20 January 2003
The Lawyer
Access all areas
The OFT is demanding direct access to the Bar. But with so much progress already made in this area, how much impact will the new rules actually have? Peter Bennett reports
Accounting for change
Travers Symons reports on account aggregation services
Archibald team defects to A&O
Allen & Overy's (A&O) Paris office has raided the intellectual property department of former Andersen Legal firm Archibald
Ashursts and Fried Frank tie-up stalls
Negotiating teams in profits stand-off; still no vote in sight
BA lawyer boosts Beaumont and Son
Owen Highley joins specialist aviation firm after 14 years at BA
Blake Dawson slated for HIH relationship
Australian firm Blake Dawson Waldron and its former partner and HIH director Charles Abbott are two of many parties featuring in the final submission presented by the HIH royal commission lawyers last Monday
Brains for Christmas
Tulkinghorn was very amused upon hearing the tale of the five unsuspecting lawyers and an in-house job at Santa's Grotto in the North Pole.Recruitment consultants Hughes-Castell advertised the festive vacancy last month as a joke, but much to its surprise received a number of serious enquires. One lawyer, who shall remain nameless, had to have the joke aspect of the ad explained several times before he believed it, and another insisted Hughes-Castell was wrong and that ...
Brobeck spurred to financial overhaul
Brobeck Phleger & Harrison is racing to resolve its huge debt burden after demands to reduce its liabilities from potential merger partner Morgan Lewis & Bockius
Cadwalader partner gets White House call
Litigation partner Michael Horowitz to serve on United States Sentencing Commission
Camerons quits Beijing and shrinks Hong Kong
CMS Cameron McKenna has abandoned its fledgling four-associate Beijing practice and drastically culled its Hong Kong office. The move will result in the loss of 40 lawyers. Hong Kong, which will be run by partner Tim Ingham, is to operate as an insurance boutique. Camerons will continue to service clients in China through the Shanghai office of its French ally firm Bureau Francis Lefebvre. First revealed on ...
Can A&O's new German chiefs bring the firm together?
With German lawyers' love of autonomy, the new management has a hard task. Aled Griffiths reports
CC appoints banking, capital markets joint heads
Clifford Chance has elected Robert MacVicar and Tim Plews as joint heads of banking and capital markets. Although banking and capital markets have separate representation on a global level, in London they have traditionally been run together, making a £150m-turnover business. First revealed on www.thelawyer.com/lawyernews 15 January
CC appoints new head of public policy
Clifford Chance has named Michael Smyth, the partner that runs its UK pro bono practice, as the new head of its public policy unit
CC Italy: Chessa quits for Standard & Poor's
Clifford Chance's joint managing partner for Italy Luigi Chessa is to join Standard & Poor's in Italy as a consultant
CC, Addleshaws victorious as Barclays takes axe to advisers
Addleshaw Booth & Co and Clifford Chance have secured the two coveted places on the panel of Barclays Private Equity’s (BPE) London team
Corporate deals round-up
Ashurst Morris Crisp (Jorg Kirchner, Klaus Herkenroth) advised the Taiwanese Sampo Group on the takeover of Nuremberg-based electronics company Grundig. Grundig advised by Beiten Burkhardt Goerdeler and Rödl & Partner.Latham & Watkins (Nigel Campion-Smith) advised Epic Brand Investments on ...
Creasing up
Tulkinghorn often feels a touch of sympathy for those partners and in-house lawyers who so bravely step forward and volunteer their life story for a profile in The Lawyer. Undoubtedly, ribbing from friends is par for the course. But pity Mark Roper-Drimie, the in-house lawyer at the English and Welsh Cricket Board. His profile in the 6 January edition of The Lawyer sported a large photo of him behind a wicket, cricket ball in hands. It turns out that the positioning of his hands was ...
