‘Self-driving’ lorries to be tested on UK roads – BBC

Tories may compel firms to disclose gap between pay of CEOs and workers – The Guardian

Provident Financial shares bounce back after management shake-up – The Telegraph

Samsung heir Lee Jae-yong jailed for corruption – BBC

The Guardian view on grocery wars: Lidl Britain – The Guardian

Spotify moves closer to listing as it strikes deal with Warner Music – The Telegraph

Is the fun being sucked out of Notting Hill Carnival? – BBC

Why should you consider this career?

Becoming a chartered secretary immerses you not only in law, but in business strategy and finance providing you a broad career rather than having to specialise. You will be an influencer in important organisational decision making.

What’s more, with your law degree you are eligible for exemptions from at least two modules from the Chartered Secretaries Qualifying Scheme (CSQS). By studying the specialist modules, we can help you meet the responsibilities of the role confidently while being part of a member network with access to global knowledge and support.

Find out how to fast track your career

‘I think particular when you are studying law or looking to graduate from law, you think you can only do some of the things within a legal department but I’ve managed to do it from all within a company secretarial remit…and it’s been brilliant.’ – Julian Baddeley (Aviva plc)

More resources for graduates

Visit our new Graduate Hub and peer inside the company secretarial teams of a FTSE organisations. Choose from one of our popular insight days, shadowing schemes, or sit in on an AGM (these are limited and available on a first come basis).

Save the date:

AGM Invitation

Company	Date	Seats left	Location
DS Smith	5 September 2017	2	London
Dixons Carphone	7 September 2017	2	London

Insight Days

Company	Date	Spaces	Location
Aviva	8 September 2017	20	London
Intertrust	12 September 2017	12	London
Royal Mail	28 September 2017	20	London
Nationwide	10 October 2017	20	London
Rolls Royce	17 October 2017	12	Derby
National Grid	20 November 2017	20	London

To register your place at any of the above, please contact us at [email protected] or call +44 20 7612 7021.

This proportion was slightly down on its 91% autumn retention rate last year. 53 offers were made to this year’s group, with 47 accepting positions. Last week Allen & Overy posted a retention rate of 85% while Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer retained 66% of its cohort.

In addition, Gowling WLG, Macfarlanes, Ince & Co, Taylor Wessing and Stewarts Law have also revealed their trainee retention rates this week.

From a group of 25 trainees, Gowling WLG has retained 21 individuals, giving it retention rate of 84%. Twelve people have taken up newly qualified positions in the City and nine will join the firm’s Birmingham office. It’s an improvement on last autumn’s 78% trainee retention rate when the firm kept 18 of its 23 trainees.

Macfarlanes has retained 100% of its 25 trainees, with 23 individuals agreeing to permanent positions while two people accepted fixed term contracts. This year’s figures are an improvement on last autumn’s 90% retention figure. The firm’s head of graduate recruitment Seán Lavin said the firm tries ‘very hard to ensure that we can offer a role to each trainee on qualification in order to keep that talent within the firm’, taking on ‘the highest quality … with a view to offering them long-term careers with the firm’.

Ince & Co has mirrored its results from last year, posting a 90% retention rate from its group of 10. Two of its NQs will join take up places outside of the firm’s London headquarters with one joining its Monaco office and another in Dubai. Last autumn the firm retained 89% of its group of nine.

Taylor Wessing posted a lower trainee retention rate, keeping 62%. It’s a tumble on last year’s figures when the firm retained 77% of its group of 22. Sixteen NQs will remain at the firm with patents; IT, telecoms and competition; disputes and investigations; private client; private equity; private capital and corporate finance; and real estate, planning and environment practices each gaining two new associates apiece, while the construction and engineering and tax and incentives practices will both be receiving one NQs.

And despite another strong year financially, Stewarts Law has retained just one of its four trainees qualifying this autumn.

This article first appeared on The Lex 100‘s sister publication, Legal Business.

Trump set to order China trade investigation – BBC

Logistics firm John Menzies walks away from planned DX merger – The Telegraph

Controversial Garden Bridge project scrapped – The Times

UK inflation tipped to rise again with wages forecast to stagnate – The Guardian

Disruption is over – and Facebook won – BBC

Rise of electric car solves little if driven by fossil fuels, warns windfarm boss – The Guardian

Aldi to launch online delivery service in the US – The Telegraph

University must charge £9,000 fees ‘to make up for cuts’ – The Times

As a result of the separation, achieved through a regulated apportionment arrangement (RAA), Tata Steel will pay £550m to BSPS, which will also be given a 33% equity stake in the steel company. With the support of the Pensions Regulator and the Pension Protection Fund (PPF), a new BSPS will be created after an assessment period.

