20 August 2001
The Lawyer
A view from Korea
There has been a large number of public and private Korean securitisation transactions during the past two years.
Acont Enterprises buys Aminex Production Company, which owns 55 per cent interest in Russian oil producer AmKomi.
Acont advised by Baker & McKenzie (Bernd Ratzke). Aminex advised by Ashurst Morris Crisp.
Addleshaws wins NPL redevelopment project
Addleshaw Booth & Co has won Glasgow-based NPL Estates as a new client.
Akubio
Mills & Reeve has added to its involvement in money raising for local ventures in Cambridge by securing seed and second round investment for Akubio. The spin-out from the University of Cambridge's chemistry and pathology departments has devised a virus and bacteria detection technology based on sound waves. This series of transactions for Akubio guarantees initial investment of £465,000 and supplementary ...
Are you sure he said 'fat'?
Rarely has Mrs Tulkinghorn been as interested in a case as she is in the possibility of David Ginola taking his Aston Villa FC boss to court for harassment.The French footballer - who is worth a whole lot more than the couple of quid a bottle of the shampoo he advertises costs - is considering legal action after his manager John Gregory suggested that the player he pays £35,000 a week was a bit overweight.Matrix Chambers would neither confirm nor deny reports that ...
Ashursts ally in league with Milosevic
Ashurst Morris Crisp's Italian e-alliance firm Studio Legale Sutti has agreed a merger with the Serbian firm which is heavily involved in the defence of former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic for war crimes.
Axa Investment Managers completes an arbitrage CDO (collatoralised debt obligation) relating to a portfolio of European loans and high-yield debt securities.
Axa advised by Linklaters & Alliance (Basil Zotiades). Banks advised by Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy.
Bar Talk
Castle Indemnity is under siege.
BT completes £5.5bn multi-currency revolving credit facility. Banks advised by Clifford Chance.
BT advised by Linklaters & Alliance (Claire Watson).
Buchanan Ingersoll managing partner plans move to Pinsents
The highly-rated managing partner of US firm Buchanan Ingersoll is moving his PFI practice to Pinsent Curtis Biddle.
Camerons nets football instruction
CMS Cameron McKenna has scored its first piece of work for the Football Association (FA).
Case in Focus
Jackson United Biscuits (UK), Newcastle Employment Tribunal (chair: D Trotter), 6 AugustThe applicant (A) was the manager of the weekend maintenance engineering team at the respondent's (R) KP site on Teeside.
CC Prague head defects to Lovells
Clifford Chance has lost its head of corporate in the Czech Republic to Lovells' Prague office.
Corporate
Rarely would you expect the battle to become Ireland's top entrepreneur to cause quite such a kerfuffle in the City. Since October, the Emerald Isle has been consumed with a fight to take the country's telephone company Eircom private, with HJ Heinz chief executive Tony O'Reilly slogging it out with telecoms entrepreneur Denis O'Brien.On this side of the pond, the bidding war saw Slaughter ...
DEAL OF THE WEEK - BARLOWS/GE CAPITAL
Addleshaw Booth & Co's role in the creation of the Northern Portfolio Limited Partnership was complicated by the fact that its client, Barlows, was simultaneously engaged in a take private deal. The firm advised acquisition vehicle Chepstow in the take private and constructed a chinese wall between this and the creation of Barlows' limited partnership with GE Capital Real Estate. Corporate finance partner Philip Goodstone and real estate partner Richard Wheeldon led on the creation ...
Denton Wilde squares up to Kazakhstan government
Denton Wilde Sapte is putting pressure on the Kazakhstan government to halt its plans to overhaul laws governing foreign investors.
DLA chooses new head of procurement
DLA has promoted Steven Norris to the role of national head of regulated procurement.
Ex-CMS assistant sues for workplace stress
CMS Cameron McKenna is being sued by a former assistant solicitor on the grounds of workplace related stress.
Ex-Law Soc president's fury over PC postal vote
The Law Society has been strongly criticised by former president Robert Sayer over its handling of a postal ballot on the proposed rise in the Practising Certificate (PC) fee
Finers fulfils property partner quest
Finers Stephens Innocent is snapping up a property finance partner from Wilde & Partners, the firm swallowed up by Hammond Suddards Edge in July.
