Welcome to The Passport, your regular round-up of the most important stories to come from the European legal market. In this edition, we look at how CMS zoomed past Dentons in the Polish lawyer headcount stakes; why you might have to get used to the idea of three firms with ‘Snellman’ in their name; and […]
The French legal market has welcomed a new boutique this week as CGR Avocats opens its doors following the breakup of its predecessor firm earlier this year. European 100 firm LPA-CGR Avocats finally split in May, bringing an end to the seven-year partnership between Lefèvre Pelletier & Associés and CGR Legal. CGR Avocats relaunched at […]
A turbulent election and the upcoming Paris Olympics: there’s plenty of eyes on France this summer. As its people gear up to celebrate la Fête Nationale Française, Bastille Day, this Sunday, we turn our attention to Bredin Prat and the French disputes market. The market: With a seat of the Unified Patents Court (UPC) and […]
Mayer Brown has followed hotly on Paul Hastings’ heels to strengthen significantly in Paris, hiring 30 lawyers from a local firm. The Lawyer understands that Mayer Brown is hiring two-thirds of the total lawyer headcount at French firm Ayache to bolster its transactional team in the French capital. Altogether, The Lawyer understands that seven Ayache corporate/M&A […]
Danish big five firm Accura has made a handful of redundancies in its real estate team, citing sustained macroeconomic pressures that have supressed deal flow. The firm declined to specify how many lawyers in its team had left the firm, instead calling the move a “minor adjustment of the real estate organisation to the current […]
Noerr’s Warsaw office is setting up shop on its own, after it emerged that the German giant was pulling out of the Central and Eastern European market (CEE). In April, Noerr revealed it would be transferring its practices in Bratislava, Budapest, Bucharest and Prague to Kinstellar. At the time, there was no mention of Noerr’s […]
Welcome to The Passport, your regular round-up of the most important stories to come from the European legal market. In this edition, we look at the troubles facing Linklaters in Stockholm, the surprisingly positive consequences of Weil Gotshal’s exit from Central and Eastern Europe, as well as recent shake-ups in the Danish real estate market. […]
Paul Hastings’ Paris office is set for a major boost in its white collar practice, with the arrival of a team from a local firm. The firm has taken on specialist boutique firm Antonin Lévy & Associés. Its team will join Paul Hastings from September 2024, comprised of three partners and nine associates. Partners Antonin […]
Bech-Bruun has lost a handful partners to rival firms, with Norwegian-headquartered firm Schjødt and big five rival Gorrissen Federspiel both profiting from the exits. Litigation partners Søren Lundsgaard and Arianne Svardal-Stelmer will join Schjødt in the firm’s most substantial disputes expansion of its 18-month old Copenhagen office. The pair joined Bech-Bruun in a merger between […]
Roughly 40 per cent of the earth’s population have already been through, or are set to go through, general elections in their country at some point this year. We were expecting them in India, the UK and the US, among many others, but France didn’t have anything of the sort booked in. The success of […]
This week on Spotlight, we’re taking a closer look at a rapidly expanding disputes boutique, which has followed the blueprint laid out clearly by Quinn Emanuel’s John Quinn.
A seven-lawyer real estate team led by one of Linklaters’ longest-serving partners in Stockholm has left the firm to join a local player. Longstanding real estate partner Magnus Lidman retired from the Linklaters partnership earlier this year, but has re-emerged as the star name among this group leaving to join Sweden’s Gernandt & Danielsson (G&D). […]
Danish firm Horten is undertaking a thorough internal review following the release of a TV documentary series that engulfed the firm in scandal and resulted in the dismissal of a key partner. The firm published a statement last week saying that insolvency partner Nicolai Dyhr had left the firm with immediate effect and that it […]
As the mammoth Russian aircraft claim make its way to trial in October, a similar case involving jets stranded in Ukraine has been struck out. The smaller Ukrainian aircraft claim has been stayed by the Commercial Court in a judgment handed down today. Aircraft lessor claimants represented by Herbert Smith Freehills, Hausfeld and McGuireWoods have […]
Welcome to The Passport, your regular round-up of the most important stories to come from the European legal market. In this edition we compare and contrast Latham’s City performance and how it’s faring in Germany; and why A&O Shearman associates in Central and Eastern Europe might be better off looking for partnership elsewhere. Latham’s German […]
Dutch firm De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek is hoping that the latest claim it faces from the trustees of a bankrupt engineering client will be its last, as a dispute between the pair continues to run after almost a decade. De Brauw’s annual report showed that a Rotterdam court had permitted an appeal to a decision […]
Dutch firm De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek grew by 9 per cent in the 2023 financial year, recording a record revenue of €192.7m (£164m). The result sees it fall desperately short of double-digit growth from the previous year’s €176.8m (£150.5m). The firm saw a series of significant outlays to its cash position over the course of […]
Latham’s loss of four partners in Germany provides a case study in how past relationships govern moves of the future. Willkie Farr and White & Case have poached a pair of partners each from Latham’s Hamburg and Frankfurt offices: restructuring and insolvency duo Jörn Kowalewski and Ulrich Klockenbrink are heading to Willkie Farr, while equity […]
Latham & Watkins is set to lose two teams in Germany, hitting the firm’s restructuring and equity capital markets capabilities in Hamburg and Frankfurt. The Lawyer understands that a two-partner restructuring team will leave to join Willkie, while a separate two-partner team is joining White & Case strengthening the latter’s equity capital markets practice. White & […]
Danish firm Accura posted its financials last week and in doing so two significant milestones were passed. Firstly, Accura posted a psychologically important 10-digit revenue figure in Danish Kroner for the first time to slightly above 1bn kr (£114.5m) (2022: 863.8m kr (£98.9m)). Secondly, for the first time in Danish legal history all five major […]
Eversheds Sutherland is set to close in Berlin after a thorough review of its German business. Berlin is a relatively small office for Eversheds, housing 14 lawyers and business services staff in total. Of those, two are partners in Carsten Brüninghaus (tax) and Christian Hilpert (restructuring, and banking and finance). Hilpert is not a full-time […]
Goodwin Procter has given its Luxembourg office the early moving-in present of a new partner, hiring European 100 firm AKD’s co-head of investment funds. The US firm is bringing in Virginie Leroy to strengthen its European funds practice. Leroy spent more than four years at AKD, having joined from Canadian firm DSL in March 2020. […]
Execution, as one lawyer says, is “easy to plan, but really ***ing hard to do”. That word ‘execution’ will be resting heavily on the minds of Hannes Snellman’s senior leadership. Earlier this year, the firm split in two; Helsinki and Stockholm are going their own ways. It effectively brings to an end one of the […]
Portugal’s Abreu Advogados fell short of hitting the €50m revenue mark for the first time in its history after revenue surged by almost a fifth in last year. The firm’s top-line grew to €49.7m (£42.8m) from the previous year’s €41.7m. Managing partner Inês Sequeira Mendes praised the firm’s growth, but poured cold water on any […]
Welcome to The Passport, your regular round-up of the most important stories to come from the European legal market. In this edition we take a look at the third generation of De Brauw’s private equity group and how domestic and regional firms in Ukraine may look to reshape after the war. De Brauw has entered […]
Simmons & Simmons represented Barclays Bank in an $150m anti-suit and anti-enforcement injunction against Russian state investment bank, VEB. VEB was founded in 1922 as the first international bank of the USSR, and since 2018 it has been chaired by the country’s former deputy prime minister under Putin, Igor Shuvalov. The bank was represented by […]
European firms see more value in having a physical office in the Square Mile than they do in the Big Apple. Last week, Spanish firm Uría Menéndez became the latest to shut up shop in New York, having been there for 30 years. Uría was the final member of Slaughter and May’s fabled Best Friends […]
Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe has drafted in the former M&A head of Shearman & Sterling’s Italian associate firm to rebuild its transactional capacity in the country. Fabio Fauceglia joins the firm from Studio Legale Associato Shearman & Sterling, bringing with him a team of six lawyers, comprising of counsel Leonardo Pinta and five associates. Fauceglia […]
Iberian firm Uría Menéndez will close in New York when its Park Avenue lease expires, after more than three decades in the US. The firm runs with a small staff in New York of just three lawyers, led by office managing partner and corporate lawyer José Félix Zaldivar. Uría Menéndez felt its US strategy would […]
The head of Shearman & Sterling’s association firm in Italy has left to join White & Case.
Welcome to The Passport, your regular round-up of the most important stories to come from the European legal market. In this edition we have four stories for you as we increase the volume and scope of our European content. Focus this week turns to CEE stalwart Kinstellar; Stockholm’s newly-founded finance boutique Re:Fi; a hire for […]
The Supreme Court has upheld an anti-suit injunction against a Gazprom subsidiary, potentially halting €440m proceedings in Russia. The Gazprom part-owned special purpose entity, RusChemAlliance (RCA), had brought a damages claim against the bank UniCredit in Russia concerning an aborted contract following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. UniCredit instructed Latham & Watkins in its pursuit of […]
Since Katja Roth Pellanda joined Zurich Insurance in 2020, a lot has changed. The GC has broken down the silos in the 700-person legal function, reducing the distance between the regions and the corporate centre. Zurich Insurance is a Swiss-based insurance company that has a presence in approximately 80 countries. With such a large business, […]
Norway’s Sands has suffered one of the largest mass defections in its history after six partners left to join Big Five firm Wiersholm in Trondheim. The hires bolster Wiersholm in a range of the firm’s key sectors, including marine law, renewables, technology, real estate and tax. The firm has committed to further growth over the […]
Welcome to The Passport, your regular round-up of all the most important stories to come from the European legal market. In this edition, CMS Wistrand recently went live and its drivers were myriad, but one in particular stood out for us; Poland is dangerously underlawyered in one very particular area; and Pinsents has embarked on […]
Competition boutique Geradin Partners opens its doors in Paris today as the firm seeks to become a serious player in the French capital’s vibrant competition and litigation scenes. Opening on the same block as Freshfields in the heart of Paris’ 8e Arrondissement, Geradin has brought in competition litigator Marc Barennes from Bureau Brandeis with his […]
Fieldfisher is bolstering its German presence with a sizeable team from local firm SKW Schwartz and a handful of other hires, in an effort to expand its media, technology and IP offerings. The firm has hired eight lawyers from SKW Schwarz including partners Martin Diesbach, Elisabeth Noltenius and Julia Schafdecker, all of whom specialise in […]
Clifford Chance’s Warsaw office has been caught up in a political row that has ended with the office being searched by the authorities, The Lawyer understands. The search relates to Clifford Chance’s alleged role in supporting an individual prosecutor who took it upon herself to stop the old Polish government from changing the rules relating to the […]
Fieldfisher has launched an office in Milan with a five-partner hire just six months after cutting ties with its partner firm in the country. The firm gained regulatory approval to launch the new office on 4 April, which begins as a 26-lawyer, five-partner operation in northern Italy. All five partners – including country managing partner […]
Addleshaw Goddard’s energy practice has come a long way from doing the “weird renewables stuff” in the 90s, now aiming for £70m in revenue by the decade’s end.
The fate of King & Wood Mallesons’ (KWM) final European office has been decided with the firm’s Madrid partners joining Addleshaw Goddard. KWM’s 13-partner Madrid office will join Addleshaws next month, launching the UK firm’s first office in Spain. The new office will be led by KWM Spain managing partner and corporate/M&A lawyer Roberto Pomares. […]
Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison’s rapid growth in London is now translating to the Continent, as the firm has hired a Simpson Thacher & Bartlett partner to launch an office in Brussels. Simpson Thacher partner Ross Ferguson will join the growing European partner base at Paul Weiss. Jason Glover, London office head at Simpson […]
Welcome to The Passport, your regular round-up of the most important stories to come from the European legal market. In this edition, we have a Kinstellar sandwich on Parisien bread. We look at how August Debouzy’s latest phase of international development is taking shape; a glimpse at arguably Europe’s most expansionist firm’s foray into Southeast […]
An ex-Bird & Bird partner will face the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal for allegations of “inappropriate conduct” including “sexualised messages”. The allegations concern Takeshige Sugimoto, who was a partner based in Belgium at the time of the matter. While in a position of seniority over two individuals, Sugimoto is alleged to have made inappropriate comments and […]
Kinstellar has agreed a deal to acquire four offices of German firm Noerr, strengthening in all the sites that the firm began with following its split from Linklaters in 2008. Noerr’s practices will be transferred to Kinstellar in Bratislava, Budapest, Bucharest and Prague. The details of the integration will be made clearer in the coming […]
Paris-headquartered firm Jeantet is set to embark on a significant growth push, setting itself the target of hitting 200 lawyers in the French capital by 2026. Currently sitting at around the 160-lawyer mark, with 35 partners, this change will mark a nearly 25 per cent uplift in the coming two years. This would put the […]
Vinge’s Maria-Pia Hope has left the Swedish firm after stepping down as CEO after 12 years in the role. Hope’s final day at the firm was 31 March with her successor, banking and finance partner Louise Brorsson Salomon, stepping into her shoes on 1 April. Having joined the firm in 1996, Hope made partner seven […]
Scandinavian firm Hannes Snellman has finalised the split between its Swedish and Finnish businesses, citing “a divergence of the business strategies…in Helsinki and Stockholm”. The firm announced in February 2024 that the split would take place and the necessary arrangements have taken place splitting the offices into two distinct entities under the Hannes Snellman operating […]
Fieldfisher has promoted 10 lawyers to partner in its 2024 promotions round, eight of whom have been made up in London. The London promotions, effective from 1 April, comprise four women. This includes private client lawyer Alice Vink, banking and finance director Anna Crosby, clinical negligence director Helen Thompson and Shaheen Mosquera, who specialises in […]
Four senior in-housers have quit football organisation FIFA over the last couple of months for new general counsel positions. The governance body is now recruiting for the four in-house legal positions, including a new head of commercial partnerships, a head of digital and technology, a senior counsel for esports and digital, and a senior counsel […]
Gianni & Origoni partners have voted in favour of making wholesale changes to the firm’s management and remuneration structures as a wave of modernisation continues to wash across the Italian legal sector. The changes will see a new management committee established, as well as both expanding the number and diversifying the members of the firm’s […]
German firm Noerr has announced its financial results for 2023, marking a significant point in its history as having generated more €300m in its domestic market for the first time. Globally the firm generated €333.1m across all its offices. The results marked an increase of 5.7 per cent on 2022, when the firm achieved a […]
Welcome to The Passport, your regular round-up of all the most important stories to come from the European legal market. In this edition, litigators have been moving en masse in Paris this year and we take a look into one of the bigger moves; Denmark’s Plesner passed the psychologically impactful DKK1bn mark for the first […]
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 […]
The Dutch legal market is uber conservative; it has witnessed little by way of disruption to force the kind of sweeping changes seen here in London. Amsterdam is not the city where firms can rack up mega fees; big-ticket M&A work is not done there as often as it is here. That said, if you’ve […]
Welcome to The Passport, your regular round-up of all the most important stories to come from the European legal market. In this week’s edition, we take a look at how tumult at the top of Dentons’ Polish arm has led to the firm opting for co-managing partners for the first time in its history; why […]
The energy crisis poses an opportunity for law firms to become experts in new areas of project finance – an opportunity HSF has grasped with both hands.
