13 August 2001
The Lawyer
[re]inventing the brand by Jean-NoëKapferer
published by Kogan Page (ISBN 0749435933)
A view from Moscow
Three years ago, Russia shook world financial markets when it announced that it would simultaneously default on its domestic debt, devalue the rouble and impose a debt moratorium on its residents.
A&O leapfrogs Freshfields in project finance league
Allen & Overy (A&O) has overtaken Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer to take prime position as the number one adviser on global project finance deals.
Alastair Gorrie
Until the GE-Honeywell decision in July this year, the accepted wisdom was that European Commission (EC) and US merger control processes differed little on substance, despite differences in the procedure and differences in the test itself - namely, the "creation or strengthening of a dominant position" for the EU, and "substantial lessening of competition" for the US. That accepted wisdom has been blown away by the decision, which was the first time that the EC has blocked a merger ...
Ashursts tax hire makes quick exit
Ashurst Morris Crisp's Frankfurt office has lost a high-profile tax partner just two months after he joined the firm.
Bayerische Hypound Vereinsbank Aktiengesellschaft, the Royal Bank of Scotland, Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria and Banco BPI arrange financing for euro770m (£476.85m) to design, build and operate
Lead arrangers advised by Linklaters & Alliance (James Douglass) and Morais Leitão & J Galvão Teles. Borrowers advised by White & Case and Abreu & Marques (Luis Branco).
Beating off clients
Sightseeing tours might be alright for the clients of DLA, but it seems that not all clients are happy with such civilised pursuits.In this brave new world where the client always comes first and where (some) barristers have embraced the concept of marketing, law firms are going to increasingly ludicrous extremes to keep said clients contented. However, the approach of one head of litigation is more demonstrative of US sports agents (such as depicted by Tom Cruise in the box office ...
Beauty tips
Love them or hate them, beauty parades are likely to always be there. David Benady gives tips on how to get your firm noticed, and asks: is it all a question of marketing?
Bridgepoint Capital invests £23.7m in buyout of Digica from DCS Group, with senior and mezzanine debt provided by Bank of Scotland.
Bridgepoint advised by Travers Smith Braithwaite (Charles Barter). Management team advised by DLA. Bank of Scotland advised by Dickson Minto. DCS advised by CMS Cameron McKenna.
Burges Salmon scoops place on Nationwide's £10m-plus panel
Burges Salmon has secured a place on a newly-formalised panel advising Nationwide Building Society on business finance transactions in excess of £10m.
Camerons wins Brixton deal despite key partner departure
CMS Cameron McKenna has advised property investment and development company Brixton Estates on a multimillion-pound restructuring, despite the move of key relationship partner Jon Vivian to SJ Berwin.Camerons scooped the work on Brixton's latest deal, the complex restructuring of the £100m-plus Equiton Industrial ...
Cazenove opts for Travers Smith
Travers Smith Braithwaite has bagged its first piece of work acting for Cazenove Private Equity.
CC German partner goes over to Hogans
Clifford Chance is losing one of its partners in Germany to US firm Hogan & Hartson.
Client confidence rules set to slacken after ABA debate
The American Bar Association (ABA) has debated changes in the rules governing client-attorney privilege, but has voted in favour of only a few of the proposals.
Court of Appeal finds Kingsmill negligent
Ex-DJ Freeman partner and Midlands judge face compensation claim
David McIntosh, President of the Law Society
The Law Society Council has indeed decided that it is time to make sure it raises the resources it needs to be a model and modern regulator through the practising certificate fee.The fact that a postal vote was called for the 26 members of the profession - and not 90, as your article ('City faces £2.3m Law Soc bill', 23 July) suggests - is simply a demonstration by a small number of solicitors with a lack of appreciation that a postal vote will not change the decision ...
DEAL OF THE WEEK - QAFCO
Latham & Watkins has been involved in the state of Qatar since 1994. Qatar Fertilizer Company (Qafco) is a joint venture between Qatar Petroleum and Norsk Hydro. In 1999, Lathams was instructed by QVC, a joint venture between a subsidiary of TotalFina, Norsk Hyder and Qatar Petroleum, so naturally, the firm was asked to pitch to advise Qafco and beat four other firms to win the work.
Departures force Landwell to rejig financial services
The London office of Landwell, the law firm linked to PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), has lost two of its financial services partners.
