16 August 2004
The Lawyer
Adam King: an apology
In the write-up of the ‘In-house Lawyer of The Year Award’, reference was made to the case brought by Adam King against the publishers of The Sunday Telegraph. In some references to this case it was suggested that Adam King had lost his claim, when, in fact, he had succeeded in obtaining substantial damages, costs and an apology. We are happy to set the record straight and apologise for the embarrassment caused. We have agreed to pay Mr King damages and his costs.
Adams looks for new niche in Canary Wharf
East London firm Adams is opening a third office in Canary Wharf in a bid to reposition itself as a boutique corporate and finance practice. The new office, on the 29th floor of One Canada Square, will open on 1 September with an estimated 18 staff and will specialise in corporate, finance and property. The office will be managed by banking and finance partner Sean Sydenham, who will move from the firm’s Whitechapel headquarters along with the firm’s property team.
Animal activists seek to exploit weaknesses in BOC injunction
Law student animal activists are taking advantage of gaps in an injunction secured by industrial gases group BOC against protester attacks.
Ansons born as Hadens splits
West Midlands firm Hadens has almost halved in size following the departure of six partners to set up a rival firm.
Arnold Bloch Leibler appoints commission big shot
Australia’s Arnold Bloch Leibler has appointed the former chairman of the Australian Competition Commission (ACCC) as a consultant to its trade practices group.
Bevan Ashford poaches top staff from rival Wragge & Co
Bevan Ashford has raided regional rival Wragge & Co to scoop a top local government specialist and an associate to bolster its public sector team.
Bingham ramps up securities litigation
Bingham McCutchen has boosted its securities litigation practice with the hire of a specialist partner for its Boston office. Jordan Hershman, former co-chairman of Testa Hurwitz & Thibeault’s securities litigation group, joins Bingham as a senior member. First revealed on www.thelawyer.com, 11 August
BPP Law School outstrips parent company in interim results
The parent company of BPP Law School, has announced flat profits in its interim results, despite a strong performance by its law division.
Bush names Jones Day partner as FTC head
A partner in Jones Day’s Washington practice was this week sworn in as chairwoman of the Federal Trade Commission.Antitrust specialist Deborah Platt Majoras, was nominated for the post by President George W. Bush in May and appointed last month.Majoras served as deputy assistant attorney general and principal deputy at the US Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division.
California leads Kerry donations
West Coast law firms have helped Democratic presidential hopeful John Kerry raise more money in California, making the state the party’s leading contributor in the US.
Calm in a crisis
Crisis? What crisis? Peter Power on the importance of preparing for and dealing with the worst when it happens
Careers: in brief
Property specialist Sandra Barton has been named the new national president of the Institute of Legal Executives (Ilex). Barton will continue as a legal executive in the property team at Dorset firm Ian Newbery & Co while heading the 22,000-member professional body. John Wells of the Roberts Rose Partnership was named vice-president (VP), while the VP elect will be Alan Caig of Clark Willis.
Careers: people
Davies Arnold Cooper has announced a trio of promotions and a new appointment at associate partner level. Janie Castle joins the commercial litigation team in London from Paul Hastings Janofsky & Walker, while Gillian Dada, Mark Shaya and Crispin Tomlinson have all been promoted to associate partner level in the product liability, insurance and property divisions. The promotions follow the recent announcement of five new equity partners at the firm.
CC salaried partner revolt wins promotion shake-up
Partnership ballot on second gateway to equity abolished; three-year track rolled out worldwide
Citizens Advice forewarns swingeing cuts to legal aid
Legal aid proposals put forward by the Legal Services Commission (LSC) late last month are set to limit access to justice for many people, according to charity Citizens Advice.
Client uncompliant
Oh the defensive nature of certain managing partners. Call it a Napoleon complex, but Newcastle’s Ward Hadaway was getting all hot under the collar about receiving calls for the forthcoming edition of The Lawyer’s UK 100 last week.
