12 October 2009
The Lawyer
2 Hare Court appoints new head of chambers
Inner Temple set 2 Hare Court has named Orlando Pownall QC as its new head of chambers.
Beachcroft hikes financial institutions team
Beachcroft has hired two new partners to its financial institutions group.
Blake Lapthorn seeks merger for PEP boost
South coast firm Blake Lapthorn has set its sights on a merger as it attempts to bounce back from a dramatic fall in profitability.
Brachers
“The past financial year was challenging,” admits Brachers’ managing partner John Sheath. “But as a full-service firm I think we’ve been quite resilient.”
Brussels flexes its muscles and stalls draft directive on competition law
US-style class actions have been avoided… for the time being, says Kit Chellel
Cash is king
Cash management is difficult for any firm to balance, especially in these hard economic times. Getting it right could make the difference between success or failure.
Clarke Willmott outsources typing, broadens secretarial role
Clarke Willmott is to pilot an outsourcing programme in its Birmingham office with the aim of rolling it out across its UK network.
Cohen: learn the lessons of Lehman
Iconic Sullivan & Cromwell chairman on the ‘contagion of fear’. By Matt Byrne
Downturn sees DWF ‘move timeline’ for top 30 goal
DWF managing partner Andrew Leaitherland has revised his vow to bring the firm into the top 30 in revenue terms by 2010, but has pledged further office launches in the longer term.
Ealing to re-examine overflow firm roster
The London Borough of Ealing is to look at reviewing its three-year-old panel of external law firms advising on overflow work.
Firms vie to advise London boroughs
The London Boroughs Legal Alliance (LBLA) is set to unveil its first law firm panel, with the successful candidates in line for a windfall from the group’s six local authority members.
Focus: Shearman & Sterling, Back to the future
Shearman senior partner Rohan Weerasinghe refuses to dwell on his firm’s past. Instead he is looking to the global network to get the New York giant back on track
Focus: Wolf Theiss, Carpe dilemma
Following a decade of booming growth, the CEE’s most ambitious law firm is ready to seize the day
Food for thought: Gareth John, Sodexo
Sodexo general counsel Gareth John’s team deals with more than just catering contracts, with the company branching into PFI and prisons management.
Germans provide salutary lesson of how to do business in a downturn
Despite German lawyers’ fears about how their businesses might be affected by the recession, the overall picture is one of robustly managed firms that have learnt how to do business during a downturn, a 2009 survey by German legal magazine Juve has shown.
Govt dept issues tender for sole adviser
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is looking for a single firm to advise it on employment and HR issues.
Howrey drafts in top-notch antitrust team from CC to boost Paris offering
With the hire of a competition team from Clifford Chance last month, US IP and antitrust firm Howrey has moved to bring its Paris office more in line with the rest of its global offering.
Inherit merit?
It’s a tricky place, outside the magic circle. Norton Rose knows it - hence its tie-up with Deacons. And Lovells knows it too. Indeed, to borrow a phrase used internally by a senior Lovells figure, the firm was at a strategic dead-end. And the way out of this impasse is to reinvent itself through a merger.
Kinstellar poaches Links finance partner
Kinstellar has raided legacy firm Linklaters, hiring London-based finance partner Charles Dunn.
Law firms and in-housers give deal bibles a bashing
A joint working party of in-house and private practice lawyers has thrashed out a common standardised approach for the exchange of electronic deal bibles. The new approach is intended to enable in-house departments to access important post-transaction documents.
Legal outsourcing trend gains momentum as clients get tough
Outsourcing, it would seem, is the new black, but the fact that ultra-stylish, super-conservative Slaughter and May is bang on trend with this is more than a little surprising.
Links ditches freebies to raise literacy in Hackney
Linklaters has turned its back on the usual law fair giveaway hysteria this year by ditching freebies in favour of donating money to charity.
Lovells will axe lockstep to push through Hogan tie-up
US firm’s merit-based system hailed as selling point for merger.
Mayer Brown revisits Pompey merry-go-round
Mayer Brown corporate partner Rob Hamill has led a team advising on the sale of Portsmouth Football Club, just six weeks after advising on its purchase.
NDA’s new legal chief puts panel under the microscope
The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) is to resume its panel review following the arrival of Robert Higgins as head of legal.
Opinion: FSA: leave insider dealing prosecutions to the SFO
?It is astonishing that the Financial Services Authority (FSA) has been able to transform itself from benign regulator to assertive criminal prosecutor in the absence of public debate about its accountability.
People Moves
Mishcon de Reya has appointed Richard Gerstein (pictured) as a partner in its construction group.
Russell-Cooke hit by court action from widow
Russell-Cooke is facing a court action from an elderly widow, who is claiming breach of duty against the firm and the executors of her late husband’s will.
RWP prepares GLO to battle banks over ‘unfair’ mortgages
South East firm RWP Solicitors has secured a group litigation order (GLO) for 126 claimants in High Court proceedings against Bank of Scotland (BOS) and Barclays over allegedly unfair mortgages.
Scottish councils call on Pinsents as government changes tack on PFIs
Pinsent Masons has won a role on a major waste deal that could mark a volte-face over the Scottish government’s opposition to PFIs.
Simpson Thacher names new KKR link
Simpson Thacher & Bartlett acquisition finance veteran Tony Keal is retiring at the end of this calendar year, with the firm nominating recently promoted partner Ian Barratt to take over the key Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR) relationship in London.
SJ Berwin wins Sita role from Kemp Little
SJ Berwin partner David Meredith has completed a $2bn (£1.25bn) outsourcing deal for communications company Sita, a client he won while at former firm Kemp Little.
Slaughters faces £200K negligence action
Slaughter and May is being sued for alleged negligence and breach of contract by a client that claims the firm drafted a faulty licence agreement.
Tulkinghorn: Motor mouth
The downturn appears to have done little to dampen the media’s appetite for bashing high-earning lawyers, at least if a front-page article in the Jersey Evening Post spotted by costs lawyer Jim Diamond is anything to go by.
Vodafone rejigs legal team in bid to keep pace
Vodafone UK has drastically overhauled its in-house legal capacity as rivals Orange UK and T-Mobile UK eye a tie-up that, if successful, would create the UK’s largest mobile provider and push Vodafone into third place behind O2.
Work Life Quiz: Lesley Browning, Norton Rose
What car do you drive? As it took me seven times to pass my test, my family rarely let me drive. I think we have an Audi A3.