Dickinson Dees wins Ofsted work
Dickinson Dees has been appointed to the education watchdog Ofsted's national panel for work under the Children Act 1989.The firm will advise Ofsted in relation to new child minding and daycare legislation.Ofsted has divided the country into eight regions. Dickinson Dees will look after the North East, carrying out criminal prosecution and family work.Family law associate ...
Doctor spin
Aside from the almost weekly round of mergers, law firms are not known for taking the idea of partnership much outside the boardroom.
Epsom & Ewell Borough Council completes deal for the redevelopment by Alfred McAlpine Special Projects, and operation by Greenwich Leisure, of Rainbow Leisure Centre in Epsom for £9.3m.
Epsom & Ewell advised by DJ Freeman (Ted Totman). Alfred McAlpine advised in-house. Greenwich Leisure advised by Druces & Attlee.
Eversheds offloads private client group
Eversheds' Newcastle office has hived off its private client practice to regional counterpart Hay & Kilner.
Fight club
Gareth Chadwick highlights the recent litigation activities of the North East's leading firms
Galen Holdings
Galen Holdings is a Northern Ireland-based healthcare company specialising in women's pharmaceutical products. It completed this unique deal with Merrill Lynch as the lead underwriter. Other underwriters acting as global managers included ABN Amro Rothschild and Credit Suisse First Boston.The combined primary and secondary offering included approximately £200m sold by the company, and another £100m sold by the principal shareholders. The structure of the deal is unique because ...
Going great Gunns
Once you get past the complex structure of St Paul's international empire, it is a client that would be a feather in any firm's cap. Fiona Callister finds out that a communication specialist is what's needed
Hammonds Birmingham head joins client's board
Hammond Suddards Edge has announced the partnership retirement of Birmingham office head James Retallack as he plans to take up a new role on the board of longstanding client Aggregate Industries.
Hill Dickinson profits hit by PI work slump
Hill Dickinson has suffered a disappointing financial year, with turnover rising by only 2 per cent and profits per partner decreasing by 3 per cent.
HSBC Bank
HSBC Bank has gone into partnership with Yahoo! to provide an online facility to make payments over the internet. The project allows customers to have online accounts, thus eliminating transaction costs and the need for credit cards.HSBC instructed Allen & Overy which has advised the bank on a fair amount of internet-related transactions, as well as banking deals. Last year, it advised the ...
Kingsmill in £1.7m claim
A senior judge, the deputy chair of the Competition Commission and DJ Freeman are being sued for £1.7m by a car crash victim.
Legal Widow
The Lawyer won a sports car for the weekend in a charity raffle, and we have had no peace since. It was shaped like a sugar mouse, bright yellow, with chrome bits all over the place. The top rolled down at the touch of a button."Where's the roof, Daddy?" asked Liability. "Won't you blow away?""Ha ha, I'll blow the neighbours away, you mean," chortled the Lawyer.And he proceeded to take all the neighbours for a spin up the dual carriageway at unheard-of speeds for our ...
Living for yesterday
Client entertainment? Forget the lavish cocktail parties and corporate golf days, law firms' clients are cultured individuals. Some even desire intellectual stimulation.Surprised? Well, DLA's Mike Pullen was delighted that he could entertain clients with one of his favourite pastimes - history. And not just any history, the Battle of Waterloo. As he splits his time between the firm's London and Brussels offices, Pullen could even take his clients on a tour of the ...
London pulls away from regional law firms with assistant salary increases
Regional firms are being left behind in the salary wars, according to a new survey commissioned by The Lawyer.
Mishcons faces £6m action from client
A businessman is suing Mishcon de Reya for nearly £6m because of alleged negligence in the drafting of a contract between his company and a potential investor.
Morgan Cole shaken as four leave to launch property firm
Morgan Cole has put its Swansea head of property and three other property partners on gardening leave after the shock news that they plan to set up their own niche firm in the city.
Name and address withheld
As a regular reader of The Lawyer, I always smile to myself when reading the eulogies dedicated to partners who are off to pastures new. Most are carefully constructed to express deep sadness at the parting with said partner, who was like a brother to most of the firm, while still hinting at how unimportant said partner actually was. So the vitriol spouted by Ian Rosenblatt against Robert Courtneidge ...
Newcastle united?
Despite a lucrative year, North East law firms are being criticised for being all mouth and no action when it comes to souping up their practices. Gareth Chadwick reports
News in brief
A round up of stories from the UK and around the world
North-Eastern promise
With a lack of high-level commercial work it might be thought that firms in the North East would be struggling, but Gareth Chadwick's round-up of the top deals proves otherwise
OAG Worldwide and funds managed by Electra Partners Europe complete management buy-in of the Official Airlines Guide from Reed Elsevier.
