Research conducted by The Lawyer has revealed that, three years after the end of the boom, just over half of partners in the top 100 UK law firms have full equity. However, the research also showed that full partnership and its requisite financial rewards have become more difficult to attain across the top 100, with the proportion of equity partners down from a 2004/5 high of 63 per cent.

Allen & Overy's annual report revealed that senior management increased their earnings by almost 50 per cent last year, against a 10 per cent increase in profits per equity partner, reports legalweek.com. A&O's financial report for 2009/10 shows that the key management figures earned £14.2 million ($23.5 million) over the year; a 43 per cent increase on the 2009 figures.

The Lord Chief Justice Lord Judge has led tributes to Tom Bingham, who died last week at the age of 76, reports The Lawyer. Bingham was widely regarded as the UK's leading judge who held the three most senior judicial posts in the country. In 1992, he was appointed as Master of the Rolls (MR), and he then went on to take up a four-year term as Lord Chief Justice in 1996. In 2000, Bingham became the first appointed senior law lord.

Trustee Irving H. Picard and the team of lawyers liquidating Bernard L. Madoff's investment firm have been awarded another $US34.6 million ($36.87 million) in interim counsel fees, reports law.com. A Southern District of New York Bankruptcy judge approved some $601,000 in fees to Picard and $34 million in fees to Baker & Hostetler. To date, the judge has awarded Picard and his lawyers close to $97 million in fees.