The Lawyer, 12 June 2000

Cloisters splits up after crisis meeting`Crisis talks between the civil and criminal groups at Cloisters confirmed suspicions that the criminal group was leaving the set. Seventeen criminal tenants left the chambers, leaving Cloisters as a demerged civil set, with the majority joining Michael Mansfield QC's 14 Tooks Court (The Lawyer, 26 June 2000). Stephen Solley QC and Jerome Lynch QC joined Cloisters' ex-senior clerk Michael Martin at Cardinal Chambers.`Cloisters' civil practice is now growing in strength. The set has three new tenants: Adam Solomon from Cardinal Chambers, Paul Michell from Bridewell Chambers and Damian McCarthy from Tanwell Chambers (see this week's The Lawyer, page four).`Griffin quits Cadwalader for Herbert Smith after 14 months`The London office of US firm Cadwalader Wickersham and Taft lost its only UK project finance partner Paul Griffin to Herbert Smith. Griffin had been at the firm for 14 months. He left to concentrate on project work in the Far East.`There was concern over whether the six associates in the department would follow him.`Cadwalader lost five London partners last year (The Lawyer, 31 July 2000) but, according to partner Andrew Wilkinson, the firm - and particularly the project finance department - has expanded in 2001.`There are now two partners and 14 associates in the project finance team, including five of the six associates that worked under Griffin.`Griffin was replaced by Paul Biggs, a lateral hire from CMS Cameron McKenna. Binay Ganger, the other partner in the group, was promoted internally.``BA snubs Linklaters for Slaughters`British Airways dropped Linklaters for magic circle rival Slaughter and May for its planned merger with Dutch airline KLM. BA and Linklaters had enjoyed a long-standing relationship, with BA turning to the firm for most of its corporate advice.`Slaughter and May has now fully replaced Linklaters as BA's firm of choice.`Slaughters has advised BA on all its major transactions this year, says Slaughters competition partner Philippe Chapatte. The firm is working on BA's planned disposal of its budget airline, Go. Two months ago, Slaughters worked on BA's £100m acquisition of British Regional Airlines.`Linklaters is unable to disclose whether it is still working for BA.