Fitted up
Tulkinghorn has never been one for exercise, suffering as he does from tennis elbow, housemaid's knee, jogger's nipple and parson's nose. At most it's a brisk walk to the Wig & Pen, where he briefs his counsel. Apart from the year he entered the London Marathon... but we don't talk about that anymore. However, he was most intrigued by a recent health kick at Nabarro Nathanson. ...
Free thinking?
The press is campaigning for a change in libel law, claiming freedom of expression to be the highest goal. But Jonathan Coad asks: is it really the public's interest they have in mind?
Howrey Simon raids local rivals for Chicago launch
Washington DC firm Howrey Simon Arnold & White is taking on five partners from rival firms to launch an office in Chicago.
IBA Technologies (Europe) and Kettering General Hospital NHS Trust agree 10-year IT PFI deal worth £8.7m.
IBA Technologies advised by Masons (Ken Cooke). Kettering General Hospital advised by Pinsent Curtis Biddle.
Italian property company Risanamento Napoli buys Global Switch for £305m from Chelsfield, TrizecHahn and interests related to founder Andy Ruhan, all of which will take a stake in Risanamento.
Risanamento advised by Simmons & Simmons (Damon Le Maitre-George, Manfredi Vianini Tolornei). Global Switch's shareholders advised by Ashurst Morris Crisp, Wragge & Co and Canadian firm Davies Ward Philips & Vineberg.
John Mowlem & Company buys Pall Mall Holdings for £42.3m from Gresham Trust and a management team.
John Mowlem advised by Hammond Suddards Edge (David Armitage). Vendors advised by Macfarlanes (Charles Meek).
Last man standing
Dealing with lawyers can be so disappointing sometimes, as experienced by Christopher Digby-Bell at Palmer Capital Partners. Recently a firm (which shall remain nameless to spare its blushes) came in to pitch. Expecting at most two of them, he was astonished when half a dozen trooped in. There then followed a tedious hour or so when each of the grey men read from a dull script that Digby-Bell could have written himself, such was the level of information. But a ray of sunshine broke ...
Leader
Just as rioting season breaks out when the temperature rises, perhaps a bit of sun aggravates lawyers into bringing actions against their firms.
LG-Caltex
LG-Caltex Oil Corporation's bond issue was a sole counsel transaction. Clearz`y Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton advised Credit Suisse First Boston as bookrunner and global coordinator. Caltex was advised by Hong Kong firm Kim & Chang, but Cleary Gottlieb advised it on US law.Cleary Gottlieb provides advice for Credit Suisse in a number of jurisdictions but it also has a longstanding relationship ...
Linklaters takes on Innogy's asset swap with Northern
Linklaters & Alliance and Herbert Smith are advising Innogy Holdings and Northern Electric on a landmark asset swap deal.Innogy, which was part of National Power until a year ago, is giving up its interests in its Yorkshire electricity distribution business and associated debt in exchange for Northern Electric's electricity and gas supply business.A Linklaters team led by corporate ...
Lovells posts highest ever profit figures
Lovells has posted figures this year of £286.5m - and reaped record profits.
Magic circle trio top the EMTN league
Three magic circle firms are dominating the European market for Medium Term Note (EMTN) programmes, leaving clear blue water between themselves and their closest rival for the last six months, Hengeler Mueller Weitzel Wirtz.
Matthew Arnold
A new office and a place on Barclays' panel sees Matthew Arnold expanding
Ministry of Sound obtains £24m investment from 3i. Ministry of Sound advised by Macfarlanes (John Dodsworth).
3i advised in-house (Alastair Richardson) and by Denton Wilde Sapte (Charles Law) on due diligence matters.
Morgan Cole shakes up management after disappointing year-end figures
Morgan Cole is overhauling its international strategy and making a raft of management changes as it seekd to boost profitability and consolidate its post-merger integration.
National Grid Group
National Grid Group (NGG) is launching a £614m Eurobond issue on the back of three previous bond issues which were completed at the end of July. The combined value of the two index-linked bonds and the long-term fixed rate bond was £600m. Now NGG is launching two fixed rate Eurobond issues.CMS Cameron McKenna's relationship with NGG dates back to the privatisation of the electricity industry. National ...
