17 December 2001
The Lawyer
Breaking news: Chaffe Street merges with Brabners
Manchester firm Chaffe Street has shrunk from sixteen partners to just six and is merging with Liverpool based Brabners.
White collar crime
Do not pass GoThe UK Government is getting tough on cartels and proposing that guilty directors could face harsh prison sentences. Jon Robins asks whether the measures are going too far
A serious case of stalking
It's amazing what one can learn courtesy of private client lawyers. One of Tulkinghorn's horticulturally-minded scouts recently chatted to Diana Parker of Withers at the firm's swanky offices in Old Bailey. In each conference room is an orchid, which the scout confessed looked a lot more perky than her own rather sulky specimens. "How did Withers manage it?" she asked.Parker believed ...
Bar/litigation roundup
Review of the year
Barlows
After 185 years, Barlows is aiming for commercial work to tip the scales
Being civil
Can white collar crime work still be regarded as criminal when it has taken on so many civil procedures? Adam Cowell reports on the new regulations that are blurring the lines
Cadwalader completes major Tanzanian projects energy deal
The London office of Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft has wrapped up a major projects deal in Tanzania.A team from the projects group, led by partner Paul Biggs, acted for AES Corporation on the $250m (£174.3m) Songo Songo Gas-to-Electricity Project.The Cadwalader team brought the deal to a close less than two days after the World Bank gave its approval. It concludes one of the longest-running projects in the region. Biggs, who brought AES with him when he joined Cadwalader ...
Centrica picks Ashursts for Enron buy
In its third major corporate deal for the energy and telecommunications powerhouse this year, Ashurst Morris Crisp advised Centrica on its £94m acquisition of Enron Direct. Centrica's principal corporate adviser Linklaters was also involved in the deal, advising Enron's administrators PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Civil shepherd
Ronald Thwaites QC, brought up on a professional diet of criminal actions, finds that his direct approach to civil work keeps him off the streets
CLA in Euro turmoil as UK deadline is missed
The Commercial Law Affiliates (CLA) alliance is in chaos as it fails to meet its deadline to decide on a new UK member.
Clifford Chance
Review of the year
Corporate
Who says that law-yers are too old to get presents from Father Christmas? This year, Santa's brought a sackful of work to Enron. With thousands of Enron employees now facing redundancy, lawyers will not publicly celebrate the work, but it will certainly be welcome. Litigation and insolvency departments can expect to gain the most, but those corporate departments that have been feeling the economic downturn will get a seasonal bonus.Just last year, Enron was number seven in ...
Corporate review
Review of the year
Corporate roundup
Review of the year
DEAL OF THE WEEK - HERCULES UNIT TRUST
Linklaters wins HUT deal as Gouldens is conflicted out
Deals summary
Clifford Chance (Andrew Forryan Robert McGregor, Adrian Cohen) advised the Royal Bank of Scotland, Schroder Salomon Smith Barney and Morgan Stanley as joint lead managers, on the £875m securitisation of the Meadowhall shopping centre in Sheffield for British Land. Simmons & Simmons (John Davies, James Bresslaw) advised British Land, with Addleshaw Booth & Co (Michael Reevey) advising ...
Deals summary
Allen & Overy (Chin-Chong Liew) has advised UBS Warburg on the launch of Hong Kong's first ever equity-linked note. The note was issued on the Tracker Fund.Clifford Chance (Laura Stuart, Claude Brown) has advised the Royal Bank of Scotland as lead manager on the securitisation of a corporate loan portfolio worth £300m. The agencies were advised by
Deals summary
Berwin Leighton Paisner (David Collins, Murdoch Currie) advised TripleArc on its admission to AIM. Fladgate Fielder (David Robinson) advised broker Canaccord Capital (Europe).Davis Polk & Wardwell (Margaret Tahyar, Marlene Alva, Lydia Kess, Michael Mollerus, Michael Faber, Nora Jordan) advised ...
Defra picks Eversheds as Foot-and-Mouth adviser
Eversheds has beaten off competition from four firms to win the role as sole legal adviser to the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) for claims relating to Foot-and-Mouth.
DLA ex-partners return to the fold
DLA is welcoming back two former partners who left to take up in-house positions elsewhere.
Finance review
Review of the year
Finance roundup
Review of the year
Freehills adds new positions to the board
Top five Australian firm Freehills has changed its management structure to add the new positions of chief executive officer (CEO), chief operating officer (COO) and heads of both the Sydney and Melbourne offices.
Howard Kennedy faces £1m law suit
Howard Kennedy is being sued for almost £1m for professional negligence arising out of its handling of the sale of shares in Lopping Display Holdings.
Hunton gets energy boost from Texas firm
US firm Hunton & Williams has boosted its presence in the US South West by merging with Texas-based Worsham Forsythe & Wooldridge.
Imran Khan backs Bahl in call for public inquiry into Law Society
The Law Society is under attack from Imran Khan, the lawyer for Stephen Lawrence's family, its former vice-president Kamlesh Bahl, and 140 ethnic-minority lawyers.
In-house roundup
Review of the year
Insurance review
Review of the year
International roundup
Review of the year
Keele University tops the table for research
Law faculty league table rejigged as research gets £1bn boost from Government
Law Society
Review of the year
Lawrence Graham in L&R property instruction
Lawrence Graham acted for London & Regional (L&R) on its £215m acquisition of JP Morgan Chase Bank's 47.5 per cent stake in its own building. JP Morgan, which has now become a tenant in the property it used to half own, was represented by Linklaters. Theodore Goddard advised the Royal Bank of ...
