14 January 2002
The Lawyer
Eye looks at The Lawyer
Tulkinghorn does love a good award ceremony. The lights, the glitter, the prizes. So he was chuffed to bits to read that The Lawyer won the highly acclaimed prize of Correction of the Year in Private Eye for the following, slightly tongue in cheek, gem."Last week The Lawyer incorrectly stated that Maurice Millen, who was leaving DAC to join Macfarlanes, was a senior lawyer. Millen was DAC's ...
Ashursts restructures P&H for MBO
Ashurst Morris Crisp has advised Palmer Harvey McLane (P&H) on various restructuring proposals, which culminated in a management buyout (MBO) offer with Ashursts acting for the management.P&H is the UK's largest delivery wholesaler, with a turnover in excess of £3bn. The company started out in tobacco wholesaling, but has diversified across food and alcohol, supplying customers ...
Bar Council committee considers CFA reforms
Proposals say barristers should keep an eye on solicitors; Law Society says suggestions are 'offensive'
Bar Council faces £50,000 damages for 'libellous' letter
Solicitor to sue after head of professional standards department warns chambers away from Kearns
Barrister completes full firm pupillage
For the first time ever a barrister has completed a full 12-month pupillage in a law firm
Beachcrofts handed NHS Trust work
Beachcroft Wansbroughs has won a new contract for employment work for one of the largest hospital trusts in Central England
Berrymans bags Vallance in new advocacy initiative
Senior silk Philip Vallance QC has joined law firm Berrymans Lace Mawer from 4-5 Gray's Inn Square
Brown Raysman swallows Baer Marks
US national firm Brown Raysman Millstein Felder & Steiner has emerged as the victor in the battle for defunct New York firm Baer Marks & Upham, taking 46 of the firm's attorneys and 80 per cent of its partners
C&A faces fines for German discounts
Lawyers are criticising clothing retailer C&A for its decision to offer a 20 per cent discount to German customers at the start of the January sales
Cambridge educated
Taylor Joynson Garrett is taking on Garretts' Cambridge office. Its corporate partner explains why the practice is a golden goose and not a dead duck
Camerons ups European stakes with Italian coup
Camerons alliance achieves presence in Italy for first time; Simmons expands with Paduan practice
CMS links up with outplacement company
CMS Cameron McKenna is taking advantage of the downturn through a partnership with outplacement company Penna Meridian
Company and financial services
Comment
Corporate Summary
Nabarro Nathanson (Ian Newman, Richard Brearley) acted for Mice Group on its £30.5m recommended share takeover offer for Expocentric. Bird & Bird (Neil Blundell, Alex Hand) advised Expocentric.Allen & Overy (Ian Stanley, Colleen Keck) advised Inverness Medical Innovations on its £103m acquisition of Unilever subsidiary Unipath.
DEAL OF THE WEEK
Cadwalader handles bond rejig for Brunner in EuropeHerbert Smith bursts into bondholder market with groundbreaking deal
Directing traffic
UK company law is set to undergo the most extensive overhaul it has ever experienced. Joanna Goldsworthy examines some recent court decisions and the proposals for change
DLA takes to the skies with SAA as new client
DLA has fended off competition from at least six firms to secure South African Airways (SAA) as a new client in London
Dorsey and Kyo Sogo secure joint venture
Japanese liberalisation sees increased integration with US and UK law firms
Eversheds in hiring spree
Eversheds is turning its sights to Europe as it takes on lawyers in both Brussels and Paris
Finance Summary
Linklaters (Charles Dunn) has been appointed to advise Bangkok Mass Transit System on the restructuring of its debts of $650m (£451m) and Taiwanese Bt18.462bn (£290.6m).Shearman & Sterling (John Wilson) advised France Telecom and semiconductor company STMicroelectronics on France Telecom's h1.5bn (£928.03m) issue of exchangeable notes. Lead managers ABN Amro and Lehman ...
Financial times
The long-awaited N2 deadline came and went more than a month ago. Jon Robins finds out what the new act means to the 180 firms that have signed up to life under the FSA
Goodman Derrick chief joins Landwell
Landwell, the law firm tied to Pricewaterhouse-Coopers, has taken on a partner and head of employment from London firm Goodman Derrick
Gray Cary in staff cutback
Gray Cary Ware & Freidenrich has become the latest Silcon Valley firm to announce staff layoffs
Haarmann consolidates Japanese joint venture
Haarmann Hemmelrath & Partner has set up a joint venture that will allow the German multidisciplinary practice to advise on local Japanese law
Herbert Smith acts on HBOS bond deals
Herbert Smith has advised Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBOS) on its first bond issues since its formation last September with the merger of Halifax and Bank of Scotland (BoS)
Insurance
What do you call a US firm with one of the largest London offices among its US peers and an ambition to take on UK firms at their own game? For once, the answer is not Shearman & Sterling. I am talking about LeBoeuf Lamb Greene & MacRae, a firm with US attitude and UK sensibilities.LeBoeuf is something of an enigma in the UK market. Compared with those other US firms that have exported their brands to the City, it is one of the few not to concentrate on corporate and finance ...
