30 May 2011

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Four councils set up shared legal panels

Four local authorities in the West of England have pooled together to appoint 12 law firms and 20 barristers’ chambers to a series of shared legal panels. North Somerset Council led on the new legal services framework agreement. Other consortium members include Bath & North East Somerset Council, Bristol City Council and South Gloucestershire Council. North […]

Matthew Jones
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Focus: SNR Denton: We shall overcome

Shocking financials have blighted SNR Denton’s first year as a combined entity. Chief executive Matthew Jones explains his plan for turning the firm’s fortunes around SNR Denton’s UK LLP financial report this year is going to make for grim reading, there is no way to sugarcoat that. To be fair, the firm’s UK LLP CEO […]

Slaughters, Travers lead on £140m Umeco sale

Slaughter and May and Travers Smith have taken leading roles in Umeco’s sale of its supply chain business to a private equity buyer. The engineering group is selling Pattonair to Exponent Private Equity for a ­figure in the region of £140m, with completion expected in July. Travers private equity head Philip Sanderson is leading for […]

EMW, Eversheds drive Jardine’s Wayside buy

EMW and Eversheds have both landed roles on Jardine Motors Group’s acquisition of car dealership Wayside Group. The deal, which is one of the most significant UK automotive mergers since the recession, brings Jardine Motors’ turnover to more than £1.2bn, making it the sixth-largest dealer group in the UK. Eversheds advised long-time client Jardine Motors. […]

Andrew Newbery
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Ashurst, Herbies, White & Case power Abu Dhabi IPP project

Ashurst, Herbert Smith and White & Case have scored top roles advising on the financing of Abu Dhabi’s $1.5bn (£920m) Shuweihat 3 Independent Power Plant (IPP) project. The IPP project, which reached financial close on 19 May, is the world’s biggest power project financing this year. The 1.6GW power plant is expected to be ­operational […]

Couchmans lines up alongside magic circle on selloff of Tote

Sports specialist Couchmans has won a role alongside Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Linklaters advising on bids to acquire bookmaker the Horserace Totalisator Board (the Tote). Former Liverpool FC chairman Sir Martin Broughton and betting chain Betfred have put in rival tenders to bring the Tote into private hands. Broughton’s Sports Investment Partners valued the state-owned target at £230m, […]

Gideon Benaim
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The Court 10 stars shaping the law on privacy

Court 10 at the Royal Courts of Justice has had more visitors than usual in the past month as the press fights back against what it perceives as encroaching ­privacy laws. Court 10 is where the defamation judges sit and where a handful of lawyers are tussling over whether the right to privacy should triumph […]

Herbies’ Seine of the times

Even by Parisian standards, the latest departures from Herbert Smith, with three litigators upping sticks for Allen & Overy (A&O), are eye-catching. On the face of it, this is the latest symptom of an extraordinary recruitment churn at senior levels in France, which we explored earlier this year (The Lawyer, 11 April). However, it hints […]

Paul Bugingo

SNR Denton nurtures Mid East-Africa focus

SNR Denton has transferred London-based Africa specialist Paul Bugingo to Dubai as it aims to give its Africa practice a Middle East-Africa rather than London-Africa focus. The move comes as the firm seeks regulatory approval to launch offices in Beijing and Shanghai. Partner Bugingo, who co-chairs the Africa committee along with partners Geoffrey Wynne and Jeffrey ­Krilla, moved […]

Rob Day
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SJ Berwin jubilant as PEP skyrockets by 40 per cent

SJ Berwin has shown a strong recovery following its aborted merger with Proskauer Rose, posting a 5 per cent increase in income and a 40 per cent rise in average profit per equity partner (PEP). Revenue jumped from £171m in 2009-10 to £179m in 2010-11, while PEP saw an increase from £447,000 to £626,000. The […]

Camerons partner drops action and walks out

CMS Cameron ­McKenna real estate disputes head Caroline DeLaney has quit after withdrawing a sexual discrimination claim against the firm.   DeLaney, who joined the firm in 1993, left last month, more than a year after she instructed Dawsons to advise her on a sex discrimination claim brought in the Employment Tribunal.According to a source close to the […]

Mark Gilbert
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Addleshaws partner resigns amid expenses saga

Addleshaw Goddard is working with the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) over alleged discrepancies in the expenses and disbursements of a former partner. Commercial real estate partner Mark Gilbert resigned from Addleshaws’ LLP on 10 May following an internal investigation into alleged discrepancies in the equity partner’s claims. Gilbert is now a consultant at Devonshires, which he joined […]