A raft of Europe’s elite law firms are set to increase their lawyer headcount and office space in London as they sense greater opportunity in the capital than ever before. Research undertaken by The Lawyer for an upcoming report on the International Signal channel found that around one-third (11) of European 100 law firms with […]
CMS’s German arm is facing heavy criticism from a cross-section of its associates after new pay structures were announced, freezing salaries at the firm for all but first and second year associates. The associates’ complaints, published in German title Juve, outline deep discontent among the firm’s junior ranks after salary increases were announced for its […]
Garrigues has become the first EU-headquartered firm to pass the €450m milestone after growing its topline by 2.5 per cent in 2023. The firm announced its revenue last year hit a record high of €454.3m, representing a modest increase on the €443.2m it posted in 2022. Most of Garrigues’ revenue was made in its native […]
Welcome to The Passport, your regular round-up of all the most important stories to come from the European legal market. In this week’s edition, Hogan Lovells has gone big on Italy and we’re interested in what they’ll do next; Ireland’s white-hot lateral market now seems to be cooling after years of intense musical chairs; and […]
Last week’s The Lawyer Podcast was a good’un, eh? Lofty metaphors about the flapping wings of a butterfly, searing insights contrasting London with New York, and explosive statistics about how seriously the European firms are taking London. Give it a listen, and you’ll hear how European law firms are sensing a moment to pounce on opportunity […]
Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe has been hit by a second mass defection in Italy this week, seeing a 15-lawyer team leave to join BonelliErede just days after another group moved to Hogan Lovells. The BonelliErede joiners will strengthen the firm’s risk, compliance and investigations (RCI) group, as well as its IP, privacy and IT team […]
Welcome to The Passport, your regular round-up of all the most important stories to come from the European legal market. In this week’s edition, it looks as though the days of just having your bonuses linked to billable hours are almost over in Europe as firms increasingly seem to be moving away from that sole […]
BonelliErede has enacted a trio of radical overhauls affecting partner remuneration, associate progression into the partnership and how partners should approach their retirements in one of the most significant policy shifts in its history. The new measures decided by BonelliErede’s new-look management committee represent an early marker of how they will look to reform the […]
Welcome to The Passport, your regular round-up of all the most important stories to come from the European legal market. In this week’s edition, we tell you why New York is out and London is in, at least to the European elite; what the future holds for Ireland’s IP scene; and why Poland’s legal market […]
Teams from Ince & Co’s Piraeus office are joining the Greek operations of Watson Farley & Williams (WFW) and Holman Fenwick Willan (HFW). The moves follow the collapse of Ince last year, after it was bought out of administration by Axiom DWFM, which subsequently became Axiom Ince. WFW is hiring partners Jamila Khan, Aris Moschopoulos […]
Ashurst is to launch a global delivery centre in Krakow, following on from NewLaw offerings in Glasgow and Brisbane. The firm is opening in the Polish city’s business district with a staff headcount of 15. Ahead of the launch, Ashurst partnered with Elevate to help design the premises and sort operational logistics. Talking to The Lawyer […]
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer’s former global head of tax was sentenced to three and a half years in prison by a Frankfurt court on Tuesday. Ulf Johannemann, who had been a partner in the magic circle firm’s Frankfurt office, was found to have assisted the German arm of the Canadian Maple Bank in fraudulent trading over […]
Welcome to The Passport, your regular round-up of all the most important stories to come from the European legal market. In this week’s edition, we tell you why you should be so terrified of the Big Four’s deep pockets; how Loyens & Loeff revitalised its London office and now stands stronger than ever; and what […]
CMS is keen to maintain its momentum in Scandinavia by expanding into Denmark after its mergers with firms in Norway and Sweden over the last two years, The Lawyer understands. Sources in the Danish market say that partners from CMS have been making themselves clear that Denmark is now firmly on the agenda and that […]
Spanish Euro 100 firm Pérez-Llorca has handed new managerial roles to two partners, giving each a remit over the firm’s domestic and international growth respectively. The new responsibilities have been given to Madrid-based corporate/M&A partners Julio Lujambio and Iván Delgado who have been named executive partner and international executive partner, respectively. Pérez-Llorca said that Lujambio […]
Eversheds Sutherland continues to pick up former King & Wood Mallesons partners across Europe with the latest hire coming in Milan. Corporate/M&A partner and former KWM Italy managing partner Davide Proverbio will make the move to Eversheds. He brings with him a senior associate and trainee. Proverbio will co-lead the Italian coporate/M&A practice with Eversheds […]
Welcome to The Passport, your regular round-up of all the most important stories to come from the European legal market. In this week’s edition, we look at how the fabled best friends network helped Iberian firm Uría Menéndez retain one of its brightest talents and create a whole new career pathway within the firm. We […]
Funds-focused Euro 100 firm Arendt & Medernach has opened its first German office with the firm seeking to make in-roads into Frankfurt’s myriad financial institutions as well as the European Central Bank. The firm announced it would be opening in the German financial centre, though its new office will not offer German law capabilities. Instead […]
Hill Dickinson has launched an office in Limassol in Cyprus with a shipping team from Ince. The firm has formed an association with shipping partners George Zambartas and Ester Toumpouris to establish a new base on the island that will be known as Hill Dickinson in association with G Zambartas LLC. G Zambartas LLC formerly […]
Swedish firm Mannheimer Swartling has revamped its remuneration system for associates in a bid to bring it in line with the firm’s pure lockstep model for partners. Mannheimer brought in a bonus scheme for associates around a decade ago with junior lawyers assessed on registered hours worked. The result was a flat bonus awarded to […]
Eversheds Sutherland has brought on more partners from King & Wood Mallesons’ European network as part of the sprawling cooperation agreement between the two firms. The UK-headquartered firm announced that an 11-strong team, including four partners in the Germany financial hub of Frankfurt, will join Eversheds’ office in the city. Eversheds Germany managing partner Alexander […]
Happy new year and all that, Passport readers. We’re back after a restful break and ready to bring you all the most important stories from around the European legal market. Kicking things off in 2024 we’ve got stories of a rejig in the management at Danish firm Plesner; a look back at the reign of […]
Junior lawyers in Herbert Smith Freehills’ (HSF) European offices can now work in any other office on the Continent for up to three weeks as part of a new secondment scheme introduced last year. The European Short Visits Programme (ESVP) applies to all European associates and counsel, excluding the UK, with the requirements for qualifying […]
Norwegian firm Wikborg Rein has taken another growth step in 2023, as it looks set to open its third domestic office. The Norwegian Big Five firm is expected to launch in the energy hub of Stavanger after hiring corporate partner Per Kristian Ramsland from Norwegian rival Arntzen de Besche. Ramsland joined the firm in early […]
Morgan Lewis’s 2023 German expansion push has culminated in a two-partner hire in Frankfurt from Bird & Bird, following on from the launch of its Munich office earlier this year. Partners Hans Leube and Marianne Nawroth have made the move over to the US firm, strengthening Morgan Lewis’s private equity offering in the key financial […]
This is the final edition of The Passport this year; we’ll be back again in the New Year with loads more stories from across Europe to ensure you’re kept abreast of the profession’s most important legal developments. But first, we’ve got three stories for your to sink your teeth into. Arthur Cox’s managing partner Geoff […]
CEE firm Schoenherr will double the size of its Warsaw office after hiring a team of 23 lawyers from a domestic Polish firm. This marks the second sizeable team hire by an Austrian headquartered law firm in 2023. The hire includes seven partners, all hailing from Polish national firm SSW Pragmatic Solutions. They are capital […]
Kirkland & Ellis is set to take the next step in the growth of its Paris office by building out an associate base following the hire of key partners. Since opening in 2018, the Paris office has grown rapidly with partner hires from the likes of Willkie Farr & Gallagher, Linklaters and local firm De […]
It was the turn of Nordic law firm Roschier to claim the crown as the Continent’s outstanding law firm last night at The Lawyer’s annual European Awards ceremony. The firm won the prize at London’s Grosvenor House hotel on Park Lane, as the elite of European legal talent came together in celebration. The Helsinki-headquartered law […]
Ahead of this Thursday’s 2023 The Lawyer European Awards, we have spoken to, learned from and highlighted some outstanding legal talent from across the Continent. Amid geopolitical uncertainty, an inflationary macroeconomic environment and increasingly strict regulations, there’s never been a more fascinating time to be an in-house lawyer. We sat down with the six shortlisted […]
Welcome to The Passport, your weekly roundup making sense of the European legal market. This week is The Lawyer’s annual European Awards, a night where we celebrate the breadth of talent and dedication from Portugal to Poland, Sweden to Sicily, and everywhere lying between. Not only that, the 2023 edition of the Euro 100 report […]
This week on The Lawyer’s Litigation Tracker, we explore Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer’s Mass Claims Unit (MCU). Offering a novel take on how to handle this ever-growing part of the European disputes market, the magic circle firm wants to be a one-stop shop for the largest mass claims and tap into previously unexplored talent pools. The […]
Willkie Farr & Gallagher is to open a second office in Germany, as the firm aims to become a major player in Europe, The Lawyer can reveal. The new outpost in Munich is expected to focus on funds work. It will be the firm’s 14th office globally and its seventh office in Europe. Willkie already […]
CMS is set to add two Swedish offices to its network after joining forces with a local firm. The merger with Stockholm-headquartered Wistrand will give the firm offices in both Sweden’s capital and its second city of Gothenburg. The announcement comes nearly two years after CMS announced its tie-up with Norwegian firm Kluge. Wistrand was […]
Paul Hastings has scored a mandate acting for PE sponsor Abry on its buy-out of legal intelligence provider Chambers & Partners from Inflexion. The Lawyer has learnt that Abry Partners was spearheaded by London private equity head Anu Balasubramanian, with help from partners Jamie Holdoway and Arun Birla on tax, as well as Michael Wise […]
Welcome to The Passport, your roundup of all the most important stories coming out of Europe this week. We’re taking a close look at why Fieldfisher’s decision to call time on its Italian merger was the right one; why it isn’t just Danish firms that need to re-evaluate their partnership structures; and how Squires is […]
Fieldfisher will part ways with its Italian partners and offices in March 2024, The Lawyer can reveal, but is eyeing a quick re-entry into the country. The UK-headquartered firm will officially break away from Studio Associato Servizi Professionali Integrati (SASPI), with which it merged in 2016, on 8 March 2024 with Fieldfisher saying it will […]
A competition-focused boutique launched by a former Covington & Burling partner will establish a third office in the new year, adding Amsterdam to its existing sites in Brussels and London. Geradin Partners, the firm launched by Damien Geradin who spent five years as a partner at Covington between 2010 and 2015, has hit Dutch firm […]
Expansionist Norwegian-headquartered firm Schjødt has made its most aggressive and targeted move in Copenhagen since launching, raiding a local firm for four partners to significantly grow its operation in the Danish capital. Schjødt has hired Moalem Weitemeyer partners Frantz Sigersted-Rasmussen, Tobias Bonde Frost, Mattias Vilhelm Warnøe Nielsen and Rasmus Juel Schiøtt. A further five associates […]
Danish big five firm Plesner has overhauled its partner track, dumping its long-standing two-year ‘up or out’ model and lengthening the path to equity as part of a bid to diversify its partnership. The firm’s previous model saw aspiring partners apply for the equity and be given a two-year window to make the grade. However, […]
We’ve got a slimmed down version of The Passport for this week. We know your excitement for next week’s International Bar Association conference in Paris will be growing by the minute, so we thought we’d make this read a calm one for you. We’re looking to the future of Benelux firm Vandenbulke as its founding […]
Irish Big Five firm Arthur Cox is the latest firm to announce that it is ahead of schedule to meet its partnership gender target, as the industry tries to address gender inequality. The firm is hopeful that its target of at least 30 per cent of the equity being female will be reached in either […]
When was the last time you visited Portugal? If the answer to that question was, ‘within the last three years’, then you passed through one of the world’s most exciting and rapidly developing class actions markets. Lawyers on the ground in Lisbon are facing a tsunami of consumer claims and that’s great news for the […]
A three-partner team has left Dentons in Germany to join Pinsent Masons amid the latter firm’s ongoing push to grow its German arm. Pinsents will swell its ranks in Düsseldorf with the additions of Dentons partners Andreas Haak, Lars Hettich and Michael Krömker, boosting its capabilities in public/EU law and corporate/M&A work. Haak’s departure will […]
Italian outfit BonelliErede has announced changes to two key management roles, including the naming of the first woman to hold the managing partner role in the firm’s 24-year history. Milan-based corporate/M&A partner Eliana Catalano will become managing partner, taking over from incumbent Andrea Carta Mantiglia. Long-serving London managing partner Massimiliano Danusso will become the firm’s […]
Welcome to this week’s edition of The Passport, your weekly guide to everything happening in the European legal market. This week, our main story concerns allegations against the former managing partner and driving force of Norwegian-headquartered Schjødt. The allegations could have grave ramifications for a man widely credited with having transformed his firm’s fortunes and […]
It’s hired – paid big money, sparked a revolution in remuneration, hired teams straight out of its rivals – including one rival’s chairman – has the plum renewables clients that its competitors would kill for; and now it’s going international. Meet the firm that rewrote the rule book in Denmark. Danish law firm Accura marked […]
Tech-focused Bird & Bird has bolstered its client offering by creating a new role at the firm and hiring a legal tech expert from one of the Big Four to fill it. Hélder Santos joins his new firm from KPMG where he spent 18 months as the firm’s head of legal tech Solutions, having previously […]
This week in The Passport we’re taking a view on how Taylor Wessing might add an important missing piece in its European jigsaw and how a weak Krona has been both a blessing and a curse to Sweden’s biggest players. Taylor Wessing’s big Italian gap The big European news out of Taylor Wessing earlier this […]
The Lawyer’s European Awards is back for the 14th year in a row to crown the crème de la crème of the European legal market. More than 250 entries from 120 firms and organisations have been submitted as the battle begins to claim one or more of the 27 prizes that are up for grabs. […]
The Passport is back after the summer break, this week featuring Spain’s Pérez-Llorca as it announces its arrival in Portugal. We also explore why Latham & Watkins won’t be announcing an office in the Dutch capital in the near future, along with a little teaser ahead of the release of The Lawyer’s Global Top 30 […]
Pinsent Masons is ramping up investment in its EMEA corporate group as it aims to double corporate revenue by 2030. Though coy on a fixed figure, The Lawyer understands that internal targets would place the figure north of €100m in seven years’ time. To achieve this, Pinsents aims to significantly grow its corporate lawyer numbers […]
A little milestone was passed by Freshfields in June. It’s been 23 years since The Lawyer revealed its merger with the elite German outfit Bruckhaus Westrick Heller Löber, following just a couple of years on from the Deringer deal. The turn of the century was a watershed moment not only for Freshfields’ European expansion, but also for […]
Norton Rose Fulbright’s (NRF) EMEA network has committed to making hybrid working a core part of its future as the firm’s regional managing partner rules out ever returning to a mandated five-day office week. The post-Covid years have seen firms wrestle with returning to the office policies in a bid to find the right balance […]
Squire Patton Boggs has stated its intentions to be a serious player in European private equity as the firm makes a trio of partner hires in two key Continental markets. The most significant result of this is the launch of a new office in Amsterdam. The firm has hired corporate partner Jeroen Sombezki from Dutch […]
