29 July 2002
The Lawyer
A&O's US group kicks off M&A with SIIF Energies
Allen & Overy's London US law group has completed its first M&A transaction
ABP counsel scoop almost £3m in fees
Counsel acting for Associated British Ports (ABP) in a public inquiry have negotiated vast fees totalling almost £3m
Addleshaws licensing practice faces closure after head leaves
Addleshaw Booth & Co is facing the demise of its licensing practice following the pending departure of head of licensing Anthony Lyons
All or nothing
Conditional fees for personal injury cases are one thing, but when it comes to major commercial litigation, Jon Robins finds out that the big City firms have yet to take CFAs to their hearts
Atlas shrugged
After just two months in the job, Atlas Capital's Alex Wise may appear to have the weight of the world on his shoulders, but as Emma Vere-Jones reports, he isn't fazed at all
Bank of China float set to open the floodgates
The Bank of China (Hong Kong) was finally listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange to great public fanfare last Thursday morning (25 July)
Beachcroft Wansbroughs gives IP a leg-up by hiring ex-Finers partner
Beachcroft Wansbro-ughs has boosted its intellectual property (IP) practice by hiring Robin Fry as a partner
CC lawyer takes up Government post
Clifford Chance's director of public policy Richard Thomas (left) has been appointed to the role of Information Commissioner
Conquering Europe
Over the last few years US firms have stormed into Europe with a host of mergers and lateral hires. Nicola Smith reports on what they've been up to this year, both at home and away
Conquering the US
The launch of Clifford Chance's San Francisco office saw the profession's biggest ever lateral hire
Cravath lawyer moves to McDermott as partner
McDermott Will & Emery has hired Cravath Swaine & Moore lawyer Paul Scrivano as a partner in its M&A and securities practice
Crooked solicitors gain immunity from Law Soc
Hundreds of corrupt solicitors could escape having their practices shut down by the Law Society by claiming it infringes their human rights
DEAL OF THE WEEK - CORUS/COMPANHIA SIDERURGICA NACIONAL
CC and Slaughters lead Corus and CSN's transatlantic tie-up
Deals summary
Allen & Overy (Riccardo Sallustio) advised Banca Popolare di Milano on a e27.3m (£17.3m) loan to 21 Invest 5, part of the Benetton Group for the acquisition of a minority stake in design solution company Permasteelisa. 21 Invest 5 advised by Bonelli Erede Pappalardo.Watson Farley & Williams advised NIB Capital and Bank of Scotland on the $51m (£32.6m) financing of a flotation production and storage platform. Borrower Four-Serviços E Navegação ...
Deals summary
SJ Berwin (Tom O'Grady) advised Buckingham Estates Partnership on the sale of a £40m property portfolio to Buckingham Estates, a subsidiary of Golfrate Holdings. Buckingham Estates advised by Darlingtons (Simon Lawrence, David Swede). DJ Freeman (Stephen O'Brien, Helen Dyer) acted for financers Royal Bank of Scotland.Gouldens (Suzanne Billington) advised Pillar Property and ...
Deals summary
SJ Berwin (Jonathan Djanogly) advised ukbetting on its £13.7m offer for the shares of TEAMtalk Media Group. Ukbetting represented by Beeson Gregory. Linklaters acted for financiers UBS Warburg.Berwin Leighton ...
Dentons loses Moscow chief to Chadbournes
Chadbourne & Parke has hired the head of Denton Wilde Sapte's Moscow office
Dickinson Dees' national strategy boosts turnover
North East firm Dickinson Dees has recorded an increase in turnover for the last financial year of 21 per cent, up from £26m to £31.5m
Director action
John Madden and Lisa Toporek take a look at new directions for corporate governance in the US
DLA's hiring spree continues with major Hammonds coup
DLA has taken on the London head of intellectual property (IP) from rival firm Hammonds
Eversheds Newcastle head joins UK Land Estates
The senior partner of Eversheds' Newcastle office has left to join property investment and development client UK Land Estates
Finance houses turn hands to legal services
A group of international financial institutions led by Goldman Sachs has launched an independent company offering legal and risk management services
Finers blames 25 per cent profit slump on 'optimistic' accountancy
Finers Stephens Innocent is blaming accounting irregularities for its financial results this year, which have seen profits per partner slashed by 25 per cent
Gibson Dunn scores Lehman triple
Gibson Dunn & Crutcher has started work on its third European property take-private for Lehman Brothers Real Estate Partners. All three deals have been valued at almost £1bn.Partner Wayne McArdle is advising the bank on a £1.1bn joint public takeover of Dutch property fund Uni-Invest with real estate developer Merwede.McArdle handled Lehman Brothers' efforts to gain clearance from the European Commission to take Dutch property fund Haslemere private, valued ...
Global Crossing's Chapter 11 racks up legal fees of $13m
The law firms involved on Global Crossing have billed almost $13m (£8.3m) in fees in the months following the beleaguered company's decision to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy
Good lucking
While some may regard him as the Don Quixote of law, Kathryn Hobbs finds out that Hammonds managing partner Chris Jones's optimism is well-founded
Hogan extends its reach into China
Hogan & Hartson is expanding its international operations into China
Inland Revenue pursues barristers for undeclared booty
Thousands of barristers face being investigated by the Inland Revenue for failing to declare their cash reserves for taxation
Insurance
Claims Direct has come crashing down to earth. As with all good tragic characters, fatal and inescapable flaws have caused this one-time darling of the London Stock Exchange to self-destruct. Investors' rocky love affair with the personal injury (PI) revolutionary/ambulance-chasing scumbag (depending on your point of view) finally came to an acrimonious end earlier this month.Claims Direct, whose shares had traded for as much as £3.60, called in the administrators when ...
