9 December 2002
The Lawyer
A&O's dapper crapper
Urgent news story just in - or out: Allen & Overy (A&O), international magic circle law firm and all that, has just won the Loo of the Year Award 2002 from the British Toilet Association.The firm is flushed with success after being voted number one for number twos and is bursting with pride to be ranked alongside the comfortable facilities of the Lakeside Shopping Centre and even the Tower of London.Unfortunately, an A&O spokesman was "away from his ...
A&O builds up IP team with Lovells' international head
Allen & Overy (A&O) has taken on the highly-rated former co-head of Lovells' international intellectual property (IP) practice Dr Henning Harte-Bavendamm
Albania mania
Does Allen & Overy know something the rest of the City doesn't? Alex Wade reports on the Albanian legal market
Amhurst Brown owed £6m after fraud case
Liability of ’innocent’ partners broadened in key professional indemnity case
AMP hires AAR star for general counsel role
Australian insurance giant AMP has shaken up its in-house legal team, appointing top Allens Arthur Robinson (AAR) partner David Cohen to the position of general counsel
Because you're worth it
Could you put your trust in these people? Jennifer Currie meets the faces that launched a thousand training contracts
Board member quits Radcliffes for Wilsons
The Head of Radcliffes-LeBrasseur's private client and tax department has quit. This will be the second departure from the management team in six months
Brogue traders
The Irish economy has been hit by the cold light of reality following the economic downturn. David O'Donnell reviews the activity in the corporate market
CC sorts its site out
What a caring and sharing place Clifford Chance is. Instead of the usual 'partner' search facility the firm includes on its website, Clifford Chance has changed it into a more inclusive 'lawyer' search function.
CC to raise $100m in US private placement
Magic circle firm in UK first; external investors wooed with pioneering bond issue
'Chinese walls' change their name as banks get twitchy
The banks have taken flak for their use of Chines walls. Dearbail Jordan asks: why not so for law firms?
Clayton Utz cleared in BAT shredding case
The Victoria Court of Appeal overturned a decision in the case against British American Tobacco (BAT) which found that BAT and Sydney-based firm Clayton Utz had wilfully shredded documents relevant to litigation against the company. Last week, the court found that there was no evidence to justify the finding in April that BAT or its law firm Clayton Utz had devised a strategy for the destruction of documents, or had changed the policy on document destruction in order to make it appear ...
Cobbetts king of Manchester as Read Hind tie-up boosts turnover
Cobbetts' year-end turnover following its merger with Leeds-based Read Hind Stewart will see it overtake single-site Manchester rival Pannone & Partners
Corporate deals round-up
Memery Crystal (Lesley Gregory) has completed its first acquisition for Daniel Stewart & Company, the broker to Centurion Electronics, in connection with its AIM admission and share issue. Finers Stephens Innocent advised Centurion.Pinsent Curtis Biddle (Graham Middlemiss) has advised internet-based education provider Goal on its acquisition of the business and certain assets and ...
Cost riposte
Threadneedle Investments' head of legal Tom O'Connor won't stand for high hourly rates from his external advisers. And a panel shake-up may be on the way. Husnara Begum reports
Coudert partner in Microsoft defection
Coudert Brothers has lost a Brussels competition partner to Microsoft
Coudert partner joins ICC arbitration court
Coudert Brothers' Paris partner Michael Polkinghorne has been appointed to the ICC International Court of Arbitration. Polkinghorne joins colleague Jingzhou Tao, managing partner of the firm's Beijing office, as a member of the court. His term commences on 1 January 2003.
Court rules Jones Day negligent on Saab case
Gouldens' US merger partner Jones Day Reavis & Pogue has lost a professional negligence claim brought by the Saab brothers
Court steps in as Enron fees spiral
Lawyers' fees related to the Enron Chapter 11 reorganisation are continuing to snowball, sparking fears of dwindling returns to disgruntled creditors
DEAL OF THE WEEK - FOCUS WICKES
CC's Duke Street relationship clinched by Focus Wickes sale
Dechert associate joins Orchard as partner
City-based corporate firm Orchard has appointed a new partner to its litigation department. Gerallt Owen joined last month after four and a half years at Dechert, where he was a senior associate in its investigations unit. Owen has handled investigations and prosecutions by the Serious Fraud Office, the Department of Trade and Industry, the Financial Services Authority, the Inland Revenue and HM Customs & Excise.