The rush of UK firms sending their lawyers to qualify at the Irish Bar is well and truly over. In the immediate aftermath of Brexit, Dublin was a safe haven for qualification for lawyers wanting to shore up their European Union (EU) connections. The rationale was simple: it is an English-speaking jurisdiction, its lenient approach […]
A handful of international players are resetting their growth expectations in Dublin, as investment continues to flow in the region. Taylor Wessing, Bird & Bird and Pinsent Masons have all revealed to The Lawyer that they are setting ambitious growth plans after hitting previously set targets. Bird & Bird had already set a target of […]
Luxembourg-headquartered funds firm Elvinger Hoss Prussen has expanded its European presence for the first time with a new office opening. The firm has launched an outfit in Paris as it seeks opportunities amid the French capital’s growing importance to the global funds market. The new Paris office opened its doors in late July, with a […]
And here we are, the end of July. As we stand on the brink of Le Grand Départ, The Passport will follow the Continental tradition of a month-long break in August. We close the summer’s final edition with a taste of Italian consolidation, while considering what Wolf Theiss’s team addition in Poland means for its […]
Here in London, we’re in the height of the annual reporting season. We’re seeing a handful of trends emerging, but the most prominent seems to be revenues up, profits down. Revenue growth, it seems, is the one constant. The same was largely true of many of Continental Europe’s largest firms and constituents of our annual […]
Welcome once again to The Passport, your guide to all of the European legal market’s most important developments. This week we turn our attentions to Travers Smith as it launches its first-ever country-specific desk; the key issue facing Pinsent Masons’ Dublin operation; and why infrastructure hires are big business across the Continent. Travers Smith’s Luxembourg […]
Addleshaw Goddard, The Lawyer clocked last year, has been growing its international revenue rapidly. A growth rate of 176 per cent for the five-year period between 2017/18 and 2021/22 means that Addleshaws’ revenue derived from outside of the UK has risen at a faster pace than any other firm in last year’s City 50 report. […]
Gibson Dunn & Crutcher has added nine lawyers to its ranks in Paris after hiring an energy and infrastructure team from Linklaters. Led by project and structured financing specialist partner Darko Adamovic, the France-based team is understood to operate both domestically and internationally. The hires also include of counsels Vincent Poilleux and Alex Bluett, alongside […]
Dentons is enjoying a growth spurt in Dublin
One of the largest team moves in the history of Poland’s legal sector has seen Wolf Theiss significantly boost its corporate/M&A capabilities while expanding its regional office count. The firm has hired a transactional team from four-office Polish mid-market firm Wardyński & Partners to bolster its Polish transactional offering. In total, 27 lawyers have made […]
A slew of firms are mulling whether to snap up former beleaguered law firm Ince’s offices in Piraeus and Limassol, The Lawyer has learnt. The Lawyer understands potential suitors for the former firm’s Piraeus office include Clyde & Co and CMS. It is understood both firms are reviewing its client list, while Stephenson Harwood is […]
Welcome back to The Passport, your guide to the European legal market. We return this week with three more stories exclusive to The Lawyer: a glimpse behind the curtain at Paul Hastings as the US firm seeks to add infrastructure expertise in a tricky Paris market, Kinstellar bolsters its Serbian offering with a local merger, […]
Dublin is only a 35-minute drive from San Francisco – just head east on I-580 and you’re there in no time. Dublin in California may be near the epicentre of the tech world, but Dublin in Ireland is symbolically, at least, getting ever closer. The world-shrinkage is being led by a handful of European law […]
On 25 June last year, the unthinkable happened. Tragedy struck in what should have been a weekend of celebration. Two people were shot and killed at the heart of the Oslo Pride celebrations. Some of my colleagues were moving in London pub circles, some of them know people who were directly affected, and some of […]
Welcome back to The Passport. This week, we bring you a Nordic double-bill, which looks at how Kirkland’s success in breaking the Nordic funds market creates a complex situation for one of Copenhagen’s leading law firms and also why Borenius poaching a White & Case M&A partner speaks to the firm’s wider international strategy. But […]
Welcome back to The Passport: your weekly newsletter full of European law firm analysis. This week, we have a tale of how Bristows has been forced to look on the Continent for access to the Unified Patent Court (UPC), sandwiched between two stories from Sweden. The first lets us pause on what the formalisation of […]
The hub model of using a particular city is a tried, tested and proven method of a firm being present in one place while retaining the ability to plug into work from the wider region. Singapore has long played that role for South East Asia, then there’s Miami for Latin America, and for Central and […]
Welcome back to The Passport, your weekly roundup of the most impactful stories from across the European continent. This week, Vienna’s importance to the European legal community appears to be increasing, Milan was named as the home of the third court of the UPC’s central division and a Brussels-based trade and sanctions boutique makes a […]
CMS has agreed an exclusive cooperation agreement with a two-office Swedish firm as it continues to gain a foothold in the Nordics’ most important market. A spokesperson for CMS told The Lawyer that an agreement had been reach with Swedish firm Wistrand “under which both firms refer business to each other”. The deal gives CMS […]
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has bolstered its restructuring and insolvency offering in Paris with the hire of a partner from a US firm. Paul Hastings partner Guilhem Bremond will join the firm’s transactions practice, of which the restructuring team is a part, with almost three decades of experience on the debtor side of insolvency matters. Freshfields […]
Fieldfisher is gaining a foothold in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), opening its first office since placing the Continent at the core of its three-year strategy. To do this, Fieldfisher has opened its doors in the Austrian capital of Vienna with a four-partner team leading the new office. The firm has hit Austrian firm SCWP […]
In this week’s edition: Chiomenti redefines its partnership through the ‘Three Speed Concept’, Setterwalls introduces what it believes is the Nordics first-ever India Desk, and why Danish firm Lundgrens stripped back its offering and refocused around four areas. Chiomenti’s partnership speed change In the very first edition of The Passport, we wrote about how Italian […]
Bristows is set to open a hub in Dublin this summer to assist its quest to be the first firm through the doors of the new Unified Patent Court (UPC), opening 1 June 2023. The UPC will be a new patent court common to 17 European Union (EU) member states with exclusive jurisdiction over European […]
Listed law firms are at risk of becoming a busted flush in the UK. There’s little evidence to suggest that the partnership/shareholder model is a natural driver of growth and innovation; the experience of The Ince Group provides evidence of just how badly things can go wrong. And yet, sometimes UK policy experimentation can trigger […]
In this week’s edition: why Noerr has reconfigured its associate secondment programme to focus more on its home market; and why Gorrissen Federspiel thinks bolstering its real estate ranks in a bear market will yield future returns. Energy arbitration is shifting north Swedish lawyers might be picking up work following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in […]
German firm Hengeler Mueller is no longer an all-equity law firm, having voted to bring in a salary partner tier in one of the most significant changes in its history. The news – originally reported in German publication Juve – represents a sweeping change to Hengeler Mueller. The firm had introduced a counsel tier several […]
Energy is at the forefront of our shared consciousness. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine raised grave concerns about Europe’s use of natural gas, and emissions from transport and factories the world over are not alleviating the climate crisis we find ourselves in. The importance of green energy is growing with each passing day – and Alight […]
Thanks to the widespread adoption of the LLP, the vast majority of UK law firms publish their accounts. Yet it wasn’t always like this. In the early 2000s our fearless forebears at The Lawyer would have to ferret out information and put researched estimates to firms in order to create a benchmarking project that eventually morphed […]
As we up the regularity of our European offering to weekly, we focus on Hengeler Mueller as it leads the charge for financial investors to put their money into professional services firms (we’re sceptical); and arbitration has a new hotspot as Madrid’s CIAM courts global law firms. Tread carefully, Germany. The grass isn’t always greener […]
Here we are, together again – reunited by our love of the European legal market with all its comings and goings. This week’s instalment of The Passport features vignettes from Addleshaw Goddard and how its hire of a former LOGOS partner is paying dividends in Sweden, what Accura’s new home in Copenhagen’s harbour means for […]
Perhaps, on one of your more wanderlusty days, you’ve considered a move away from the City. Sometimes being packed in on a Northern line commute can cause these thoughts to drift in and, unexpectedly, you’re now thinking about what life would be like if you were a partner at one of Norway’s most prestigious firms. […]
Arbitration boutique Three Crowns is set to open its fifth global office, with the firm poised to add Madrid to its network, The Lawyer understands. The move comes amid a wider push to make the Spanish capital a major centre for international arbitration. Sources have said that Three Crowns partner Carmen Martinez Lopez will relocate […]
Pérez-Llorca’s gains in recent years mean we should now be asking whether the Big Three in Spain is actually a Big Four
It would be fascinating to see exactly how many young lawyers were influenced by Calista Flockhart’s 90s portrayal of Boston lawyer Ally McBeal. The show was a critical and commercial success, winning multiple Emmys and Golden Globes over the course of its five-season run. One lawyer who can vouch for Flockhart’s influence, and also to […]
Here in the UK, among the very top of the legal market, law firm general counsel (GC) are commonplace. Indeed, 27 of the 30 highest-ranking firms in The Lawyer UK200 have their own GC. CMS likes the role so much that it has Craig Perry and Stephen Hermer work as joint-GCs, which might be seen as a little […]
This week The Lawyer take a closer examination of Hjort’s corporate development, Pérez-Llorca’s professionalisation, and Loyens & Loeff’s ace-in-the-hole to retain its best and brightest. The Passport will take a break in April with the next edition coming on 2 May. Want to make partner? Move to Norway Did you see The Lawyer’s inaugural Nordic […]
When The Lawyer last wrote at length about Weil Gotshal & Manges’ former Poland team, we started with an anecdote. We will do so again. Pawel Rymarz and Marcin Maruta arrived to a dinner hosted by a mutual friend expecting to enjoy a relaxing evening. The managing partners of ruthless corporate/M&A firm Rymarz Zdort and […]
Welcome to The Passport: your regular guide to all the most important and meaningful developments in the European legal market. This week, we’ve a Finnish double-header as we look at how Roschier is taking inspiration from its founder to empower a new generation of leaders in law, the deal turning heads in Helsinki, Cuatrecasas’ trans-Atlantic […]
Shearman & Sterling has lost two partners from its international network as the fallout continues from the breakdown in merger talks with Hogan Lovells. The firm has lost Paris-based corporate partner Guillaume Isautier to magic circle firm Allen & Overy, while King & Spalding announced that Shearman projects partner Brendan Hundt would be joining its […]
A host of international firms in Dublin are set to launch, or expand, the number of training contracts available in a move that could spark a land grab for Ireland’s most promising legal talent. Dublin has become a hotbed of international firms, with many having launched offices in a post-Brexit hedge play to ensure continued […]
Welcome to The Passport: your regular guide to all the most important and meaningful developments in the European legal market. This week, we’re looking into how Lindahl is managing its revival in Stockholm, the success of Gleiss Lutz’s pitch to Daimler, and the motivations behind Bird & Bird and William Fry strengthening in the firms’ […]
Taylor Wessing’s talks with Iberian-American firm ECIJA have ended with the two firms agreeing to form a strategic alliance. News broke that the pair were in discussions in late January as the two tech and TMT-focused firms discussed how best they could develop a working relationship. Taylor Wessing said the move was a “response to […]
Morgan Lewis & Bockius is set to take on the entirety of Shearman & Sterling’s office in Munich. According to German legal publication Juve, the team consists of three partners, 20 associates and 13 business services professionals. The team is understood to be moving to Morgan Lewis in April this year. Shearman continues to have […]
Norway’s Schjødt has announced a change of managing partner with the Oslo-based Magnus Lütken taking over from long-term incumbent Erling Ueland. Ueland is credited around the Norwegian market with having transformed Schjødt’s fortunes from a respectable, regional shipping firm into an undisputed member of the country’s elite five law firms, alongside the likes of Wikborg […]
Welcome to this week’s edition of The Hearing, your insider’s guide to the UK litigation market. Following last week’s first anniversary of Russia invading Ukraine, we consider how the landscape has changed for Russian litigation in London. First though, a judgment from the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) last week has provided a rare example of […]
One of the main joys of going in-house is that you get the chance to experience virtually every challenge that a legal career can throw at you. From a very early stage, Instabee general counsel Mikaela Bielke knew that she wanted her career to be defined by variety and that her work would aide every […]
Employing and housing Ukrainian refugees is not just ethically correct, it has proved good for business and friendship.
Welcome to The Passport: your regular guide to all the most important and meaningful developments in the European legal market. The Lawyer will be looking at the strategies, client relationships and the players across Continental Europe, making this a one-stop editorial shop for regional developments. This inaugural edition kicks off with a look into Vinge’s burgeoning […]
DAC Beachcroft has expanded into Italy by opening two new offices in Milan and Rome. The venture is fully operative as of today (1 February 2023) and the firm has swiped an insurance team from Milan-headquartered Advant NCTM to kick things off. Partners Anthony Perotto, Guido Foglia and Michele Zucca have taken the leap and […]
Taylor Wessing is looking to develop a strategic alliance with Iberian firm ECIJA in a move that would greatly expand the former’s geographic offering to its tech and venture capital clients. The two parties were understood to have entered talks in late 2022. It is expected that a final decision will be reached by the […]
Law firms are continuing to expand with offices in the Republic of Ireland, as Ropes & Gray hires from the country’s competition regulator to launch its operations. The firm has recruited Dervla Broderick as a counsel. She was previously a deputy director at the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, having also spent time in the […]
There will have been plenty reasons to raise a smile on the face of Nordic Capital general counsel Henrik Johansson in 2022. The biggest highlight the outside world will have seen was the private equity house closing its largest-ever fund at €9bn in an extremely challenging macroeconomic environment. It even clocked in at €1bn over […]
For associates at the Iberian giant, a stint in London will only help their careers
Iberian firm Cuatrecasas took home the top prize last night at The Lawyer’s European Awards, in a ceremony held at the Hilton Bankside Hotel, which celebrated the very best of the European legal market. The evening reserved special thought for Ukraine after Russia’s invasion of the country earlier this year. Special praise was reserved for […]
Recent winners of The Lawyer’s top European prize have profited from exceptional circumstances, but the future looks a very different kind of exceptional
As the global economic situation creates fertile ground for legal market consolidation, the former Polish arm of Weil Gotshal & Manges has announced a merger with a fellow Polish market leader to create an entity worth roughly £30m. Rymarz Zdort, which was created in 2019 after breaking away from the US firm, and Maruta Wachta […]
Private equity house Nordic Capital closed its largest-ever fund last month, with the firm’s recent expansion leading to a doubling in headcount of its legal team and support from the likes of Kirkland & Ellis and White & Case. The fund hit its high cap of €9bn and exceeded internal expectations about what could be […]
The German independent wants to challenge its domestic rivals through international differentiation.