Dentons gets new shed office
Tulkinghorn was bemused to hear of the latest addition to Denton Wilde Sapte’s Chancery Lane offices. Dentons has been busy refurbishing, with the top three floors nearly completed. All well and good – the changes have to be an improvement on the current basement reception with its noisy air-conditioning. But some of the additions seem somewhat incongruous.
DLA raids Görg for Hamburg debut
DLA has won three Hamburg-based partners and 10 associates from former German ally Görg to launch its own base in the city.
Ex-CC lawyer suspected of murdering Iraqi official
A former Clifford Chance lawyer who set up the Iraq Special Tribunal to try Saddam Hussein for war crimes has been accused of involvement in the murder of an Iraqi official.
Grapevine
Well, that didn't take long.
Hammonds partner heads to Brussels
Hammonds has recruited a top in-house lawyer as a finance partner in its Brussels office.
Hearsay
Which City partner is packing in the law to go and run a pig farm?...
Herbies wins Hypo
Herbert Smith has completed its first deal for new client Hypo Real Estate Bank International.
HSBC Holdings begins panel review
HSBC Holdings has kickstarted the long-awaited full-scale review of its external legal advisers. As first revealed in The Lawyer (26 April), the bank is exploring the possibility of merging its eight-strong City and 11-strong regional panels. It is understood that the bank has invited firms on the existing panels, as well as several firms that have not historically acted for HSBC, to tender.
Index-linked
Business continuity is not only about not making a drama out of a crisis, it can also be of commercial benefit to a firm. Philip Alcock reports
Kirkland rainmaker lands top job at Conseco
A leading corporate partner from Kirkland & Ellis has been appointed as president and chief executive of recovering US insurance giant Conseco.
KSB Law
Despite the trendy name, KSB Law is a firm strongly grounded in English history.
Law Society calls for FRS5 clarification
The Law Society president has written to the Accounting Standards Board urging clarification of new tax rules in a bid to wipe out widespread confusion over FRS5. FRS5 Application Note G, which relates to the way profits and work in progress are calculated in accounts, was first introduced eight months ago. The Law Society is calling for the issue to be referred to the Accounting Standards Board’s urgent issues task force. First revealed on www.thelawyer.com, 11 August
Lawyers call for trial of ‘terrorists’
The Law Society and the Bar Council last week spearheaded international condemnation of the detention of terrorist suspects in Guantanamo Bay.
Legal widow
It pains me, but about the worst thing to take on holiday with you is a man who fancies himself as a chef. Before last week, spent in a rain-lashed Suffolk village sharing a house with the Lawyer’s old litigation mucker from Hyena Bandicoot Meerkat, I always fancied running off with Nigel Slater or one of the other earthy celeb cooks.
Linklaters COO moves on after three years at top
Linklaters’ chief operating officer (COO) – Arthur Andersen’s former worldwide managing partner and chief executive officer – has departed after completing his three-year term.
Lovells navigates beauty parade to win Galileo PPP
Lovells has beaten a number of City rivals to scoop an instruction to advise on one of the largest and most complex public private partnerships (PPP) currently in the European market.
Lovells’ exploding tables get the all clear
Lovells was gripped by terror last month when news broke of a glass table spontaneously exploding in one of the firm’s Atlantic House meeting rooms.
Markel International in legal head first
Insurance group Markel International has appointed its first ever head of legal.
McGrigors stocks up on flotations
The corporate team at McGrigors tucked away 11, primarily AIM, flotations in six months, despite a turbulent year which saw the exit of three legacy KLegal partners.
Mourant Equity launches Seattle office
Mourant Equity Compensation Solutions, the arm of Jersey firm Mourant du Feu & Jeune which advises businesses on their employee share schemes, has launched a Seattle office.
Opinion
The commonly held idea that perfumes, recipes and other formulae are the mere sum of their ingredients, and are therefore not protected under copyright law, was recently rejected by the Court of Appeal of Den Bosch in the Netherlands. In a groundbreaking decision, the court ruled that Lancôme’s perfume ‘Trésor’ was copyright-protected. Physicochemical analysis and the laws of probability ...