Law Soc in bomb threat
The Chancery Lane Law Society building was under siege on Friday (11 January) from an unidentified male with a grudge against the legal profession
Legal market shrugs off lack of activity with further growth
The Lawyer's Law Firm Business Confidence Survey for the fourth quarter of 2001 gives rise to optimism for the future
M&A star leaves AAR for non-legal CSFB position
Slaughter and May's Australian best friend Allens Arthur Robinson (AAR) has lost its rainmaker and head of M&A Peter Cameron to Credit Suisse First Boston
M&A today
After a year of economic turmoil, who managed to hold their own and who suffered the most? Caroline Davies reports on how the top firms performed in 2001's M&A tables
Masons makes L'pool Vision panel
Masons is awaiting its first instruction from urban regeneration agency Liverpool Vision after winning an appointment to its panel
Mass defection sees Norton Rose lose Cologne property capability
Norton Rose is facing a spate of partner departures in Cologne that will leave it with no property and construction capability in the city
Muggle magic
A quart of Bertie Botts every flavour beans go to muggle solicitors Cobbetts this week, for a rather magical deal.Less than a week after joining the Manchester firm as a corporate partner, Richard 'Dumbledore' Hepworth has wizarded his way to selling Moss & Co for an undisclosed sum to the family of Ashok Patel.Moss & Co, as you muggles may not be aware, are purveyors of wood and have the special honour of making wands for the Hogwarts School, frequented ...
News in brief
A round up of stories from the UK and around the world
OFT to grow legal dept by 20 per cent
The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has been given a mandate to increase its in-house legal department by 20 per cent to cope with its enhanced powers in competition and consumer regulation, and is targeting City firms for recruits
Opinion
In Europe, the dawn of the New Year brought the rather uneventful reality of the euro to 300 million people in 12 EU states. In Argentina, 2002 brought continuing uncertainty as the country's hastily rearranged government fought to find a solution to its unfolding political and financial crisis based around public debts of $5,166bn (£3,585bn).Newly elected president Eduardo Duhalde received almost unanimous acclaim in the Argentine Congress when he identified the US-backed ...
Pannones hires debt team from Halliwells
Pannone & Partners has boosted its practice with a series of New Year appointments, including Halliwells head of commercial debt recovery Karl Williams, together with three of his team
Planning green paper sparks concern over lawyers' roles
Government plans to reduce legal involvement; lawyers look for alternative angle
Power trip
When International Power set out to revamp its in-house legal team, general counsel Rosemary Cook was given the task of overseeing the project. Vanessa Pawsey reports
Put it on the slate
After all the frivolity of Christmas, Tulkinghorn has heard some scurrilous gossip about a rather drunken partnership conference held by Gouldens. He is certain that it cannot possibly be true, as those chaps at Gouldens are sooo well behaved.Anyway, one insider told him that the hotel where the conference was held politely declined to host any future events for the ultraprofitable firm after one partner allegedly wrecked the snooker table by spilling his glass of port on it while ...
READ HIND STEWART
With a potential merger on the cards, Read Hind is setting its sights on the big time
Real Estate and Projects Summary
Nabarro Nathanson (Susan McKenna) advised the London Development Agency on the acquisition of 96 acres of land in the Dagenham area, subject to short leasebacks, to Ford and an agreement with Intercity for the development of Bream Reach Business Park. Wortley Byers (Brian Spencer) advised Ford. Hammonds Suddards Edge (Stephen Goodman) advised Intercity.Boodle Hatfield (Jonathan Turton) advised ...
Retail therapy
The FSA's prejudice against derivatives is blocking new ideas for the retail investment sector, says Simon Gleeson
Separated at birth
Tulkinghorn has got himself in a bit of a lather about this week's two separated at birth, as it seems two of The Lawyer's favourite lawyers have secret lives featuring in two of the nation's favourite soaps.First, there is the astonishing revelation that EastEnders' Carol Jackson, mother to Walford's most dysfunctional family, is not under a police witness protection programme in South London, but is practising as an associate in the financial restructuring ...
Shoosmiths scoops Abbey National on joint venture
Midlands firm Shoosmiths has scored a major coup by securing corporate work for Abbey National
Simmons eyes US capital markets work with strategic London hire
Simmons & Simmons' capital markets group is assaulting US securities work with the hire of its first US-qualified structured securities partner in London
Simmons links up in Brazil
Brazilian firm Veraino has been welcomed into the Simmons & Simmons network through a formal joint venture with the latter's Lisbon office
Slaughters' Underhill top of M&A rankings
Boardman overtaken by new Slaughters star; Sullivans' Sampas in second place
Stephenson Harwood fills senior partner role
Andrew Sutch has replaced Tony Scales as senior partner of Stephenson Harwood
The dogs of law
Tulkinghorn is curious as to whether any clients have been known to name their pets, children or other possessions after their lawyers.Tulkinghorn began to ponder the subject when he learnt that professional golfer Freddie Sunderland had named his dog, a Lhasa Apso, Brandman, after his lawyer Henri Brandman. The reason? Brandman also owns a Lhasa Apso, Todd, who accompanies him to every meeting. After the human Brandman won Freddie Sunderland £150,000 compensation for a car ...
The Leader Column
On the face of it, it looks like a blow. Nine partners - almost a third of the firm's German partnership - leave Norton Rose's Cologne office. But in fact, it looks as if they've simply saved the Norton Rose management some time.Roger Birkby, ever phlegmatic, talks of the nine defectors' "different style" of working. Translated, this simply means that Norton Rose can now get ...
TJG wins residential property partner
Brighton firm Dean Wilson Laing has seen equity partner and head of residential property Jo Ward move to City firm Taylor Joynson Garrett
Withers scoops Cadwalader partner to head NY office
Following the announcement of its US merger, Withers has changed its partner remuneration system and announced a New York office, complete with a managing partner brought in from Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft
