10 June 2002
The Lawyer
A&O acts for Imperial on bond issue
Allen & Overy (A&O) has consolidated its relationship with new client Imperial Tobacco, advising on the company's bond issue, which raised e2.8bn (£1.8bn).A&O won the work on the back of the advice it provided on the £3.2bn acquisition of Hamburg-based tobacco company Reemtsma Cigarettenfabriken. A&O capital markets partner Stephen Miller said the bond issue represented the "closing chapter" of the Reemtsma work.This was the third part of the ...
ADR Chambers sets up overseas
In an unprecedented move for the Bar, Taunton-based ADR Chambers is opening two fully staffed overseas offices with full-time tenants
Ashursts hires Dresdner Kleinwort lawyer
Ashurst Morris Crisp is taking on Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein lawyer Rainer Eichholz as a partner in its German office
Badhams takes on Berrymans' PI partner
Defendant insurance practice Badhams has recruited former Berrymans Lace Mawer partner Christine Winter
BLP hires knowledge management director
Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) has appointed a new director of knowledge management to its board
Bogaert corners automotive market with partner hires
Landwell's Belgian firm Bogaert & Vandemeulebroeke has taken on a team of three partners and seven associates from domestic law firm Buyle Dieryck Van Looveren Maingain
Breaking through German lines
Are US firms in Germany too cautious for their own good? Vanessa Pawsey asks whether their strategies are paying off
Bryan Cave merger set for go-ahead
St Louis-based Bryan Cave is poised to merge with New York firm Robinson Silverman Pearce Aronsohn & Berman
CLARKSON WRIGHT & JAKES
Clarkson Wright's careful approach to growth is paying off in spades
CMS property partner quits
CMS Cameron McKenna has lost its sixth property partner in two years
Crystal adds BCCI case to his portfolio
Michael Crystal QC has been instructed to act for the liquidators of BCCI in its action against the Bank of America
DEAL OF THE WEEK - SOUTH AFRICAN BREWERIES
Cleary joins Lovells on SAB's Miller purchase
Deals summary
Ashurst Morris Crisp (Mark Vickers) is advising the Royal Bank of Scotland in connection with Duke Street Capital Leisure Investments' hostile public takeover bid for Esporta. The bid is worth £133m. Duke Street is being advised by Clifford Chance (Robert Lee).
Deals summary
Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) (Simon Allen) acted for English Partnerships on the sale of the Millennium Dome to the Meridian Delta consortium, advised by Clifford Chance (Iain Morpeth). Holme Roberts & Owen (Kevin Conwick), with Herbert Smith (Patrick Robinson) and Denton Wilde Sapte (Simon Levine), ...
Deals summary
Herbert Smith (Michael Walter, Philip Talboys) advised KPMG on the e657m (£424.2m) sale of its UK consulting business to Atos Origin of France. Sullivan & Cromwell also advised KPMG. Atos Origin was advised by Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton (Paris partner Jean-Michel Tron).Pinsent Curtis Biddle (Scott Barraclough) advised financial services group Provident Financial on ...
DJ Freeman launches new cross-firm practices
DJ Freeman has set up new cross-firm practices in corporate and litigation and appointed partners Richard Spiller and Kevin Perry to head corporate and litigation respectively
Drinker Biddle and Murgitroyd create tie
US firm Drinker Biddle & Reath has established a transatlantic strategic alliance with Murgitroyd & Co, a Scottish patent and trademark firm
Eversheds advises Swinton Insurance
Eversheds has advised Manchester-based Swinton Insurance Group on its purchase of Colonnade Insurance Brokers for £27m
Frizzell hits Birchams with £1.4m negligence action
Westminster firm Bircham Dyson Bell is being sued for damages of more than £1m for professional negligence
GE whizz
GE Capital European general counsel Susan Crichton's policy of seeking a firm on a job-by-job basis ensures that lawyers are kept on their toes. Emma Vere-Jones reports
Getting the message across
You don't need to be a pensions expert to have got wind of the fact that UK pension provision, in line with most of Europe, is in something of a pickle
Goldsmith Bldg considers its future
Goldsmith Chambers has applied to its landlord to be the first in line to take over the lease of Robin Hay's Goldsmith Building, the future direction of which remains in doubt following the loss of 16 tenants to Nicholas Stewart QC's Hardwicke Building.Christine Williams, practice manager at Philip Sapsford QC's Goldsmith Chambers, which occupies the basement and ground floors, said that her set is keen to take Goldsmith Building's two floors, which are above ...