News in brief
A round up of stories from the UK and around the world
Off their boxes
Tulkinghorn is certain it can't be true, but a little bird told him an amazing story about DLA's Liverpool office recently. Apparently, when the partnership voting form came around on the formation of DLA's European alliance D&P, the finer details escaped some of those in the 'Pool. They blithely ticked the 'Yes' box safe in the belief that all they were voting for was a change of logo.
Paul Hastings attacks UK property with partner hire
Nabarro Nathanson is set to lose one of its best-known property finance partners to Paul Hastings Janofsky & Walker as the US firm ramps up its London real estate practice.
Perfect statistics?
When an expert said the chance of two cot deaths in one family was 73 million to one Sally Clark's fate was sealed. But Jon Robins asks: can you believe everything you hear?
Philip Wood
Until law firms teach their lawyers about other jurisdictions and other systems of law they cannot be truly global. Lawyers cannot all become experts in the detail of the other jurisdictions they work in, but they can concentrate on the transactions that are at the heart of global legal practice. To do that they must capture transactional experience and distil practical solutions.Law firms train people in applied law, in negotiating techniques, in the knowledge of investor preferences ...
Romania forces foreign law firms to change their names
In an attempt to temper the dominance of international firms in Bucharest, the Romanian government has ordered all foreign entities in the capital to change their names.
Russell Jones sued by own lawyers over new bonus scheme
Revamped end-of-year bonuses cause ructions as some fee-earners lose up to £17,000; GMB backs its members to sue over slashes; firm remains defiant
Scottish Widows Fund and Life Assurance Society sells Three Quays, Tower Hill, London, with planning permission for hotel use to Viewmile for £25.75m.
Scottish Widows advised by Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer (Franc Pena). Viewmile advised by Sitt & Co.
Search for knowledge
An expert witness can make or break a case so finding the right one is paramount. Jon Robins reports on what could go wrong if you pick a not-quite-expert expert
Separated at birth
Housewives and students all over the country were devastated when the King and Queen of daytime telly Richard and Judy announced that they were moving to that den of iniquity Channel 4. Tulkinghorn believes the move to have been arranged by the Confederation of British Industry in an attempt to cut down on absenteeism from work. After all, what's the point of being sick if you can't take part in that quiz for the intelligentsia, Midday Money? (If you have no idea what Tulkinghorn ...
Simmons beats panel rivals to Govt IT work
Simmons & Simmons has bagged its fourth major Government IT outsourcing project of the year from right under the noses of three other leading firms.
Slaughters in Chipping Sodbury link
In a revolutionary move, Slaughter and May has bucked the trend of using top London design agencies.
Spivak reneges on Freshfields move to stay at Vinson & Elkins
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer's Washington DC office has been dealt a substantial blow following the announcement that Mark Spivak will no longer be joining the firm.
Stevens & Bolton scoops trusts expert
South East firm Stevens & Bolton has hired a former solicitor at Union Bancaire Privée as a partner in its tax and trust practice.
Sullivans beefs up Frankfurt practice
Sullivan & Cromwell has relocated one of its New York senior partners to Germany in a bid to strengthen its European presence.
University of Glasgow teams up with Imperial College and Generic Group to form a new company named Adaptive Screening.
University of Glasgow advised by Dundas & Wilson (Laurence Ward). Imperial College advised in-house (John Scholes). Generic Group advised by Vincent Sykes & Higham (John Davies).
Water Works
Britain's waterways haven't been this active since the industrial revolution, and British Waterways has got its hands full. Julia Cahill finds out that the organisation's legal team is moving with the times
Weighed down
Weightmans has been axed from two panels, lost its retail and leisure team and seen merger talks collapse, but senior partner Ian Evans is fighting on
Wilson Sonsini axes August bonus payouts
Associate bonuses are first to get the chop as the Valley starts to panic
Winter warmer for Taylor Joynson
Former Biddle senior partner Martin Winter has won three new clients for Taylor Joynson Garrett's private equity department since he moved to the firm in May. He has already completed a deal for one of them, Legal & General Ventures, on its acquisition of Craegmoor Healthcare Group.Craegmoor is the UK's largest nursing home operator. Legal & General Ventures, the private equity arm of insurance firm Legal & General, is understood to have acquired Craegmoor for around ...
Witnessing the change
The Woolf reforms have had a dramatic effect on the expert witness industry, with mixed reactions from lawyers and experts. Jon Robins asks: are the new rules actually working?
