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Sky Bucks the Trend

January 29, 2009

All media carry major stories today about the depth of the credit crunch, aka recession, aka depression. Its virulence is undoubted, they say, and there’s worse – Britain is set to suffer more than any other advanced nation.

It is heartening, then, to see that BSkyB reported a 6% increase in revenue to £2.6bn ($3.7bn) in the second half of 2008. Sky’s operating profits were 31% higher at £385m, and the broadcaster said it had seen 171,000 new customers sign up between October and December last year. As a consequence, it is creating 1,000 new jobs.

Plum Job at The Times

January 28, 2009

Blade has, for the first time in years, come down with the ‘flu. As in, the Real McCoy, not any of its convenient, I’ll-have-day-off-work variants. As such, Swordplay may take on a minimalist hue over the next couple of days, but Blade feels he must alert legal folk out there to a prime job which has just come up.

It’s to replace the estimable Gill Phillips, in-house solicitor at The Times. Gill is leaving to become Head of Legal at The Guardian. Her replacement at The Times will report to Alastair Brett, the paper’s long-serving senior lawyer, and work with the similarly excellent Pat Burge in a legal team of three.

Apparently Gill’s role was advertised somewhat quietly in The Times a few days ago, but nowhere else in the legal press.  It’s a superb opportunity for media lawyers with perhaps two to four years’ PQE. If you’re interested, The Times’ legal department would be delighted to hear from you. Meanwhile, Swordplay wishes Gill Phillips the very best at The Guardian.

Pictured: The Times’ newsroom. The journalists are nice to in-house lawyers. Honest.

The Linklaters’ Cull: It’s Tough At The Top

January 27, 2009

It can’t be fun being a Magic Circle partner. Even at the best of times, the pressure is constant, the stress unending, the commitment relentless, and for what? Oodles of cash, yes, but is it worth it?

Blade isn’t a corporate cove. He prefers a simple life, and takes his hat off to those who have the wherewithal to cope with the City and its demands. But he can’t help but feel that with the likes of Linklaters planning a cull of up to 70 partners, life as a junior equity partner in the City really isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Blade suspects that even if they don’t show it, there will be more than a few City lawyers who feel like ‘doing a Laura’ – quitting the law in favour of the boxing ring.

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