Pinsent Masons has appointed a new head of Germany to replace Rainer Kreifels, who has been in the role since 2015. Partner Thomas Peschke took over the head role from 1 October 2022, overseeing the firm’s three German offices in Düsseldorf, Frankfurt and Munich. Peschke joined Pinsents as a partner in the Düsseldorf office in […]
The Lawyer European Awards is back and ready to crown the crème de la crème of the European legal market next month. Here is the shortlist. This year, 24 prizes are up for grabs as law firms, in-house teams and networks battle for regional accolades, the best initiatives and teams of the year across several practice […]
The Ince Group is to sell two more businesses, this time its subsidiaries Ince Gibraltar and Ince Consultancy Gibraltar. The companies are to be sold to two of Ince’s employees for £700,000, in a move that the firm claims will help its European business better focus on core legal matters. Peter Howitt, managing director of […]
Another partner from Brown Rudnick’s restructuring team has joined Squire Patton Boggs, this time in Paris. Arnaud Moussatoff, who is based in the French capital, is moving to Squires after nearly four years as a partner at Brown Rudnick. Before that he was a counsel at DLA Piper. His move follows a five-person exodus from […]
Online fast fashion retailer Shein has hired Yinan Zhu as its new general counsel (GC) of Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA). Zhu, who has joined from My Inhouse Lawyer after a three-year stint as principal, has been brought in to support the company’s activity in the region. She began her career as an associate […]
Working relationships in New York and London has brought serious revenues for Borenius
There is no sense of ordinary grief facing Ukrainians this independence day: leaving your life and watching your homeland be subject to violence is far from ordinary. Yet it is estimated that 6.6 million people have left Ukraine since the war began in February 2022. Three years ago in Odessa, Ukraine, the only physical sign […]
The Lawyer European Awards has become a unique fixture in the events calendar, recognising firms from 13 jurisdictions and with 12 further categories showcasing excellence in transactional work and service delivery. However, this year it takes place against a backdrop of war. The Awards will therefore celebrate the community of lawyers across Europe and highlight […]
US firm Arnold & Porter has launched an office in the Dutch capital of Amsterdam as it bids to take advantage of the city’s life sciences market. The firm has hired Hoyng Rokh Monegier (HRM) partner Carla Schoonderbeek to lead the office, with HRM counsel Bart Jong also joining as a partner. It is understood […]
Goodwin has followed up on the launch of its Munich office with the hire of a leveraged finance partner from rival US firm Shearman & Sterling. Winfried Carli was a long-term Shearman lawyer, spending 22 years at his previous firm before joining Goodwin’s Munich outpost. Much of Carli’s work focuses on both domestic and cross-border […]
Every day, employees of CMS’ Kyiv office receive a phone alert urging them to press a button to let the rest of the displaced office know they are safe. With operational hubs in Budapest and Western Ukraine, the office has faced unquestionable challenges as it continuously works to monitor the safety of all 65 staff […]
The European 100 has made some progress on gender diversity in the last five years as a bloc but some firms remain some way off
On a June day in 2022, The Lawyer visited several of Warsaw’s top international firms to see how this apparently thriving market is holding up four months after the launch of a war on its neighbour, Ukraine. What impact has the dramatic events of the past few months had on the city, its legal services […]
The record growth seen among swathes of US firms last year was echoed across Continental Europe, as 2021 saw the largest jump in combined revenue in the history of The Lawyer’s Euro 100 report. The combined revenue of all 100 firms for the 2021 financial year grew by roughly €1bn between 2020 and 2021, rising […]
Fieldfisher’s recently appointed Dutch co-managing partners have set the ambitious target of doubling lawyer headcount in The Netherlands within the next five years. Corporate partner Franz-Josef Crousen and finance partner Marinus de Waal took over from former Dutch managing partner and insolvency litigator Marcel Willems who stepped down earlier this year. Crousen and de Waal […]
Browne Jacobson, a firm with five offices across the UK, is to open its first base overseas later this month.
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer is looking to open a shared services operation in Slovakia, seven years after launching a similar offering in Manchester. The office would open in Bratislava, while Freshfields’ IT support function is also set for a reorganisation under the proposed changes. The firm is currently in discussions with an external provider Atos as […]
Allen & Overy is on the lookout for space in Dublin, as it seeks regulatory approval to practise from the Republic of Ireland capital. The Lawyer understands the purpose of the outpost is to accommodate the firm’s latest litigation addition David Herlihy, who joined the magic circle firm last month after more than 20 years […]
In a push to build integration, the three constituent firms of European verein Advant have formalised an internal secondment scheme offering junior lawyers and legal professionals the opportunity to work from offices in three countries. Lawyers will be offered the chance to work in six offices across the Advant network with places available in Berlin, […]
US firm Goodwin has launched its second German office as the firm aims to become a major player in Munich’s private equity space. The Munich office is Goodwin’s 14th globally. It has been opened with an intense focus on private equity given Munich’s role as the nexus of German PE. Goodwin’s Munich launch will come as […]
Cooley has added its third lateral to the firm’s global competition practice in two weeks, this time hiring a longstanding Linklaters partner. Jonas Koponen is moving to Cooley’s Brussels office after two decades at the magic circle firm. During his time at Linklaters, he served as its global head of competition between 2015 and 2019. […]
Addleshaw Goddard has launched long-awaited offices in Frankfurt and Munich, making a string of partner hires in Germany as it continues its aggressive expansion push into Continental Europe. In total, the firm brought in four new teams in Germany, strengthening its commercial litigation, global investigations, tax and intellectual property offerings in two of Germany’s key […]
White & Case’s Bratislava office is to split away from the US firm becoming an independent legal outfit. The new firm Aldertree legal will be led by Juraj Fuska, a White & Case partner who currently heads the firm’s Bratislava base. The corporate lawyer was promoted to partner in 2017. White & Case’s office, which […]
Osborne Clarke has marked its Polish debut by bringing two teams together to launch its an office in Warsaw.
Law firm leaders are facing tough decisions as to how they respond to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Bird & Bird will mark its Irish debut by opening its first office in Dublin later this summer. The new outpost will be focused on the areas of privacy, data protection, technology, life sciences, intellectual property and corporate law. The firm has recruited specialists in Ireland for the new practice and it is anticipated to […]
The latest stage in its European expansion, Addleshaw Goddard has merged with a Dublin-based firm marking its third significant opening in as many years.
CEE firm Kinstellar has launched in a new jurisdiction after merging with Croatian firm Žurić i Partneri (ZIP). The deal gives Kinstellar a presence in the Croatian capital of Zagreb along with an established team of five partners and a further 17 lawyers with business services staff bringing the total headcount to 27. ZIP launched […]
Philip Morris’ assistant general counsel for trademarks, copyright and design will be standing down at the end of February after working more than nine years at the company. Barry Gerber joined Philip Morris in 2012 and has been responsible for leading the team’s trademarks, copyright and design function. He also oversees the clearance, registration and […]
Shoosmiths has opened an office in the city of Brussels, drafting in EY’s Kiran Desai to take the helm of its base. The recent branch is the firm’s first office outside the UK. It is anticipated the move will help bolster its clients’ needs for UK and EU competition, regulatory and trade law. It also […]
Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson is opening an office in Brussels, the latest US firm to set up shop in the Belgian capital. The move is aimed at making the most of financial and regulatory hubs where it operates, with a view of using the Brussels office to work on EU merger control proceedings […]
Allen & Overy (A&O) has strengthened its antitrust capabilities by hiring Sidley Austin’s global co-head of the practice, Kristina Nordlander. Nordlander will join as a partner in A&O’s antitrust team in London, while also continuing to spend time working out of the key European antitrust hub of Brussels. She joins A&O with a wealth of […]
Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) has provided legal advice to Patrick Drahi’s telecommunications company Altice, as it raises its stake in BT from 12 per cent to 18 per cent. HSF was led by corporate partner Mark Bardell and supported by senior associate Brian O’Malley and associate Claire Bamford. Altice led the deal, with BT understood […]
Two partners are switching from Deloitte Legal to Taylor Wessing in Poland, taking with them their team of banking, finance and real estate lawyers. Partner Łukasz Szymański joined Taylor Wessing earlier this month, while partner Zbigniew Korba will join in the next two months. Szymański provides legal services to banks, insurers, leasing companies, finance companies […]
The main contender in last summer’s managing partner race at Linklaters is taking on a new role as regional leader, as the firm continues to refresh its upper ranks. Andreas Steck, who ran against winner Paul Lewis in the leadership contest, has been appointed regional managing partner. In this function, he will be aided by […]
After a group left its office for CMS last month, Greenberg Traurig has hired seven lawyers from several firms in Warsaw. Dentons real estate partner Maciej Jodkowski makes the move, along with his colleagues, senior associates Karol Lewandowski and Alicja Kwiatkowska. The real estate group are joined by Deloitte Legal managing associate Karolina Tulwin and […]
Weil Gotshal & Manges has set its sights on a new office in Brussels, 14 years after shutting its operations in the Belgian capital. The US firm is planning an opening in the coming months, The Lawyer understands. The project is driven by newly-hired Clifford Chance partner Jenine Hulsmann, who has been tasked with leading […]
The crème de la crème of the European legal market will fight it out to be crowned The Lawyer‘s European Firm of the Year next month. Here is the shortlist. Law firms, in-house teams and networks compete across 24 categories, including regional accolades and prizes celebrating best in class across a range of practice areas. […]
Boies Schiller Flexner has hired a team of at least 15 lawyers from an Italian firm to spearhead the opening of its first office in Italy. The litigation and arbitration team, led by four partners, comes from law and tax firm RP Legal & Tax, which has seven offices across Italy. Founded in 1949, it […]
CMS is set to swoop on a team of real estate lawyers from a US firm, building on further hires already made in the CEE region. The Lawyer understands that a team of three partners and seven associates are to make the move from Greenberg Traurig. The team is led by partner Agata Jurek-Zbrojska, alongside […]
Boies Schiller Flexner is opening an office in Milan. It is understood logistical plans are yet to be finalised, though co-founder David Boies confirmed the intention with Italian media. Managing partner Alan Vickery said in a statement: “Our Milan office gives Boies Schiller a gateway to the EU, something of particular importance post-Brexit, and a […]
Shearman & Sterling has raided DLA Piper by bringing in a corporate and finance team to its Paris outpost. The firm has hired DLA Piper’s co-managing partner of France, Xavier Norlain, as well as location heads and partners Jeremy Scemama and Maud Manon, and Matthieu Lampel. Manon is location head of finance and projects at […]
The partners of Irish firm A&L Goodbody have named corporate head David Widger as the firm’s next managing partner.
Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner has expanded its French litigation and investigations practice, with the appointment of two new partners. The firm has hired White & Case partner Philippe Métais, head of its commercial and civil litigation group in Paris. He joined the firm in 1987. Making the move alongside him is Elodie Valette, a White […]
This post has been updated with The Lawyer’s 2021 ranking of the top 100 European law firms by revenue. For many firms in Europe, the difficulties of 2020 turned out to be how to meet capacity when workflows roared back in the second half, and how to keep their staff motivated through waves of lockdowns […]
Clifford Chance is advising Swedish carmaker Volvo on its planned listing, as the group looks to raise approximately $2.8bn. The IPO, on Nasdaq Stockholm, will entail new shares issued by Volvo Cars, which is owned by Chinese-headquartered Geely. It is expected to raise $2.8bn alongside the sale of its parent company’s shares. Geely became a […]
Partners Group’s global head of legal has departed after two years for food impact investor Blue Horizon. Anela Musat moved in-house to Swiss-based global private equity house Partners Group in September 2019 from CMS Cameron McKenna, where she was a partner in the firm’s City private equity team. Sam Rozati, who has been at Partners […]
Herbert Smith Freehills and Allen & Overy are leading on British finance veteran Edi Truell’s plans to list a blank cheque vehicle in Amsterdam, in what would be the first special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) since the summer. Disruptive Capital Acquisition Company would look to raise up to £125m from its listing to target a […]
A newly-created global verein, led by two of the largest European firms, has added an Italian player as its third member. Italian law firm Pirola Pennuto Zei & Associati has joined as the Italian member firm of unyer, a global multi-disciplinary platform founded by the largest French firm Fidal and Germany’s Luther in May 2021. […]
Goodwin has raised its associate salaries in Germany by 25 per cent, The Lawyer understands, after similar increases in the UK. The firm’s first-year associates, a category that corresponds roughly to newly-qualified lawyers, will see their package go up from €130,000 to €160,000. Last July, Goodwin raised its NQ salaries in London by 6 per […]
Goodwin has hired a new partner from Dechert to bolster its life sciences and tech practice in France. Intellectual property partner Marie Fillon will work with Paris-based technology and life sciences partners Anne-Charlotte Rivière, Thomas Dupont-Sentilles and Benjamin Garçon. Rivière was also hired last April from Dechert to kickstart the practice. An expert on IP […]
In a boost for its real estate group in Milan and Rome, Linklaters has added a new team from DLA Piper. The magic circle firm has recruited Francesco De Blasio as its new practice head in the country, having been promoted to DLA’s partnership in 2012. He is joined by fellow DLA lawyers Francesco Macrì […]
While many firms have placed competition and regulatory at the heart of their Dublin strategy, Taylor Wessing has said its new office will focus on picking up new tech and life sciences business as private equity interest grows. The firm recently hired Adam Griffiths to lead the new operations, who was previously a member of […]
Addleshaw Goddard has added to its new Paris office with a competition partner hire from Ashurst. Michaël Cousin joins as the first lateral that Addleshaws has made in the French capital since opening in January. For its launch, the firm picked up 22 lawyers from from Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner (BCLP) and K&L Gates. The office […]
The former head of Hogan Lovells’ Brussels office has left the firm for King & Spalding’s fledgling operations in the city. Salomé Cisnal De Ugarte will be King & Spalding’s third partner in the Belgian capital. She joins international trade partner Marie-Sophie Dibling, who got the office up and running in June 2019 after a career […]
Changes in legislation are sparking a surge in solar and wind energy projects across central and south-eastern Europe
The European arm of Dentons is to restore full monthly drawings for its partnership, representing the last of the firm’s resilience measures adopted at the start of the pandemic. Drawings will be reinstated as of August having been reduced by 20 per cent for over a year. While similar cuts to business support teams’ salaries […]
International firms are making their presence felt in Ireland, undeterred by the twin challenges of Brexit and Covid-19
Goodwin has taken space in Munich after a spate of hires, The Lawyer has learned, in an expansion initiative led by one of its recent recruits. It is understood that the firm has signed a lease for temporary space in the Ludwigpalais building in Ludwigstrasse, in the business hotspot of the Bavarian capital. Private equity […]
2020 was an unusual year for firms on the Continent, with revenues hit by the pandemic – but what is the big picture of how they are faring and how does the Euro top 10 compare to that of a decade ago?