De Brauw taskforce seeks US friendships
Dutch firm targets top US practices for referral links after Linklaters tie collapses
DEAL OF THE WEEK - SAFEWAY
Linklaters and Slaughters line up for regulatory showdown
Debevoise's London office takes on B&M finance head
The London office of Debevoise & Plimpton has poached Baker & McKenzie's (B&M) London head of financial services and investment funds Marwan Al-Turki
Dewey Ballantine is latest Hong Kong casualty
Asia under review as New York firm abandons Hong Kong office
Dorsey sued $10m for racial discrimination
Dorsey & Whitney is facing a $10m (£6.2m) racial discrimination lawsuit by a former associate. Patricia Russell Brown alleges that she was denied partnership because she is black and claims that she was promised promotion when she was hired. First revealed on www.thelawyer.com/lawyernews 14 January
Eversheds Italian ally weds
Piergrossi bolsters labour law practice with local merger
Freshfields admits City is king as German M&A head sets up camp in London
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has taken a complete U-turn in its investment banking strategy
Freshfields launches corporate crime panel
Freshfields links up with white collar practices to advise investment banks
Gibson Dunn hires Fenwick & West chair
Gibson Dunn & Crutcher is making waves on the US West Coast after taking on the chairman of Fenwick & West's litigation group
Gide Loyrette gets Shanghai surprise
Gide Loyrette Nouel has joined firms including Allen & Overy, Clifford Chance and Herbert Smith in winning a licence to open a second office in China. The Chinese Ministry of Justice has granted the firm permission to open in Shanghai. First revealed on www.thelawyer.com/lawyernews 14 January
Haarmann Hemmelrath boosts Shanghai presence
German firm hires Thieffry & Associates partner
Hammonds poised for Nauta merger in Spain
Hammonds partners have been given until Wednesday (22 January) to vote on a merger with the highly-regarded Madrid practice of Slaughter and May's Dutch best friend Nauta Dutilh
Herbert Smith bags KKR in private equity triumph
Herbert Smith has got its first break into private equity with an instruction from Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR) on the Safeway battle
Herbert Smith claims first with accountant partner
Inhouse accountant gets partnershipr to help meet client demands post-Enron
Herbert Smith in CIT property scoop
Herbert Smith has completed its first major property deal for property investment boutique CIT, - work that has traditionally been the domain of Macfarlanes
Hobsons puts its trust in merit-based Faegre
Hobson Audley's six-year courtship of Minneapolis-based Faegre & Benson has ended in marriage, but no seats on the merged firm's remuneration committee
Jones Day reinforces with Rajah, Orrick captures
While other US firms are pulling out of Singapore, Jones Day Reavis & Pogue is bucking the trend by poaching a team of lawyers from local firm Rajah & Tann and a project finance partner from Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe
Judge slams DLA in ICL v Co-operative
Baker & McKenzie's first case for ICL (now Fujitsu Services) against Co-operative Group has concluded triumphantly, and the judge's damning verdict has left opposition lawyers DLA and Richard Mawrey QC of 2 Harcourt Buildings with egg on their faces
King for a day
It cannot be. Tulkinghorn is distressed to hear that Hammonds partners are already taking bets on the successor to the venerable Chris Jones, Yorkshireman to the stars.Chris's term as managing partner runs out next year, and a mole tells Tulkinghorn that Hammonds' lawyers are already running a book on the next chief.Apparently, Nick Allen is topping the poll by a mile, so start lunching him fast. At least Nick doesn't fall into the category of ...
Latham joins in-crowd on Safeway battle
UBS Warburg and Goldman Sachs appoint US firm on Sainsbury's bid
Lawrence Graham bags ABN Amro offshore work
Lawrence Graham has been appointed by ABN Amro to advise its trust companies in Jersey and the Cayman Islands on all of their international trust work
Legal Widow
Inspiration deserted the Lawyer on Sunday, and he came down to interrupt a gung-ho game of Monopoly to ask us for some help in preparing a speech to the United Front of Project Lawyers (or whatever), due to meet for its annual trough-diving session at the end of the month.
Leigh Day to challenge sex discrimination accusation
Leigh Day & Co is facing a potentially embarrassing lawsuit after a former lawyer launched a sexual discrimination and unfair dismissal claim against the civil liberties firm
Linklaters Bangkok takes priority over Hong Kong
Partner Peter Treacy relocates from Hong Kong to develop Thai practice
Linklaters takes top spot in Asia M&A tables
Linklaters has muscled its way into pole position in the Asian M&A league tables, scoring the top spot in terms of number of deals announced and their value
M&A Solicitors
M and A Solicitors is flying the flag for entrepreneurs in Cardiff
Mail on Sunday defeated again by Maria Fernandes
Wife of Keith Vaz wins second libel action against the newspaper
Maitland Chambers posts record £20m in turnover
Maitland Chambers has posted a 42 per cent increase in turnover in 2002, after its launch just two years ago
Masons secures Spainish alliance
Masons has moved into its second European jurisdiction by forming an alliance with Madrid firm Buxeda Menchen
Mummy's little lawyers
Try as they might to be all grown up, lawyers are really just a bunch of mummy's boys - and Tulkinghorn has the proof. Following the publication of The Lawyer's wonderful Hot 100 list, this very tome has been inundated with requests for extra copies. However, one particular partner at a magic circle firm took the biscuit. Apparently his mummy was less than happy that the top of her handsome son's head had been chopped off in his photo.Despite this the lovely ...
Nicholson Graham banking litigation head defects
Nicholson Graham & Jones has lost head of banking litigation Paul Howcroft to Marriott Harrison. He joins other recent partner hires Jane Jales and Franco Barone (litigation), Andrew Astachnowicz (property), and Simon Vivian and Richard Hinchliffe (corporate).
