McKenna & Co has clinched another three City deals on behalf of emerging companies specialising in biotechnology and pharmaceutical research. The transactions mark another milestone in the career of the firm’s veteran biotech partner Julian Thurston. Thurston cut his teeth on one of the earliest biotech companies to float on the stock market, Celltech, listed […]
Allen & Overy acted for British Aerospace on the $600 million syndicated financing for Trident Group. Slaughter and May acted for the arranging banks
The profession is preparing itself for the publication of the White Paper on legal aid this week. Barristers and solicitors are united in opposition to the widely-leaked proposals for cash-limiting and block contracts for franchised firms. Speaking at the Legal Action Group’s conference on legal aid franchising last week, the Lord Chancellor Lord Mackay urged […]
Bristol University has won a national mooting competition sponsored by Lovell White Durrant. Sixty-four institutions took part in this year’s Observer/English Speaking Union/Lovell White Durrant competition, the only national mooting event. The winning team was Chris Bailey, leader for the appellants, and Bernard Robinson, junior. The two beat Corryne MacLean, leader for the respondent, and […]
Linklaters & Paines is strengthening its presence in the Far East with the appointment of Andrew Carmichael to head its Asian capital markets operation, based in Hong Kong. Carmichael’s brief is to oversee the work of all three of Linklaters’ offices in the region, include those in Tokyo and Singapore. The appointment reflects the firm’s […]
THE WORLD’S 18th largest law firm, Californian-based Pillsbury Madison & Sutro, is to swallow up intellectual property specialist Cushman Darby Cushman, based in Washington DC, to become the 10th largest firm in the US. Under an agreement signed by the two firms on 20 June and effective on 1 August, the 65 Cushmans attorneys will […]
A MEMBER of Lord Woolf’s “fast-track” working party has warned of chaos in the courts on an unprecedented scale if Woolf’s proposals on speeding up justice are not properly piloted. On 20 June, Woolf told the Association of Women Solicitors that it was “not practicable” to test the whole of the new system in one […]
While the former Yugoslavia war crimes tribunal in the Hague is trying to secure the co-operation of the international community to prosecute war criminals, Amnesty International is pushing the United Nations General Assembly to form an international criminal court. The court’s aim would be to prosecute the most serious criminal offences in the international community, […]
No political statement was intended when Peter Cooke, head of employment at City firm Theodore Goddard, presented guest of honour Cherie Booth QC with a bouquet of red Gerberas, not roses. The occasion was the launch of a book and CD-Rom, Negotiating Employment Agreements, written by Cooke with colleague Felicity Gemson. Cooke said the book […]
The Law Society has ruled out launching a television advertising campaign as part of a wider marketing blitz to improve the public image of solicitors. Officials have accepted advice from advertising agency J Walter Thompson that a television campaign would not deliver value for money. Law Society spokeswoman Jane Farrin said: “JWT feels it would […]
Already branded a “snowball” scheme by Vice Chancellor Sir Richard Scott, the Titan Business Club looks set to live up to its name in litigation. It seems a fair bet that litigation already under way over the club is set to snowball as well and the first action appears to be on course for the […]
Larry George, the senior legal adviser for BP Oil International, has been poached by Denton Hall to head its Moscow office. George replaces Blanche Sas, who set up Dentons’ Moscow office in 1993 and is returning to the London office after her three-year secondment. Dentons set up the office to work with international energy clients […]