Kennedys completes merger to launch new practice group
International firm Kennedys has completed its merger with UK-based boutique Waltons & Morse which creates the Kennedys Marine team.
The new international team will be led by Waltons’ former managing partner Chris Dunn who also joins the firm’s strategy board. The team of 20, including 11 partners, will work with 30 experts in the marine and shipping sector across Kennedys’ international locations including Australia and Singapore.
Norton Rose Fulbright expands to Monaco
Norton Rose Fulbright is to open a new office in the Principality of Monaco early in 2017.
The firm will operate as Norton Rose Fulbright Monaco S.A.M. and will be headed by Dimitri Sofianopoulos, partner and head of Norton Rose Fulbright Greece, who will divide his time between Greece and Monaco.
The focus of the new office will be the firm’s shipping and finance clients.
Global law firm funds AI ethics research
Research into the ethics surrounding advances in artificial intelligence and other technologies has been given a U$10 million boost by global law firm K&L Gates.
It has established the K&L Gates Endowment for Ethics and Computational Technologies and other endowed funds at Carnegie Mellon University which will fund fellowships and a biannual conference to advance the academic research into AI.
“Law and technology converge at a profoundly important and signature 21st century challenge: how to define ethical boundaries surrounding the emergence of artificial intelligence and other cutting-edge computational technologies,” commented the firm’s chairman and global managing partner Peter J. Kalis.
Iconic courtroom to become a luxury hotel
An English courtroom which lists notorious gangsters The Krays, playwright Oscar Wilde and women’s rights campaigner Emmeline Pankhurst among those who appeared in its dock, is to get a new use.
The former Bow Street Magistrates Court and Police Station building in London’s Covent Garden has been acquired by a Qatari investment firm, BTM, and will be converted into a luxury hotel. Law firm
Travers Smith advised BTM on the acquisition.
The building is a protected building due to the 266-year heritage of the court and will retain a sense of its former purpose with a police museum. The street’s original magistrate established what is regarded as London’s first professional police force, the Bow Street Runners.
