Newsflash: The March edition of The Lawyer’s podcast is now on the website: www.thelawyerpodcast.com It’s Red Nose Day and law firms across the country are getting up to absurd activities all in the name of charidee. Or are they? No red noses spotted yet at Simmons or A&O. Someone at Pinsents has put his desk […]
Scalextric, cake sales and paid dress-down days are just some of the efforts that City firms have made to contribute to Red Nose Day. Red Nose Day is organised by the charity Comic Relief, which aims to raise money to alleviate poverty in both Africa and the UK. Magic circle firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer forgot […]
Boutique maritime law firm Thomas Cooper & Stibbard (TC&S) is set to launch a new office in the French capital after raiding Reed Smith’s Paris office. The Paris shipping practice will open next month with Reed Smith’s managing partner Lars Lewis at the helm. He leaves Reed Smith, formerly Richards Butler, after holding the post […]
Allen & Overy (A&O) is temporarily plugging the gap in its Italian banking practice left by two recent high-level departures by flying in London banking partner Fiona FitzGerald. FitzGerald, who previously spent four years in Milan until 2004, is currently in Italy working on two deals but she will also spearhead the transactional practice on […]
Attorney General Lord Goldsmith yesterday (Thursday 15 March) unveiled a raft of initiatives designed to combat fraud, including a review of how the offence is dealt with in the courts. The review will examine the potential benefits of a financial courts jurisdiction equipped with specialist judges so that all aspects of fraud proceedings can be […]
Allen & Overy (A&O) is advising Imperial Tobacco for the second time in as many months on an overseas purchase by the acquistive cigarette brand. Imperial has made a £7.5bn all-cash offer for Spain’s Altadis, advised by Garrigues. Under the terms of the bid, Imperial is offering €45 (£30.75) a share, which represents an 18 […]
Travers Smith has cemented its ties with marquee private equity client 3i by advising it on the £790m sale of car park operator NCP to Macquarie. The deal value means 3i has made a profit of £240m on the asset in just 18 months. The deal sees 3i retain its NCP Services arm, which runs […]
Newcastle-based Dickinson Dees has hired a Mayer Brown Rowe & Maw consultant as the firm’s new head of environmental and safety. Michael Hutchinson, who joins Dickinson Dees as partner, became a consultant at Mayer Brown in 2005 after four years at the firm as partner. Previously he spent four years at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, which […]
Former Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer restructuring head Peter Bloxham has reappeared as a “policyholder advocate” at Prudential just as the insurance giant instructed Freshfields on a headline deal with troubled mutual Equitable Life. Bloxham will be representing Pru’s policyholders in an attempt to reattribute £9bn of the insurer’s inherited estate of its with-profits sub-fund. Norton Rose […]
The former senior in-house counsel of troubled Hewlett-Packard (HP), Kevin Hunsaker, has avoided a criminal conviction on counts of fraud stemming from an internal company inquiry, HP’s former chair during the internal investigation, Patricia Dunn, was among another three defendants standing trial. Judge Ray Cunningham of the Santa Clara County Superior Court dropped all criminal […]
Media behemoth Viacom has instructed East Coast litigation specialists Jenner & Block to handle its $1bn copyright case against video site YouTube. Washington-based Donald Verrilli, head of the firm’s telecommunications practice, is leading the team for Viacom. Viacom has sued YouTube and its owner Google for copyright infringement, alleging that YouTube features 160,000 unauthorized clips […]
The sun is out, but in Cannes, the temperature is only just beginning to rise. For those that may have missed it (it’s on The Lawyer website www.thelawyer.com), here are the highlights of reporter David Middleton’s annual Mipim blog so far. Last year, Norton Rose made a point of emphasising its boat was bigger than […]