High-flying barrister Nicola Cain struck off for forging judge’s signature in Steele dossier lawsuit February 7, 2022 A high-flying barrister has been struck off for forging a judge’s signature, while defending former MI6 agent Christopher Steele against a libel action filed by Russian tech tycoon Aleksej Gubarev. Veteran barrister Nicola Cain was disbarred for giving her client, Christopher Steele, a fake High Court order, on which she had cut-and-pasted a copy of [...]
White male barristers earn twice as much as female, ethnic minority colleagues February 7, 2022 White male barristers earn more than twice as much as female barristers from ethnic minority backgrounds, figures from the Bar Standards Board (BSB) show. White men working as barristers earned £238,241 in 2020, while women from ethnic minority backgrounds earned just £98,324 over the same period of time. On average, female barristers earned just more [...]
UK government should upskill managers to level up the country, CMI says February 7, 2022 The UK government should invest in efforts to upskill Britain’s managers in its bid to tackle regional inequality, according to the Chartered Management Institute (CMI). The trade body for managers said the government should fund schemes to improve Britain’s leadership skills, in order to increase productivity and level up the country. CMI chief executive Ann [...]
UK accounting watchdog probes PwC over Kier and Galliford Try audits February 7, 2022 The UK’s accounting watchdog is investigating PwC’s audits of two of Britain’s biggest construction companies. Big Four accountancy firm PwC is being investigated by the UK’s Financial Reporting Council (FRC) over its audits of construction giants, Kier and Galliford Try, according to The Financial Times. The FRC’s probe into PwC’s audit of Galliford Try comes [...]
HMRC’s investigations into UK’s biggest firms generate £69 in extra tax revenue for every £1 invested February 7, 2022 HMRC investigations into big firms generate significantly higher returns than investigations into small and mid-sized businesses, according to figures from Pinsent Masons, which said the investigative unit’s high returns will see the taxman focus on large corporate tax dodgers going forwards. The UK tax collector’s investigations into big firms generated £69 in extra tax revenues [...]
Abrdn forced to delay £1.5bn Interactive Investor takeover due to global paper shortages February 6, 2022 Edinburgh headquartered asset manager Abrdn has been forced to delay a shareholder ballot on its plans to launch a £1.5bn takeover of online investment platform Interactive Investor, because of an international paper shortage. Abrdn had hoped to let shareholders vote on its plans to takeover Interactive Investor ahead of its results. However, the Scottish asset [...]
New data reveals the top 10 dealmakers of 2021 February 6, 2022 New data, shared with City A.M. has revealed the UK’s top dealmakers of 2021. The figures come on the back of a record year for mergers & acquisitions, which saw the completion of more than $5 trillion worth of deals. JP Morgan’s James Robinson ranked as the UK’s top investment banker, after topping MergerLink’s charts [...]
Private equity acquisitions of professional services firms up 179 per cent in 2021 February 6, 2022 Private-equity funds have increasingly begun to buy up professional services firms, as they face mounting pressure to deploy their capital quickly in the face of economic uncertainty. The number of private-equity backed acquisitions of UK professional services firms more than doubled over the previous year, from 19 in 2020 to 53 in 2021, according to [...]
Top economist says Bank of England’s failure to tackle inflation quickly will worsen cost-of-living crisis February 6, 2022 One of Britain’s top economists has accused the Bank of England’s of failing to act quickly enough to stop inflation from worsening the cost-of-living crisis. Gerard Lyons, a former economic advisor to both Gordon Brown and Boris Johnson, accused Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey of failing to “nip inflation in the bud” and taking [...]
UK consultancies are hiring fewer Oxbridge and Russell Group uni grads than a decade ago February 6, 2022 The UK’s management consultancies are hiring fewer Oxbridge graduates and fewer Russell Group university graduates than they were a decade ago, figures from the Management Consultancies Association (MCA) show. The proportion of young management consultants from the UK’s top-ranking Russell Group universities has dropped from heights of 73 per cent in 2011, to rates of [...]