12 August 2002
The Lawyer
A law unto itself
One of London's top commercial silks is at the centre of a row over the Blair Government's criminal justice reforms. Jon Robins asks: is Charles Falconer about to make enemies?
A&O plays catch-up in transatlantic insolvency
Allen & Overy (A&O) is to relocate key insolvency partner Nick Segal to New York as it goes head-to-head with Clifford Chance for transatlantic restructuring work
Back on track
Railtrack's administration began amid political controversy and shareholder fury, but E&Y partner Alan Bloom is steering the process into much calmer waters. Jon Robins reports
Baker Botts hires US talent for finance practice
The London office of Baker Botts has poached commercial finance partner John White from fellow US firm Pillsbury Winthrop
Barclays combs market for general counsel replacement after shock exit
Barclays Bank has entered the market for an external candidate to replace Howard Trust after the shock news that he is to quit his role as group general counsel
Berrymans turns a profit in slow year
Berrymans Lace Mawer has made profitability its priority in a year when turnover dipped 11 per cent from £33m to £29.5m
Berrymans, Weightmans cop for Met panel places
The Met advertised for expressions of interest and whittled down the respondents to a shortlist of eight firms, including all three of its current advisers
BLP, Camerons join Linklaters on Amec
Linklaters, one of the main global corporate advisers to Amec, is now having to share its client with Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) and CMS Cameron McKenna as a result of an overhaul of the company's external legal advisers ...
Cadwalader, JPMorgan look to UK and Europe
The London office of Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft has taken strides to replicate the success of its commercial mortgage-backed securitisation practice in the US
CC renews focus on Moscow with management shake-up
Clifford Chance has shaken up its management team in Moscow as it refocuses on the Russian capital for the first time since the financial crash of 1998
Corporate
Whether you love or loathe incumbent Competition Commissioner Mario Monti, he has done his bit to bolster the flagging M&A market with the Schneider-Legrand saga. Bought and sold twice since last autumn, Legrand has kept lawyers in France and London busy during a dry spell.The big winners in Monti's sale of the century are the Wendel consortium, Linklaters Paris and Simpson Thacher & ...
DEAL OF THE WEEK - PRICEWATERHOUSECOOPERS
Davis Polk and Herbert Smith settle for less on PwC sell-off
Deals summary
Osborne Clarke (Greg Leyshon) advised the shareholders on the disposal of the Hobgoblin Group to the Balaclava Pub Company. Balaclava advised by Bond Pearce (Simon Hewes).SJ Berwin (Michael Goldberg) has advised First ...
Deals summary
Morrison & Foerster (Kristian Wiggert) advised Campari on a private placement of $170m (£110.4m) debt with institutional investors. Investors advised by Bingham McCutchen.Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer (David Trott) advised Deutsche Bank on the €800m (£501.9m) asset-backed medium-term note programme and $250m (£162.3m) asset-backed commercial paper ...
Deals summary
Mayer Brown Rowe & Maw (Iain Thomas, James Dodsworth) advised Redman Heenan Properties, a subsidiary of St Mowden Properties, and Eversheds (Sarah Hubbard) advised Marconi on matters including the disposal of their interests in a site at Elstree Way, Borehamwood, as part of a multimillion-pound restructuring of ...
Dentons grabs DJ Freemans defector
Denton Wilde Sapte has snapped up the latest in a string of DJ Freeman defectors, appointing partner James Pilgrim-Morris to its insurance team
DLA loses planning head after Halliwell Landau goes on North West hiring spree
DLA's Manchester head of planning Andrew Platt is quitting the firm for Halliwell Landau in a move that will leave DLA without a planning partner in the North West
EU pledges £1.3m aid for Kosovo legal system plan
The EU is channelling e2m (£1.3m) into a legal aid and reform scheme in Kosovo to build an effective judicial system in the UN-administered Balkan province
German law reform boosts global firms
International law firms are expected to profit significantly from reforms in Germany that allow a law firm to act throughout a case, except in the Supreme Court
Goodbodys elects new chairman
Irish law firm A&L Goodbody has appointed M&A partner Michael Greene to replace retiring chairman Marcus Beresford
Harbottles partner honoured for Jubilee work
Harbottle & Lewis partner Gerrard Tyrrell has been appointed by the Queen as a member of the Royal Victorian Order for his legal work on the Jubilee celebrations
ICI lawyer joins Smith & Nephew
Healthcare giant Smith & Nephew is ramping up its European in-house capability by appointing former ICI senior lawyer Claire Vaughan as its first legal adviser for UK and Europe
Landwell promises fail to materialise
Landwell hires first equity partners in a year, but still fails to attract high-flyers
Landwell UK slammed by European partners
Internal document hints at long-term malaise; Landwell on the hunt for City merger
Lathams takes Gleiss Lutz partner
Latham & Watkins has hired a leading banking and financial markets partner from Herbert Smith-associated firm Gleiss Lutz
Lawyers' pain threshold
Tulkinghorn was interested to note that Linklaters head of corporate David Cheyne's sympathetic approach to billing clients is inspiring parts of the legal profession Cheyne would not expect to reach. In The Lawyer on 22 July, Cheyne admitted that when clients' initial public offerings are aborted, he will "share their pain" and give them a fee discount. Not to be outdone by the big boys, ...
Lee moves south to bolster Addleshaws' City practice
Senior partner joins London office to bring in work and search out new talent
LORENZO ZURBRUGG
Lorenzo Zurbrugg aims to cut across barriers dividing legal cultures
Lovells overhauls management structure
Lovells has just completed the first stage of a year-long corporate governance review
Mayer Brown becomes easynet favourite after double acquisition
It has been a client of DLA, and more recently Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom, but it is Mayer Brown Rowe & Maw that has picked up the latest corporate work for internet service provider (ISP) easynet, advising on two European acquisitions.
