Baker & McKenzie partner Chris Bown says he and car rental company Avis Europe have learnt the lessons of its disastrous flotation 11 years ago in time for its second flotation on Friday (4 April). Bown advised Avis Europe on its £278m flotation on the London Stock Exchange by US parent Avis Inc in 1986. […]
In what is being interpreted as a sign of City confidence in the Labour Party, lawyers are reporting an unprecedented amount of flotations and takeovers scheduled for after the General Election. Sean Watson, corporate finance partner at McKenna & Co, said: “In all previous elections I have known where there is a chance of a […]
AN AMBITIOUS pro bono project has been launched in the US to provide a lawyer to help each of an estimated 150,000 disabled and impoverished children due to be cut-off from a federal supplemental security income (SSI) fund. Two American Bar Association (ABA) committees – the Center for Pro Bono and the Standing Committee on […]
Linklaters & Paines acted for Merrill Lynch, the underwriter to a $875m issue of Exchangeable Capital Units made by a UK subsidiary of National Australia Bank, advised by Cameron Markby Hewitt on English law.
AS PART of our house training programme, our managing partner, Ann Alexander, arranged for our trainee solicitors and legal executives to attend an open day at the Legal Aid Board’s area office in Manchester on 12 March. Members of staff at the board gave short talks on all aspects of their operations, from the legal […]
Your report on 18 March on the ECJ judgment on Suzen suggested that local authority in-house departments might now be more competitive against tendering bids. Under the current CCT regime, if there is no Tupe transfer and the in-house team has not won the bid, then local authorities are entitled to add a figure representing […]
The Equal Opportunities Commission has released its Code of Practice on Equal Pay, the first code of its kind in Europe. The code, which came into effect last Wednesday, explains in plain language the legislation which outlaws sex discrimination in pay, indicates the causes underlying pay inequality and provides a step-by-step process for detecting and […]
US firm Coudert Brothers has appointed two more English-qualified solicitors to partnership at its London office. Christine de Ferrars Green and Dean Poster bring the total to nine English-qualified partners out of 10 in the London office in what is described as a “multinational partnership”. De Ferrars Green is an eight-years qualified property lawyer who […]
The historic appointment of two solicitors as Queen’s Counsel has brought a welcoming but cautious response from within the profession. Herbert Smith partner Lawrence Collins and Arthur Marriott, a partner at US firm Wilmer Cutler & Pickering, were named last week among the 68 new QCs. The pair were among six solicitors who applied for […]
A survey conducted by The Law Society’s Research and Policy Planning Unit last year revealed that over one third of law firms had formally considered the issue of multi-disciplinary practices (MDPs) and that more than 70 per cent of those were in favour of the concept. The Labour Party is committed to legalising MDPs, should […]
The Legal Aid Board has been attempting to reassure the critics about its pilot green form block contract scheme. The move follows Law Society concerns over aspects of the first phase of the project involving 145 franchised firms around the country. The society’s president, Tony Girling, has said that the project could “introduce competitive tendering […]