Norton Rose enters Safeways fray
Mark Lloyd Williams and Chris Pearson act for Philip Green's backer West LB
O'Melveny targets silver lining in telecoms cloud
Ex-Hunton & Williams partners to set up specialist regulatory group
Only in America
Lawyer-bashing may be the world's favourite pastime, but few would deny the need for a backlash against those litigation-hungry Americans. Jon Robins meets two legal commentators who are trying to put a stop to their country's blame culture
Opinion
Picture a restructuring: groups of bondholders, banks and leasing creditors, each with their own sets of financial and legal advisers; nervous management teams, nervous auditors - further legal advisers needed; a quoted group with some Continental European interests - you guessed it, further scope for legal advice
Osborne Clarke staff cull continues
Support staffing levels come under review; 40 jobs to go
Past master
Nigel Hewitson found his vocation in life by blending law with historical preservation when he became English Heritage's legal director. Husnara Begum reports
Pillsbury: Houston, we have lift off
Pillsbury Winthrop has hired three partners and two associates from Vinson & Elkins for its new Houston office. They will be joined by energy co-head Jerry Ross and real estate partner Laura Hannusch from Pillsbury's San Francisco office. First revealed on www.thelawyer.com/lawyernews 15 January
Pinsents wins place on Ikea panel
Pinsent Curtis Biddle has won new instructions from Ikea following the Swedish home furnishing retailer's annual review of its UK legal panel
Piper Rudnick in hiring spree for Boston launch
Dissolution of Hill & Barlow profits Piper Rudnick with 33 lawyers
Salans lawyers scoop two plum ICA roles
One of Salans' founding members Carl Salans has been appointed vice-president of the International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce. Meanwhile, Piotr Nowaczyk, a partner in Salans' Warsaw office, has been named Polish representative to the court.
Scottish Law Soc wants disciplinary rethink
The Scottish Parliament is debating whether to let the council of the Scottish Law Society drop its responsibility for disciplining solicitors
SEC under fire from accountancy tied firms
The big four accountancy firms have sent the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) letters asking for a last-ditch reprieve on auditor independence proposals that threaten accountancy-tied law firms worldwide. Revenues at KLegal, Landwell and Tite & Lewis will be hard hit unless the SEC changes its mind.Under the Sarbanes-Oxley regulations, accountancy-tied law firms outside the US will not be able to work for SEC-registered clients. Referral levels vary, but some ...
Shearman becomes Levi's top adviser
Shearman & Sterling has replaced New York corporate powerhouse Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz as the main legal adviser to Levi Strauss
Sheppard Mullin lures Disney general counsel
US firm Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton has snapped up Walt Disney & Co's general counsel and executive vice-president Louis Meisinger to help launch an institutional entertainment and media practice. He will act as senior adviser and work as a mediator for alternative dispute resolution services. First revealed on www.thelawyer.com/lawyernews 16 January
Shipping lawyers pulled up for poor costs management
Shipping lawyers' and claims managers' methods are under internal review following criticism by the world's largest protection and indemnity (P&I) club, which mutually insures shipowners
Simmons bags entry to Safeway battle
Firm profits from A&O conflict to win Philip Green instruction
Simpson Thacher, Orrick quit Singapore offices
US firms Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett are shutting the doors of their Singapore offices following a continued dearth of work
Slaughters cultivates corporate
While most City firms are seeking to offload personnel from their corporate departments, Slaughter and May has bucked the trend by recruiting new corporate assistants
Taken to task
In the wake of three overturned decisions, the role of the European Commission's merger taskforce is under scrutiny. But as Neil Warwick reports, the alternatives could be worse
The Consumer Credit Directive
The directive will apply to loans of any size. Small loans have been specifically included, as the EC believes theye are typically provided to the weakest members of society
The Leader Column
All good things come to those who wait - no doubt a cliché Ashursts and Fried Frank are all too aware of. Being the focal point of one of the most gossiped about mergers since… well, Ashursts and Latham & Watkins, is probably distracting and not a little annoying.The legal community is fascinated by the prospect that Ashursts could make this one work. Among the whispers, lawyers have been predicting that a tie-up will never happen. This is not least because ...
The truth hurts
The-Pope-is-a-Catholic corner: Tulkinghorn liked the Continental Clifford Chance partner who revealed that the firm's management was "a bit too UK-focused". Still, it shows more insight than those lovely people at Travers Smith Braithwaite, who are just too self-effacing for their own good. One partner ...
The two powers
Taylor Wessing's German and UK managing partners seem like chalk and cheese. So can they integrate their firms? Catrin Griffiths reports
Theodores boosts employment
Theodore Goddard has boosted the numbers in its flagging employment department by hiring Allen & Overy's (A&O) head of employee share schemes Stephen Chater as a part-time consultant
Theodores' suitors come out of hiding
A series of US and UK firms including Addleshaw Booth & Co and CMS Cameron KcKenna have emerged as the firms being targeted by Theodore Goddard as merger partners. Theodores' management team, which includes senior partner Paddy Grafton Green (left), is expected to recommend a merger shortlist by February. First revealed on www.thelawyer.com/ lawyernews 15 January
Travers Smith Braithwaite and Skadden Arps set to clean up on NTL restructuring
Travers Smith Braithwaite and Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom are set to rake in millions of pounds worth of fees after resurrecting faltering cable operator NTL.At stake is $68.4m (£42.7m) of potential income that NTL, which emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection ...
Wragges duo form niche technology practice
Two associates, Jagvinder Kang and Stephen Ollershaw, have quit Wragge & Co's technology team to form Technology Law Alliance, their own niche IT and e-commerce practice. First revealed on www.thelawyer.com/lawyernews 14 January
