Latest legal news

Top US 100 law firm Akerman is launching an R&D Council through which it hopes to spot and develop 'promising ideas' to help it improve service delivery. | 12yrs

The 1,600-lawyer firm is opening its seventh US office by setting up a base in the energy hub of Houston. | 12yrs

Sacha Woodward-Hill, Formula 1's chief legal officer, is expected to act as the right arm of Bernie Ecclestone, the chief executive, when his German corruption trial starts this week. | 12yrs

Corporate counsel are seeing a shift in thinking from law firms on how they charge for litigation as the hourly rate declines in popularity across the board. | 12yrs

Brad Smith, the Microsoft GC and executive VP of legal & corporate affairs, announced that come this Friday, Microsoft will 'welcome the Nokia Devices and Services business as part of the Microsoft family.' | 12yrs

Neil Eggleston, a white collar crime specialist at Kirkland & Ellis, is to become the chief lawyer at the White House. | 12yrs

The numbers of unrepresented parties in cases involving children have risen from 38 per cent to 52 per cent over 2013, largely as a result of Legal Aid cuts. | 12yrs

A weekly round-up of moves across the globe. | 12yrs

China is taking a more active approach to enabling forced labour challenges against Japanese organisations, culminating in the last few days with the seizing of a Japanese cargo vessel. | 12yrs

Senior associates are becoming embittered as they are passed over for promotion in order to leave the way clear for lateral hires, according to an Australian management consultant. | 12yrs

Baker & McKenzie is understood to have recruited a Clayton Utz partner and one from Allens with the aim of opening a Brisbane office in June or July. | 12yrs

Watchell Lipton name partner Leonard M. Rosen died yesterday aged 83. | 12yrs

New York-based media law firm SmithDehn is opening a base in the Northern Irish city of Derry, with the plan to create 75 jobs in the next five years. | 12yrs

As lawyers from abroad seek to strike up relationships with families of passengers on the missing Malaysia Airlines flight, the Malaysia Bar Council is offering free legal help. | 12yrs

The Court will rule whether American Menachem Zivotofsky can list Israel as his country of birth, as he was born in the politically-fraught city of Jerusalem. | 12yrs

Law firm Clifford Chance LLP reported there is no evidence to support the accusation that the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) intentionally pushed small businesses into insolvency. | 12yrs

The 370-lawyer Florida-based firm Carlton Fields Jorden Burt has opened an office in LA under Mark A Neubauer, formerly national head of Steptoe & Johnson's litigation team. | 12yrs

Some 38 per cent of respondents to a survey said they would use the web as the first port of call in looking for a lawyer, while only 29 per cent said they would ask families or friends. | 12yrs

French giant Fidal merged together its 'international' and 'Paris' bases into a single office in Paris last year. | 12yrs