Irwin Mitchell is launching its first ever overseas operation with the opening of offices in Marbella and Madrid. The Spanish offices will operate as Irwin Mitchell Abogados and will be headed by partner Jose Maria de Lorenzo. Lorenzo was previously a partner at personal injury firm Lorenzo Zurbrugg, which merged with Irwin Mitchell in 2003. […]
DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary is finally open for business in Beijing after the Chinese Ministry of Justice approved its licence application. The granting of the licence follows DLA Piper’s plundering of the Beijing practice of Coudert Brothers earlier this year. The team from Coudert included China practice managing partner Jingzhou Tao, who will head […]
Bingham McCutchen is to complete its sixth merger in nine years, taking over Washington DC-based telecommunications specialist Swidler Berlin. The 850-lawyer firm announced today that is has signed a letter of intent to merge with Swidler by the end of the first quarter of 2006. The merger is subject to due diligence, conflict review, the […]
Slaughter and May is locked in negotiations with Bredin Prat that may result in the City firm’s Paris arm move across to its French ally. Slaughter’s practice partner David Frank confirmed Paris press reports that the two firms have been in discussions for some time but stressed that they may decide to retain the status […]
Birnberg Peirce, Birmingham firm Tyndallwoods and a host of barristers led by Matrix Chambers’ Ben Emmerson QC have scored a historic victory in the House of Lords over the use of evidence gained through torture. This morning (8 December) the Lords unanimously found that evidence that has been obtained through torture is inadmissable in UK […]
Allen & Overy (A&O) is losing its Paris leveraged finance head Jonathan Nabarro to Weil Gotshal & Manges. Nabarro, who joined A&O in May 2004 from Ashurst, is to jointly head up Weil’s French banking and finance practice alongside Emmanuel Ringeval. He advises on a wide range of finance work including asset, structured and project […]
Clifford Chance has announced that it is to match the benchmark year-end bonus rates set by its US competitors Cravath Swaine & Moore and Sullivan & Cromwell. The magic circle firm is to also pay $30,000 for first-year associates, scaled upwards to $60,000 for senior associates, unchanged from last year. This is in line with […]
Lewis Silkin has lost its fourth partner in seven months as former corporate head Clare Grayston jumps ship to Nabarro Nathanson. Grayston’s move follows the losses of property partner Adam Perry to Halliwells in June, followed by corporate partner Paul Glassberg to Finers Stephens Innocent and employee incentives head Guy Abbiss to Bird & Bird […]
Ince & Co is steaming into shipping finance in Greece with a hire from rival Watson Farley & Williams. Robin Parry joined Ince this month and will shortly move to the firm’s Piraeus office where he will be the first dedicated shipping finance partner. His hire is designed to develop the firm’s marine finance practice […]
SJ Berwin’s partners are to vote on the successor to senior partner David Harrell before the end of the week. The secret ballot will be opened up in “the next few days”, according to Harrell, with voting expected to close early next week. The announcement comes after the partnership wrapped-up its extensive consultation on the […]
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Osborne Clarke have scooped roles on the acquisition of community website Friends Reunited by television broadcaster ITV. Freshfields acted for ITV having won its first instruction from the broadcaster earlier this year when it de-listed from the New York Stock Exchange. Corporate partner Simon Marchant, who led the Freshfields team, told […]
Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe is continuing its acquisitive year in France with the hire of Coudert Brothers arbitration consultant William Craig as senior counsel. Craig was formerly a partner at Coudert Frères for 30 years before becoming a consultant at the firm. He is the third Coudert lawyer to join Orrick in France this year, […]