Dickson has collar Feltzed
Poor Alastair Dickson. As if the indignity of a £6m divorce was not enough, the founding partner of Dickson Minto has to cope with Vanessa Feltz commenting on his love life. The "Scottish divorce of the year" was widely covered by papers on both sides of the border. However, a Daily Express column from Feltz, whose own divorce and swimming pool relations with her personal trainer have hardly ...
DLA loses sports star to Addleshaws
Addleshaw Booth & Co has poached DLA's sport business group head Andrew Price
End of an era for Blandy & Blandy
The last in a long line of lawyers from the Blandy family, Nicholas Blandy, is retiring from Reading-based law firm Blandy & Blandy at the end of the year. Blandy & Blandy is the UK's 25th oldest law firm, dating back to 1733. The first Blandy joined the firm in 1783 and there has always been a member of the family working there until now. The family used to live on the upper floors of the firm's current office, which is even purported to have its own ghost.
English Heritage drops Bond Pearce from panel
Burges Salmon, Farrers, Norton Rose, Ward Hadaway and Wragges all on panel
Eversheds elects regional successor to Gray
Stephen Hopkins to step into David Gray’s shoes as managing partner for Leeds and Manchester
Eversheds to facilitate client's casino purchase
Competition issues have forced longstanding Eversheds client Stanley Leisure into an alliance with private equity house H-G Capital as it considers a £250m bid for casino operator London Clubs International (LCI), represented by Lovells.
Firm refusals for escorts
Apparently Aussie lawyers are not quite as laid back as Tulkinghorn had thought - quite literally.
Freshfields recruits top Linklaters man
The Brussels office of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has poached Linklaters corporate partner Vincent Macq
Good communication
The worst of the downturn seems to be over for Irish companies. Even more amazingly, the information, communications and technology sector is still holding up. Andrew Doyle reports
Herbert Smith’s Fleck to chair auditing standards body
Worldwide practice partner Richard Fleck appointed chairman of Auditing Practices Board
How to mocha accountant
Already a further example of idiocy from accountants - and after last week's demonstration of how to behave like a pompous ass at the dinner table. (Tulkinghorn had to endure a translation of the entire menu, before being told he was not allowed to order a cappuccino since it was a French, not Italian, restaurant, and cappuccino comes from Italy, don't you know.)Anyway, a solicitor colleague has written to expand on our frothy theme: "My accountant, who hails from ...
Irish firms sent race hate email from office of DPP
Director of Public Prosecutions investigates as poem attacking immigrants is emailed to Irish practices
Irwin Mitchell hires DLA employment expert
Irwin Mitchell has appointed employment law expert Marie-Claire Maney as a partner and head of the firm's Sheffield employment team. Maney rejoins Irwin Mitchell from DLA where she was an associate. Maney has been tasked with building the team at Irwin Mitchell.
Labour of love
Julia Cahill meets Salans' Barry Mordsley, the man who lured Peter Cooke from Theodore Goddard after the firms' merger talks collapsed
Lawyer apologises for copying Lupton ad
A West Yorkshire-based sole practitioner has been forced to apologise to Leeds firm Lupton Fawcett after running the same advertisement with a different firm name in a local Asian magazine
Legal Widow
Perdita, the Lawyer's new assistant, is one of those odd people who have made the leap from other, sometimes real, jobs, to solicitor
Lovells gets HIH creditors quick payout
A unique scheme of arrangement drawn up by Lovells means that thousands of creditors of Hong Kong subsidiaries of Australian insurer HIH, currently in liquidation, will be paid years earlier than they would normally expect.
Markforce Associates loses MD to Field Fisher
Allan Poulter leaves Markforce Associates to join Field Fisher’s TMT group
Mass Ernst & Young defection could spell doom for Sweden
Ernst & Young's law firm in Sweden is on the verge of collapse following the defection of 12 lawyers from its Gothen-burg office to Magnusson Wahlin Qvist Stanbrook
Mayer Brown team defects to Hunton & Williams
US firm Hunton & Williams has raided Mayer Brown Rowe & Maw in a bid to ramp up its disputes capability in London. Partners John Miles and Marie Kidwell will be taking a team of five associates to the US firm. Miles and Kidwell, who were formerly at Denton Wilde Sapte, joined Mayer Brown & Platt in London to set up a litigation capability just months before the firm's merger with Rowe & Maw. First revealed ...
