UBS Investment Bank has concluded a full-scale review of its law firms in a bid to rationalise those it uses in the US, Europe and Asia.
According to sources close to the review, UBS’s principal legal advisers in Europe – Allen & Overy, Clifford Chance, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Herbert Smith and Linklaters – have all won places on the global panel.
However, it is understood that a number of firms are still waiting to hear whether they have been successful.
As first reported by The Lawyer (28 February), the review was launched in late 2004 by UBS’s new US-based general counsel David Aufhauser, who joined the investment bank last October.
Aufhauser is being assisted in the UK by European general counsel Sally James.
UBS is the latest in a string of investment and clearing banks to undertake reviews of their law firms in the past year – one such bank was HSBC, which overhauled its legal panel last December following a five-month review.
UBS declined to comment.
