5 August 2002
The Lawyer
A fine romance
Amid a serious bout of eyebrow raising, Wessing joined forces with the UK's Taylor Joynson Garrett. But Aled Griffiths discovers that, with a canny focus on technology, it could prove to be a marriage made in heaven
A sea of change
As the European Union steps up its control over the shipping sector with a host of new regulation, specialist law firms are in greater demand. Ricardo Celli reports
BLASER MILLS
Blaser Mills has acted on advice to restructure - and so far, so good
BLP gains corporate restructuring partner
Dechert is to lose its specialist corporate restructuring capability following the resignation of partner Ben Larkin, who will move to Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP)
Bridge over troubled waters
Despite the perception, SiâFellows says that the shipping sector does realise the benefits of ADR and providers are getting ready for a dramatic increase in mediation.
Camerons dispenses with Bristol corporate practice
CMS Cameron McKenna is set to close its corporate practice in Bristol
Carnival coup for Latham in competition team debut
As Royal Caribbean and Carnival fight over P&O Princess, The Lawyer has learnt that Latham & Watkins had a key role alongside Slaughter and May in the European regulatory battle
Castren & Snellman gains maritime law
Leading Finnish commercial firm Castren & Snellman will merge with niche firm Serlachius & Ryti on 1 September to give it maritime law capability for the first time
CC and Ashursts called in as France Telecom jettisons TDF
The deal originated in France and took in Spain and Finland, but it was City-based firms that won the work. Clifford Chance advised France Telecom on the sale of its majority interest in broadcasting services provider Télédiffusion de France (TDF) to a consortium of private equity groups for e1.9bn (£1.19bn).An Ashur
Clarification
Regarding the story 'Gibson Dunn scores Lehman Triple' (The Lawyer, 29 July), we would like to clarify that the work for Lehman Brothers Real Estate Partners on the Burford deal remained with Paul Hastings after partner Wayne McArdle moved to Gibson Dunn & Crutcher.
Clear as mud
Lawyers, bless them. Now that must be the third time in as many weeks that Tulkinghorn has uttered those words. This week's subject is Kimbells, which has just become a limited liability partnership (LLP). The brave souls - all that financial transparency is frightening stuff. But not for senior partner Stephen Kimbell. When asked his opinion on why so many firms were scared of LLPs despite the greater financial security on offer, Kimbell's response was that it was the obligations ...
Climb every mountain
Tulkinghorn is heartened to hear that good sportsmanship is alive and well in Wales. After trouncing legal rivals in the annual Welsh 3 Peaks Challenge, the team from Cardiff firm Palser Grossman could hardly contain its glee. Employment lawyer James Moss told Tulkinghorn: "It was good to beat every other team of lawyers and to run past them on our way back down each mountain. Lawyers are not often renowned for their athletic abilities, but hopefully we've proved to be the exception." ...
Darrois beats Bredin Prat to number one position in French top 100 table
Smaller offices steal a march on larger rivals on fees per fee-earner basis; accountancy-tied firms come top for turnover
DEAL OF THE WEEK - LEGRAND
Ashursts gains key role in Schneider's Legrand selloff
Deals summary
Burges Salmon (Alan Barr, William Neville) advised Milk Link on the formation of £33m joint venture Staplemead Dairy Products with Express Dairies. Express Dairies was advised by Ashurst Morris Crisp while financiers Rabobank and Barclays were advised by Allen & Overy.
Deals summary
Wragge & Co (Jonathan Denton) advised Chelsea Building Society on the renewal of a e750m (£471.6m) medium-term note programme and on a £100m bond issue. HSBC, which acted as the dealer and trustee, was advised by Linklaters.Ashurst ...
Deals summary
Wragge & Co (John Burns) is advising ProLogis Developments on its development of a 220,000sq ft industrial space worth £10.4m at the former British Gas site at Purley Way, Croydon. Eversheds' Cardiff office and CMS Cameron McKenna ...
Dechert gears up for European assault with German launch
Dechert is following in the footsteps of Simmons & Simmons as it recruits sole practitioner Gerhard Kaiser to set up an office in Frankfurt
Dentons advises lender on gold-mining project
Denton Wilde Sapte has advised Société Générale on a senior loan agreement to finance Oxus Mining on the construction of its gold-mining project at Amantaytau in Uzbekistan. It is the first piece of work that the firm has undertaken for the bank in the CIS.The deal represents a renewed confidence in the region. "This is the first project financing in the CIS that has been undertaken without the support of a multilateral institution, significant sponsor or sovereign ...
Founder of KLegal's Polish firm leaves
KLegal's Polish firm Zielinski Stobnicka Dobkowski has lost one of its founding partners to Haarmann Hemmelrath
Fuelling energy
LNG is becoming big business for lawyers. Andrew Wettern and Ian McNeill look at what is making this sector boom
Gordon Dadds takes two from Julian Holy
West End firm Gordon Dadds has hired a partner and a senior associate from property firm Julian Holy
Hammonds faces court action over Football League contract
The Football League is considering suing Hamm-onds (formerly Hammond Suddards Edge) after failing in the High Court last Thursday (1 August) to hold Carlton and Granada liable for the £178m it is owed by ITV Digital
Hammonds senior insolvency partner quits firm
Hammonds senior insolvency partner Jeremy Bennett has finally resigned, ending months of speculation about his future at the firm and further diminishing its capability in Leeds
Happy as Barrie
After downsizing at his last firm, private equity boss Keir Barrie is happier to be charged with expansion at Theodore Goddard. Kathryn Hobbs reports
Legal aid
From being on the front line to planning long-term strategies, Oxfam's in-house lawyer Joss Saunders is one man who knows how to make a difference. Emma Vere-Jones reports
Legal Widow
News that we have 17 years until an asteroid crashes into us has afflicted the household in different ways
Lovells secures Govt BCCI statements
Lovells played a key role in stepping up pressure on the Government to disclose important evidence given by former ministers before the launch of the claim by BCCI's liquidators against the Bank of England
Mayer Brown gets a head for Chicago
Mayer Brown Rowe & Maw has appointed Julian D'Esposito to a newly-created position as partner-in-charge of the Chicago office
Oftel slated for dragging its feet on local loop unbundling as BT continues to reign
As new super-regulator Ofcom is set up to regulate the market from 2002, Jon Robins asks whether it will fare any better?
