Barlows litigation team defects to Mayer Brown

Barlow Lyde & Gilbert has been hit by the departure of head of commercial litigation Clare Canning and two junior litigation partners for US firm Mayer Brown, Legal Week can reveal.

Canning leaves the top 40 UK firm alongside commercial litigation partners Simon Willis and Matthew Lawson.

Canning is best-known for leading Barlows' successful defence of Ernst & Young in the four-year Equitable Life litigation, in which the troubled mutual insurer sought to secure £4bn for policyholders. Instead, it dropped its claims without achieving any compensation, with the case running up legal costs in excess of £30m.

Willis and Lawson were also heavily involved in Equitable Life, with Willis also advising Ernst & Young on related disciplinary proceedings by the Accountants' Joint Disciplinary Scheme.

Last year, Barlows pointed to the conclusion of Equitable Life and a number of other big-ticket litigation cases for its drop in turnover, which this year saw only a slight increase of 1.3%.

Chief executive officer Clint Evans told Legal Week: "Clare has been with Barlows for 22 years and is looking forward to a new challenge. She has built up a strong reputation but has also been striving to build up a good business platform, as a result of which instructions are flowing in to other partners."

Around 86% of the firm's revenue is generated from litigation and it has around fifty litigation partners. The departures leave five partners focused specifically on commercial litigation, with Julian Randall set to take over from Canning as department head.

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