Clifford Chance has hired Cahill Gordon & Reindel senior associate Michael Dakin as a partner in a bid to ramp up its US securities practice in London. Dakin, a high yield specialist, will move from New York to join Clifford Chance’s London office on 19th September. He had previously worked in Cahill’s London office between […]
Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe has pulled off a bold coup by scooping the majority of Coudert Brothers’ respected China practice. Despite the anger and threatened suits that Orrick endured when it precipitated Coudert’s downfall by taking the firm’s London and Moscow offices, the West Coast firm has reached an agreement over the transfer of all […]
Linklaters has posted revenues of £410m to take the number one position in London, overtaking Clifford Chance for the first time. Its UK figures represent an 8.3 per cent increase on last year’s results after a year when Linklaters’ corporate practice saw a dramatic recovery.Clifford Chance saw steady growth, with London revenues up four per […]
Australian giant Minter Ellison has raided Richards Butler’s London arm, hiring employment specialist Pattie Walsh in a bid to bolster its Hong Kong presence. Walsh joins the Australian giant as special counsel and head of its Greater China employment and human resources practice. She joins from Richards Butler’s London office where she had been a […]
Latham & Watkins has ramped up its Washington DC tax expertise with the hire of the deputy chief counsel of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Nicholas DeNovio, a specialist in international tax matters related to cross-border M&A, joint venture transactions and international group restructuring, will join the firm’s Washington DC office as a partner in […]
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has shored up its relationship with private equity house Permira on the purchase of pan-European TV and radio broadcaster SBS Broadcasting. Freshfields, which handles the bulk of Permira’s German work, has had to face a challenge from Clifford Chance (CC) for German mandates in recent times. Earlier this year Permira instructed CC’s […]
A host of UK law firms are preparing to fight pharmaceutical giant Merck over its controversial painkiller Vioxx, following Friday’s (19 August) US ruling against the company. Several firms, including Alexander Harris, Freethcartwright, Hugh James and Liverpool firm MSB Solicitors, are taking cases to the US on behalf of patients and families who have suffered […]
US firm Gibson Dunn has hired Clifford Chance partner Philip Rocher to establish a litigation capability in London for the first time. Rocher, who has aa well-known practice in reinsurance and auditor liability, joined the Los Angeles firm’s London office this month with a team of three assistants. He said: “There are very firm intentions […]
US firm’s partnership votes for orderly dissolution after Baker & McKenzie talks collapse; 90-day deadline to sell assets Coudert Brothers, the world’s first truly international law firm, has hit the self-destruct button to bring an end to its 152-year history. As first revealed on www. thelawyer.com (18 August), Coudert finally threw in the towel last […]
DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary looks set to be the first to pounce on Courdert’s corpse. The world’s fastest-growing firm is in advanced talks with Coudert Brothers’ German and Belgian offices and has also had numerous discussions with partners throughout Asia. Baker & McKenzie is still dilly-dallying, despite doing extensive due diligence on Coudert’s 19-office […]
Coudert Brothers is the latest in a series of US firms to have disintegrated over the last two years. The Lawyer looks back over the passing of Altheimer & Gray, Brobeck Phleger & Harrison and Testa Hurwitz & Thibeault to see what lessons, if any, should have been learnt The fallout from the demise of […]
Brobeck Phleger & Harrison fell apart in 2003 under the combined pressures of a mass exodus of partners, failed merger talks and a heavy debt burden. When it came, the end was remarkably swift. On Wednesday 29 January 2003, the West Coast firm lost Texas-based Steven Zager, a major Brobeck rainmaker and head of the […]