Halliwells AIMs high in North West
Statistics released in the '2002 AIM Guide' show that Halliwell Landau was instructed by more AIM-listed companies than any other Manchester office last year.
Hammonds loses senior PI partner
Bond Pearce has poached a senior professional indemnity (PI) insurance partner from Hammond Suddards Edge's London office
Hardwicke Bldg splits civil and criminal teams
Multidisciplinary set Hardwicke Building will split into two groups next month following the arrival of 16 civil barristers from Goldsmith Building
Herbert Smith profits drop eight per cent
Herbert Smith has seen its profits drop by 8 per cent to £670,000 per partner, while turnover is up a respectable 10 per cent to £225m
Hill Dickinson targets media disputes
Hill Dickinson is continuing its resurgence with the launch of a new media disputes team
Holman Fenwick promotes three to partnership
Holman Fenwick & Willan has completed its latest round of partner promotions
Keeping up appearances
The Lawyer Awards 2001 honoured last year's star players. So have they continued to ride the wave, or are they sitting back and soaking up the glory? Jennifer Currie finds out
Kennedys upturn sees partners take a share in bumper profits
Kennedys turnover for 2001 has risen by 13 per cent on last year's £24.7m
Lattice general counsel in shock move to Hammond Suddards
Patrick Somers has resigned from his role as general counsel of Lattice Group to join Hammond Suddards Edge's corporate finance practice as a partner specialising in utilities
Legal Widow
The barbecue season is upon us, and the Lawyer has been afflicted by feelings of deep inadequacy following his head of department's summer garden party.At the very centre of the patio was the boss's new six-jet gas barbecue monster, which makes a noise like Concorde revving up and has the same effect on sausages that a well-aimed bunsen burner used to have on Trudy Arbuthnott's pencil case in the school lab.The beaming boss, in a spotless blue and white-striped apron, stood ...
Lewis Silkin wins World Cup finals for Newsplayer
Lewis Silkin has signed up the rights to the past 40 years of World Cup finals footage for its new media client Newsplayer International.Newsplayer has licensed all the archives of World Cup finals from footage owners such as Fifa. The firm also negotiated a further deal between Newsplayer and JVC which will distribute the footage on DVD and video.Although the exact value of the deal has ...
Mace & Jones appoints new chief from DLA
Mace & Jones has appointed DLA partner Norman Jones as head of its Liverpool commercial property team
Mallesons sends in the big guns to boost Asia
Corporate finance and M&A partners sent to HK; London gains first finance partner
Manchester firms see modest growth
Like the city's infamous weather, the fortunes of Manchester's law firms have been mixed over the past few months
McDermott takes lead role on E1.7bn Schmalbach takeover
McDermott Will & Emery has acted on the e1.725bn (£1.1bn) takeover of global packaging company Schmalbach-Lubeca, a longstanding client. Although the sale involved assets in more than 30 jurisdictions worldwide, McDermott's London office had a pivotal role, providing more than half of the lawyers and coordinating the European aspects of the deal.Schmalbach is a plastic container and closure business headquartered in Ratingen in Germany. Amcor, the acquiror, is a ...
Milbank scoops finance deal for Huntstown Power
US law firm Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy has just closed a e220m (£142m) financing deal for the Huntstown Power Project, having snatched the work away from parent company Viridian's normal corporate adviser CMS Cameron McKenna.The Huntstown Power Company (HPC) is a subsidiary of Viridian Group, Northern Ireland's largest public company, and was established solely for the purposes ...