Jack of all trades
If you want to be an employment lawyer working for a US firm in London, you'll need to be an expert in UK, US and European law. Sarah Linton reports on what American clients expect
Legal profession finds 'no action' policy for cartel whistleblowers too ill-defined
An Office of Fair Trading (OFT) consultation document on leniency for whistleblowers in cartel cases has been met with a negative reaction from the legal profession
Lewis Silkin takes up regeneration instruction for Bristol City Council
Lewis Silkin has won a tender against four City firms to advise Bristol City Council on a major regeneration project. It is one of just a handful of projects that the council has outsourced in recent years.The council does not have a regular adviser for property work because most of it is done in-house. The internal team comprises 90 staff, including fee-earners and support staff. "In the last ...
Linklaters advises banks on unique Energis administration
Linklaters has consolidated its position in the restructuring market by completing its work on the Energis administration.The firm advised a consortium of banks on the prepackaged administration of the listed company. It is thought to be the first time that a transaction of this type has been completed in the UK.Linklaters, led by restructuring and insolvency partner Richard Holden and banking ...
Livingstone withdraws challenge to Tube PPP
Mayor of London Ken Livingstone has dropped his legal challenge to the Government's public private partnership (PPP) plans for the London Underground
Milbank Tweed relocates NY partner to London
Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy is moving New York global corporate partner Crayton Bell to London
Norton Rose completes rejig of management
Norton Rose has finalised its management team and appointed corporate finance partner James Bateson and litigation partner Patrick Farrell to fill the two remaining posts
Norton Rose reneges on partner payments
Cashflow problems hit partners by up to £100K each; firm rejects bank loan
Opinion
The UK Govern-ment has been criticised for the approach taken in the Electronic Commerce (EC Directive) Regulations 2002. They are late, unclear and not sufficiently far-reaching. This view is somewhat harsh.First, look at the questions they were asked to solve: what law should apply to transactions concluded over the internet? Is it necessary to amend the many statutes that require physical writing and signatures? How transparent should traders be when doing business in the online ...
Orrick looks for further growth in Los Angeles with new office head
Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe has appointed real estate partner Michael McAndrews as head of its Los Angeles office
P&I club makes lawyer 'correspondent'
An English-qualified lawyer has been appointed as a front line problem solver by a protection and indemnity (P&I) club which mutually insures shipowners in Vancouver, one of the busiest ports in the world
PARLETT KENT
Clinical negligence firm Parlett Kent has flexed its way to success
Profits hit by £1m fee on Withers' US merger
Withers has recorded flat profits this year after spending at least £1m on fees for legal advice on its transatlantic merger
Richards Butler's Chinese walls are safe
Three conflict of interest cases against Richards Butler, considered to be as important as the infamous Price Jefri Chinese walls litigation, have been thrown out of court
Royal Caribbean-P&O-Carnival love triangle: the inside story
Slaughter and May client forced to apologise for leaks; Herbert Smith learns to work the system; FTC to rule on US fight
Schulte Roth launches London office
Schulte Roth & Zabel is to establish its first overseas office when it opens in London in September
Terra Firma lands senior Nomura lawyer
Terra Firma Capital Partners, the new fund run by Nomura's ex-head of principal finance Guy Hands, has poached a senior lawyer from the bank to take up the newly-created position of global general counsel
The Leader Column
Who can tell the best way to deal with a downturn? Is it best to proceed with caution? Or should you be hell-bent on using it as a time to get one over on the magic circle, seeing it as an opportunity to nab partners normally out of your league? Only time will tell.
The whole truth?
Enronitis has caused a fever of anticipation - and dread - over new regulations to make corporate lawyers report client misdeeds to the powers that be. Jon Robins reports
They think it's all over... let's hope so
Sunday morning is not a time of the week that many of Tulkinghorn's hard working protégés profess to seeing very often. After all, having worked hard all week, even journalists deserve the odd lie-in. Nevertheless, from 10am on 24 July, along with the sporting greats from the legal profession, they gathered together at Wembley five-a-side centre for the fourth annual TheLawyer.com LegalFives competition. Second only to The Lawyer Awards, this is surely the key event in ...
US round-up
It would have been understandable if US firms had begun to rethink their European strategy
Vincent & Elkins rides out Enronitis as oil/gas sector sends its regards
Clifford Chance placed third in eyes of energy companies; utilities lawyers target the Middle East, CIS and Africa
Virgin reviews panel after twelve months
In an extraordinarily proactive move, Virgin Group is reviewing its legal panel after just over a year
Ward Hadaway hires IP star from Martineaus
Ward Hadaway has appointed Martineau Johnson intellectual property (IP) specialist Niall Head-Rapson as a partner in its commercial department
WorldCom pleads with US courts for extra law firms
Weil Gotshal to be joined by a host of extra US firms as bankrupt telecoms giant fights for rebirth
