Allen & Overy (A&O) partner Nick Segal is leaving the firm to join Davis Polk & Wardwell in New York. Segal will be Davis Polk’s first UK qualified partner. A statement from A&O said he would leave the firm in June and that an agreement had been reached regarding restrictive covenants.“Since joining 14 years ago […]
Hammonds’ Birmingham office has lost two more corporate partners, less than two months after Katie Silvester and Paul Cliff left the firm to join rival Gateley Wareing.Partners Roger Birchall and Joanne Bligh will be joining the Birmingham office of Midlands-based Browne Jacobson to spearhead the launch of a new corporate practice in the city. It […]
Fees paid to barristers instructed by the 10 Greater Manchester councils and two Lancashire unitary councils are due to be reduced by a quarter, creating a saving of around £250,000.Costs are being driven down through an initiative to standardise fees across the consortium of councils, with a third party brought in to manage the system.The […]
Benelux corporate and tax firm Loyens & Loeff has taken two assistants from Allen & Overy to launch a new practice in Luxembourg with former Arendt & Medernach partner Jean-Pierre Winandy.The firm’s Belgian legal arm, Loyens Advocaten-Avocats, has formed a partnership with Winandy. The new Luxembourg practice will operate under the name of Loyens Winandy. […]
In a shock move, DJ Freeman is effectively splitting in two: a large proportion of the media and property groups is joining Olswang, while the insurance department will set up independently. It is understood that DJ Freeman chief executive Laurence Harris and head of litigation Kevin Perry will remain as part of the new insurance […]
South of England firm Blake Lapthorn has announced that it is merging with Oxford-based Linnells to create a 79-partner firm. The merger will take effect from 1 May 2003 and the merged firm will be known as Blake Lapthorn Linnell. Blake lapthorn, which has offices in Fareham, Portsmouth, Southampton and London, gains 22 partners in […]
City firm DJ Freeman is no more. Following a strategic review, the firm has effectively split in two with the media and property team’s heading for Olswang, and the remaining partners to rebrand as Kendall Freeman.The new firm will consist of 20 partners and will predominantly focus on insurance and litigation. The corporate, public international […]
White & Case has scored a sixth lawyer from collapsed firm Brobeck Phelger & Harrison, this time to bulk up its New York corporate practice.Mark Lewis Mandel is the only M&A partner White & Case has taken on from Brobeck after targeting finance and restructuring specialists from the now defunct West Coast firm. Last month […]
In a bizarre costs action before the Lords, a conditional fee arrangement (CFA) that was initially deemed invalid has enabled a law firm to get a landmark 100 per cent uplift on its fees.The Clerk of Parliaments – the Lords’ equivalent of a costs judge – ruled in February 2002 that a textile company, Designers […]
International trade specialists Middleton Potts and one of its partners are being sued over advice it provided to subsidiaries of Scottish Life and engineering company Amec during their purchase of land in Greater Manchester. They claim that Middleton Potts and lawyer Richard Schmidt, now a property partner at the firm, failed on five occasions to […]
Despite slashing numbers in its IP practice in 2002, Linklaters’ UK trademark filing has increased by almost 55 per cent. The latest figures from the Institute of Trade Mark Attorneys reveal an overall decline in the number of trademarks filed in the UK. But Linklaters and Pinsent Curtis Biddle have bucked the trend, increasing their […]
LeBoeuf Lamb Green & MacRae is attempting to build up its small London corporate practice by taking on the head of Denton Wilde Sapte’s India group. Corporate partner Lynn McCaw, who was appointed head of Dentons’ India group in 1996, is hoping to join LeBoeuf in June. At present, the firm’s corporate department has just […]