K&L Gates has merged with Luxembourg boutique Volckrick & Associates, adding the country as its eighth location in Europe. Through the combination, a three-lawyer team of Volckrick & Associates has joined K&L Gates. Led by partner Mathieu Volckrick, the team focuses strongly on asset management, investment funds, real estate and private equity. Prior to setting […]
Clifford Chance has started an internal vaccination campaign, The Lawyer can reveal, administering Covid-19 vaccines in-house to its German headcount. It is understood that the magic circle firm has ordered around 110 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, recently branded under the name Comirnaty, as part of two rounds of vaccinations available to about 700 staff […]
Kirkland & Ellis has hired a funds lawyer from Willkie Farr & Gallagher, in a practice area-first for the firm’s French operations. Willkie associate Raphaël Bloch is joining Kirkland as a partner in Paris. He has been at Willkie for over four years, joining the Paris team from King & Wood Mallesons and having trained […]
Cromwell Property Group has finalised its new European panel, after assessing firms on metrics including diversity, ESG and their gearing in revenue per lawyer and profit per equity partner. The Australia-based real estate investor and manager has wrapped up its review, which began at the beginning of 2021 after an assessment of its group strategy […]
CMS has struck a deal with Norwegian firm Kluge, a local operation comprised of over 150 lawyers. The international player has added Kluge to its network as a full member firm. It will be known as CMS Kluge from October this year. CMS has offices across 44 different counties, though few of the giant global […]
DLA Piper is closing its third European base in four years, with its Kyiv office moving across to Kinstellar to create a 60-lawyer operation. Headed up by corporate M&A partner Margarita Karpenko, DLA’s entire Ukraine office has been acquired by CEE firm Kinstellar. Karpenko and senior counsel Daniel Bilak will form the management committee of […]
Latham & Watkins has boosted its European corporate ranks with the hire of two Baker McKenzie partners in its Düsseldorf office. The firm has taken on M&A experts Ingo Strauss and Heiko Gotsche. The two will work as partners in the corporate department and as part of the PE and M&A teams. They both have […]
Kirkland & Ellis has launched a competition-focused Brussels office as part of its post-Brexit strategy. The US firm has opened doors in the Belgian city in a bid to handle cases before the European Commission and courts, especially when it comes to merger control. It is understood that the office will be led by London […]
Ashurst has brought Deutsche Bank’s former general counsel Florian Drinhausen into its corporate practice in Frankfurt. Drinhausen departed Deutsche Bank last May after serving just two years as GC & chief governance officer. Before going in-house to the bank in 2014, he had been at Linklaters for 13 years, including serving as the magic circle […]
Hogan Lovells has recruited a five-lawyer finance team from PwC for its Brussels base. Finance veteran Ivan Peeters and partner Philip Van Steenwinkel join the firm alongside three associates. Both Peeters and Van Steenwinkel have been at PwC since 2018, which they joined from the Belgian branch of Benelux firm Stibbe. Before this, the duo […]
Clifford Chance is spearheading a strategy that will see its Continental European offices brought into a single profit and loss account, The Lawyer can reveal. The project, internally known as ‘One Europe’, has been developed by the firm’s senior leadership in a bid to treat its offices across the UK and Continental Europe as a single team, […]
Nokia is to assess six panel firms on their equity, inclusion and diversity (E, I&D) credentials through a new scorecard system. As part of the initiative, Nokia’s legal and compliance organisation will conduct quarterly and annual assessments of its key panel law firms. The initiative was presented to firms in March, with Eversheds Sutherland, Roschier, […]
Clifford Chance has hired a team from Kirkland & Ellis into its Munich office, months after the departure of two partners to Milbank. The magic circle firm has taken on private equity partners Volkmar Bruckner and Mark Aschenbrenner, who join alongside senior associate Samuel Frommelt. Bruckner has a long track record of representing private equity […]
While some firms opened offices in Dublin to avoid Brexit disruption, Stephenson Harwood set up a legal entity in Greece, its LLPs have revealed. To avoid any potential problems caused by Brexit, Stephenson Harwood has launched Bowen-Morris & Partners in Piraeus. This new entity emerged after the firm converted the branch to a Greek law […]
Two of the Continent’s biggest legal players, French giant Fidal and German independent Luther, are launching an exclusive association under the umbrella of a Swiss Verein. The two firms, whose collective turnover approaches €500m, are vowing to remain independent but share resources under the Unyer brand to serve international clients with inbound European work. According […]
Cromwell Property Group is seeking to halve the number of firms it uses across Europe as part of its review process. The Australia-based real estate investor and manager kicked off the review at the beginning of 2021 after an assessment of its group strategy in Q2 2020. Cromwell has historically had a number of country […]
Sweden’s largest firm Mannheimer Swartling has posted a modest revenue increase of 2.9 per cent for 2020, a year when the firm pulled out of Greater China. Mannheimer’s turnover rose 2.9 per cent from SEK1.4bn to SEK1.44bn in an unprecedented year hit by the Covid-19 pandemic. The result comes after the firm recently closed its […]
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has hired a Government trade adviser as part of the firm’s plans to scale up its London capabilities post-Brexit. The magic circle firm has attracted Linklaters senior consultant Lorand Bartels, who is also a specialist adviser to the UK House of Commons Select Committee on International Trade. The hire was pursued by […]
A group of Linklaters partners are getting ready to split their time between London and Dublin, as the firm gears up for its launch in the city next month. The one-floor office is set to open on the 1st of May in a building overlooking the city’s signature Merrion Square. As part of the process, […]
Three more overseas legal education providers are to offer prep courses for the new Solicitors Qualification Exam (SQE). Spain’s IE Law School, Paris Dauphine – PSL University of France and Singapore-based Asia Bar Review have all partnered with BARBRI to offer the course to international students. US-founded BARBRI arrived in the UK some years ago […]
Virgin Media and O2 have appointed a new general counsel, as the two companies prepare to finalise their bumper merger deal. Telefónica’s chief policy officer Enrique Medina Malo is set to become GC of the £31bn business, after the tie-up was agreed last year between O2’s owner Telefónica and Virgin Media’s parent company Liberty Global. […]
White & Case, Latham & Watkins and Weil Gotshal & Manges are lined up on Blackstone-backed Oatly’s US initial public offering (IPO). White & Case is leading for Malmö-based Oatly from its Stockholm office, led by private equity partner Shoan Panahi while Latham is acting for the brand on US matters. The Latham team is […]
Goodwin is starting a life sciences and tech practice in France with the hire of a partner from Dechert. The firm has taken on local partner Anne-Charlotte Riviere, who will join after 12 years at the rival US firm. As part of her practice, she advises life sciences and tech companies as well as investment […]
Linklaters has hired a corporate partner from Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, in a rare magic circle move in Paris. Partner Florent Mazeron has been a corporate partner within its global transactions practice and a member of the global financial investors group for seven years. He focuses on major private equity transactions in relation to both public […]
Taylor Wessing is to open an office in Dublin, as a swathe of firms expand their footprint in the region. The expansion into Dublin comes after the completion of the Brexit transition period. It is understood the motive was a request from a client in the US for support as they wished to establish operations […]
Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft has opened its doors in the Republic of Ireland, giving the firm a greater presence in the European Union. London is the firm’s sole European office, having called time on its Brussels operations in the financial year 2019/20. The firm secured premises in Dublin’s Fitzwilliam Place at the start of February, […]
Goodwin is to pay special bonuses to its US, European and Asian associates, joining a throng of firms that are reaching deep into their wallets to reward their junior lawyers for their hard work during the pandemic. The US firm will pay the extra sum to associates based in its offices across the US, UK, […]
While deals have faltered due to the pandemic, growth in logistics and the rise of renewables offer hope of better days ahead for the region and its lawyers
Just Eat’s general counsel and deputy GC have departed the business, 18 months after overseeing its £6.2bn merger with Takeaway.com. Just Eat Takeaway GC James Sporle and deputy GC Isabelle Meyer, who are both based in the UK, have left following the integration. Prior to his departure, Sporle shared the GC role with Amsterdam-based Sophie […]
Linklaters is in negotiations to open an office in the Republic of Ireland, the first magic circle firm to join the throng of entrants in the country following Brexit. The firm registered an entity in mid-February, public records show, at an address described as suite 301, 53 Merrion Square South. It is understood that the […]
Hogan Lovells has opened its 17th European office in Dublin, becoming the latest international firm to set up a base in the Republic of Ireland. The new office will initially focus on financial regulatory and antitrust. London-based competition partner Christopher Hutton has been appointed as the Dublin managing partner. A number of competition and regulatory […]
Kirkland & Ellis has lost another City finance partner, as one of its regulatory specialists moves to Irish firm Arthur Cox. Sarah Thompson, who was formerly a partner in Kirkland’s financial services regulatory group, joins the firm in Dublin. She arrived at Kirkland as a partner in 2018 from Linklaters’ financial regulation group, where she […]
Clifford Chance and Allen & Overy acted alongside two US firms on a deal that will see PE powerhouse KKR become a major shareholder of Finland’s biggest electricity distribution company. The two magic circle firms were on the opposite sides of a deal that ended in KKR and Canadian pension fund Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan […]
DLA Piper’s head of IP and technology in the Netherlands, Joris Willems, has left the firm for Dutch independent NautaDutilh with a team of three lawyers. In the latest team move in Amsterdam, IT law specialist Willems has become a partner of Amsterdam-headquartered NautaDutilh and will lead its technology group. His move comes following a […]
Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner (BCLP) is looking to boost its team in Paris after a team raid by Addleshaw Goddard earlier this month. BCLP has taken on Didier Bruere-Dawson, who has been working in Brown Rudnick’s bankruptcy and restructuring practice since 2015. He previously spent 11 years at local Paris firm De Gaulle Fleurance & […]
Advice provided by Clifford Chance to France’s football league is under the microscope after a tender deal collapsed last year. In 2018, Ligue de Football Professionnel (LFP) agreed to the second-largest TV rights deal in Europe, worth €1.15bn per year. The majority of the tender was awarded to Spanish company MediaPro, which won an €814m […]
Addleshaw Goddard has extended its reach into Frankfurt, two years after opening its first office in Germany. The firm has recruited banking and finance partner Nadine Bourgeois from Luther, who will work between Frankfurt and Addleshaws’ existing Hamburg office. She is Addleshaws’ first dedicated banking partner in Germany. Bourgeois’ clients include banks, alternative lenders, and […]
Private equity buyers Bain Capital and Cinven called on Kirkland & Ellis and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer for counsel as they bought a division of Swiss life sciences business Lonza. Kirkland took the lead on M&A aspects of the transaction, with a team led by partners Adrian Maguire, Rory Mullarkey, Jacob Traff and Dan Clarke. Freshfields meanwhile […]
The Continental European network of Dentons is paying back the contributions made by its staff as part of its Covid-19 financial measures during 2020, though partners’ monthly drawings are still reduced. In some regions, regional heads of business support teams volunteered to reduce their monthly payments by between 10 to 20 per cent, with these amounts […]
Norton Rose Fulbright is partially reimbursing its employees across Europe, Middle East and Asia (EMEA), who opted in to work a four-day week as part of the firm’s Flex scheme. The firm has said it will pay 50 per cent of the salary that was exchanged for reduced working hours under the voluntary scheme. A […]
The founding partner and global head of Shearman & Sterling’s international arbitration group Emmanuel Gaillard is leaving the US firm with seven other partners to launch a boutique in Paris. The group of eight partners have left to set up their own firm, branded Gaillard Banifatemi Shelbaya Disputes, to focus exclusively on international arbitration. Flexibility […]
Pinsent Masons has made further inroads into Continental Europe with the opening of an office in Amsterdam. The firm has recruited TMT, data privacy and digital partner Wouter Seinen from Baker McKenzie to head its new Amsterdam office. The office will focus on advising clients on cyber, data, tech and life sciences mandates. Seinen will […]
Simpson Thacher & Bartlett is to open a new office in Brussels, the latest US firm to set up a post-Brexit outpost in Continental Europe. Starting in the summer, the new base follows the hire of the co-leader of Allen & Overy’s antitrust practice, Antonio Bavasso, reported by The Lawyer late last year. Bill Dougherty, […]
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has made a voluntary payment of €10m, bringing to an end a long-running probe launched by the German authorities into “cum-ex” tax transactions. The firm had come under scrutiny from the Frankfurt authorities over cum-ex trading, a controversial practice that was prohibited in Germany in 2012. Investigators have since been probing deals carried […]
Addleshaw Goddard has opened its doors in Paris, landing teams from Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner (BCLP) and K&L Gates for the launch. For its latest European push since opening in Germany in 2019, Addleshaws has secured 22 lawyers in Paris, including seven partners, covering corporate, real estate and litigation. An 18-lawyer team joins from BCLP, […]
Allen & Overy has decided to shut down its two-staff satellite office in Barcelona, and focus the growth of its Spain practice from Madrid. The magic circle firm launched the Barcelona office in February 2014, with the hire of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer corporate partner Antoni Valverde. However, the office remained a small outpost with a single-fee […]
Shearman & Sterling has become the second law firm today to announce the opening of a Munich office, kickstarting operations with two partners from Linklaters. The US firm has hired corporate partner Florian Harder and tax partner Jann Jetter for the launch. Harder has been at Linklaters since 2007, starting off at SJ Berwin, while […]
Clyde & Co has hired a team from Norton Rose Fulbright for its Munich launch, as the firm refocuses on international growth amid ongoing leadership wrangles. This is the latest development from a firm that revealed just before Christmas that its senior partner Peter Hirst would be stepping down early from his role. Its latest […]
Hogan Lovells is bolstering its Paris office with the arrival of a PE team led by two partners, including the co-head of Baker McKenzie’s French corporate practice. The firm’s office in the French capital will see the arrival of Matthieu Grollemund and partner Hélène Parent alongside a team of associates. Matthieu Grollemund, until now, was […]
TLT has struck a strategic alliance with Belgian law firm GSJ, just over six months after it agreed a partnership with Netherlands outfit Holla. It was back in June that The Lawyer revealed TLT’s alliance with Holla was set to be the first of several partnerships across the firm’s global network, with GSJ now the […]
A number of high-profile arbitrators have been appointed by the UK Government to hear disputes that relate to the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union. There is a string of UK-based silks and juniors among the 25-strong panel, which includes barristers from Brick Court, Monckton Chambers and Essex Court. The panel consists of five individuals […]
Eversheds Sutherland has changed the limited liability partnership (LLP) of its German offices, the outcome of preparations made early last year ahead of the Brexit transition period. Effective from January 2021, the firm transferred the business of its German LLP to a new local entity called Eversheds Sutherland (Germany) Rechtsanwälte Steuerberater Solicitors Partnerschaft mbB, which […]
Pinsent Masons is to lose an eight-lawyer team to Watson Farley & Williams, as the latter launches a new German office in Düsseldorf. This will be WFW’s fourth German office after Frankfurt, Hamburg and Munich. For the launch, WFW has recruited Pinsents partners Thorsten Volz and Torsten Wielsch who, along with their team of six, […]
Norton Rose Fulbright (NRF) is the latest firm to implement a remote working policy in response to Covid-19, with post-pandemic plans enabling staff and partners to work 50 per cent of the time from home. This will apply to all members of staff and partners in the firm’s Europe, Middle East and Asia (EMEA) offices, […]
GE Power’s general counsel for Europe has moved to Puma Energy, a few months after the departure of the US energy giant’s former GC. Geneva-based Nicole Appert, who was appointed to lead GE Power’s European division at the beginning of the year, has moved to Singaporean multinational mid- and downstream oil company Puma Energy as […]
Clifford Chance’s Frankfurt office will move into new premises early next year, after one of the firm’s most significant real estate developments was delayed due to the pandemic. The move will be Clifford Chance’s first in almost 40 years in the major German financial hub, and is considered as one of the largest property projects […]
Robust and proudly independent, lawyers in the Balkans are not allowing Covid-19 to derail their long-term plans
Each year The Lawyer European Awards showcase the impressive achievements of Europe’s finest within the legal industry. The competition was particularly fierce this year, with a record-breaking amount of submissions from in-house counsel and law firms making the shortlist. The 2020 winners are a force to be reckoned with, having been highly commended by our elite judging panel for implementing bold initiatives ranging from internal innovation to daring international strategies. Recognised as the benchmark of excellence in the European legal sector, The Lawyer European Awards took place online for a virtual ceremony on Tuesday 1 December 2020. We are thrilled to announce that this year’s winning individuals and teams have been announced and the recording is now available to view. Once again, thank you to everyone that contributed to the success of the virtual awards ceremony and congratulations to the winners!
Luxembourg powerhouse Arendt & Medernach has been crowned European Law Firm of the Year at The Lawyer European Awards 2020. The 11th annual awards were announced in a virtual ceremony, which celebrated the winners of the 27 categories across a wide range of jurisdictions and practice areas in an unprecedented year. Arendt & Medernach, which […]
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has changed its legal structures in several European Union jurisdictions as the magic circle firm readies for Brexit. Freshfields is the first of the magic circle to have completed the conversion into a German equivalent of the UK LLP structure – known as Partnerschaftsgesellschaft mit beschränkter Berufshaftung (PartG mbB), a legal form […]
Dentons has added real estate capability in Dublin through the hire of a partner from William Fry. Andrew Muckian, formerly head of William Fry’s real estate practice, joins the firm as its sixth partner in the Republic of Ireland. He advises on all types of property development and investment transactions, with expertise in forward purchases, […]
How much damage did firms suffer as economies ground to a halt and what are the areas of growth expected to be moving forward?