Legal education
Review of the year
Lord Irvine lobbied to allow cases to be taped
The Fleet Street Lawyers, an association of 50 in-house lawyers from major national newspapers, are lobbying the Lord Chancellor, Lord Irvine to allow recording devices in open courts.
Lord Irvine's paper tackles Commercial Court disrepair
The Lord Chancellor has issued a consultation paper looking at the proposed modernisation of the Commercial Court.
Manches woos fifty firms on to global referral panel
UK firm targets reciprocation for mid-tier work in global panel of elite firms
Martineaus loses De Montfort to Eversheds
Eversheds has beaten Birmingham rival Martineau Johnson to win work for De Montfort University.
McGrigors announces a booming six months
McGrigor Donald has announced its half-year figures just days after signing a merger deal with KLegal - a deal first revealed in The Lawyer (12 November).
Mergers & breakdowns
Review of the year
News in brief
A round up of stories from the UK and around the world
News roundup
Review of the year
Norton Rose slashes bar spend by millions
Norton Rose has almost halved its volume of bar referrals in the past two years and plans to reduce it "significantly further".
Norton Rose's balanced spread sees it ride out the IPO downturn
In the current economic climate, which has seen most big initial public offerings (IPOs) on hold or cancelled, Norton Rose's targeting of the lower-end securities market has come good.In the last two months it has closed four AIM fundraisings for a mixture of brokers and issuers (see box). The downturn has been evident since the end of the first quarter, but according to US-qualified partner Richard Baumann, Norton Rose has continued to pull in the work.The latest research ...
OFT takes on merger director from Cleary
The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has appointed Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton partner Simon Priddis as its director of mergers.
Opinion
A recent judgment of the European Court of First Instance (Corus UK Ltd Commission, 10 October 2001) has confirmed the European Commission's (EC) obligation to pay interest on fines required to be repaid following a successful appeal against a decision of the EC in competition cases. The proceedings also brought to light the existence of a recent, but little-publicised, EC decision that made a new system available for dealing with fines available to parties that have paid a fine ...
Pinsent Curtis axes insurance lawyers
Four partners and 11 fee-earners made redundant from professional indemnity team
Pro bono
Review of the year
Property outed as negligence magnet
Law firms specialising in property work are most likely to find themselves on the wrong end of a professional negligence claim.
Quotes of the year
Review of the year
Real estate review
Review of the year
Real estate roundup
Review of the year
Shadow conspiracy
Henri Brandman, the lawyer who acts for Denise Van Outen and Jim Davidson, has just realised that he is a celebrity solicitor in both senses of the words.For years, Brandman has been vaguely aware of the same cars circling his West End firm, but assumed the drivers to be neighbours. In actual fact, the immediate environs of his office are a training ground for junior tabloid newspaper reporters, and for years Brandman has been watched constantly.Brandman only discovered ...
Shipping firms quizzed on billing for P&I work
Thomas Miller, which manages protection and indemnity clubs, is taking major steps across the globe to reform its own working practices and improve the way in which lawyers bill clients.
Stop yankin' my chain
At this time of year, it has been observed that many singletons start a determined hunt for a partner to give them, a) an excuse not to attend endless mince pie parties, and b) something which isn't a woolly jumper for Christmas.Tulkinghorn is sure the same holds true for those lonely law firms that have stood by and watched others find their perfect partners during the year but have yet to score a date with a major US player, let alone a marriage. But beware Yanks bearing ...
Taking its place in history
But surely the prize for the grandest Christmas effort should go to Theodore Goddard, which has sent out a loose-leaf calendar in a CD case reminding us of world-shaking events of the last ten decades.1926: first television transmission sent by John Logie Baird1948: the NHS is formed1953: Hillary and Tensing conquer Everest1969: Neil Armstrong steps onto the moonand er, 1902: Theodore Goddard sets up business
Taking the hiss
Is the right to privacy going too far? First it was Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones, but now…An engineering consultancy was recently prosecuted for allegedly damaging a smooth snake habitat (no, nothing to do with the legal profession). Following the works, an injured smooth snake was found and whisked off to a vet for round-the-clock care at the consultancy's expense. The consultancy's lawyers, Chris Corney of Fishburn
The Bar
Review of the year
The Leader Column
It can't be said often enough: mid-sized firms are not dead. For a decade it's been fashionable to predict their demise (medium-sized bad, global doubleplusgood), yet despite everything, clients seem to like them.Conventional wisdom has it that mid-sized firms will be squeezed in a downturn by the global firms on one side and niche firms on the other. But that rather depends on the firm. Just think about the panel reviews this year. Last week, The Lawyer revealed that ...
The people person
Philip Bramwell, head of legal at BT breakaway company mm02, used to have an in-house 'full-service firm', but now he is looking for individuals only. Kathryn Hobbs reports
TMT
Review of the year
Upturned collar
White collar crime is on the up; and with the rise of the internet the trend looks likely to continue. Deborah Talbot looks at the measures being introduced to fight the criminals
Weil Gotshal in bonus bonanza
US firm Weil Gotshal & Manges is set to make the highest bonus payments so far this year, beating those paid out by Cravath Swaine & Moore.
What a card
It's that time of year again, when you hear from people of whom you have absolutely no recollection and who have signed their name so illegibly that any chance of recollection is impossible. Tulkinghorn was delighted to hear from 'Aruba' and 'Mmmmony', and hopes that they will be in touch again soon.Christmas also seems to point out to lawyers the funny side of what they do (woefully lacking for the rest of the year). Thus, Tulkinghorn has this week received ...
