Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer joint senior partner Konstantin Mettenheimer has announced he will vacate his post when his term ends this year, reports legalweek.com. After 10 years in management roles, Mettenheimer will return to full-time fee earning in the firm's Frankfurt corporate practice. Fellow senior partner Guy Morton also announced he will step down. Mettenheimer said he was proud of what he had achieved but thought it was time for a new team to take the reins.

A new report has indicated that employment opportunities for new lawyers are extremely limited, according to law.com. The Legal Intelligencer revealed that summer clerkship placements and job offers in Pennsylvania are expected to decrease by 58 per cent this year. Students have been advised to have no expectations going into interviews and that the days of automatically gaining a position are gone.

Religion got in the way of chocolate at Eversheds this Easter with the firm stalling plans to hand out Easter eggs due to concerns they might offend non-Christians, reports The Lawyer. The firm's diversity and equality policy says the firm is "determined to create a working environment which ... is free from any form of discrimination". Nevertheless, the firm decided to go ahead and play Easter bunny.

Gucci America has fired their director of legal affairs after discovering he is not actually licensed to practice law, reports legalweek.com. During a trademark infringement suit brought by Gucci against Guess in the District Court in Manhattan, Guess lawyer Andrew Frackman argued that communications with Jonathan Moss were not privileged because he was not entitled to practice law. Moss had apparently let his bar license revert to and remain on inactive status.