German independent Noerr is planning to change the form of its legal entity from a UK LLP to a German comparable, in light of the stalling Brexit talks. The second largest German firm, which adopted a UK limited liability partnership structure in 2009, is being forced to change its business structure due to the delay […]
The Lawyer European Awards celebrate the very best of the legal industry from across the Continent. But who is up for a coveted trophy this year? As with all other events this year, the ceremony will be held virtually. The awards will take place online on the afternoon of Tuesday 1st December. Visit the awards […]
MUFG co-heads of legal Prabhat Kumar and James Morgan have wasted no time in transforming the operation, establishing a panel to drive efficiency
Employment specialist firm Littler has launched in Spain through a merger with Spanish firm Abdón Pedrajas, its third European tie-up this year. The merger will give the US firm two offices in the region – Madrid and Barcelona, and 39 lawyers in Spain. The latest expansion marks the 10th European jurisdiction where Littler has a […]
Dentons’ employment co-head in Germany Utz Andelewski has left the firm with a seven-strong team to join independent outfit Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek. Andelewski has returned to Heuking’s Berlin office as an equity partner, a firm where he started his legal career. He is joined by his team consisting of salaried partner Christopher Wiencke, senior […]
A High Court judge has ruled that Addleshaw Goddard’s client, Lopesan Touristik, can bring its claim against Apollo European Principal in England and Spain. The dispute stems from a sale and purchase agreement between Lopesan and Spanish company Oldavia over a series of hotels in the region, particularly that of the Buenaventura hotel. Oldavia is […]
Weil Gotshal & Manges’s Paris managing partner has left the firm after almost two decades, joining Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan. Tax litigator Stephane Chaouat joins Quinn Emanuel’s Paris office and will head up the firm’s Parisian tax disputes team. He joined Weil 17 years ago and has spent the last eight years as the […]
White & Case’s Warsaw office is losing a team of lawyers to Deloitte Legal, with one of its partners taking on a leadership role for the accountancy giant’s Polish offering. The team of eight lawyers is led by banking and finance partner Tomasz Ostrowski, who in early 2021 will become the local managing partner of […]
Crowell & Moring is eyeing Continental Europe for a further slate of new openings. Before the pandemic hit, the US firm was considering the opening of new outposts in Paris and Germany, where it was weighing whether to launch in Munich or Frankfurt. Alongside these locations, the firm was also considering presence in Holland, where […]
The European network of Dentons has kicked off a phased distribution of 2019 profits to its partners, while monthly drawings will still be reduced until the end of the year. The change comes as the firm had previously opted to reduce cash distributions for its partnership in Continental Europe and Central Asia as part of a […]
A four-partner corporate and M&A team led by Latham & Watkins’ German managing partner Harald Selzner has joined German firm Noerr in Dusseldorf. The partners leaving the US firm for Noerr also include Martin Neuhaus, Natalie Daghles and Rainer Wilke. All four partners are considered heavyweights for major corporate transactions and takeovers. Selzner, Neuhaus and […]
Arnold & Porter is to close its Frankfurt office, four years after entering Germany via its merger with fellow US firm Kaye Scholer. The US firm will shut its Frankfurt outpost, which houses around nine partners and 16 lawyers in total. Arnold & Porter had acquired the office after it pulled off a $1bn merger […]
Gunnercooke is set to open two new offices, including its first international one, as its revenue hit £31m in the financial year 2019/20. The Manchester firm, which for years has been running a flexible model, will open a new office in Berlin in October. In addition, it is looking to open a fourth UK office […]
DWF’s Brussels team is set to join Crowell & Moring, after the former closed its Belgian outpost as part of a wider restructuring exercise. Head of DWF’s WTO & international trade practice Vassilis Akritidis will join Crowell on 1 October with associate Lorenzo Di Masi. It is understood that at least one other associate is […]
CMS is trying to drag Barcelona star Lionel Messi into a High Court hearing in London in pursuit of around £160,000, The Lawyer can reveal. The international law firm is taking on the highest-paid footballer in the world, who has instructed Stevens & Bolton for the ongoing legal battle. It was during a hearing in […]
Whether it be ‘Dieselgate’, trucks cartels, Wirecard or Cum-Ex, the last 12 months has seen a dramatic increase in high-value German disputes. Now litigators are preparing for the next big wave of pandemic-related litigation.
Germany’s finance minister today suggested that Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer is unlikely to receive any new contracts from the country’s government, as he addressed concerns over the ongoing cum-ex saga. Olaf Scholz was questioned in the country’s Bundestag over a range of matters related to cum-ex trading, a controversial practice that was prohibited in Germany […]
Reed Smith has seen a changing of the guard within its internal executive committee, as longstanding member Andrew Jenkinson steps down. Jenkinson is leaving the managerial body after the end of his three-year term. However, he will keep on his role as managing partner of the London office. On the committee, he will be succeeded […]
Dentons has opened its doors in Dublin, after postponing the launch over the summer as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. The firm had planned on opening in Q2, having announced its intentions at the start of the year. Initially the firm hired three partners to kickstart operations; Eavan Saunders and Peter O’Brien from William […]
Cooley has made its first lateral hire in Continental Europe since the opening of its Brussels office in 2019. The firm has taken on DLA Piper Brussels-based partner Patrick Van Eecke, who was global co-head of cybersecurity and data protection at the rival firm. He will complement Cooley’s Brussels practice, which focuses on competition and […]
DLA Piper’s revenue for offices outside the Americas surpassed £1bn over 2019/20, while global turnover crept above £2.1bn. The firm’s latest accounts show that revenue for its international LLP, which covers all offices outside of the Americas, grew from £974m to nearly £1.1bn. DLA does not specify overall UK revenue, but its London office revenue […]
Litigation funder Omni Bridgeway has teamed up with Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan to fund proposed litigation brought on behalf of shareholders of Wirecard. The litigation, which is being considered against EY, follows the insolvency of Wirecard in June after allegations of balance sheet manipulation. Senior executives and leadership at Wirecard were also arrested on […]
Luxembourg is well placed to continue to prosper, despite the impending recession and Brexit, with law firms predicted to grow as the fintech revolution gathers pace
Pinsent Masons’ flexible resourcing service Vario has brought in the German leadership duo of rival Lawyers On Demand (LOD), as the latter prepares to shut down in the region. Vario, whose turnover is understood to have grown by 30 per cent in the last financial year from £14m to an estimated £18m, has hired Carl […]
Easter weekend in Belgrade. Late on Saturday night and into the early hours of Sunday, thousands of people would normally congregate in front of the Church of Saint Sava to celebrate the Holy Fire ceremony and the beginning of the Orthodox Easter. But this year the city was silent. The usual kissing of icons during […]
EU judges have reversed a European Commission decision, which ordered Apple to pay back €13bn in taxes to the Republic of Ireland. The €13bn penalty in 2016 was the largest ever fine handed out by the commission. It found that for almost 25 years Apple benefitted from illegal state support from Ireland that distorted competition […]
DWF has lost a team to Deloitte Legal in Germany, following the former’s decision to consolidate its Cologne operations with its newer Düsseldorf office. The departing team includes the managing partner of DWF Germany Michael Falter, as well as global head of technology Klaus Brisch and corporate partner Mathias Reif. News of the departures first […]
Benelux’s largest firm, Loyens & Loeff, has set itself a target of achieving a 30 per cent female partnership by 2025, requiring it to almost double its numbers in just five years. Loyens is one of just 43 European 100 firms to have added female partners in 2019, but its female partnership proportion was still […]
DWF has hired a three-strong real estate team from Baker McKenzie to boost its Warsaw office, days after the listed firm made considerable cuts across its international network. The team is led by partner Joanna Wojnarowska, who brings along senior associates Weronika Roesler and Ewa Lewandowska. As part of the move, the partner will become […]
TLT has struck its first strategic alliance with an international law firm, securing a formal agreement with Holla in the Netherlands. In what is set to be the first of several partnerships across the firm’s global network, this initial alliance will serve as a vital gateway to Europe post-Brexit. The Lawyer can reveal that TLT is […]
Addleshaw Goddard has registered a new French office in a protective move against a potential no-deal Brexit The firm has submitted paperwork to register a new office in a Paris WeWork space located in Rue des Pirogues de Bercy. It attributed the reason of the outpost to the uncertainty of the Brexit situation, although sources […]
Bison Bank head of legal Afonso Cardoso de Menezes has spent his career uniting Iberian and Asian markets – now he is building a team around him to satisfy his employer’s global ambitions
Two Polish firms are merging into a single entity, a rare fusion at a time when the coronavirus is ravaging the global legal market. The combination of mid-size local firms Zieba & Partners and JS Legal will be called B2R Law Jankowski Stroiński Zięba, and will number 14 partners, as well as 70 lawyers. The […]
Latham & Watkins has hired a new restructuring partner from Willkie Farr & Gallagher to boost its Paris office. The US firm has reined in partner Alexandra Bigot, who has spent almost her entire career in the French office of the rival firm. There, she specialised on restructuring matters on behalf of debtors, hedge funds […]
Linklaters is looking to reopen its doors at Silk Street as part of a slow comeback, while its Continental European outposts are further down the line of getting back to normal. After the results of a survey last week, the magic circle firm has opted to allow those who find it hard to work from […]
Linklaters has guided Unilever through a major restructure that will see the consumer goods giant ditch its legal entity in the Netherlands for a single PLC structure in the UK. The firm’s global co-head of consumer Paul McNicholl and corporate partner Charlie Turner led on the deal for the conglomerate, which is scrapping its 90-year […]
There were two large themes in the deals that closed last week: healthcare and acquisitions with a Spanish angle. Last week also saw a Dutch IPO and the acquisition of a Turkish gaming company by an American entity. Gowling WLG and Bristows emerged as the two firms advising on AstraZeneca and Oxford University’s collaboration for […]
Spain, one of the worst-hit European nations, is now gearing up for the next phase of its fight against Covid-19, with the government proclaiming its state of emergency will come to end on 21 June. For IP partners Albert Agustinoy and María González from Cuatrecasas and Ecija respectively, this state has been the norm now […]
Another tax partner based in Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer’s Frankfurt office has left the firm. Tobias Teufel, who was promoted to partner in 2010, is to part ways with the magic circle player after working in its corporate tax practice, advising banking and financial services clients. A firm spokesperson said: “The firm and Tobias Teufel have […]
Dentons has lost its Madrid managing partner, together with two other partners, to local firm Pérez-Llorca. Jesús Varela was the firm’s managing partner for a little over a year, joining Dentons in 2011. A real estate finance partner, he was also the head of its Spanish real estate practice. Varela had been a partner with […]
Greenberg Traurig has hired the former country president of pharma giant AstraZeneca to help reintroduce employees into its Warsaw office, as lockdown restrictions in Continental Europe start to ease. The local outpost of the US firm has engaged Jarek Oleszczuk, who used to be country president of AstraZeneca for three years, growing the headcount of […]
The general counsel of GE Power has left the company after almost two decades in the in-house legal team of its European division.
Dechert has started the process of opening some of its offices in Europe, while also giving its staff globally an extra day of annual leave. The extra day off has been billed by the firm as a “day to thrive”, with many firms and businesses impressing it upon their staff to use up holiday now […]
Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan and litigation funder Innsworth have been given a boost ahead of their multi-billion euro claim against Volkswagen Group later this year, after the car manufacturer was ordered to pay losses in a separate dispute. Action has been brought on behalf of investors who suffered losses when VW’s share price collapsed […]
Debevoise & Plimpton is the latest US firm to press ahead with European expansion plans, joining a growing number of firms with an office in Luxembourg. Debevoise’s newest outpost will be its tenth overall, and fifth in Europe, focused on private equity, assisting clients with the establishment of funds and regulatory issues. It is the […]
Last week there was an uptick in European deals with firms like Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Paul Hastings and McDermott Will & Emery taking lead roles in transactions on the continent, while in the UK there were teams in action across the industrial, automotive and technology sectors. Starting out close to home, this week saw Clifford […]
Independent Italian outfit Pavia e Ansaldo has carried out redundancies and taken new financial measures, with law firms in the country still reeling from the long lockdown period. The firm has made redundant a series of professionals that includes one of counsel and four associates, as well as one trainee and two interns. The firm […]
Leading European firms have hailed digitisation as the next step forward for the profession on the Continent. Speaking in a series of video interviews as part of the release of The Lawyer European 100, managing partners from top firms in Germany, Ireland and Sweden have expressed optimism for 2020 and 2021, despite the pandemic. Luther […]
The mass defection of nearly 150 lawyers from Fidal to KPMG last year resulted in the French giant losing its position as Europe’s largest independent law firm, data gathered for The Lawyer European 100 2020 reveals. Fidal saw an 11.7 per cent fall in revenue in 2019, from €367m to €324m (£284.4m), as a result […]
Linklaters has picked up a technology and telecoms partner from White & Case to bulk up its Frankfurt office. The magic circle firm has hired Michael Leicht as a partner for its Frankfurt outpost from the US firm, where Leicht was a local partner for the last year. He moved to White & Case from […]
The combined revenue of the 100 largest independent firms in Europe continued to rise in 2019, The Lawyer can reveal – but firms are bracing for a reversal of fortunes in 2020. Total turnover for the 100 firms rose 5.2 per cent last year, from €10.4bn in 2018 to €10.94bn (£9.6bn), continued an upwards trend. […]
French firm Gide Loyrette Nouel has decided to cut partner pay by up to 25 per cent to keep the business afloat in response to the global impact of Covid-19. Gide’s executive committee has recently taken two precautionary measures to protect the financial stability of the firm. A reduction of up to 25 per cent […]
Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) is one of two international firms that have been forced to implement cost-saving measures in their Spanish offices this week due to the coronavirus pandemic. HSF has told its Madrid employees that they will work a four-day week from 1 May, cutting their salaries by a corresponding 20 per cent. Meanwhile, […]
Entities such as the Court of Arbitration for Sport continue to provide fertile ground for Switzerland’s top firms, with boutiques increasingly also getting in on the action
Specialist courts will be introduced this year to raise standards of professionalism in the judiciary and provide more consistent decisions
Dentons is reducing the cash distributions of its partnership in Continental Europe and Central Asia, as part of a package of measures to reduce the potential damage of the Covid-19 crisis on its business. The firm is also asking staff to take 50 per cent of their holidays before September, while partner monthly draws will be […]
Douglas Ruley decided to follow his heart and join a not-for-profit organisation leading the fight in the courts to protect the environment
The ever-expanding Paris office of Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner (BCLP) has hired yet more lawyers from a boutique French firm, this time adding in employment and antitrust. The lawyers all join from Franklin; they are antitrust partner Julie Catala Marty, employment partner Claire Fougea and employment of counsel Marion Brière Ségala, who joins BCLP as […]
Almost 400 barristers registered to the Irish Bar have volunteered to carry out coronavirus contact tracing in order to help relieve pressure on health staff. A total of 385 barristers, which is about one-sixth of all practising barristers in Ireland, have signed up to volunteer for the Health Service Executive. Under the scheme, which is […]
Shearman & Sterling’s Italian arm has told its staff that it will not be handing out any pay rises this year. Following a management decision, which is understood to have been made slightly before the coronavirus outbreak, staff in the Milan and Rome offices of the US firm will not be granted raises for the […]
Taylor Wessing has ended part-time working contracts with an extensive pool of university students, as the firm looks to deal with the effects of the coronavirus crisis. It is understood that the firm is parting ways with group of up to 95 university students, who have worked part-time with the firm as part of their […]
As recession hits the domestic market, Italian firms have been looking abroad for growth opportunities.
The availability of doctors, transportation of large documents and procurement of masks are just a few of the logistical matters being considered by Italy’s largest firm, and Slaughter and May’s best friend, BonelliErede.
