Revenues at Linklaters, Britain’s second-biggest law firm, fell by nearly 10 per cent to £591 million in the six months to October 31, from £653 million in the same period last year. This is despite Linklaters winning big legal work in coping with the downturn.

Its work on the administration of Lehman Brothers’ European division generated nearly £70 million in fees and it continues to act for the Royal Bank of Scotland on its response to the crisis.

Simon Davies, managing partner, said that the fall in fee income reflected the continued slump in global mergers and acquisitions, but he said that activity had picked up in recent weeks, particularly in emerging markets, such as Brazil, India and China.

Linklaters’ performance was similar to that of Allen & Overy, the only other member of the “magic circle” to have disclosed its first-half revenue. Allen & Overy reported a 7 per cent fall in fee income to £511 million.

At the end of its financial year last April, Linklaters’ revenue stood at £1.3 billion, up 1 per cent on the previous year. It was the top-grossing magic circle firm, followed by Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, on £1.29 billion, Clifford Chance, with £1.26 billion, and Allen & Overy, with £1.1 billion. Slaughter and May, the other member of the elite group, does not publish its figures.

Clifford Chance, which is more reliant than its rivals on work from investment banks, private equity firms and commercial real estate, was the worst-performing of the top firms last year. Its revenue dropped by 5 per cent and partners’ profits fell by 37 per cent from £1.15 million to £733,000. It lost its crown as the world’s biggest law firm by revenue to DLA Piper, which is based in London but is not considered part of the magic circle.

Yesterday Clifford Chance said that David Childs, its global managing partner, would stand uncontested for a second four-year stint as head of the firm. Mr Childs, 58, was one of Clifford Chance’s star dealmakers before taking the top post in 2006. He is regarded internally as a tough, decisive leader and is not seen as being culpable for the firm’s troubles this year.

Under his leadership, Clifford Chance became the first big firm to announce drastic cutbacks in response to the financial crisis: about 200 staff have been made redundant in London, while about 15 per cent of partners — as many as 90 worldwide — are expected to leave as part of a reshaping of the firm’s senior ranks. Mr Childs will take up a second four-year term in May after his appointment is confirmed by partners next month.

Among the top 20 firms that have announced half-year figures, Lovells’ turnover was flat at £260 million, Simmons & Simmons fell 16 per cent to £120 million and Pinsent Masons dropped 7 per cent to £98 million.

Source : The Times

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Police are routinely arresting people simply to record their DNA profiles on the national database, according to a report published today.

It also states that three quarters of young black men are on the database. The finding risks stigmatising a whole section of society, the equality watchdog has warned.

The revelations will fuel the debate about the DNA database, the world’s largest. They are included in a report by the Human Genetics Commission, an independent government advisory body. It criticises the piecemeal development of the database and questions how effective it is in helping the police to investigate and solve crimes.

Jonathan Montgomery, commission chairman, said that “function creep” over the years had transformed a database of offenders into one of suspects. Almost one million innocent people are now on the DNA database.

Professor Montgomery said: “It’s now become pretty much routine to take DNA samples on arrest, so large numbers of people on the DNA database will be there not because they have been convicted, but because they’ve been arrested.”

Recorded crime has fallen every year since 2004-05, but the number of people arrested in England and Wales annually is rising. Latest figures show that arrests rose by 6 per cent to 1.43 million in 2005 and a further 4 per cent to 1.48 million in 2006-07.

Professor Montgomery said there was some evidence that people were arrested to retain the DNA information even though they might not have been arrested in other circumstance.

He said that a retired senior police officer told the commission: “It is now the norm to arrest offenders for everything if there is a power to do so. It is apparently understood by serving police officers that one of the reasons . . . is so that DNA can be obtained.” He said that the tradition of only arresting someone when dealing with serious offences had collapsed.

The Equalities and Human Rights Commission said the proportion of black men on the database created an impression that one race group represented an “alien wedge” of criminality.

The report’s foreword states that the DNA profiles of 75 per cent of black men aged 18 to 35 are recorded. But the commission admitted that it had “hardened up slightly” earlier estimates quoted in Parliament.

The Crime and Security Bill heralded in last week’s Queen’s Speech proposes cutting to six years the time that innocent people’s profiles are kept. Those arrested but not charged, or those cleared in court, currently remain on the database for ever. There are no plans to reduce police powers to take samples from everyone arrested.

Chris Grayling, the Shadow Home Secretary, has said that innocent people should not have their DNA retained by the police once they are acquitted of a crime.

The commission report said that the database should be placed on a clear statutory basis and overseen by an independent authority. Isabella Sankey, of Liberty, said: “Not only are we stockpiling the most sensitive information of innocents who have never been charged, let alone convicted, we are also creating a perverse incentive to arrest people solely to get their details on the database.”

The Home Office suggested that the over-representation of young black men on the database was linked to disproportionality in other areas of the criminal justice system.

Source : The Times

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