Legal Brief: Recession shines light on insolvency lawyers
The collapse of General Motors (GM) and the subsequent US government bail out may not have instilled quite the same sense of Armageddon as the banking crisis did, but for the law firms involved the mandates are just as coveted.
What’s more, for the average man in the street the impact could actually be more acute (read article).
But it’s not just the demise of GM that has been hitting the business headlines of late. As you would expect during a recession, there are plenty of other deals that are helping insolvency lawyers to earn their keep. For instance, Jones Day has landed a mandate to work on the Birthday’s administration (read article) while Herbert Smith and Weil Gotshal & Manges have won roles in the administration and subsequent rebirth of Cobra, the popular curry house beer (read article).
It’s therefore no coincidence that this fortnight’s practice area focus, which is brought to you by Hammonds, takes a closer look at the work of insolvency lawyers.
Elsewhere, Sainsbury’s is to launch a capital raising exercise to fund its accelerated growth plans. The news came as the supermarket giant announced that its like-for-like sales, which strip out new store space, for the 12 weeks to 13 June 2009, were up 7.8%. The deal, which will see Sainsbury’s issue a convertible bond, has gifted magic circle firms Linkaters and Allen & Overy with instructions with the former advising longstanding client Sainsbury’s and the latter acting for the banks UBS and Morgan Stanley.
Property and private client firm Forsters, meanwhile, has been appointed by London’s National Theatre to advise it on the development of its South Bank site over the next four years. This is a big deal, not just because it’s in the real estate sector but it is also the first time that the National Theatre has put out such a tender and a first for Forsters, which has never acted for the theatre before (read article). That’s what we call good work.
