EY hands £1,100 pandemic ‘thank you’ bonus to non-partners April 30, 2021 EY will hand out payments of around £1,100 to non-partners next month as a thank you for the work carried out during the Covid-19 pandemic. Some 17,000 UK staff will receive the one-off payment, which is in addition to EY’s normal salary review and bonus that take place in October. EY is the second of [...]
Linklaters promotes Alex Beidas to global head of employment & incentives April 29, 2021 Magic Circle firm Linklaters has made Alex Beidas global head of employment & incentives, taking over from Nicola Rabson, whose tenure in the role ends on 30 April. Beidas will stay in the new role for four years, where she will be in charge of supporting clients. Rabson will return to her role as partner, [...]
Interim KPMG CEO quits after being passed over for permanent role April 29, 2021 Interim KPMG CEO Mary O’Connor, the first woman to lead the Big Four firm, has quit after she was passed up for the permanent role. O’Connor took over as chief executive of KPMG UK following the sudden departure of Bill Michael earlier this year, after he made controversial comments about unconscious bias training during a video call [...]
Keystone Law CEO: ‘There’s always been a culture of presenteeism in law firms – but that makes less sense now’ April 29, 2021 AIM-listed Keystone Law has enjoyed a good financial year, with profits and revenue at the firm up, something it attributes to being accidentally pandemic-ready thanks to its flexible approach to work. Revenue for the year jumped nearly 11 per cent to £55m, while profit before tax rose to £5.4m, some £200,000 more than the previous [...]
Litigation funders’ cash pipeline hits £2bn for the first time amid growing popularity April 28, 2021 The value of the pipeline of court cases and cash held by top UK litigation funders has hit £2bn for the first time as the asset class grows in popularity. The value held by litigation funders has rocketed in recent years, according to data by law firm RPC, with funding doubling in three years from [...]
London used as ‘money-laundering base’, mafia trial prosecutor says April 28, 2021 In Italy’s largest mafia trial in three decades, the UK’s capital has been roped in as a potential hotspot for organised crime, particularly post-Brexit. The trial will see around 900 witnesses testify against more than 350 ’Ndrangheta defendants, including politicians and officials charged with being members of Italy’s most powerful criminal group. Defendants are set [...]
KPMG staff fired after rowdy ‘boys’ night out’ featuring binge drinking and strippers April 28, 2021 Staff from KPMG’s private equity division in Melbourne were fired after a wild ‘boys’ night out’ that featured heavy binge drinking and strippers. A 2015 video invitation to ‘boys’ night’, sent to 80 male employees at KPMG’s Melbourne office, with women excluded, has just recently come to light. According to the Mail Online, the video [...]
Equiniti receives sweetened £661m takeover bid from US private equity firm April 28, 2021 Equiniti Group has received a revised offer from US private equity investor Siris Capital, to buy the outsourcer for around £661m in cash. Siris revised its bid to 180 pence per share following discussions, London-listed Equiniti said. In early April, Siris submitted a non-binding proposal for 170 pence per share, which Equiniti said it would evaluate “carefully [...]
EY quits as auditor of P2P lender Kuflink over governance concerns April 27, 2021 EY has resigned as auditor of peer-to-peer lender Kuflink after finding a litany of problems at the group, including worries about its general oversight. The Big Four firm stepped down as auditor on 16 February, according to a letter on Companies House, which said Kuflink had “significant work” to do on multiple aspects of its [...]
Big Four and challengers ask for leeway on difficult audits to avoid public criticism April 27, 2021 The Big Four and the challenger audit firms have asked the accountancy watchdog for more leniency when it comes to more difficult audit jobs, for fear of public criticism if they make a mistake. Audit firms have asked the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) to pause quality inspections of their work for a year if they [...]