Opinion
The Government's six regional consultation papers published on 24 July address the expected increase in demand for passenger flights and the resultant increase in the size of airports, number of runways and total flights; they predict an 80 per cent rise in passenger movement at Heathrow alone by 2030, with over 500 extra flights per day.Unless extra flight frequency and shorter allocated slots are to absorb the whole increase, this prediction must imply more night flights ...
Osborne Clarke, Burges Salmon in speedy Tyntesfield sale
Osborne Clarke and Burges Salmon were asked to think quickly and bring a speedy close to the sale of the 'fairytale' Tyntesfield Estate to the National Trust
Profile: Ann Conway-Hughes, CEO, Bevan Ashford
Conway-Hughes is a rarity in legal circles: first of all, she is a woman in charge of a national law firm; second, she is not even a lawyer
Real Estate
Chris Edwards' decision to quit Dechert for the more welcoming arms of Charles Russell last month (The Lawyer, 1 July) spoke volumes about where real estate has been heading at the Anglo-US firm.Edwards was part of the furniture at Titmuss Sainer Dechert in its heyday as one of the UK's leading property ...
Roving reporter
When Tulkinghorn sent young scribe Brendan Malkin up to York recently, little did either imagine it would turn into a struggle for survival. Somewhat ambitiously, Malkin planned to catch the last train home to London after dinner with the Northern Insolvency Lawyers Association, hosted by president Mark Phillips QC of 3-4 South Square. But those insolvency folk would have none of it and, several glasses of champagne later, became increasingly persuasive.With great generosity of ...
Shearmans' Singapore split challenged in court
Shearman & Sterling's former Singapore joint venture firm went to the extraordinary length of applying for a High Court injunction in order to stop the US firm withdrawing from the partnership unilaterally
Shock departure of chief exec sparks shake-up at Radcliffes
Westminster firm RadcliffesLeBrasseur is to review its management structure after the sudden departure of chief executive Vincent Denham last week
Simmons partner defects to Chiomenti
Simmons & Simmons' Italian practice has lost a financial markets partner and four associates to Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom ally Chiomenti Studio Legale
Somatra: top SRT man 'lied' to client
Firm faces £9m bill; Morison J slams ex-SRT chief and Stephenson Harwood partner
Stephenson Harwood takes a 25 per cent nosedive in profits per partner
Stephenson Harwood is set to face its most challenging year yet after the firm admitted average profits per partner have plummeted by 25 per cent during the last financial year
Stibbe and Freshfields in Vesteda securitisation
Herbert Smith's Dutch best friend Stibbe and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer have helped complete the Netherlands' largest ever securitisation, property company Vesteda's e1.4bn (£880.3m) Eurobond issue. Stibbe represented Vesteda and Freshfields' Amsterdam office advised Deutsche Bank, the lead manager of the transaction.Vesteda is the largest Dutch ...
Sweet & Maxwell buys Lawtel
Sweet & Maxwell has acquired Lawtel, the online legal information service, from Centaur Communications, parent company of The Lawyer, for an undisclosed sum
The happy day
Flacker Shipping Limited v Glencore Grain Limited (sub nom 'The Happy Day') (CA, 2002) raised a question which Lord Justice Mustill, in The Mexico I [1990], left open for "detailed exploration" should it arise in the future
The Leader Column
All that publicity about Carnival and no one has mentioned Latham & Wat-kins. It's obvious why Slaughter and May might stay quiet but why did Latham go along with it? Isn't the news that it's being brought in alongside Slaughters to advise Royal Caribbean on competition aspects in the highest profile deal around something to shout about?Of course, it could be because ...
Thompsons nets £25.5m from miners' claims
The Government has paid £118m in the last four and a half years to law firms handling compensation claims for miners with respiratory disease and vibration white finger
TLT grows by a fifth as existing clients come good
TLT Solicitors has announced an increase in turnover of 14 per cent on last year
Trowers proves latest lure to Steptoe lawyers
Steptoe & Johnson's London office has suffered another significant loss with the departure of employment head Neil Adams and an assistant to Trowers & Hamlins
UK firms back in good books as partners return from US rivals
Survey shows US firms are losing their appeal as partners complain of a lack of big deals and inadequate European presence
Walkers sets up office in BVI following Barkers buy
Cayman Islands firm Walkers has launched an office in the British Virgin Islands (BVI) after taking over the territory's corporate and international finance firm Barkers
White & Case instructed by banks on major Oman scheme
In a deal of significant political importance, White & Case has advised the banks on the financing of a fertiliser plant costing almost $1bn (£638m). It is the largest joint investment between the governments of India and Oman.The deal took over five years to complete because key terms had to be restructured. A 1999 drop in oil prices hit the value of natural gas, a feedstock for fertilisers. This in turn deflated the price of the fertilisers.Mark O'Neill, ...
