14 September 2009
The Lawyer
A&O teaches female associates to communicate
Allen & Overy (A&O) is piloting a career development scheme aimed at teaching associates how to communicate ‘powerfully’ with clients and colleagues.
Ashurst strengthens PFI reputation with Durham, Sandwell BSF deals
Ashurst has helped clients Carillion and Interserve close two strategic Building Schools for the Future (BSF) projects in Durham and Sandwell.
Big four to become tax players?
Tax lawyers are no longer on the sidelines. In June the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development announced it was considering forcing multinationals to reveal how much tax they pay in each jurisdiction.
Clarification
In our people moves page on 13 July it was stated that David Howker QC had joined No5 Chambers, Birmingham from 2 Hare Court as an associate tenant.
Equity capital markets provide much-needed work in real estate
A select group of firms are using established relationships to tap into fresh seams.
Eversheds gets wrist slapped in Rover report
Eversheds has been mildly rebuked in an otherwise damning report into the collapse of MG Rover.
Eversheds outsourcing scheme will save £2m
Eversheds has forecasted that it will save £2m a year following the implementation of a UK-wide secretarial outsourcing project.
Eversheds works eight days a week for Beatles
Eversheds has advised Apple Corps, one of its longest-standing clients, on two headline-grabbing deals relating to legendary pop group The Beatles.
Flint Bishop strikes up online allegiances
Derby-based Flint Bishop is ramping up its online private client services in an attempt to combat the threat of alternative business structures entering the legal market.
Focus: Salans, Wherever it lays its hat…
With no obvious HQ, Salans is a hard firm to pin down. But it’s not afraid to play on this, resulting in a record year. No wonder Pinsent Masons wanted that alliance
Former Freshfields man snaps up top legal job at pensions body
Pensions body the Personal Accounts Delivery Authority (Pada) has named a former Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer partner as its general counsel.
French resistance
The French economy is in recovery and its lawyers are looking ahead to rosier times. By Tom Phillips
Goldsmith barrister sued by divorcée
Family barrister Dorian Day of London set Goldsmith Chambers has been handed a £200,000 claim by a disgruntled former client who claims Day failed to win her an adequate divorce settlement.
Harper Macleod sets up retail practice
Harper Macleod has launched a specialist retail practice group across its Glasgow, Edinburgh and Inverness offices.
Heated debate
With the principles of the Kyoto Protocol due to be renegotiated before the end of the year, lawyers are in the position of having to provide just-in-time advice.
Herbies partner goes in-house at Barclays
Barclays has hired Herbert Smith corporate partner Michael Shaw as its deputy general counsel.
Insurer hires ex-Eversheds veteran as chief counsel
Insurance company Liberty International Underwriters Europe (LIU Europe) has appointed Nigel Davenport to the newly created position of chief counsel.
Kraft work gives hope to CC NY
Can the bid for Cadbury bring CC’s US practice back from the brink?
LG to ditch salaried partners
LG is considering axing its salaried partner role as part of a move to save money and streamline its partnership.
Local firms have the pick of the bunch as Western recruiters shun Indian students
Indian firms have had the campus field almost to themselves this year, as international firms have considerably decreased their recruitment of Indian law students.
London head joins White & Case board
White & Case London head Oliver Brettle has been appointed to the firm’s executive committee, replacing New York partner Dimitrios Drivas.
Maitland Group throws in the towel after one year in Cayman
Offshore services firm Maitland Group has abandoned plans to become a player in the offshore legal world, closing its Cayman Islands office a year after launching in the jurisdiction.
Mishcon apes ad agencies in shake-up
Mishcon de Reya has overhauled its business development strategy to emulate that of an advertising agency.
Neuberger gains political clout after attacking Supreme Court
Lord Justice David Neuberger’s appointment as Master of the Rolls (MR), a position he will take up next month, is being hailed by many as signalling a thawing of relations between the judiciary and the political world.
On the move
Ropes & Gray has poached Linklaters head of investment management in Asia. Michael Guilday, who was counsel at Linklaters, joins the firm as a partner in Hong Kong.
Onside Law
Onside Law is expanding, but the sports, fashion and media boutique has no plans to turn itself into one of the giants with which it is increasingly competing. Later this month the firm hopes to bring in a new lawyer - its seventh.
Opinion: SFO’s new director – the real deal?
?Richard Alderman was appointed director of the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) in April 2008. He arrived at a moment of considerable turmoil within the SFO about its depressing performance as a criminal prosecutor.
Pinsents to provide ATE insurance
Pinsent Masons has signed a deal with legal expenses provider FirstAssist Legal Protection that will give the firm delegated authority to broker after-the-event (ATE) insurance.
Screen idyll: Amber Blake, QVC UK
GC Amber Blake has bought in to the success of TV shopping channel QVC UK as the ideal platform from which to highlight her legal talents. Julia Berris reports
Smaller firms bear brunt as insurers raise professional indemnity rates
Lawyers on all levels are suffering the worst economic downturn in more than a decade.
Sumption coy over Supreme Court role
Brick Court Chambers has batted off speculation that Jonathan Sumption QC is reducing his workload, insisting that he is taking time out to concentrate on the next volume of his book.
T-Mobile, Orange call on CC and Norton Rose for merger advice
Competition teams at Clifford Chance and Norton Rose are striving to make a tie-up between Orange UK and T-Mobile UK work as their European parents try to create the UK’s largest mobile phone operator.
Top firms open new front in war for specialist tax talent
Revenue’s tough stance on transfer pricing sparks lucrative new practice area for City leaders
Tulkinghorn: A perfect match
So McGuireWoods is to be the primary sponsor of the historic Richmond Football Club’s (RFC) first XV? Tulkinghorn learnt of this fact recently and, frankly, was disturbed.
Watson Burton pair quits to set up family boutique
A Watson Burton partner duo has quit to launch a family and professional indemnity (PI) boutique.
Wolf Theiss, Hasche Sigle see through FutureLAB sale
Wolf Theiss and CMS Hasche Sigle have scored lead roles advising on BC Partners’ e300m (£263.69m) acquisition of medical diagnostic company FutureLAB.
Work Life Quiz: Nick Davis, Mishcon de Reya
If you weren’t a lawyer what would you have been?I would have liked to have gone to film school, so a film producer/director.
