Practice areas

Swiss banks have only four working days left in which to decide whether to give client information to the Department of Justice or to face prosecution. | 12yrs

Half of the 220 judges who sit in US immigration courts reach retirement age next year, a situation which could throw the backlogged tribunals into a state of greater confusion. | 12yrs

UK law firm Morrish Solicitors has signed up to a new-style Alternative Business Structure (ABS) with the Transport Salaried Staffs' Association (TSSA). | 12yrs

Commercial courts - which are due to be merged in with the general court system - are generally regarded by foreign lawyers as being fairly well run and being free of political influence. | 12yrs

Three US law firms - Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft, Milbank Tweed & Hadley and Morrison & Foerster - are among the international practices seeking to open or increase their litigation presence in Hong Kong. | 12yrs

Australia is well placed to become an important player in the competitive world of arbitration, says Russell Thirgood of McCullough Robertson. | 12yrs

Sonya Leydecker, head of global disputes, will become joint chief executive officer on 1 May 2014, alongside Mark Rigotti on the Freehills side of the firm. | 12yrs

Litigation is the area that US firms are the most positive about - with 27% of law firms expecting to hire, according to a survey from recruitment consultants Robert Half Legal. | 12yrs

Travers Thorp Alberga and Paget-Brown, two Cayman Islands law firms, have decided to join forces. | 12yrs

Leader of the lawyers league for the last two years, Linklaters is in 13th place for 2013 in the Thomson Reuters tables. | 12yrs

The US Treasury Department has warned businesses dealing in the virtual currency Bitcoin that they need to respect their federal and regulatory duties as money transmitters. | 12yrs

A PI and workers compensation firm is to be allowed to continue with advertisements on the side of buses even though its commercial agreement with the bus company bars competitors from advertising. | 12yrs

Therese Pritchard is to become the third litigator in a week to be chosen as the next leader of a leading law firm. | 12yrs

Mike Watts, lawyer and fundraiser for President Barak Obama, has been accused of 'brazen fraud' by BP in filings related to the Deepwater Horizon oil leak. | 12yrs

Rhode Island lawyer Joseph Caramadre has been sentenced to six years in jail for a US$46m investment fraud in which he gave cash to dying people and then bought annuities which paid out when the victims died. | 12yrs

International veteran Paul Smith will take over as the Eversheds chair for a four year term on 1 May. | 12yrs

Jones Day has begun to trial the use of damages-based fee deals with litigation clients in its London office. | 12yrs

BP's legal team has been accused of making 'material omissions' which were 'tantamount to…misleading the court' in the latest set of filings in the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil leak litigation. | 12yrs

A state exam body has provoked surprise at appointing Seol-based Lee & Co, advisers to Samsung, to support it over complaints that exam candidates may have been denied university entry over an alleged error. | 12yrs