14 February 2011
The Lawyer
MAB bags BLG partner for property role
Matthew Arnold & Baldwin (MAB) has hired Barlow Lyde & Gilbert partner Mark Sellers as a partner in its London commercial property department.
Bakers leads Ensco bid to buy rival US driller Pride
Baker & McKenzie is representing UK-based offshore drilling company Ensco on its $7.1bn (£4.4bn) bid to acquire US competitor Pride.
Belgian waffle
It’s all talk and no action as far as Belgium’s vacant government is concerned, but as Joanne Harris finds, the legal market is soldiering on
Bingham has another year to write home about in City
Bingham McCutchen has posted another year of rising revenue and profit in London.
Bye laterals
Any US firm leaders currently weeping into their UK recruitment budgets after reading today’s cover story and main feature should take solace in the fact that they were always likely to be on a hiding to nothing when taking on the Brits in their own back yard.
CEDR Solve installs first practice manager
Dispute resolution body CEDR Solve has appointed John Munton as its first practice manager.
Cheers to Pinsents and TLT as they guide Molson Coors brewery deal
Pinsent Masons and TLT Solicitors have been toasting their success after winning mandates on the £20m sale of Cornwall-based Sharp’s Brewery to Molson Coors.
Clarke Willmott’s cash call represents rescue attempt to buoy leaky financials
With Clarke Willmott’s LLP results revealing that it made a £1.89m cash call in 2009-10, the firm has vowed to put the past few years behind it and start again on a stronger footing.
Crunch time for Dawsons as Fladgate tie-up founders
Lincoln’s Inn firm Dawsons is scouring the market for merger partners following the collapse of talks with Fladgate.
Doughty Street welcomes six new barristers
Doughty Street Chambers has announced the arrival of six new barristers.
Eversheds kicks off apprenticeship scheme
Eversheds is considering following Norton Rose’s lead and taking on apprentices in a number of its support departments.
Fidal links up with Brazil's Siqueira Castro
France’s largest firm Fidal has joined forces with Brazil’s largest firm by headcount Siqueira Castro.
Focus: Lateral partner retention - Exit signs
Hiring laterals is a risky business: finally, the statistics that tell us quite how badly US firms have got it wrong
forster dean
Forster Dean is on an expansion drive. The personal injury (PI) and conveyancing firm has 23 offices, most of them in the North West and around the Potteries.
Fountain Court QC defects to rival One Essex Court
Fountain Court silk Craig Orr QC has defected to rival magic circle set One Essex Court.
GTM, Herbies, Sullivan on board with £700m cash shell gambit
Greenberg Traurig Maher (GTM), Herbert Smith and Sullivan & Cromwell are understood to have won mandates on the flotation of a £700m cash shell by billionaire investor Nicolas Berggruen.
Hill Dickinson sets up bonus scheme
Hill Dickinson has given its fee-earners the chance to increase their salaries by up to 10 per cent as part of a new bonus scheme.
LSB to quiz all lawyers on parents’ education
Legal Services Board to get tough on social mobility in profession
Maples acts on Rockspring development schemes
Maples Teesdale has helped Rockspring Property Investment Managers on two significant investments in speculative development schemes.
On the move
Weightmans finance litigation partner Verona Cocks has joined Matthew Arnold & Baldwin (MAB) as a partner. Cocks set up and ran the Midlands commercial dispute resolution and insolvency department at her old firm after joining in 2006.
Opinion: Private clients may be profession’s new sugar daddies
One day Alice came to a fork in the road and saw a Cheshire cat in a tree.
Pannone’s commercial practice set to shrink
Pannone’s commercial practice is reducing amid questions over its strategic direction in a firm whose traditional strengths lie in private client work.
Paul Hastings pooh-poohs alarmists as trend of partner exits continues
Impressive City financials belie negative impression of high-level switches. By Andrew Pugh
Pinsents ally ups Chinese construction nous
Pinsent Masons has formed an alliance with a Chinese firm to enable it to expand the amount of construction clients it acts for.
Revealed: lateral partner hiring doesn’t work
Almost half of lateral partner hires in London leave the firm they join within five years, and up to a third leave after three, exclusive research reveals.
Righting wrongs
The Legal Ombudsman is finally up and running. Chris Fitton and Elizabeth Hughes find out how it’s working.
Rivals court Credit Suisse as bank pursues Links in prof neg case
A number of City firms are muscling in on Linklaters’ relationship with Credit Suisse after the investment bank launched legal action against the firm.
Saga continues after porn pirates firm folds
The firm pursuing thousands of individuals for illegally downloading adult films has gone out of business, despite the case still being ongoing.
SH’s Kuwaiti ally ASAR pushes into Qatar
Stephenson Harwood’s (SH) Kuwaiti alliance firm ASAR - Al Ruwayeh & Partners is to expand its reach by launching an office in Qatar.
Slowly but surely for Spain’s big four law firms as turnover figures inch north
Uría Menéndez turned over €186.5m (£158.51m) in 2010, allowing it to retain its position as Spain’s third-largest firm, after Garrigues and Cuatrecasas Gonçalves Pereira.
Sun cover
A baptism of fire was the perfect way to kick off a new role for RSA in-house legal chief Derek Walsh.
The Lawyer HR Awards 2011
The biggest night for legal HR took place last week (8 February) when 350 HR professionals descended on the Grosvenor House Hotel on Park Lane for The Lawyer HR Awards.
Travers’ US securities hire throws spotlight on client’s one-stop needs
With the focus on cost, single- jurisdiction firms are losing out. By Gavriel Hollander
Tulkinghorn: Leith injection
There are few things the Scots hold so dear as their beloved Irn-Bru, that iconic - even ironic - soft drink of sticky golden lusciousness.
WFW appoints London boss as back-up for managing partner
City firm Watson Farley & Williams (WFW) has revamped its management structure, appointing a London head to support firmwide managing partner Michael Greville.
Within reason
Those applying for indemnity costs awards need to back up their claims fully. Tony Hill reports on the latest significant judgment
Work Life Quiz: Ann Buxton, Hardwicke
What was your first-ever job? Wrapping chocolates in Fortnum & Mason’s basement. It’s supposed to put you off chocolate for life but it failed.