Partner in Simmons anti-Semitism claim protected from expulsion by deed
Robert Schon, the Simmons & Simmons partner suing his own firm for racial discrimination, is one of a tiny number of partners Simmons cannot remove from the equity, The Lawyer can reveal.
Partnership: the paths to the top
The route to partnership is increasingly unpredictable, says Hilary Spicer
Pinsents private equity ace quits for Olswang challenge
Pinsents has lost another partner from its London private equity group just six months after group head Alan Greenough quit for White & Case.
Red in tooth and law
Are the Government’s latest laws a serious attempt to protect workers from animal extremists, or just another erosion of human rights? Jon Robins investigates
Rowleys goes head-to-head with A&O over Turner & Newall pension conflict
Trade union specialists Rowley Ashworth is facing up to Allen & Overy (A&O) in continued negotiations over Turner & Newall pensions.
Royal Shakespeare lawyer forms arts law forum
The Royal Shakespeare Company’s (RSC) first ever in-house counsel is set to launch an inaugural forum for in-house lawyers working in the arts. Caroline Powell, who qualified in 1995 after training at Slaughter and May, joined the RSC as in-house counsel in September 2003.
Sanofi general counsel loses out to Aventis in-houser post-merger
Laurent Cohen-Tanugi, group general counsel at Sanofi-Synthelabo, has missed out on the top job in the combined Sanofi/Aventis to his counterpart at Aventis.
Sara Friend: British Olympic Association
Sara Friend is a proud member of Team Great Britain – but as the BOA’s legal head, she’s more involved with running the show than performing on the track. Alex Wade reports
Scour power
There are many practical issues associated with the tracing of assets in which lawyers and forensic accountants tend to get involved. Will Kenyon reports
Simmons loses lawyer to Competition Commission
Simmons & Simmons competition partner Clare Potter is leaving to join the Competition Commission, where the firm’s former head of competition, Peter Freeman, is deputy chair.
Taylor Wessing makes double hire
Taylor Wessing has expanded its Continental network with hires in Paris and Germany.
The battle for Abbey
For those of us not on a beach, there is only one deal in town worth watching: the battle for Abbey National. For lawyers stuck in the City, the question of who has snapped up the remaining mandates is becoming an obsession. For those of you not topping up your tans, here’s a few titbits the firms involved refuse to confirm or deny.
The best-dressed hobo
Managing partners these days are required to give up a lot for their firms. But Hammonds’ outgoing managing partner Chris Jones went beyond the call of duty the other day, risking life and limb on a recent journey north.
The hair switch project
The lawyers at Field Fisher Waterhouse may soon be the best coiffured in the City following a recent deal with award-winning and long-established UK hairdressers Mahogany Hair.
The work-life quiz
Michael Shaw, managing partner, Cobbetts
Tyco panel rejig gets straight to DuPont
If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, Tyco’s streamlining should have DuPont smiling
US lawyer joins Haarmanns’ new management
Haarmann Hemmelrath has recruited US lawyer and company turnaround specialist Jeff Thinnes as its chief executive officer (CEO). Thinnes joins from his own company JTI Inc. His arrival is part of the German giant’s attempts to streamline its management, which are to be put to the vote this week. Haarmann’s 18-person partnership development board is to be abolished and power will be given to a two-person management team comprising a new CEO and Uwe Wolfe, who sits on the firm’s current ...
Vienna calling for SJ Berwin
SJ Berwin is investigating opening in Vienna to support a new standalone international arbitration practice group that is being launched in November.
Walker Morris leads Cleveland Bridge claim
Walker Morris leads Cleveland Bridge claim" /Leeds firm Walker Morris is representing Cleveland Bridge in its High Court claim against Multiplex for breach of contract. Multiplex, the contractor working on the new Wembley Stadium, is being defended in the action by
Watson Burton opens Leeds base
Watson Burton is poised to launch the firm’s first office outside its home city of Newcastle.
Wragges scoops Inter-Alliance merger
Wragges scoops Inter-Alliance merger" /Wragge & Co has completed its first deal for new client Inter-Alliance Group, the AIM-listed independent financial adviser (IFA).