Slaughter and May advised long-standing client Tata Steel on the restructuring, with pensions and employment partners Charles Cameron and Phil Linnard, restructuring partner Ian Johnson, finance partner Andrew McClean and M&A partner Padraig Cronin comprising the team. PwC also represented Tata Steel.

The BSPS trustee has been a Travers Smith client for ten years, and the firm represented it on the restructuring with a team that included pensions partners Paul Stannard, Dan Naylor and Susie Daykin, finance partners Jeremy Walsh and Ed Smith, corporate partner Adrian West, tax partner Richard Stratton and derivatives partner Jonathan Gilmour.

The separation of the BSPS had been seen as a barrier to a potential merger of Tata Steel with Germany’s ThyssenKrupp, but the separation may now accelerate merger discussions.

In a statement, Tata Steel’s group executive director Koushik Chatterjee said: ‘Considering the continued challenges in the global steel industry as well as the uncertain global politico-economic environment, the RAA presents the best possible structural outcome for the members of the British Steel Pension Scheme and for the Tata Steel UK business.’

The PPF, which was represented by Hogan Lovells, said in a statement: ‘Members of the British Steel Pension Scheme will have seen a lot of speculation about the future of their pensions, so we want to reassure them the PPF is there to protect them throughout this process.’

Slaughter’s Cameron added: ‘This restructuring is unusual in a number of ways, and unprecedented in its scale. It is by far the largest pension scheme restructuring carried out in the UK.’

In April 2016, Forsters lined up opposite Slaughter and May on Tata Steel’s deal to sell its European long-products business to UK investment house Greybull Capital.

This article first appeared on The Lex 100‘s sister publication, Legal Business.

Forsters has announced a perfect 100% retention rate in relation to its autumn 2017 qualifiers. The Mayfair firm will welcome all eight of its qualifying trainees as associates come September.

Magic Circle giant Allen & Overy has also released its 85% retention rate, confirming that 40 out of 47 soon-to-qualify trainees will join the leading firm as associates this autumn.

67 of 91 qualifiers at Pinsent Masons will stay on, giving the firm a score of 74%, whilst Sullivan & Cromwell boasts an impressive 100% retention rate, having enticed all four of its qualifying trainees to sign on the dotted line.

For more information on autumn retention rates, see our trainee retention table.

World Championships: Isaac Makwala withdrawal decision defended by IAAF – BBC

Worldpay agrees £9.3bn tie-up with Vantiv – The Telegraph

UK citizens to get more rights over personal data under new laws – The Guardian

Darling: ‘Alarm bells ringing’ for UK economy – BBC

North Korea threatens attack on Guam after Trump’s ‘fire and fury’ warning – The Times

FT journalists revolt over colleague’s sacking – The Telegraph

The Guardian view on data protection: a vital check on power – The Guardian

The firm’s second Australian base will be led by Michael Kavanagh from local firm Lander & Rogers, where he was a partner.

Kennedys Australia’s managing partner Matt Andrews said the insurance-focused firm is aiming to work more closely with a number of its ‘local and global clients’ based in Melbourne.

The second Australian opening after the Sydney office in 2006 follows that of five US offices as part of the merger with Carroll McNulty & Kull in May and one in Mexico City in January. The firm now has 28 offices, 10 in the UK and 18 worldwide.

Kavanagh headed the casualty team at Lander & Rogers, where he spent 16 years advising on claims for insurers, brokers, insureds and loss adjusters. Two senior associates, Emily Unger and Uki Murphy, and lawyer Angela Woodward also join from Lander & Rogers.

Senior partner Nick Thomas told Legal Business that organic growth, laterals and international expansion had been the firm’s strategy for some time: ‘It has involved a lot of investment, but fortunately we are seeing the results. The fact that we are in different geographic areas means that we can win more clients.’

Special counsel Nicholas Blackmore will also join the Melbourne practice, transferring from Kennedys’ Hong Kong office, where he advised on IT, commercial and regulatory matters for insurers and large corporates.

