OFT merger chief to join Allen & Overy

Simon Pritchard, senior director for mergers, is the second senior lawyer this month to leave for private practice

Law firm partners take home £1.1m in profits

International expansion and aggressive cost controls lifted profit per equity partner of the top ten firms by 28% this year

Early payout for Buncefield victims

Around 270 families will share an interim payout of £320,000 as the case against the plant's operators continues

Broker escapes jail over forged FSA applications

Former mortgage broker Simon Gray is given a suspended sentence after pleading guilty to forging his FSA application

Judges back plan to give lawyers cut of damages

Report seen by The Times supports US-style contingency deals in which lawyers take their fees out of damages won for clients

Buncefield victims set for 'generous' payout

A High Court judge has ordered Total, the French oil giant, to agree interim compensation for victims of the explosion

Former Yukos owners begin $50bn claim

A lawsuit brought against Russia, the largest ever filed, could affect the legal status of trillions of dollars of energy investments

Lovells reappoints Harris as managing partner

The UK's sixth-largest firm has rewarded its managing partner for standout half-year results with another term

95% of violence victims do not seek compensation

Government report delivers damning indictment of ministers' stated aim to prioritise victims of crime

Court action aims to save rare insects

Attempt begins to stop land described as one of the country’s top three insect homes being turned into a lorry park

Mother denies author's allegations of abuse

Carmen Briscoe-Mitchell says she was libelled by claims of physical and emotional abuse in her daughter's book, Ugly

Law firm denies exploiting sick miners

Beresford Solicitors tells a professional tribunal that it is entitled to earn millions of pounds from miner's compensation

Solicitor accused over 'bogus' feudal titles

A London lawyer is facing disciplinary action over his alleged role in selling titles over the internet to Americans

Miner 'didn't realise he was signing money away'

Former coalminer tells tribunal he was 'treated terribly' by solicitors' firm that sliced £2,330 fee from his compensation

Victims cannot sue party

Although there was a breach of data protection law in publishing the list, legal remedies available to those affected are sparse