7 February 2011

Chris Carroll

Tulkinghorn: Goggle images

Who does Chris Carroll think he is? Tulkinghorn recently caught a glimpse of the blueblood lawyer sporting a supremely snazzy pair of ­outsize funky specs that seemed completely out of ­character for the Travers senior partner. Then the penny dropped. Carroll thinks he’s Tim Eyles. Licence to kill, grill and have your fill Regular readers […]

Paul Lomas

Relief and frustration as business concerns force Bribery Act delay

Last week the Ministry of Justice announced a delay to the implementation of the Bribery Act, originally due to come on to the statute book in April. The delay has been met with a mixture of relief and frustration in the City, particularly among firms that have been advising their corporate clients on the implications […]

SSH serves up HSBC facility for Jamie Oliver empire

Squire Sanders Hammonds (SSH) and West End firm Collins Benson Goldhill took leading roles on HSBC’s provision of banking facilities to part of Jamie Oliver’s expanding restaurant empire. SSH acted for longstanding client HSBC, with ­banking partner Iain Shurwood leading. Real estate partner Mike Shaw and corporate partner Tim Hewens also worked on the deal. […]

Cleary, W&C lead Nigeria’s sovereign bond issuance

US firms Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton and White & Case have claimed the mandates on Nigeria’s debut international sovereign bond issue. London capital markets partner Stuart Matty led the White & Case team acting for the Nigerian government on the $500m (£313.12m) 10-year bond issue, which debuted on the London Stock Exchange last week […]

A&O, Hogan Lovells on opposite sides of Catalina’s Glacier purchase

Allen & Overy (A&O) and Hogan Lovells advised on Catalina Holdings’ ­acquisition of Swiss-based reinsurer Glacier. Hogan Lovells London banking partner Stuart Brinkworth, recently ­featured in The Lawyer Hot 100 2011, led the team ­acting for Barclays and Lloyds TSB on the financing for the deal. Milan finance head Paul Flanagan led for A&O, advising longstanding client Catalina […]

1

CC, Dewey, Freshfields steer Citibank’s acquisition of EMI

Clifford Chance, Dewey & LeBoeuf and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer have all taken high-profile roles on the sale of troubled music group EMI to Citibank. The group, owned by ­private equity house Terra Firma, has been sold as part of a prepack administration to the bank. Citibank now owns the entire £2.2bn share capital of EMI’s […]

Eduardo Leite
5

Mayer Brown rebounds in the City post-Simmons talks

Each spring The Lawyer publishes its ­annual ranking of the top 30 international firms in the UK, a list ­dominated by the largest US firms in the City. Last week Mayer Brown became the first US office to report its London figures for 2010. In 2009 the firm came fourth on London revenue with $146.3m […]

Eduardo Leite

Carnival atmosphere gives Bakers the platform to schmooze clients

Global model hammered home by arrival of Brazilian chairman. By Matt Byrne  The room in which The Lawyer meets Baker & Mckenzie’s new global chairman Eduardo Leite sitting alongside London head Gary Senior is dominated by a huge yellow-and-white painting of aeroplanes. The title? ­Taking off. It might be stretching the metaphor to breaking […]

Commission analyses consultation as Europe awaits decision on unified law

Competition for legal services across Europe could increase significantly if a ­unified contract law is ­introduced under controversial European Commission proposals. A consultation closed on 31 January with member states split on the issue. The Commission received 181 responses to the proposals. The consultation green paper was launched in July 2010, seeking comment on the […]

Lionel Scotto

Scotto & Associés

French private equity boutique Scotto & Associés is a firm that was, in many ways, born out of the ­economic crisis. In 1997 ex-Theodore Goddard lawyer Lionel ­Scotto teamed up with former Ashurst associate Serge Wilinski to form Wilinski Scotto & Associés. For more than a decade the firm did well, attracting ­partners from Anglo-Saxon […]

Wim Dejonghe

A&O chief sympathetic but unrepentant on NI strategy

Allen & Overy (A&O) global managing partner Wim Dejonghe has defended his firm’s decision to ­relocate around 180 support roles from London to Belfast despite the redundancies this will entail. In an interview with The Lawyer Dejonghe admitted that, when he broke the news to his staff that their jobs could be on the line, […]

Jonathan Whitehead

Opinion: Bribery Act delay is not a stay on prosecuting corruption

The recent news that Downing Street has ordered a review of the Bribery Act 2010, and the announcement by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) that the act will now not come into force in April, came as a surprise to many.   Commissioned on the basis of fears that the new offences could damage economic […]