McLachlan departs Herbert Smith for NZ
Herbert Smith's public and international law group head has stepped down from full-time practice
Morgan Cole boosts numbers with double hire
Morgan Cole has hired two partners to boost its finance and intellectual property (IP) businesses. Hedd Vine, formerly of Citibank, is to head the firm's banking team while Belinda Isaac, formerly with IP boutique Arnander Irvine Zietman, will join the IP litigation practice. The hires come in the wake of a series of departures at the South West firm. More than 40 partners have left the firm in the past ...
Morley triumphant in A&O managing partner election
Banking star to take the helm of magic circle firm next May
North East turns its back on employed barristers
The North Eastern Circuit, the largest in the country, has barred employed barristers from full membership following a vote last Thursday
Opinion
Is London the legal 'bridgehead' to Europe? Many US law firms appear to view their London office in this way. If they are right, then UK law firms should be looking at Europe as a source of opportunity and a means to expand
Osborne Clarke drops international merger plans
Osborne Clarke's European alliance has abandoned merger plans in favour of pursuing its practice group structure
Osborne Clarke picks Beswick to succeed Perrin
International head of private equity Simon Beswick to become managing partner from May 2003; Leslie Perrin to be Osborne Clarke's first full-time senior partner
Outside influence
The importance of inward investment to Ireland is no secret. But as Gareth Chadwick reports, the obvious overseas offices option is not as cut-and-dried as you'd think
Partners predict fee income hike
Irish firms predict a modest growth in fee income and profitability over the next six months, according to a business confidence survey of partners carried out by The Lawyer
Pay freezes come too late for Pillsbury 12
Pillsbury Winthrop is continuing cutbacks with voluntary redundancies after freezing the salary levels of its 900 employees
Protecting Your health
The case of Louis Blehein could have set new precedents in the treatment of mental health patients in Ireland, but the courts held firm. Kieran Doran investigates a case which could have broken new ground
Queensland Law Society's disciplinary powers under threat from government
A scathing report on the Queensland Law Society (QLS) in parliament last week sparked a major overhaul of the state's legal profession by the Queensland government, which may see the QLS lose its disciplinary powers
Saab: the final judgment
Judge slams Jones Day lawyer after Saab brothers claim misconduct on Samba share placement deal
SCOTTWILKS LEGAL LLP
After a year at Hammonds, the ScottWilks partners wanted to go niche
Stanbrook scoops former Commission lawyer
Stanbrook & Hooper has been joined by the former head of the air transport division at the European Commission. Frederik Sørensen drafted and negotiated the three so-called Air Transport Packages concerning market access, capacity and prices. He retired from the commission in October 2001. As aviation counsellor to Stanbrook, Sørensen will be working with the Air Transport Group advising clients on all aero-political and regulatory matters.
Sutti Milan eyes South and Central America
Studio Legale Sutti has launched a Latin desk at its head office in Milan to target markets in South and Central America
The direct approach
If directors think they can desert their sinking ship they should think again. The authorities are clamping down and are prepared to use force. Barry O'Neill reports
The Leader Column
What's this pair thing going on with Theodore Goddard (TG) partners? Last week we revealed that employment partners Peter Cooke and Jane Bullen had resigned to go to Salans. Banking partners Michael Black and Jayesh Patel are about to jump to Denton Wilde Sapte. And, as we report in this week's issue, corporate partners Graham Stedman and Paul Salmon are also set to join Salans.The fact that there have been so many departures to international firms points to the ...
Theodores ousts Dentons from Reubens bros work
Theodore Goddard has scored its first real estate instruction from real estate tycoons Simon and David Reubens, muscling in on work that has traditionally gone to Denton Wilde Sapte.
Theodores rocked by double defection as corporate partners head to Salans
Theodore Goddard has been hit by two further departures in the torrent of partner defections that has hit the firm since the collapse of the Salans merger talks last year
WeightWatchers.co.uk hires first lawyer in the UK from Premium TV
Weight loss company WeightWatchers.co.uk has recruited its first UK lawyer from NTL subsidiary Premium TV
Wragges, Graf create international alliance
Former Osborne Clarke alliance partner picks Wragges after 14-month talks
