Italian firm Studio Legale Sutti has launched an office in Bucharest after taking over Vitzman Webster & Partners, the fourth-largest practice in Romania in terms of size and turnover. The merger completes Sutti’s expansion into southeast Europe. The firm also opened offices in Sofia in Bulgaria and Belgrade in 2001 and 2002 respectively. Sutti managing […]
Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy’s London office is branching out into intellectual property litigation after taking on a highly-rated Clifford Chance (CC) partner. David Perkins, 59, who retired from Clifford Chance on 30 April, is the second magic circle lateral Milbank Tweed has scooped this year. The firm scored a coup by taking on Freshfields […]
Pillsbury Winthrop has hired IT partner Jennifer Mattingly from US competitor Shaw Pittman.Mattingly joins as a partner in the firm’s London office. She has led some high profile transactions in the UK including Cable & Wireless’s $1.4bn (£870m) global migration to a voiceover internet protocol network.“Moving to Pillsbury Winthrop made perfect sense, as the firm […]
Ashurst Morris Crisp has been hit with yet more bad news after it emerged that finance partner Stephen Short is leaving for Simpson Thacher & Bartlett. As exclusively revealed by The Lawyer (Grapevine, 7 May), Simpson Thacher’s partners are yet to vote on hiring Short, who will become the firm’s second UK partner after former […]
Paul Hastings Janofsky & Walker’s Hong Kong office has nabbed a team of lawyers from Sidley Austin Brown & Wood’s Asian securitisation practice. UK-qualified partner Neil Campbell joined Paul Hastings on 1 May, taking along senior associate Michelle Taylor and associates Nima Farkhondeh, Rachel Purchas and Tracy Kung. Neil Torpey, Paul Hastings vice-chair in Hong […]
Simmons & Simmons is set to launch an office in Qatar later this year on the back of its government work and recent developments regarding the country’s vast natural gas reserves.The new office is due to open in September after gaining partnership approval earlier this week. The firm opened an office in Abu Dhabi in […]
Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe is in talks with West Coast technology firm Venture Law Group (VLG) about a possible takeover. It is understood that the talks, which could mean a full takeover or laterally hiring a substantial number of lawyers, are at an early stage. They have had a referral relationship since 1999, within which […]
Sixteen law firms on tenterhooks as insurance giant set to chop panel places; no chance to retender Law firms on the Axa panel are waiting to see if they will be chopped from the list as the insurer embarks on a cost-cutting review of its legal services. Axa has written to the 16 firms on […]
Despite the minefield of high-profile cases the Chancery Division is involved in, it is admired across the world. Anthony Trace QC and Oliver Michell report Some incongruous images arise if one relies on Dickens’ famous satire of the suitors of the Court of Chancery for a description of the modern Chancery Division. “That most pestilent […]
The Government has taken some stick for its unfriendly policies concerning private investment in public projects. But, as Mark Hollowell reports, it is finally listening to lawyers’ complaints The Government plans to invest £32bn of private capital in public services over the next three years, but the private finance initiative (PFI), its central means of […]
Tulkinghorn applauds the efforts of Herbert Smith property guru David Taylor, who along with client Mark Glatman of Abstract Securities raised £100,000 for the Sick Children’s Trust after running the London Marathon last month (although ‘running’ may not be the most accurate description of Taylor’s amble over 26 miles). Tulkinghorn can reveal that young David’s […]
Tulkinghorn was chatting to one of his Clifford Chance cronies the other day, who happened to mention in passing that, sadly, one of his colleagues had been “adjusted”. In his confusion, Tulkinghorn thought it might be some comment about the mental state of the colleague – perhaps something along the lines of maladjusted (which sort […]