OAG and Electra advised by Ashurst Morris Crisp (Simon Beddow) and Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson (Karen Weidemann). Reed Elsevier advised by Clifford Chance (Daniel Kossoff). Management advised by Nabarro Nathanson (Andrew Inkester).
Off their rockers
I don't wanna be your tiger, I just wanna be your bloater
Orrick ramps up coastal offices with partner trio
San Francisco firm Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe has boosted its practice on both coasts of the US with the hire of three new partners.
Paul Newman, Hugh James Ford Simey Solicitors
As a barrister employed within solicitors' private practice, I read your front-page feature in the 7 May issue with interest.Following the bar rule changes, I have regained full rights of audience in the courts and currently have a pupil barrister working with me. Now restored to the ranks of the practising bar, albeit not in chambers, I approached the Wales and Chester Circuit seeking membership. After some procrastination on their part and chasing from me, they declined ...
Real estate
It must be the most tortuous property sale in Berwin Leighton's memory. In fact, any lawyer involved would do well to keep grasping at large chunks of wood as the sale of the Millennium Dome gathers momentum again. Six months and a general election have slipped by since the Government, advised by Berwin Leighton, rejected Norton Rose client Legacy's bid to buy the thing. And almost a year ...
Reed Smith in Greenberg team swoop
Reed Smith is taking on an e-commerce team from Florida firm Greenberg Traurig to increase the size of its New York office.
Safeonline
Niche media firm Marriott Harrison has added fresh instructions to its work for digital risks insurer Safeonline. Building on its two-year relationship with the insurer, Marriott Harrison advised Safeonline on the investment from VeriSign Capital Management for an undisclosed amount.The deal brings together two key players from their respective fields, creating a link between a company specialising in insurance products for those relying on technology and an internet security ...
Standard Bank Group leads consortium to set up $300m (£211.8m) debt fund for infrastructure projects in sub-Saharan Africa.
Consortium advised by Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft (Paul Biggs).
Steptoes acts on tallest sale in Wales
Newly-merged transatlantic firm Steptoe & Johnson Rakisons has acted on the £17m acquisition of Wales' tallest office building for the Raven Property Group.Raven bought 25-storey Capital Tower in Cardiff from the Dartmoor Limited Partnership. Dartmoor is a joint venture set up by GE Capital and Portfolio Holdings to develop and sell Capital Towers and other buildings. GE Capital and Portfolio Holdings were advised by Neffyd Jones, a partner in
Stringer Saul
Stringer Saul is no longer your 'typical West End practice'
The British Land Company completes securitisation of 35 J Sainsbury supermarkets with the launch of a £575m multi-tranche bond offering, securitising the rental income from the supermarkets.
British Land advised by Simmons & Simmons (James Bresslaw), SJ Berwin (Lewis Myers) and Nabarro Nathanson (Barry Morris). UBS Warburg advised by Allen & Overy.
The straight man
Halliwell Landau's senior partner Alec Craig is certainly not afraid to say what he thinks, which is that the regions, while important, are not enough
The worst places in the world to practise
It is easy to become an international law firm, isn't it? Just stick a few pins on a world map and then pack off a few keen associates and a pioneering partner to set up camp there. Certainly, the road to globalisation drives on inexorably. But it seems that all is not so sweet for Baker & McKenzie, Clifford ...
Viag Interkom secures DM1bn (£316.6m) 3G wireless equipment deal with Nokia.
Viag represented by Brobeck Hale and Dorr (Peter Kremer). Nokia advised in-house.
Waste Recycling Group acquires Integrated Waste Management for approximately £30.9m from four unitary authorities which owned 90.9 per cent of it.
Waste Recycling advised by Rowe & Maw (Stephen Bottomley). The four vendors advised by DLA (Mark Vipan).
Weightmans rocked by double panel whammy
North West practice puts on brave face as insurance sector upheaval sees slew of firms cut from panels
Westminster Health Care Group completes the disposal of its diagnostics division to Lister Healthcare, a division of Integrated Healthcare Management, for £22.5m.
Westminster Health Care advised by Nabarro Nathanson (Warren Taylor). Lister advised by Addleshaw Booth & Co.
Wish you were here
The apparent inevitability of the global law firm is being undermined by often guerilla-like tactics and legal xenophobia of many countries' bars. Jon Robins reports on the worst places in the world to practise
