After a year of being planted in Silicon Valley, Osborne Clarke’s Simon Beswick has turned the firm around. Julia Cahill talks to the Brit abroad When Osborne Clarke’s Silicon Valley partner looked out of an aeroplane window last week and saw nothing but mist over the Irish Sea, he wondered why on earth he was […]
As one of the most famous offshore financial centres, Jersey is subject to much scrutiny by the regulators. Matthew Thompson reports on how it is coping with all the new laws The fastest growing area in Jersey today is the regulatory field. We are now seeing the Jersey regulator, the Jersey Financial Services Commission and […]
Milton Grundy reports on what offshore jurisdictions have to offer now that tighter regulations have come into force A couple of years ago, it looked as though the offshore world would shortly cease to exist. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Report, more noted for its bellicose tone than its intellectual quality, demanded […]
The British Virgin Islands (BVI) is reforming its insolvency laws to bring them closer to the English Insolvency Act 1986 The aim is in line with the ambitions of many offshore jurisdictions: to present themselves as sophisticated and well-regulated financial centres.“The ability to predict outcomes accurately, to assess exposure and evaluate security, both in a […]
Hunton & Williams has recruited Naotaka Matsukata to become its chair of the Strategic International Business Practice. Matsukata was formerly the director of policy planning to the US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick.
Jersey firm Mourant du Feu & Jeune has been forced to disclose documents to the Securities and Exchange Commission as part of its ongoing investigation into the collapse of Enron Jersey company Mahonia, which is the subject of an Enron-related investigation by the Jersey Financial Services Commission, was set up and controlled by Mourant & […]
Dewey Ballantine is gearing up for a “difficult” expansion in Germany as it prepares to open a permanent Frankfurt office by the first quarter of next year The firm, which kick-started its western European plans earlier this year by recruiting Geza Toth from Weil Gotshal’s London office, has already taken temporary office space in the […]
Tony Wollenberg (left), the founder and former managing partner of Rakisons, now merged with Steptoe & Johnson, and former head of corporate Jonathan Polin, are to join the London office of Salans (previously Salans Hertzfeld & Heilbronn). Wollenberg and Polin masterminded the merger with Steptoes but decided their practices could be best developed elsewhere. “I […]
Recession begins to bite as redundancies mount; corporate in the firing line Osborne Clarke and KLegal are the latest firms to announce partner redundancies as corporate malaise continues to grip the City.Osborne Clarke has made redundant four London corporate partners, four associates and a handful of support staff in a bid to make the firm […]
Deutsche Bank takes home A$6m; HIH chief executive questioned by commission Australian law firm Blake Dawson Waldron squeezed the now defunct HIH Insurance for A$1m (£354,000) in fees in the final 24 hours before the insurer collapsed in March last year, a witness has revealed to the Royal Commission investigation.The witness revealed that the A$1m […]
White & Case has appointed Citibank’s regional general counsel for Budapest as its co-head of banking in the Hungarian capital. Károly Fóti will co-head the firm’s Budapest banking practice with English and French qualified lawyer Victoria Westcott. At Citibank, Fóti was part of the management team which led the business through two major bank acquisitions […]
Despite its political instability, Gibraltar still attracts a host of international clients. Alex Wade asks the locals why it’s a good place There is an element of paradox about Gibraltar. British since the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, its airstrip is also a main road. Its inhabitants, while hotly asserting their own nationhood and wish […]