offices – Cheltenham, Guildford and London. The deadlines are as follows: Summer Placement Scheme – Wednesday 31 January 2018 Training Contract – Saturday 30 June 2018 Click here to access the application form online through the website. At Charles Russell Speechlys you will not just become another robot; you will be encouraged to challenge yourself in a supportive and rewarding environment. With this in mind, the firm is looking for intelligent individuals with a real passion for the law, an inquisitve mind, plenty of team spirit and the drive to make your own mark. To find out what our current trainee highlights are, please click here.
Apply for a Macfarlanes vacation scheme by 31 January 2018. You will be given as much hands-on experience as possible, enabling you to develop a real understanding of the firm’s culture and work. You might draft a letter and then work through the draft with a solicitor or trainee; or you might do some research on a live issue for a client. Alternatively, you may be taken to client meetings or to meet counsel. You will spend each of your two weeks in a different practice area, working alongside a partner, solicitor or trainee. At the same time, you will undertake a mock transaction that will run for the duration of your placement. Away from the work, the scheme has a strong social component. As well as the organised events, bowling with the trainees for example, or lunch with the partners, there are many opportunities to get to know people throughout the firm and to find out if Macfarlanes is right for you. Key dates The dates of the 2018 vacation schemes are as follows: Easter: 3 – 13 April 2018 Application To apply for the vacation scheme you will need to be in at least the penultimate year of your degree. Applications for the 2018 vacation schemes open on 1 October 2017 and close on 31 January 2018. Kirkland & Ellis International LLP is a 2,000-attorney law firm representing global clients in offices around the world; in Beijing, Boston, Chicago, Hong Kong, Houston, London, Los Angeles, Munich, New York, Palo Alto, San Francisco, Shanghai, and Washington, D.C. For over 100 years, major national and international clients have called upon Kirkland & Ellis to provide superior legal advice and client services. Our London office has been the hub of European operations since 1994. Here, over 200 lawyers’ offer detailed expertise to a wide range of UK and international clients. To truly experience what life is like in the London office of Kirkland & Ellis we invite you to apply for our two-week vacation schemes taking place throughout the spring and summer months. You are eligible to apply if you are in your penultimate year of a law degree, final year of a non-law degree or beyond. Ideally we look to recruit as many of our future trainees as possible from the vacation scheme. Vacation scheme participants receive £500 per week and you will be working on real deals alongside partners and associates. It’s unlikely you will see a live transaction from start to finish, so we provide a mock transaction in which you will conduct a negotiation exercise, hammer out the terms of a sponsorship deal and celebrate with champagne at the closing. We also run practice group overview sessions in order to give you a chance to learn more about what we do, and an opportunity to network with different people across the office. You will be allocated a trainee buddy, and there are of course numerous social events throughout the two weeks. At Kirkland & Ellis we keep our trainee intake small giving you the chance to shine. We hire just 10 trainees each year and provide them with high quality work from day one. You will be treated as a lawyer from the start and be given every opportunity for success. Our work is demanding, challenging, thrilling, high-profile and involves extremely talented clients from businesses in all industries and sectors. Working in this environment will stretch your intellect and make you more than just a lawyer. Your academic record will be excellent. You will have the initiative, the drive and the work ethic to thrive in the firm’s meritocratic culture and arrive with an understanding of the work undertaken in the firm’s London office. To apply, visit our website ukgraduate.kirkland.com before the deadline on 7 January 2018. Building on respectable 2016/17 results, Simmons & Simmons has announced a 12% hike in its half-year revenues to £167.3m. The figure is up considerably on last year’s H1 result of £149.4m, and comes after the 900-lawyer firm went on a recruitment drive adding 27 partners since May 2017 (including 13 promotions). Simmons managing partner Jeremy Hoyland told Legal Business: ‘The Middle East and continental Europe continue to do well, with France and Italy being our strongest performers. We have also seen a little bit of swing back towards the transactional areas.’ Hoyland indicated that the firm’s pace of recruitment would likely slow in the months ahead, adding: ‘I suspect we won’t run quite to those levels but we continue to be attractive to people in our strongest areas.’ The London-based law firm has made inroads elsewhere, announcing in October that it will be opening in Dublin in 2018 with a lateral hire from Mason Hayes & Curran (MHC). MHC’s head of investment funds and financial regulation Fionan Breathnac is joining the firm’s new branch, which will focus on investments funds and regulatory work for asset managers and financial institutions. Among the major hires for Simmons in 2017 was the appointment of legacy Olswang intellectual practice veteran Michael Burdon. Burdon, who headed Olswang’s European patent litigation group, joined Simmons in May. Simmons was also named on the revised panel of HSBC earlier this year, reflecting its heavy focus on financial institution clients. Simmons saw turnover rise by 7% to £316.1m for the full 2016/17 year, while profit per equity partner hit £635,000. Few firms have so far confirmed H1 results in what is expected to be a tough financial year. Exceptions to the rule are Watson Farley & Williams and Fieldfisher, two