Middleton Potts makes up partner
Middleton Potts has taken on sole practitioner Kamal Maukhi as a partner
New partner brings top client to Howrey
Norton Rose loses Olympic Airways as competition lawyer Anestis joins US firm
Norton Rose concludes financing of £345m London schools project
Norton Rose has completed its third major financing of a Government building project this year at a time when it is also advising Tube Lines in relation to its bid for a London Underground network.
Opinion
A pint of Stella Artois, a bottle of Becks or even a Rolling Rock is of greater interest than a row about documentation surrounding a possible takeover by one foreign brewery of another. But the Interbrew wrangle deserves close attention
Pilates error
Tulkinghorn was shocked to read in the gossip columns this week that the lovely German supermodel Claudia Schiffer was turned away from a pilates class. It seems that being a supermodel these days doesn't have quite the same clout that it used to.But Tulkinghorn, who would hate to see Ms Schiffer disappointed, would like to offer a suggestion by way of this column (as sadly he hasn't had the opportunity to do it in person). He suggests she seek the advice of Legal & ...
Road to recovery
The corporate recovery sector is in a new phase of 'rescue culture'. Victor Tettmar investigates
Running the firm
She may be senior partner, but rumour has it that Simmons & Simmons first lady Janet Gaymer stunned her doctor in a recent routine medical with a fitness level Tulkinghorn could only dream of these days and only vaguely remembers.So impressive was Janet's performance on the treadmill, with barely a bead of sweat on her brow, that the doc just had to ask how she managed it. Had Janet become an exercise junkie? Was she sneaking into the gym for circuit training in between ...
Russell Jones opens FSA unit after new rules hike workload
National firm Russell Jones & Walker has launched a dedicated Financial Services Authority (FSA) unit in response to increased work resulting from the Financial Services & Market Act (FSMA) and numerous referrals from City firms
Separated at birth
When Tulkinghorn treated 'er indoors to a trip to the pictures last week, imagine his alarm to see his old pal David Brimacombe, Standard Chartered Bank's head of group legal, in the starring role of Austin Powers in Goldmember. Since scooping in-house banking and finance team of the year at The Lawyer Awards in 2001, it seems that Brimacombe has become an international man of mystery. Well, it is the premier legal event of the year. Needless to say, Mrs Tulkinghorn was smitten, ...
Skadden Italian tie-up proves its worth with closure of two deals
US giant Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom and Italian magic circle firm Chiomenti e Associati are reaping the rewards of their exclusive alliance after joint teams closed two deals in the space of a week.Lawyers from Palo Alto and Milan advised longstanding Chiomenti client Biosearch Italia on its acquisition by California-based biotech company Versicor, in a $260.7m ...
Stephenson Harwood boosts Euro presence
Stephenson Harwood is making good its aim to bolster its European practice, announcing a revenue increase of 44 per cent in the region to £3m
The bust boom
In the brave new world of bondholder restructurings, the US model is gaining ground. David Frauman gives the lowdown
The insolvency pill
With its Enterprise Bill, the Government has set out its intention to streamline the insolvency process and make it more inclusive. Simon Neilson-Clark details the proposed changes
The IT boy
After 18 years at Clifford Chance, IT whizz Christopher Millard has finally found his niche at Linklaters. Kathryn Hobbs reports
The Leader Column
As Helen Power reports in this week's issue, Landwell is facing some difficult decisions. In the spirit of free enquiry, here are some questions for the Landwell management.1. Are you entirely obsessed with form over content? Instead of Birtist management theories, diagrams, meetings, benchmarking and the like, who's actually going out and getting the work? What's more, the strategy document reads like it was written by a parrot that talks in set phrases. What, ...
The legal Bill
Public inquiries, wrongful arrest claims, employment tribunals... all in a day's work for the Met's in-house legal team. Kathryn Hobbs meets head of legal David Hamilton
Theodore Goddard drops fraud case
Theodore Goddard has dropped out of representing five defendants linked to one of the world's largest money laundering cases after its clients refused to incur further legal costs
Two birds with one stone
Tulkinghorn is not usually one to pick up on subliminal messages - being deaf in one ear and blind as a bat doesn't help - but Bird & Bird's recent press release about its new employment partner certainly contained a few. Although the text is about employment partner Philip Hartman joining the firm's Dutch office from Loyens & Loeff, it mentions the word 'corporate' eight times. Could Bird & Bird be using an unrelated publicity opportunity to push ...
Two VLG partners jump ship for positions with 'more traditional' Wilson
West Coast technology firm Venture Law Group (VLG) has lost two of the four partners based in its Kirkland, Washington, office. Craig Sherman and Mark Handfelt have joined Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati
Walking Sense
It has reached Tulkinghorn's ears that a group of 53 Wragge & Co lawyers, and their families and friends made a bizarre personal tribute to 1960s musical The Sound of Music recently. Led by incumbent senior partner John Crabtree, the group took part in a Traverse the Alps Challenge. But before you fear for their sanity, it was all for the good cause of raising money for Sense, a UK charity for ...
Wessing gets TJG-style makeover
Taylor Joynson Garrett's (TJG) German merger partner Wessing is overhauling its management structure and its accounting practices to bring them into line with its UK merger partner
White & Case adds to Moscow partners
White & Case has promoted two lawyers to the partnership in its Moscow office
Zaiwalla & Co's bullying appeal given short shrift
London firm Zaiwalla & Co has been ruled to have carried out intimidatory and threatening conduct during its defence of a sex discrimination claim brought by a former trainee of the firm
