Corporate

10 Upper Bank Street Clifford Chance

Clifford Chance PE partner exits for Paul Weiss

Paul Weiss is continuing its London office expansion, hiring another private equity partner from Clifford Chance. Oliver Marcuse is set to join the US firm, just months after former magic circle colleague Chris Sullivan made the same move. Marcuse was promoted to the firm’s partnership in 2022, having spent his career at Clifford Chance. Secondments […]

vodafone

Slaughters and Travers among firms advising on Vodafone’s €8bn Italian sale

Slaughter and May has represented long-time client Vodafone on the telecommunications giant’s latest sale of its Italian business to Swisscom. The Slaughters team was steered by corporate partners Victoria MacDuff and James Cook, along with associates Serena Hopkins, Anika Sethy and Iain Meiklejohn. The firm also fielded a sizeable team of tax, commercial and employment […]

boxes

Linklaters and Slaughters lead on Mondi’s £5bn bid for DS Smith

Linklaters is advising Mondi in its all-share combination acquisition of DS Smith, represented by Slaughter and May. Mondi, the sustainable paper and packaging provider, is set to acquire its smaller counterpart in the international packing industry for over £5bn. Linklaters led from its corporate team with partners Aisling Zarraga and Matthew Hearn, alongside corporate managing […]

Nationwide Building

Slaughters and Clifford Chance lead on Nationwide’s Virgin Money deal

Slaughter and May and Clifford Chance have lined up for Nationwide’s proposed acquisition of Virgin Money UK. Slaughters partner David Watkins acted for the buyer, Nationwide. Meanwhile Clifford Chance acted for Virgin Money. The team is being led by partners Katherine Moir and David Pudge, with support from employment partners Sonia Gilbert and Chinwe Odimba-Chapman, […]

Analysis

Puzzle

City talk: The Weil jobshare is an elegant fudge

Does nobody really want Mike Francies’ job? Or has Weil Gotshal & Manges been incredibly diplomatic in its choice of two London managing partners? The firm has appointed corporate duo David Avery-Gee and Jonathan Wood to share the top office role. The two incoming leaders will have a year with Francies before he retires. They […]

London city skyline

The $4m man: what competitors think of Cravath’s new hire

It’s a turbulent time in London’s legal leveraged finance market – and one that’s resulted in an estimated offer of around $4m to Shearman & Sterling’s most loyal. For the first time in the firm’s 50 years in London, Cravath Swaine & Moore is to offer English law services by poaching Shearman finance duo Korey […]

Travers Smith

Travers Smith’s PE team is now a youth squad

Five years ago, The Lawyer revealed that the youngest partnership within the top 100 UK firms was Travers Smith. A key reason behind this was that Travers’ partnership tends to comprise firm lifers with a typically quick trajectory to the top. The firm’s outgoing private equity head Ian Shawyer, for instance, made partner nine years […]

Milbank London

Dickson Minto-Milbank merger: “We want to steal your clients”, say rivals

When The Lawyer revealed earlier this week that Milbank was snapping up Dickson Minto’s London team, the juddering reverberations of the news resounded loudly around the City of London. “When the story broke, the City ground to a halt and everyone in the legal market was gossiping for an hour,” recalls one corporate partner. “It […]

trading money

Fresh capital: there’s a lot riding on the new listings regime

Many in the City feared that IPO activity would stall after Brexit. For high growth technology companies seeking investment, a listing in Germany or Amsterdam seemed more appealing. However, not to be outdone, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) last year revealed a series of rule changes for the listing regime, in what was welcome news […]

Featured briefings

Financier Worldwide roundtable: Corporate fraud

Financier Worldwide regularly bring together leading experts from around the world to discuss issues at the centre of their audiences’ interest. Shoosmiths were invited to contribute to the November 2021 roundtable which covers the significant, ongoing challenge many companies face: corporate fraud.

SPACs: Next stop Europe

This article reviews the key features of a SPAC structure and explains why the Cayman Islands, Jersey and Luxembourg are ideal jurisdictions to establish a SPAC issuer.

A New Offshore Option for SPACs – SPAC to the (TISE) future…?

A special purpose acquisition company (“SPAC”) is a public company which raises funds via its listing, typically in order to acquire an existing business. They are by no means new, but as is well documented, have been enjoying a huge resurgence. In the US, SPAC Insider reported $36.2 billion raised in gross proceeds during 2020 […]

A better future – What next for the Thames Valley?

As part of our ‘Future Cities’ campaign, Shoosmiths is holding a series of virtual ‘think tank’ discussions with prominent local stakeholders in different locations across the UK to share insights and ideas around what the future holds for these locations.

Austria: Coronavirus: Impacts on employment in Austria

Summary of potential coronavirus measures that employers can take: Information current as of: 23.03.2020 Home office / telework Employees who telework are normally “on duty”, they are simply working from home. Hence there is neither a reduction of working time nor any compensation or subsidy by the Austrian state. This measure is applicable to white-collar […]

Improve and demonstrate marketing ROI with interactive content: Case study

New research highlights strategies to boost marketing’s profile and accelerate business success Effective marketers should communicate with personality and personalization. Generate and grow valuable leads for sales teams. Meanwhile, clearly prove ROI of their content and demonstrate direct business value. Sound familiar – and stress inducing? You’re not alone. 94% of B2B firms, according to […]

Balancing fear and greed: Does an expansion of the UK foreign direct investment rules beckon?

By Bernardine Adkins, Sean Giles In 2018, new measures were introduced to expand the scope of government intervention in mergers. This year, the government’s briefing note accompanying the Queen’s Speech proposes new rules on investment screening. What does this mean for business? Our experts examine the existing UK foreign direct investment rules, and explain what any […]

Trends in the food and drink sector

By James Webb Despite 2018 being a very tough year for many in the food and drink industry, according to research compiled by Grant Thornton, M&A and private equity deal activity in the sector remained steady with a fall of just 2.8% compared to 2017. This is supported by our experience during the period where […]

Liability for intentional torts by workers

By Mark Josselyn Earlier this year the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario (“HRTO”) found that a corporate respondent was liable for the violations of the Ontario Human Rights Code perpetrated upon the applicant by the personal respondent in the course of his employment, relying upon the analysis of the Supreme Court of Canada in Robichaud v. […]

UK and Germany – A new post-Brexit partnership

For decades, Germany has been one of the biggest foreign investors in the UK. While the British love to talk about their ‘special relationship’ with the United States, there is now every chance that, in a post-Brexit world, Germany will become the UK’s new priority…

Court confirms breach of contract despite absence of negligence

By Daniel Wood The Supreme Court has handed down judgment in the high-profile case of MT Højgaard v E.ON Climate & Renewables. The Supreme Court has overturned the Court of Appeal’s decision and – in so doing – has provided useful clarification in respect of various important principles… …In this decision, the Supreme Court was willing […]