7 October 2002

Lawyer in the house

Big Brother’s PJ has forsaken a life in the spotlight to become a trainee. Jennifer Currie finds out if his brush with fame has left him jaded about a career in the law

Macfarlanes elbows out Dechert for Brit Insurance deal

Macfarlanes has snared its first deal for Brit Insurance Holdings after the Lloyd’s underwriter raised £204.2m through a secondary placing and open offer of shares.The funds, which were secured through a two for three offering of shares priced at 64p each, will be used to help underwrite gross premium income of £1bn next year in […]

Deacons doubles office count in China

Deacons Hong Kong is to open a second office in China. As revealed by www.thelawyer.com/lawyernews on 3 October, the representative office will be based in Beijing, the seat of the government Geoff Baker, a former partner of Deacons’ Sydney office, will head the new office. He has experience in advising clients in Asia and China […]

Morton Fraser hires 33 from Robson McLean

Morton Fraser has raided Robson McLean, taking 33 from its litigation and commercial property teams. Almost all of these are fee-earners, including six partners: Duncan Murray, Nick Atkins, Hugh Angus, John Barrie, Rhona Cameron and Ewan McIntyre. The hires bring the number of fee-earners in the litigation team to 22 and in the commercial property […]

Norton Rose hires Hunton & Williams partner

Norton Rose has boosted its Asian presence with the hire of a new partner to its energy and project finance practice in Bangkok. Bill Bradley, who has lived and worked in Asia for eight years and is US-qualified, joins the firm from Hunton & Williams in Bangkok. Bradley’s appointment takes the total number of Norton […]

CC takes corporate partner from New York rival

Clifford Chance’s New York office has bolstered its corporate practice by recruiting Brian Hoffmann from rival Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft. Hoffmann, who worked at Cadwalader for just three years, will bring the number of partners who have joined Clifford Chance’s New York corporate department since 2000 to a total of 18. As well as a […]

Akin Gump wins property star from Weil Gotshal

Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld’s real estate practice has been joined by Jacqueline Gordon as senior counsel. Gordon comes from the corporate department of Weil Gotshal & Manges, where she specialised in property and commercial. Previously, she was assistant general counsel at the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation in Virginia and the associate general […]

Law Soc to bring chief exec down to earth

The Law Society is gearing up for a wholesale corporate governance review, driven by fears that the chief executive has become too powerful The review is a result of grass roots lobbying by the Westminster and Holborn Law Society. It will look at the governance of the Law Society, addressing issues such as the powers […]

Eastern Europe leads the charge in arbitration

Former communist states now witnessing a growth in privatisation are increasingly turning to arbitration to resolve disputes, a new survey has revealed The number of Central and Eastern European parties involved in arbitrations increased by 68 per cent in 2001, according to an International Chamber of Commerce survey.There was a 27.5 per cent rise in […]

Land Securities Trillium set to review new panel firms

Firms to be tested on a project-by-project basis; A&O, Freshfields and Lovells scoop top-tier work Land Securities Trillium (LST), the property outsourcing arm of Land Securities, is set to review its firms on a project-by-project basis after setting up its first formal panel.Mark Norris, new business director at LST, has structured the new panel in […]

The ECJ: probably the slowest court in the world

Brendan Malkin on why the ECJ takes three years to pass judgment; is a lack of translators to blame? It is strange that the incredibly slow process of European justice is partly the result of something as small as an insufficient number of translators.Decisions from the European Court of Justice (ECJ) are typically taking three […]

Round-up

Allen & Overy (Brian Harrison) and Masons (Hugh Bruce-Watt) acted for Wembley National Stadium on its new £425m incarnation. Clifford Chance (Tim Steadman, David Metzger) acted for Multiplex, the company that will build the new stadium. Shearman & Sterling (Kenneth MacRitchie) advised WestLB, which arranged the £425m senior debt for the construction of the stadium. […]