Top Stories

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  Too Famous To TM? Orwell Ruling Shows Risks Of Waiting

  By Alex Baldwin

  Europe's top trademark authority has made it harder to secure protections for the names of famous individuals on...(read more)

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  UK Private Funds Pose Stability Risk, Lords Committee Warns

  By Alex Davidson

  A House of Lords committee warned Friday of risks to financial stability from the $185 billion in U.K. private m...(read more)

• Mining Giants Glencore, Rio Tinto Confirm Merger Talks

  By Dawood Fakhir

  Anglo-Swiss mining giant Glencore said Friday that it is in talks with British rival Rio Tinto for a possible megamerger that could create the world's largest company in the industry, in a deal worth more than $200 billion.

• Microsoft Defeats Web Browsing Infringement Case At UPC

  By Jamie Lennox

  The Unified Patent Court has rejected a claim that Microsoft infringed a Finnish company's patent for a way of browsing the internet by walking around to discover nearby search results, ruling that the patent is invalid.

• HSBC To Pay €300M To Settle French Tax Fraud Probe

  By Eddie Beaver

  HSBC has agreed to pay French authorities more than €300 million ($350 million) in fines and unpaid taxes to settle a criminal probe into how the bank's Paris branch handled dividend arbitrage transactions between 2014 and 2019, public prosecutors revealed Thursday.

• SRA Investigates Lawyer Over Threats To Leaseholders

  By William Janes

  The Solicitors Regulation Authority said Thursday it is investigating a London lawyer accused of bullying and threatening leaseholders into buying freeholds from him at inflated prices.

• McDonald's Work Harassment Claims Under UK Gov't Review

  By Eddie Beaver

  The government has said it will further examine allegations by a group of trade unions and a campaigning organization that McDonald's has failed to appropriately address gender-based violence and harassment in its restaurants and franchises.

• Authorities To Push For Transparency In UK Pension Value

  By Najiyya Budaly

  Two finance watchdogs and a government department revealed plans on Thursday to force pension plans to publish information on their investments, costs and service quality in a move to equip retirement savers with better information on performance.

• Tribunal Cases Set To Rise 17% As Workers Gain New Rights

  By Jamie Lennox

  The government has predicted that new workplace protections set out in the Employment Rights Act will cause the number of cases at the Employment Tribunal to rise by 17%, potentially exacerbating a backlog that is already soaring.

• SFO Uses Novel Approach To Return £400K To Fraud Victims

  By Christopher Crosby

  The Serious Fraud Office said Thursday it will return £400,000 ($537,000) to people who were defrauded by a Lebanese financier more than two decades ago after using a novel legal strategy to claw back the money.

• Willkie Helps Mutares Buy Thermoplastics Biz For $450M

  By Najiyya Budaly

  German private equity firm Mutares said Thursday that it will buy the European and American thermoplastics business of Sabic, a Saudi Arabian chemicals heavyweight, for $450 million in the largest transaction it has ever made.

• MoJ's Client Account Scheme Faces Backlash From Lawyers

  By Marialuisa Taddia

  Law firms would have to hand over 75% of the interest earned on pooled client accounts under plans unveiled by the Ministry of Justice on Wednesday to help fund the justice system.

• Quinn Emanuel To Pay Costs Over Disclosure Failings

  By Sophia Dourou

  A tribunal has ordered Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP and a senior partner to pay more than £8,300 ($11,200) in costs after it found that they had acted unreasonably when they handled disclosure in a former employee's claim.

• Sprenger Follows The Puck To New Boutique Dream Team

  By Christopher Crosby

  White collar veteran Polly Sprenger explained her decision to join the new London office of U.S. firm Michelman & Robinson with Wayne Gretzky's famed follow-the-puck mantra. Here she talks to Law360 about seeking out a different way of working, what clients actually need and why she thinks good lawyers should reveal rather than conceal the truth.