Practice areas

The four largest banks in Britain have racked up a legal bill of more than £9 billion due to pending legal action, a report yesterday revealed. | 13yrs

Lawyers who qualified outside of the US are to be allowed to work as in-house counsel at US companies in all 50 states, the American Bar Association (ABA) has ruled. | 13yrs

British energy company BP is ready itself for showdown with US authorities as it prepares to argue that civil penalties for the Gulf of Mexico disaster should be less than a quarter of the $20 billion that analysts have suggested. | 13yrs

The regulatory body of lawyers in England and Wales has today moved to quash claims that it has 'serious concerns' over the financial well-being of some 2,000 law firms. | 13yrs

British businesses will be able to make a one-off payment to register innovations Europe-wide under new rules to be agreed this week, potentially cutting thousands from the costly process of applying for patents in each individual country. | 13yrs

Britain's leading companies have set aside £22.1 billion to cover regulatory and legal costs last year representing a 22 per cent increase from the previous year, research has revealed today. | 13yrs

An overwhelming majority of law firm partners believe more major firms will go bust over the next two years, research today revealed, sounding a further warning to the profession after last year's dramatic downfall of New York firm Dewey & LeBoeuf. | 13yrs

Motorists would save an average of £60 per year if lawyers were by-passed in the small-claims process, a leading UK insurer yesterday claimed, sparking cries of outrage from the legal profession. | 13yrs

Brazil's patent enforcer has dealt a blow to US technology company Apple by ruling that the iPhone name in the country belongs to a local company, according to reports yesterday. | 13yrs

The chief executive of Californian technology giant Apple yesterday shrugged off claims that the company does not know what to with its $137 billion cash pile, adding that a lawsuit filed by a shareholder is nothing more than a 'silly slideshow'. | 13yrs

Leading in-house lawyers at Barclays are jockeying for position as the bank looks to appoint a new general counsel, with reports suggesting Michael Shaw and Judith Shepherd are the current frontrunners. | 13yrs

The American Bar Association's ethics commission is to tackle issues surrounding the registration of foreign in-house counsel, possibly amending the current model, the co-chair of the commission has said. | 13yrs

The Cambodian government and bar association should scale down their efforts to stop lawyers from speaking to the media without permission, a leading human rights organisation said yesterday. | 13yrs

New York-based law firm White & Case has blown away bleak reports of meagre profit increases to post a whopping 15 per cent increase in profit per equity partner (PEP) for the 2012 financial year. | 13yrs

Britain's chief accountancy enforcer is set to investigate claims that Cambridge-founded software company Autonomy misrepresented its profitability before its £7 billion takeover by Hewlett-Packard in 2011. | 13yrs

Social networking platform Facebook is facing legal action over its 'like' button following a claim from a Dutch patent-holding company yesterday. | 13yrs

Associated British Foods has today rejected allegations that it engaged in any illegal or immoral tax avoidance in Zambia, adding that it believes it has been 'wronged' through inaccurate accounts. | 13yrs

Europe's top legal official has strongly rebuffed US attempts to soften proposed EU data protection and privacy laws which could see global technology giants forced to adhere to European standards. | 13yrs

American hedge fund manager David Einhorn is suing technology giant Apple to force the company to hand out more of its $137bn (£87bn) cash pile to shareholders. | 13yrs