Latest legal news

The Middle East is to offer its first juris doctor degree programme through a law school, created in collaboration with the two US law schools, which is due to open in Education City in the autumn. | 11yrs

The 900-lawyer firm Lewis, Brisbois, Bisgaard & Smith appeared before a magistrate judge last week - in a failed attempt to reach a settlement with an insurance boutique firm over the fate of laptops taken by a group of 14 lawyers joining the firm. | 11yrs

The 104-partner German practice Flicke Gocke Schaumburg is to open a Hamburg office in the summer, servicing it with a team of 20, some of whom will work part-time in the new base. | 11yrs

Law firms stand to earn higher levels of fees from the increasingly complicated work that is involved in serving multi-national clients who need multi-disciplinary advice, according to research from Harvard Law School. | 11yrs

Hillary Clinton's reliance on her personal email account during her time as US secretary of state was 'foolish' and 'scary', according to Jerry Reisman, partner and government ethics lawyer at Reisman, Peirez, Reisman & Capobianco. | 11yrs

Embattled Big Four accountant PwC is facing the claim from the BAT group in relation to the acquisition of a subsidiary, auditing by PwC, which made carbonless copy paper but, allegedly, dumped the chemicals into the water system. | 11yrs

DLA Piper and the 260-lawyer firm Davis are said to have voted in the last two weeks to approve a merger between them which is due to be implemented through a Swiss verein structure sometime next month. | 11yrs

Nearly two-thirds of Australian law firms believe that mergers with non-law firms should be considered as a way forward - partly because the majority of them are concerned at the way the non-legal sector is moving into the law. | 11yrs

The 300-lawyer, 17-office Butler Snow firm is setting up a consultancy offshoot to advise public and private organisations on 'both challenges and opportunities in economic development'. | 11yrs

Research sponsored by DLA Piper in collaboration with a manufacturing organisation, EEF, points to a 'relatively strong start' to 2015 for British manufacturers. | 11yrs

A Russian once known as the Kremlin's banker, Sergei Pugachev, has attacked the English legal system for letting him be pursued by the Russian state though a set of 'absurd' rulings which have left him unable to pay for lawyers. | 11yrs

The two Midlands-based UK law firms have confirmed that they are in merger discussions which would make them one of the largest in the region with joint revenue of £75m and a staff of 900. | 11yrs

A Czech law firm, Tomicek Legal, and a Slovak counterpart, Fox Martens, are setting up a referral network which they hope to expand through the Visegrad group of countries including Hungary, Poland, Germany and Austria. | 11yrs

High-earning lone wolf lawyers might be able to increase their earnings by collaborating with colleagues and doing more on cross-selling but research published in the Harvard Business Review says that they struggle to put the common good first. | 11yrs

Foreign businesses will be subject to a raft of new rules - including keeping servers and user data in China and handing over encryption keys - if new anti-terrorism laws which are due to be read in parliament this week are subsequently adopted. | 11yrs

Nearly two-thirds (61%) of commercial lawyers believe that proposed increases in UK court fees - taking them up to £10,000 in claims worth over £200,000 - could send litigants to New York, Singapore and other jurisdictions. | 11yrs

UK barrister Amal Clooney has criticised Canada for issuing 'sheepish whimpers' rather than engaging in 'real advocacy' with Egypt over the detention of a Canadian citizen whose release has been promised by the Cairo government. | 11yrs

Vadim Prokhorov, lawyer to the family of assassinated Russian politician Boris Nemtsov, has revealed that the opposition leader received threats 'several months ago' and says his death might be connected to events in Ukraine. | 11yrs

The departure of ex-corporate chief Arndt Stengel for Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy in Frankfurt follows on the heels of two partner losses in February to Latham & Watkins. | 11yrs