Flotations
Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom and Hong Kong firm Woo Kwan Lee & Co advised the former Chinese-owned Jiangxi Copper Company on its HK$1.5bn dual flotation on the Hong Kong and London Stock Exchange. Allen & Overy advised Merrill Lynch
Flotations
Dibb Lupton Alsop advised media communications specialist CIA Group on its £17m placing and open offer of shares on the London Stock Exchange to fund in part the acquisition of two Scandinavian media specialists. Allen & Overy acted for HSBC James Capel
Will the law really protect our rights?
John Wadham considers the Government’s commitment to human rights and compares Canada and New Zealand’s methods of incorporating human rights into domestic law. John Wadham is director of civil liberties group Liberty. The Government’s proposal to incorporate the European Convention on Human Rights is of constitutional significance. For the first time the right to privacy, […]
The Lawyer Inquiry: Costas Andrea
Costas Andrea was born in London in 1962. He is now principal of Andrea & Co. What was your first job? Shelf-stacker at Sainsburys. What was your first ever salary as a lawyer? £6,000. What would you have done if you hadn’t become a lawyer? Pathologist. Which law could you live without? All laws around […]
Top Dutch firms elect to tie the knot in ground-breaking merger
LEADING Dutch practices Loeff Claeys Verbeke and Buruma Maris voted to merge last week. When the merger comes into effect on 1 January 1998, the new firm will overtake Nauta Dutilh as the largest firm in Holland with 380 fee earners. Dolf Stuyling de Lange, secretary to the general board at the Loeffs, the largest […]
Girling moves on ABA barriers
Law Society president Tony Girling has invited the American Bar Association to visit the UK to assess the quality of legal education here in a bid to end the deadlock over the requalification rights for English lawyers in New York. Girling extended the invitation to the ABA committee on legal education and admissions last month […]
In brief: UK soon to adopt human rights law
A white paper on the incorporation of the European Convention on Human Rights is imminent, the Lord Chancellor, Lord Irvine of Laird, revealed on Friday at a Bill of Rights Conference, sponsored by Bindman & Partners at University College London. Irvine told the delegates: “You will not have long to wait.” Stressing the ultimate decision […]
New York practice loses derivatives head to rival
Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft – the New York firm which has just set up a London derivatives practice – has lost the head of its US derivatives practice to Shearman & Sterling. Holland West, who led the derivatives and asset management practices at Cadwaladers for four years, has put his move down to the fact […]
Budget receives mixed review from profession
Lawyers have responded to the budget with a mixture of relief and suspicion. On the surface there were few surprises. The probability of an increase in stamp duty was signalled in The Lawyer three weeks ago. Changes to tax credits on dividends paid to pension funds were widely expected, as was the likelihood of an […]
Vote Sycamore, says chair
Senior partners of City firms and their staff have been urged to vote for Phillip Sycamore as Law Society president by City of London Law Society chair Anthony Pugh-Thomas. In a letter to all senior City partners, Pugh-Thomas recommends Sycamore over his rival Martin Mears, who he infers has damaged the profession’s public standing. “I […]
Advocates of change
Solicitor advocates have many advantages over barristers, discovers Leo Schulz. Leo Schulz is a freelance journalist. One area of agency work expected to grow is that of solicitor advocates. This year, for the first time, two solicitors were created Queen’s Counsel. But in practice, solicitors acting as agents have made surprisingly little progress as advocates […]