Mover and shaker
Ever felt like you were a character in a Harold Pinter play? Kathryn Hobbs did when she met Cadwalader's London senior partner Stephen Mostyn-Williams
Mugged by mail
On your average working day, Tulkinghorn would be delighted to receive the latest news from Kingsfords Solictors, but not this time - and through no fault of the firm.It had nothing to do with the fact that the news was not especially exciting, pertaining to two partner promotions (yawn); it was more that Tulkinghorn had to pay for the press release. Yes, ghastly isn't it? It seems Kingsfords' PR agency, Adams Creative, has been going in for a little bit of economising, ...
Opinion
Pro bono refreshes the parts of a lawyer's professional life that other work cannot reach
Osborne Clarke recruits from Altheimer
Osborne Clarke has hired a corporate banking partner from Altheimer & Gray, just three months after losing one of its own partners to the US firm
Osborne Clarke sees partner profits take a 20 per cent hit
Osborne Clarke has seen its partner profits fall by 20 per cent, citing a refusal to allow last year's harsh technology climate to lead to sacrificial redundancies as the reason
Palestinian law pleases the EU
The European Union has welcomed the confirmation by Palestinian president Yasser Arafat of a law guaranteeing the independence of his nascent state's judiciary
Part-time pensions
Donna Moxham reports on the decision regarding part-timers' pension schemes in Shillcock
Real estate
It seems like only yesterday that the property partners of CMS Cameron McKenna were feeling carefree and partying hard aboard a crowded yacht at the industry's bash of the year in Cannes.They had bounced back from the loss of big industry name Jon Vivian a year earlier and with him property company Brixton Estates. The budget had to be adjusted in Vivian's wake, but the team could be forgiven ...
Sinclair Roche Hong Kong team implodes
Richards Butler steps in after HK shipping team is left out in the cold post-merger
SJ Berwin and Dundas picked as fund advisers
SJ Berwin and Dundas & Wilson are set to benefit from a new £350m fund created by investment house Matrix Securities and Bank of Scotland to target higher-yielding properties
Slipping standards?
Pensions providers are sceptical about the benefits of new standard FRS 17. Leslie Browning reports
Tackling Beckham late
Lawyers. Bless them. Always first with the news. As almost everyone knows - including Mrs Tulkinghorn, who is anything but a football fan - David Beckham has signed a new contract with Manchester United that will see his earnings rocket from £26,000 to £90,000 a week. That contract was signed - and plastered all over the national press - almost a month ago, but the football club's law firm, James Chapman & Co, has only just got round to sending a press release confirming ...
Tarlo Lyons in strategy U-turn to beat tech slump
Niche IT firm Tarlo Lyons has had a strategy overhaul, deciding to refocus on commercial property and dispute resolution to combat the downturn in technology, media and telecoms work
The Leader Column
In the UK, lawyers and journalists regularly top polls of the most loathed professions. Lawyers tend to feel aggrieved by this, whereas we journalists masochistically revel in our villainous status. In any case, it's an entirely luxurious position to be in, given that being either in this country does not require a great amount of political courage.It's different in Zimbabwe, where lawyers and journalists really are heroes. Both are in the frontline of opposition to ...
Theodore Goddard partner defects to Jones Day
Jones Day Reavis & Pogue has hired Theodore Goddard partner Janene Waudby to boost its London corporate finance practice
Thorn in my side
Andy Blake argues that first impressions are deceiving when it comes to Opra's ruling in the Thorn pensions case
Will Ashursts' Continental push come too late to make its mark?
Ashursts has embarked on a belated hiring spree in Europe. Helen Power asks whether the firm has missed the boat
Zimbabwean Law Society heads arrested over letters
The president and executive secretary of the Law Society of Zimbabwe (LSZ) have been remanded on bail after they were arrested and detained for 48 hours last week for allegedly possessing 'subversive' documents
