Online October 2013

Boom town

Kazakhstan keeps attracting international interest, so it’s inevitable that a host of law firms have opened up in the Central Asia powerhouse. In the last few months, Reed Smith, White & Case, Dentons and Kinstellar have all invested there. Reed Smith launches in Kazakhstan with former Dewey duo White & Case opens office in Kazakhstan […]

Argentina settles five investment treaty awards

Argentina has agreed a settlement relating to five investment treaty arbitration awards, made between 2005 and 2008, pursuant to which it was ordered to pay a total of more than $450m (£280m) plus interest.  The settlement involves the transfer of previously issued sovereign bonds to the award creditors in return for the discontinuance of all […]

Clyde & Co’s China dreams

Clyde & Co has launched in China’s third city, Chongqing. However, other firms have found it a harder task to bulk up as the Chinese market can be challenging. You can read about their testing times by clicking on the links below. Clydes breaks new ground in China with Chongqing joint venture The China paradox […]

London
6

Addleshaw Goddard partners fined £5,000 over ‘misdescribed’ disbursements

The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT) has fined two Addleshaw Goddard partners £5,000 each after they were investigated over discrepancies relating to disbursements.  Partners Emmett Peters and David Wilson faced the SDT today after the pair were referred to the tribunal by the SRA. They were represented at the tribunal by Fountain Court’s Tim Dutton QC. […]

Co-operative bank

A&O loses Co-op Bank advisory role in bank sell-off

Clifford Chance has scooped a key advisory role for the Co-op Bank on its restructuring after Allen & Overy (A&O) found itself conflicted out due to a longstanding role as adviser to majority owner, the Co-operative Group. A&O played a key role in the bank’s £1.5bn restructuring plan announced in June 2013, acting for the […]

Austria

DLA Piper Austria hires Nabucco chief legal counsel

DLA Piper has boosted its Austria office with the hire of Nabucco International Gas Pipeline’s chief legal counsel Andreas Gunst. The in-house lawyer will join the energy team as a partner after four years as as chief legal counsel and compliance officer at Nabucco, prior to which he was an associate at DLA Piper’s London […]

tavern

Merchants Tavern and Berners Tavern

This week Brecher managing partner Nicky Richmond finds taste is a little lacklustre at the Berners Tavern but the Merchants Tavern is full of flavour. Apparently, a tavern is somewhere that serves wine and an inn is somewhere that serves beer and ale. According to Wikipedia, in the UK, the word “tavern” is no longer […]

First new gTLDs delegated; non-Latin gTLDs; a new product to defend your marks; and changes to ICANN Registry Agreements

By Ann K Ford, Gina Durham and Ryan Compton Brand owners should prepare for the impending release of numerous new generic top-level domains (gTLDs) — the first few of which will be open for registration soon, and even sooner during the sunrise periods for brand owners who have registered their trademarks in the Trademark Clearinghouse. A […]

India: more certainty for investors, or less? Actions to take regarding the latest on GAAR, TP safe harbours and subsidiary PE

By Stephen J Weerts Recent legislative and case law developments have clarified India’s position on a number of tax and transfer pricing issues. While many of these developments are intended to increase certainty for foreign investors, a number of open questions remain. Although certainty is one element of rebuilding confidence in India, certain recent clarifications […]

Europe drives for European-based cloud network following US spy incident

In the wake of reports that the US government and NSA have used clandestine electronic surveillance (PRISM), the European Commission has urged for the creation of an EU-based cloud system. The impact on US cloud vendors has been calculated by the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation (ITIF) as up to $35bn (£22bn) in lost revenue […]