of the fastest growing UK firms of recent years, which respectively last month confirmed growth of 13% and 20%. UK-based deal specialists were busy this week advising on cross-border transactions spanning three continents. White & Case and Linklaters have deployed their global teams to act on a $2.73bn refinancing for an infrastructure project across two countries in sub-Saharan Africa. White & Case’s Caroline Miller Smith and Carina Radford are advising Brazilian mining company Vale and Japanese energy giant Mitsui, which signed a deal for the refinancing of the Nacala Corridor, a 912km railway line to transport coal from their mine in western Mozambique to a port on the eastern coast of the country across Malawi. Other White & Case partners involved include energy, infrastructure, project and asset finance veteran Philp Stopford and disputes specialist Ed Attenborough. Head of Linklaters Africa group Andrew Jones and London projects partner Fiona Hobbs advised the lenders, along with Francisco Ferraz de Carvalho in Lisbon and Hirofumi Taba in Tokyo and lawyers in Johannesburg, Amsterdam and Dubai. Jones told Legal Business: ‘This deal has a terrific collateral benefit for the region. There will be not just trains for coal, but also other cargo and passengers, connecting these isolated regions. This should be a stimulus for Malawi and Mozambique.’ A long-term client of White & Case, Vale started work on the corridor linking the cities of Moatize and Nacala-à-Velha in 2012. In March this year, Mitsui acquired 15% of the Brazilian company’s stake in the coal mine and 50% of its stake in the corridor. In 2016 the cost of the project, which also involved the construction of a new port at Nacala, was estimated at $4.4bn, with $2bn already invested by Vale. The railway line began operating in May and completion of the project is expected next year. The $2.73bn deal agreed this week will refinance part of Vale’s shareholders loans used for the construction, support the ramping up of operations along the corridor and mean the companies will share investment and political risks with institutions which have established relationships with the governments of the two countries involved. Lenders included African Development Bank, Export Credit Insurance Corporation of South Africa (ECIC), Japan Bank for International Cooperation and Nippon Export and Investment Insurance (NEXI), together with ECIC and NEXI-covered commercial lenders. ‘This project required some creative thinking,’ said White & Case’s Miller Smith. ‘One of the challenges for our clients is you don’t choose where natural resources are in the world. We knew that lenders for this project wanted it to be an integrated whole. We drafted a treaty that the two governments [of Malawi and Mozambique] signed in September.’ A team from Linklaters’ South African alliance partner Webber Wentzel advised the South African lenders. In-country advice was provided by ABCC in Mozambique and Savjani & Co in Malawi. Meanwhile, Slaughter and May and Macfarlanes are facing off as Cineworld offered $3.6bn to acquire Regal Entertainment yesterday (29 November). The UK cinema operator confirmed it is in ‘advanced discussions’ with Regal for an all-cash offer to acquire the second-largest cinema chain in the US for $23 per share. Slaughters corporate partner David Johnson and finance partners Ed Fife Guy and O’ Keefe are acting for Cineworld, while Macfarlanes’ M&A partner Harry Coghill is leading Regal’s advisers. The UK cinema operator advised its shareholders that ‘there can be no certainty that the discussions will lead to any agreement’ and there was no timetable set for the transaction yet. Cineworld is a long-time client of Slaughters. The Magic Circle firm was part of an international group of advisers as the UK chain acquired Warsaw-listed Cinema City International for £504m in 2014 . Join Taylor Wessing for their first year insight day on 27 March 2018 to find out why they’re a law firm for the game-changers; the smart thinkers and the ground-breakers. To be eligible to attend you must be a first-year law student or penultimate-year non-law student. It will be a packed day, during which you’ll be given the chance to learn more about the Firm, attend skills sessions to help you with your vacation scheme applications and take part in a business game. Apply by 31 December 2017. Taylor Wessing is a full-service international law firm, standing at the forefront of the industries of tomorrow. Acting as legal advisers to well-known clients in progressive and cutting-edge sectors, they’re a firm for the ground breakers, the smart thinkers and the trail blazers. Their spark, focus and lateral thinking make them exceptional legal advisers, helping their clients to succeed by thinking innovatively about their business issues. Forsters holds a number of open days throughout the year where students are invited to visit their office to discover more about them. The next open day will be held on Wednesday 13 December 2017. The day involves talks by partners and fee-earners working in some of the firm’s key practice areas as well as the opportunity to meet the current trainees. Forsters welcomes approximately 25 students to each open day on an invitation only basis. If you wish to apply for the next open day, please e-mail your CV and a covering letter to [email protected] by midday on Monday 4 December 2017 at the latest.‘Another mechanism for unlocking insight’ – Clyde & Co launches tech initiative with UCL
Addleshaws and Ashurst picked as favourites as GVC pitches in for Ladbrokes takeover
Robots need not apply……………..
Macfarlanes Vacation Scheme – Apply by 31 January 2018.
Summer scheme 1: 25 June – 6 July 2018
Summer scheme 2: 9 – 20 July 2018Kirkland & Ellis Vacation Schemes – Apply by 7 January 2018
International growth drives Simmons’ H1 revenues up 12% despite tough conditions
Deal watch: Linklaters and White & Case in landmark Africa project as Slaughters and Macfarlanes lead on Cineworld takeover
Taylor Wessing First Year Trailblazing Insight Day
Forsters Open Day – 13 December 2017