More than coronavirus itself, what keeps lawyer Tancredi Marino awake at night is the anguish caused by the lockdown. “I am a fatalist. If it gets me, it gets me,” the Milan-based DWF tax partner says, stuck in his home. The claustrophobic inability to move is a feeling that he grapples with on a daily […]
The first cum-ex trial in Germany has reached a verdict despite ongoing pressures caused by the coronavirus pandemic, with the verdict expected to pave the way for a flood of investigations into the controversial trading practice. The five-judge panel said cum-ex trading was a criminal offence, just a few hours after the public prosecutor, Anne […]
The German court handling the first cum-ex trial has decided to expedite the legal proceedings due to challenges brought by the coronavirus pandemic. The Bonn District Court announced it will expedite the case against two British bankers, Martin S and Nicolas D. Both worked at the London office of German bank HypoVereinsbank (HVB) and are […]
Taylor Wessing is facing a second COVID-19 case across its offices, just days after it closed temporarily its London HQ after one of its employees tested positive. The Lawyer understands that another positive case has been identified in its Frankfurt building, which also houses a number of other legal and financial services businesses. The employee […]
Cuatrecasas has become the first Spanish firm to impose mandatory working from home policies for all of its staff worldwide due to the spread of the coronavirus. The Spanish firm activated its contingency plan last week, and it became effective on Friday across all of its 27 offices until at least 23 March. Cuatrecasas requested […]
The Milan office of Simmons & Simmons is to deny entry to whoever has taken public transport to reach its Italy HQ, as businesses in the region attempt to control the quick spread of coronavirus. The office has instructed staff to work from home and to go into the office only for urgent matters. If […]
After years in the wilderness, the property markets of Spain and Portugal are undergoing a renaissance, creating new opportunities for lawyers
Judgment is expected to be handed down this month in the first cum-ex-related trial to be heard in the German courts. Martin S, a former City banker at German bank HypoVereinsbank (HVB), is a defendant in the case, along with fellow British banker, Nicolas D. The pair have been accused of “aggravated tax evasion” for […]
A slew of firms have withdrawn from Mipim as fears mount surrounding the spread of coronavirus across Europe. Harper Macleod was among the first to announce that it will no longer be sending delegates to the annual real estate conference. It has been joined by Norton Rose Fulbright and Morrison & Foerster and most recently […]
The UK will no longer be a member of the Unified Patent Court (UPC) system, despite an underlying agreement made in April 2019. The news contradicts previous Prime Minister Theresa May’s commitment to the UK’s membership to the UPC. The Boris Johnson government has made it clear that it envisages a far looser relationship with […]
Kirkland & Ellis and Linklaters have landed the lead roles on what is regarded as the largest buyout transaction done in Europe since the financial crisis. The US firm led for the consortium of private equity houses Advent International, Cinven and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, which paid €17.2bn for Thyssenkrupp’s elevator business. This consortium […]
One of Cuatrecasas’ most famous lawyers has been hired by the Spanish government, after more than 20 years at the firm. Cani Fernández will join the executive as an adviser to the Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and will work closely with the team led by his chief of staff, Iván Redondo, as of next […]
Five international law firms have acted on the €7.5bn sale of Bombardier’s rail business to French company Alstom, one of the biggest European deals of the year so far. Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton was the lead legal adviser to Alstom on the acquisition with a cross-Atlantic team, while Norton Rose Fulbright counseled the seller […]
German listed Infineon has defended its choice to instruct Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, after one of its shareholders challenged the decision’s ethical standards due to the magic circle firm’s involvement in the cum-ex scandal. The shareholder, named Jakob Ziemes of J. Ziemes Mineralölhandel GmbH, raised the concerns to Infineon Technologies AG’s upcoming general meeting in a […]
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has brought in a three-lawyer team in Brussels to strengthen its disputes practice. White & Case partner Nathalie Colin makes the move to the magic circle firm’s Belgian office after four years with her previous firm. She will join Freshfields together with principal associates Alexandre Hublet and Nino De Lathauwer. Colin specialises […]
The Nordic stock market has seen sustained activity in recent years, particularly with its strong private equity share, but may need to review its processes if it is to continue to compete with the rest of Europe.
Paris-based Franklin has been on a recruitment drive, adding 18 associates and six new partners, including Altice’s general counsel.
Berwin Leighton Paisner’s desire to have a base in Paris was well known on both sides of the Channel long before its 2018 merger with Bryan Cave. Although the merger gifted BLP a small three-partner outlet in the French capital that was launched by the US firm in 2008, it was clear to the newly […]
Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, Latham & Watkins and Bredin Prat have led on the latest acquisition in the payments sector, which is also the biggest takeover in Europe so far this year. Cleary and Latham joined forces acting as legal advisers to French financial services company Worldline on its acquisition of payments rival Ingenico […]
The Paris office of Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner (BCLP) is continuing its raid on a boutique French firm with the hire of a further six-strong corporate team.
Vienna-based Binder Grösswang has adopted a new management structure, the first major change since 2008, as the firm focuses on profitable growth in an increasingly stagnant market. Binder Grösswang has turned away from its dual-managing partner structure and appointed corporate partner Andreas Hable as the firm’s new managing partner. Previously, the firm was led by […]
Two partners from Orrick’s French outpost are set to join White & Case’s Paris arm, one year after the latter attracted two partners from the former in a bid to boost its corporate practice. Projects partner Jean-Luc Champy and banking partner Amaury de Feydeau will enter White & Case’s French office after their former Orrick […]
One of the main personal lawyers of Isabel dos Santos, considered Africa’s richest woman and embroiled in the recent Luanda Leaks, has left his firm Uría Menéndez-Proença de Carvalho. Jorge Brito Pereira, a corporate lawyer by background, left Uría last Thursday after three years with the firm, which he joined in 2016. Prior to that, […]
The country’s money market has seen considerable change over the past three years, but Ireland is well placed to respond to investors’ demands as firms look ahead to Brexit – and beyond. The Lawyer asked industry experts for their views on the shifting landscape
CMS has replenished its ranks in Luxembourg with a team hire from Dentons, including the latter’s former office managing partner. Frédéric Feyten was Dentons’ managing partner in Luxembourg and is joined by of counsel Jean-Dominique Morelli in CMS’s tax department. Morelli joins CMS as a partner. Dentons corporate partners Gérard Maitrejean and Pawel Hermeliński have […]
Allen & Overy (A&O) is reviewing the equity points of its German partners, in the magic circle firm’s second attempt to cut back on profit sharing in Germany in three years. A&O’s global management is understood to have introduced a plan to cut the equity points of the partners in its German offices by 15 […]
US firm Goodwin has added CMS’s head of tax in Luxembourg to grow its new office in the European financial hub.
Willkie Farr has hired HSF Frankfurt corporate partner Markus Lauer, as the US firm continues to strengthen its corporate practice.
DAC Beachcroft continues its Spanish expansion, as it gains a 20-lawyer team in Madrid from local firm Asjusa Abogados. The firm has integrated its Spanish office with lawyers joining from Asjusa, a boutique insurance and civil responsibility firm – specialising in Spanish healthcare law. Three partners and 20 lawyers – specialising in professional liability and […]
CMS Cameron McKenna Nabarro Olswang (CMS) has been mulling a move into Sweden through merger talks with a local firm, The Lawyer can reveal. CMS is understood to be in talks with Stockholm-based firm Törngren Magnell, which was founded in 2006 by partners Peter Törngren and Viktor Magnell. It has just under 20 partners. If the […]
The head of Mayer Brown’s Brussels office is to join German firm Noerr next month. Jens Peter Schmidt has been the managing partner of Mayer Brown’s Brussels office since 2014, and a partner at the firm since 2001 when he joined from Shearman & Sterling. He will join Noerr’s partnership on 15 February. The partner’s […]
Reed Smith has hired a five-partner team to spearhead the opening of its new Brussels office. The Belgian team will be part of the firm’s global corporate group. It comprises five partners, two associates and one counsel from a plethora of different firms. The collective will work on practices that are closely related to Brexit […]
Eversheds Sutherland has put in place plans to change the limited liability partnership (LLP) of its German offices in case of a hard Brexit. If a no-deal outcome is implemented, at the end of the year the firm will switch its German internal structure from an English LLP to a local one if UK LLPs […]
Despite Brexit, European law firms remain confident about London retaining its status as a prime global financial centre, and they cite a rise in restructuring-related work, regulatory advice and data protection issues
Dentons has hired two partners to launch its new Dublin office, as the firm becomes the latest global player to open in the Republic of Ireland. Eavan Saunders, previously at William Fry, will be joined at Dentons by Peter O’Brien, currently a senior finance and capital markets partner at Matheson, in the coming weeks. Prior […]
In its biggest addition of a team of lawyers since its 2018 transatlantic merger, Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner has hired a group of 21 in its Paris office, including seven partners. The team joins from French firm Franklin, which operates just one office from the country’s capital. The Lawyer reported that the firm was in line […]
Investigating organised crime remains a major challenge in the Balkans, yet better collaboration and cooperation between cross-border authorities are strengthening legal frameworks. The Lawyer spoke to those working on these changes
Pinsent Masons is launching its flexible resourcing service Vario in Germany, marking the provider’s first Continental European outpost days after Lawyers On Demand (LOD) opened its second office in the country. Vario, which it is understood now grosses £14m, will open in Frankfurt through the acquisition of local freelance legal provider Xenion Legal GmbH. It […]
Jones Day is to shut its doors in Moscow, The Lawyer understands, after setting up in Russia 16 years ago. The decision means the US firm will no longer have a fixed presence in the country, with the closure expected later this year. Jones Day initially entered the Russian legal market back in 2003, with a total […]
Reed Smith has added its first dedicated tax partner to its Frankfurt offices from Ashurst, the second US outfit to add a partner in the city in two days. Martin Bünning, a tax lawyer and adviser had been with the UK firm for just three years and made the move to Reed Smith joining its […]
Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson has made its first lateral hire in Frankfurt in three years and has also added a lawyer to its London office from Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison. The New York firm had added finance partner Jérôme Friedrich in Germany, while capital markets counsel John Satory will move into […]
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer’s former head of international tax is in custody in Germany in relation to ongoing investigations into “cum-ex” transactions. According to Sueddeutsche Zeitung, Ulf Johannemann has been in custody since Friday afternoon and has been refused leave to return home “due to the risk of absconding”. He left the firm several weeks ago. […]
After nearly three decades of operating in the region, Weil Gotshal & Manges is to close its doors in Poland marking a retreat from Central and Eastern Europe. The Warsaw office of Weil Gotshal & Manges is rebranding its operations as an independent law firm following the US firm’s decision to drop its brand in the city. […]
Following the high-profile departure of Antonin Levy last December, Hogan Lovells has bolstered its litigation team in the French capital thanks to the arrival of Arthur Dethomas. Alongside two associates, Dethomas joins Hogan Lovells from French boutique Dethomas Peltier Juvigny et Associés – a firm he set up with Frédéric Peltier in 2014. Levy was […]
Kirkland has hired a third partner for its Paris office, this time in the tax department, with a hire from a local French firm. Nadine Gelli who is currently a tax partner in the office from the local firm De Pardieu Brocas Maffei, will make the move to the US firm. Gelli advises on all […]
Squire Patton Boggs is in advanced negotiations with another US firm to take partners in order to launch in Italy, The Lawyer has learned. According to sources in the market, Squires has been in talks for over a month with a team of lawyers from the Milan office of Curtis Mallet-Prevost Colt & Mosle to spearhead […]
Thirteen lawyers who left Fidal for KPMG are returning to the firm, 10 months after the accountancy giant poached 145 people in a huge team hire in Paris, The Lawyer understands. The team in question has decided to return to France’s largest law firm instead of joining the throng that defected to KPMG Legal. The […]
Hogan Lovells‘ recently launched legal services centre in Berlin is set to have exceeded its staffing expectations by nearly 400 per cent by the end of this year. The firm opened the office in the German capital in April, setting out a target to have around six or seven fee earners in Berlin by the […]
Sullivan & Cromwell and two French firms are acting for Fiat Chrysler and Peugeot on their plans to merge into one automobile giant. This is Fiat Chrysler’s second attempt at a merger this year. Sullcrom’s team is advising Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. The US firm is working with French firm Darrois Villey Maillot Brochier, led by Jean-Michel […]
Paul Hastings is set to close its doors in Milan for good, The Lawyer understands, as its office managing partner leaves for the Italian arm of a rival US firm. Bruno Cova, the corporate partner who is in charge of Paul Hastings office, is understood to be joining Studio Legale Delfino e Associati Willkie Farr […]
As the saga of the UK’s exit from the EU looks to edge nearer to a conclusion, The Lawyer quizzes firms in Ireland about the regulatory changes likely to stem from the divorce
Norway’s Schjødt and Sweden’s Hamilton have merged to create a €108m firm, in what is one of the first Norwegian-Swedish tie-ups. Following a partnership vote this week, Schjødt will commence a full integration with Hamilton. The combined firm’s revenue will be around €108.4m; in 2018, Schjødt’s revenue was €87.4m while Hamilton’s was €21m. The firms […]
A complaint has been made by a former lawyer at Allen & Overy to the Luxembourg Bar Association over claims she was discriminated against in the workplace. After she was dismissed from her role in June 2018, the associate, who had been at the firm a year, sent a 10-page complaint to the firm alleging that […]
DWF has opened a new office in Düsseldorf, marking the firm’s fourth outpost in Germany and its second international opening since listing on the London Stock Exchange last March. In a similar dynamic to its opening in Warsaw back in May, the firm has absorbed an existing local outfit, called Marccus Partners. The 10-strong office, […]
K&L Gates has lost a dozen lawyers in Paris to Winston & Strawn, five months after its Warsaw office was taken over by DWF. The K&L Gates team is made up of four partners and eight associates, who are understood to be bringing across with them €8m to €10m of business. They include tax partner […]
Three years after opening its last office in Continental Europe, Goodwin Procter has continued to expand in the region with a new funds-focused office in Luxembourg. Goodwin’s latest outpost, which will be led by partner Alexandrine Armstrong-Cerfontaine, is an addition to its already existing London-based desk for the region. Armstrong-Cerfontaine will split her time between […]
King & Spalding has hired a life sciences regulatory partner in Brussels to launch formally the firm’s 21st international office. Genevieve Michaux, who was previously at Mayer Brown since 2016, joined the firm as a partner to focus on regulatory issues in the life sciences industry. She focuses on European Union, French and Belgian food […]
Weil Gotshal & Manges’s Warsaw office is in talks to join the local office of Baker McKenzie when the US firm discontinues its operations in the region.