Kennedys’ revenues grew by 8% to £149.9m in 2016/17, boosted by a strong western European and South American performance. Disputes accounted for 91% of fee income.

However, the recent international expansion and investment in new technology has meant that profit per equity partner (PEP) stalled at £406,000. The firm increased its lawyer headcount by 13% to 785 in one year and has also put about £3m a year into technological innovation since 2013.

Kennedys is part of a group of top-50 insurance and shipping specialists whose significant top-line growth has not translated into a rise in profitability in the last financial year. Firms focused on the insurance sector are investing to keep up with the increasing need for international coverage, product specialisation and technological innovation to improve efficiency in an increasingly competitive market.

‘Firms doing more traditional stuff are struggling,’ said Thomas. ‘But then again: why are these firms struggling? Because they don’t innovate.’

This article first appeared on The Lex 100‘s sister publication, Legal Business.

The High Court started the pilot scheme for shorter trials in September 2015, for cases in the commercial, technology and construction courts, the chancery division and the mercantile courts, all located in London’s Rolls Building.

The scheme offers dispute resolution for commercial cases and aimed to have them managed by docketed judges and to reach trial within ten months of the issue of proceedings, with judgment delivered within six weeks after. The maximum length of a trial under the scheme is four days, including reading time. The judge-led reform intended to ensure cases were handled more quickly.

The recent BP case centred on a claim by the National Bank of Abu Dhabi that BP had breached its warranties and misrepresented itself in a $70m receivables financing transaction related to the sale of 100,000 metric tonnes of crude oil to a Moroccan oil refinery.

BP had agreed to sell the National Bank of Abu Dhabi 95% of the debt it was owed by Moroccan oil refining company SAMIR for supplying it with oil. When SAMIR defaulted in November 2015, BP were unable to sell the debt to the Bank under the terms of its sale and purchase agreement with SAMIR.

Under the shorter trial procedure, permission to appeal Mrs Justice Carr’s November 2016 ruling in favour of the National Bank of Abu Dhabi was expedited. Last week, the Court of Appeal allowed BP’s appeal. The detailed reasons for the judgment are currently reserved.

BP was represented by Addleshaw Goddard, who instructed Fountain Court Chambers’ Bankim Thanki QC and Christopher Lewis QC of Atkin Chambers. The National Bank of Abu Dhabi was represented by Slaughter and May, which instructed Rhodri Davies QC and Nicholas Sloboda of One Essex Court.

Thanki described the case to Legal Business as ‘litigation conducted by adults’ and cited an increased co-operation between the parties to limit disclosure and accelerate proceedings.

Thanki said that ‘literally a handful’ of documents were disclosed and that legal costs amounted to £350,000 each.

This article first appeared on The Lex 100‘s sister publication, Legal Business.

The other firms on the roster are TLT, Cleaver Fulton Rankin, Lewis Silkin, Winckworth Sherwood, BLM, Mason Hayes Curran and Shepherd & Wedderburn.

The panel, which was last reviewed in 2014, previously included Bond Dickinson, Croner, King & Wood Mallesons, DWF and Gowling WLG.

The legal panel, known internally as the ‘Sainsbury’s Legal Community’, will cover jurisdictions in England, Wales, Northern Ireland, Scotland and the Republic of Ireland – which is a new jurisdiction following the Group’s acquisition of Argos. The panel is typically reviewed every three years.

In a press statement, Nick Grant, head of group legal services for Sainsburys said: ‘As we continue to integrate Argos with Sainsbury’s we’ve selected a panel that provides the right combination of experience and fresh thinking.’

He said the firms were chosen to ensure that the Sainsbury’s Group obtained the legal support for the range of markets and jurisdictions in which it now operated.

Grant created the Sainsbury’s Legal Community in 2011, which involves multiple firms collaborating to provide advice. The change allowed the in-house team to present its objectives more openly and let firms that are stronger in certain areas collaborate to produce better advice.

Recent completed panels include HSBC, which appointed around ten firms to its UK legal banking panel. Addleshaw Goddard, Eversheds Sutherland and Simmons & Simmons were among those which made the cut.

CMS, Dentons and Pinsent Masons are also among the roster which was reduced in size.

This article first appeared on The Lex 100‘s sister publication, Legal Business.