The in-house legal profession is leaps and bounds ahead of private practice in terms of diversity, new research has found. According to research from legal recruiter Laurence Simons, which canvassed over 1,900 in-house lawyers, 35 per cent of those surveyed are from an ethnic minority background, while 7 per cent described themselves as gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender […]
Spanish firm Garrigues was crowned International Firm of the Year at the The Lawyer Awards two weeks ago – the first non-US firm to win the prize. With revenue of €334.3m (£273.6m) for 2008-09 the firm topped the table of Continental European law firms by revenue for the second year running after experiencing growth of 12.6 per cent. Co-managing […]
Russell Jones & Walker may have missed out on the prizes at this year’s The Lawyer Awards, but in some rather high-flying quarters the firm has got the seal of approval. Witness the photo of Victoria Beckham above doing her bit to raise the national firm’s profile, wearing a dress plastered with what looks like […]
Late last month at the second of this year’s Law Rocks extravaganzas in London’s iconic 100 Club, a band fronted by Bird & Bird partner Chris Holder walked off with the top prize. Late last month at the second of this year’s Law Rocks extravaganzas in London’s iconic 100 Club, a band fronted by Bird […]
Farrer & Co and Canadian firm Borden Ladner Gervais have acted on a rare secondary investment in the AIM market. Farrers corporate partner Anthony Turner acted for Brazilian gold mining and exploration company Serabi Mining on a £3.6m share subscription by Eldorado Gold Corporation. Mining group chair Fred Pletcher led the Borden Ladner team acting […]
Clifford Chance is representing property developer the Sandpiper Group in the sale of five supermarkets to Waitrose in the Channel Islands. Sandpiper is jointly owned by private equity houses Europa and Duke Street. The latter is a long-term client of Clifford Chance, which advised the house on its acquisition of Sandpiper in a public-to-private deal in August 2007. Private equity lawyer Simon Tinkler was the […]
Dechert, Field Fisher Waterhouse and Slaughter and May have landed roles on Schroders’ acquisition of a 49 per cent stake in asset management company RWC Partners. Dechert represented long-standing client RWC with a team led by partner Graham Defries that also included financial services partners Stuart Martin and Gus Black, tax partner David Gubbay, and associate David […]
Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) partner Chris De Pury has acted for a private equity fund on the purchase of a landmark Canary Wharf building from his former client Hammerson. De Pury advised the $1.3bn (£870m) vehicle MGPA Europe Fund III, a subsidiary of the $5.2bn (£3.5bn) MGPA Global Fund III, on its purchase of Exchange Tower in London’s Canary Wharf for […]
Gala Coral’s mezzanine debt buyout was ambitious, but how far-reaching is it? By Gavriel Hollander There might be only so many ways to skin a cat, but the ability of restructuring specialists to conjure up new ways to repackage old debt continues to dazzle. Gala Coral’s ambitious debt-cutting exercise reached its denouement last month […]
Kaye Scholer plans to capitalise on the continuing lull in the UK economy to bolster its corporate practice in the City. The firm last week announced the arrival of DLA Piper private equity head Andrew Harris, who has been brought in to spearhead a recruitment drive in London. While the firm has taken a low-key […]
There’s a saying among US lawyers: “Brazil is the China next door.” It might help explain why US firms continue to pour into the region. The latest firm to join the rush is Chadbourne & Parke. The New York firm is in the final stages of obtaining its licence to practise as a foreign legal […]
This year’s double-digit PEP increases suggest a return to form, but The Lawyer’s analysis of law firm costs tells a different story As lessons go, they don’t come much starker: the demise of Halliwells last month illustrates perfectly the importance of keeping your costs under control. As The Lawyer reported last week, the North West firm went into administration after […]