Simpson Thacher & Bartlett has advised Blackstone on the launch of a £7.1bn (€8bn) pan-European last mile logistics company called Mileway. Corporate partner and The Lawyer Hot 100 2018 Wheatly Macnamara led for longstanding client Blackstone, alongside partner Tom Lloyd on the financing side. Headquartered in Amsterdam, Mileway is the largest owner of last mile […]
CMS Rui Pena & Arnaut, the Portuguese branch of CMS, has bolstered its African efforts with the arrival of a senior partner from local firm Miranda e Associados. Alberto Galhardo Simões, who has been at Miranda for 16 years and was head of corporate, has left the firm in order to strengthen CMS RPA’s growth […]
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer is beefing up its Paris office with a new magic circle partner hire from Linklaters, its second lateral in a matter of days. The firm has brought in Linklaters banking and finance partner Marc Perrone, who until now led the firm’s financial services regulation practice in Paris. The banking partner has spent […]
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has lured in a new litigation partner in its Paris office, targeting a boutique that has also suffered recent defections to another international firm. Freshfields has hired Christophe Seraglini, the name partner of French boutique Betto Seraglini. The hire deals a blow to the local firm, which has recently been hit by two […]
The automotive industry has long been one of the main drivers of the German economy, but following the diesel scandals and amid climate change challenges, the industry is evolving. The Lawyer spoke to those working at the heart of the change
Two tax partners at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer are under an investigation for their role in “cum-ex” transactions. The criminal investigation into the two unnamed partners relates to their alleged involvement in the advice given to the now-defunct Maple Bank. The bank’s liquidators, CMS Hasch Sigle sued Freshfields in Frankfurt for its advice on so-called ‘cum-ex’-deals. […]
Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner (BCLP) has raided a local French boutique by bringing in a five-partner team into its Paris office, The Lawyer understands. The firm has targeted independent firm Franklin to boost its real estate, tax and banking offering with the hire of a team of partners and associates. The partners at the heart of […]
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has paid a €50m settlement to the administrators of an insolvent German bank, which was represented by Linklaters. Maple Bank’s liquidators CMS Hasche Sigle sued Freshfields in Frankfurt for €95m for its advice on so-called ‘cum-ex’-deals. The firm advised the bank in controversial share-swapping schemes that allegedly allowed investors to reclaim billions […]
Squire Patton Boggs is in advanced talks to open its first office in Italy, The Lawyer understands, as it seeks to have a local presence by the autumn. According to sources in the market, the US firm has been holding negotiations with local partners since last May and aims to set up shop in Milan […]
Simmons & Simmons is defending Deutsche Bank in a €2m claim brought against the bank by now-defunct buyers of a German supermarket portfolio. The claimants, Mercatoria Acquisition B.V (MABV) in liquidation, has filed a claim in the commercial court. The dispute centres on a €320m retail loan the bank’s London branch provided to the Dutch […]
Addleshaw Goddard will have to wait longer than anticipated for a follow-on damages claim brought against a group of envelope producers, as a judge has put a stay in one of the European proceedings. The dispute centres around two envelope manufacturers, who were fined in the European courts for rigging prices for their profit. This […]
The Gordon Dadds group has hit back at the departure of Ince’s Monaco team to HFW, claiming the financial performance of its representation in the principality “can be improved by bringing in a new team”. The comments from the group come as Ince’s former lawyers in Monaco break away to join HFW’s new venture. Gordon […]
Just down the road from CMS and Linklaters,one of the most venerable firms in Lisbon is undergoing a shake-up that has left the local market dazed.
There is no stopping the £1.3bn, 1,000-employee fintech firm Revolut or its team-building head of legal, Tom Hambrett
Clifford Chance has turned part of its Frankfurt office into its latest digital and legal technology hub, as firms increasingly turn to Germany for long-term innovation infrastructures. The Lawyer understands that the firm spent below €100,000 to refurbish a series of meeting rooms and former admin spaces into what has been dubbed internally the “innovation and […]
Eight years after re-launching its Milan office with a pair of partners from Latham & Watkins, White & Case has targeted its US rival again with two more lateral hires. Maria Cristina Storchi and Andrea Novarese, who have both been partners at Latham for more than 10 years, will join White & Case’s M&A and […]
Europe’s largest independent law firms have identified their own peers as their expected main source of competition over the next three years, dismissing the continued arrival of international firms on the Continent as only a secondary threat. Just under three-quarters of independent firms responding to attitudinal questions asked during the research process for this year’s […]
A former partner of DLA Piper has been appointed as the new head of Latham & Watkins’ Madrid office, following the passing of Juan Picón last month. Ignacio Gómez-Sancha, who joined Latham as a corporate partner in the Spanish capital’s office in early 2018, will take on the managing role effective immediately. Prior to that, […]
The Warsaw office of Weil Gotshal & Manges is set to drop the US firm’s brand later this year following a strategic review of its operations in the CEE region, The Lawyer understands. It is understood that the contracts of lawyers in the Warsaw office have been reviewed and that in about six months’ time […]
Paul Hastings has not renewed the lease of its Italian office, The Lawyer understands, following a raft of partner departures over the last few months. The firm’s lease in Milan is understood to be expiring in December, with no renewal of its presence in those premises having yet been made. The decision comes as Paul Hastings’ […]
With Britain’s EU departure saga continuing, we caught up with firms in the Grand Duchy to ask how they are handling an influx of funds and fending off international competitors
Reed Smith is beefing up its Paris office with a new team hire, bringing in a three-lawyer group from Dentons. Dentons partner intellectual property partner Marianne Schaffner is joining Reed Smith’s IP, technology and data practice in Paris along with two associates. She spent over a year at Dentons, where she headed the intellectual property […]
A team from Paul Hastings is to join Herbert Smith Freehills‘ (HSF) Milan office, marking the first significant hire for the UK firm since it opened its doors in Italy two years ago. The Lawyer understands the eight-strong team is led by partners Lorenzo Parola and Francesca Morra, who will join HSF alongside six associates. […]
Linklaters and Herbert Smith Freehills have failed to defeat the Republic of Estonia in an arbitration case heard in the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID). The two firms were acting for utility provider AS Tallinna Vesi and its Dutch shareholder United Utilities, whose claim dates back to 2014. They commenced proceedings against […]
The Warsaw office of Weil Gotshal & Manges has brought in a new tax team from the legal unit of Deloitte Legal, as speculation mounts over the fate of the US firm’s CEE office. A team led by tax partner Leszek Tokarski, including tax specialists Maciej Kostrzewski and Artur Ciechomski, joined the US firm’s Warsaw premises […]
Eversheds Sutherland has created a new head of Europe role, appointing partner Helen Thomas to the role.
Simmons & Simmons has expanded its Paris office by hiring a private equity team from Gowling WLG. Partner Jérôme Patenotte, who was at Gowling WLG for nine years, will lead Simmons’ new private equity practice. He joins the firm along with of counsel Sophie Mesnier-Teissedre and senior associate Savina Jouan. Patenotte founded legacy Wragge & […]
Simpson Thacher & Bartlett and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer have taken advisory roles for KKR in its public takeover offer for German publisher Axel Springer. The deal puts the publishing company’s worth at around $7.7bn. Private equity group KKR is being jointly advised by the pair on corporate and finance matters. Freshfields deal team is led […]
Despite a slight fall in corporate activity, European firms remained busy in 2018, with several reporting a hike in turnover contributing to an overall record increase in total revenue over the past five years
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has landed the advisory role for British caterer Compass Group on its acquisition of Fazer Food Services, in a deal worth €475m. The Freshfields team was led by corporate partner George Swan, while partner Simon Priddis advised on anti-trust issues, and Peter Clements counseled on tax matters. The acquired family-owned food provider […]
Ashurst has told a Munich-based partner to leave the firm, “as a result of conduct which is contrary” to the firm’s values. The firm announced today that Bernd Egbers has been asked by the board to leave the firm. The firm did not offer any further comment on Egbers’ departure, with a spokesperson stating that […]
Publicly-listed firm DWF has signed up to an exclusive association with Spanish law firm Rousaud Costas Duran, in a move that expands its European presence. Following the firm’s float on the London Stock Exchange in March 2019, The Lawyer learned that DWF would wield a considerable warchest, allowing it to expand. The partnership with the […]
Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) is set to shut down its Berlin office before the end of the year after a consultation exercise around its Continental Europe strategy. The closure of the office in the German capital, which houses 10 lawyers, four trainees and five business services staff, will not affect existing premises in Frankfurt and […]
As global business firms recalibrate their offering on the Continent, there is no let-up in localised battles for talent, with DLA Piper the latest firm to rebuild practices in Warsaw. The Lawyer can reveal that DLA Piper‘s Warsaw office has brought in a two-lawyer corporate group from CMS as it seeks to rebuild its practice after […]
Iberian firm Garrigues has lost its position as Europe’s largest independent law firm, according to The Lawyer’s European 100 report, with a French firm claiming the title after a rise in turnover of nearly 8 per cent. French giant Fidal has regained its spot at the top, posting a turnover rise from €341.3m in 2017 […]
King & Spalding has hired a trade partner to kickstart operations in Brussels, following hot on the heels of Cooley’s Brussels launch earlier this year. Marie-Sophie Dibling has joined King & Spalding in Brussels as a partner from Fidal, where she worked for just over a year in Belgium and Casablanca. Before being promoted to […]
Sullivan & Cromwell and Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom are advising the Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) and Renault respectively on the proposed merger to create a €170bn-revenue business. News of the deal broke over the weekend with New York-based Sullivan & Cromwell partner Scott Miller acting alongside French firm Darrois Villey Maillot Brochier for […]
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has launched its first digital solutions lab in Berlin, the latest step in building a network of innovation units across its global footprint. The lab, located in the Factory co-working space nested in the Görlitzer Park area, will be led by the firm’s German real estate and litigation counsels Gerrit Beckhaus and […]
The combined turnover of the largest independent European firms has broken through the €10bn barrier for the first time, exclusive data gathered by The Lawyer reveals this week. Collectively, the firms featured in this year’s European 100 report brought in a combined €10.4bn in 2018, up 6.5 per cent from €9.76bn in 2017. It is […]
Clyde & Co has become the latest UK-headquartered law firm to launch in Dublin with the potential impact of Brexit cited as a key influence in its decision. The firm has said that its new Dublin site will allow its Irish law capabilities to continue “seamlessly” after the UK leaves the European Union, which is […]
Signature Litigation has made its first partner hire in Paris since opening in January by hiring a former litigation general counsel from Société Générale. The firm has recruited Nicolas Brooke to its new office, with Brooke becoming the fourth partner in the fledgling Parisien operations. He will join the firm on 20 May, focusing on […]
Addleshaw Goddard has launched its first Continental European office, taking 10 lawyers from Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner. The team hire in Hamburg includes two current BCLP partners and will allow the office to initially provide advice on M&A and private equity, commercial, employment, international trade and litigation matters. Addleshaws’ arrival in Germany has long been […]
Break-ups of law firms are rare on the Continent. So when not one, but two Swedish firms suffered losses in Stockholm last year, it sent convulsions across the Nordic region.
BonelliErede’s potential merger with a litigation-focused firm has met a stumbling block, The Lawyer understands, with one of the target’s offices eyeing a move away to another Italian powerhouse. As discussions between BonelliErede and local law firm Lombardi Segni continue, sources with knowledge of the negotiations said corporate partner Antonio Segni and his Rome-based team are understood […]
DWF is in the process of buying the Warsaw branch of K&L Gates, marking its debut in the CEE region and first step of its expansion plans since listing on the London Stock Exchange. The acquisition, valued at £3m, sees the CEE outpost of K&L Gates absorbed by the UK firm, which will open a […]
A&L Goodbody has appointed a new chair, Eileen Roberts, as the firm’s second successive woman in the leadership role. Roberts, based in Dublin, is the former head of the firm’s litigation and dispute resolution department and has particular expertise in large scale commercial disputes, insurance, pensions, financial services and property-related disputes and health care law. […]
Six firms were shortlisted in the Swiss Firm of the Year category at The Lawyer European Awards. But what made the winner stand out?
A former partner of Simmons & Simmons has been told by the Employment Appeal Tribunal that her claim against the firm for equal pay, sex and race discrimination should be heard in France and not the English courts. Paris-based corporate lawyer Noro-Lanto Ravisy, who is now a partner at Astaé-Lawyers, first brought a claim against Simmons […]
France’s largest firm Fidal has instructed lawyers to advise it on its ongoing dispute with KPMG, as the row over the accountant’s raid of a 145-strong team earlier this year continues apace. Darrois Villey Maillot Brochier has been brought in to advise Fidal. A mediation period to resolve the dispute between Fidal and KPMG ended yesterday […]
As many of the US firms look to pull out of the CEE region or shrink their practices, Taylor Wessing has taken the opposite approach with a team hire from K&L Gates’ Warsaw office. The UK-headquartered firm has hired partner Andrzej Mikosz in Poland, a corporate and capital markets lawyer who joined K&L Gates in […]
Domestic firms are being challenged to make a name for themselves as international giants pull out of the CEE region. But can they hold on to talented lawyers and retain the trust of businesses that are used to dealing with big-name firms?
BonelliErede is in discussions with local law firm Lombardi Segni, which could result in the first merger in the Italian market for more than three years.
The big players in the Iberian legal market are not content with their domestic dominance and are looking abroad to increase revenue
German titan Noerr carried off the title European Law Firm of the Year last night at a sparkling ceremony in London’s Grosvenor House in an evening that shone the spotlight on emerging talent across the Continent. Noerr, which was the clear winner in the German category, carried off the European accolade after judges praised its […]
In an era when every business is looking to increase efficiencies, Dutch firms seem well placed.
Human rights expert Becket Bedford says a ground-breaking case that attempts to hold the European Union liable in an English court for the Union’s violation of fundamental human rights a “delicious irony of law”. As first counsel for the claimants in Tomanovic v European Union [2019] EWHC 263 (QB) Mr Bedford of No5 Barristers’ Chambers presented the case […]
Counsel at No5 Barristers’ Chambers have appeared at the Court of Justice of the European Union in an intercountry adoption appeal. The child, ‘SM’, was adopted under the Algerian ‘Kefalah’ system by her French national legal guardians, who live in the UK as EEA nationals. The issue was whether SM could join her legal guardians […]
In a country where political certainty has rarely been on offer, and with a new government promising radical changes to employment law, Italy’s law firms have to be adaptable
Dutch firm De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek has recruited the former general counsel of paint maker AkzoNobel to its partner ranks. The firm has announced that Sven Dumoulin has joined in Amsterdam after a long career in-house. He starts his new role from May having served as AkzoNobel’s top lawyer for eight years. Prior to that […]
K&L Gates is the latest international firm to rethink its activities in the CEE region, with a group of 10 lawyers and business services staff understood to be leaving in Warsaw amid a strategic review of the office. Five lawyers and five business services staff left the firm last Thursday, The Lawyer understands, just one day before […]
German firm Noerr has snared a five-strong team of fee-earners in Prague from PwC Legal, including its local managing partner. Bořivoj Líbal, who led PwC Legal’s Prague office for more than three years, will lead Noerr’s Czech Republic outpost alongside current managing partner Barbara Kusak, who has spent her entire career at the German firm. […]
Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) has carried out a consultation exercise with partners over its next steps in Continental Europe, highlighting expansion opportunities in two key markets. The firm held conversations with sector heads, office managing partners and client relationship partners to narrow down growth markets, as well as establish where the firm might want to […]
Nativist economic policies of CEE countries are making US law firms re-evaluate their business model – and even Weil Gotshal is not immune
The Nordic region’s stable legal framework and transparent business environment have helped make it a private equity hotspot.
K&L Gates is considering closing its office in Warsaw, The Lawyer understands, mirroring similar strategic reviews held at other US firms with outposts in the CEE region. A management meeting is understood to have been set up for this week to discuss plans around a potential pull-out from the city. The firm declined to comment on the […]
Squire Patton Boggs has closed its Budapest office following a strategic review that echoes the destiny of a number of international firms in the region. The US firm’s five-strong Budapest office, which officially shut in late January, was helmed by managing partner Akos Mester, who previously co-led the office with M&A lawyer Akos Eros as […]
Allen & Overy’s (A&O) former Dutch senior partner Sietze Hepkema has been called to appear in court as a witness, in the latest development to a long-running corruption saga involving oil and gas company SBM Offshore. The probe into SBM Offshore has been rumbling on for well over seven years and concerns allegations that bribes […]