They’re getting the mandates, and they’ve got the hiring power. Are US firms elbowing out the magic circle on leveraged finance? When BC Partners agreed to acquire Mergermarket from Pearson in November 2013 it seemed a relatively straightforward deal. BC turned to its usual borrowers counsel Dickson Minto for its acquisition financing, and put the […]
Have the magic circle firms squandered their lead in acquisition finance? They still have the broadest banking practices of any firms with a London presence, ranging from asset finance to restructuring, and they still dominate on investment grade lending. But the financial crisis has changed the dynamics of leveraged finance, the practice area that defined […]
Have the magic circle firms squandered their lead in acquisition finance? They still have the broadest banking practices of any firms with a London presence, ranging from asset finance to restructuring, and they still dominate on investment grade lending. But the financial crisis has changed the dynamics of leveraged finance, the practice area that defined […]
Top disputes partners are quitting all over the place for the quieter boutique life Conflict is the wheel on the arbitration bus that goes round and round. But it’s also the problem driving heavy-hitting arbitration partners out of high-ranking firms and into boutiques. Last month it emerged that Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer’s London arbitration head Constantine […]
BLP joins Northern trek, with plans to open a Manchester outsourcing hub There’s a race to the North going on, with the latest entrant taking its place on the starting line last week. This time it’s Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP), which unveiled plans to launch what it described as a four-pronged process-mapping and outsourcing programme […]
The surge of oligarchs heading to London for their court battles is slacking off. But Russia still holds potential for those advisers ready to tread carefully They wouldn’t agree in Kiev, but there’s nothing like the sight of a Russian coming through the door to cheer the heart of an English litigation lawyer. Oligarchs are […]
Move of the week Herbert Smith Freehills has added Deutsche Bank’s compliance, government and regulatory affairs chief Andrew Procter to its financial services regulatory practice. Procter will join the firm’s London office in June, stepping away from an in-house career that previously saw him head up the enforcement division of the UK Financial Services Authority. […]
Scottish Power’s Glaswegian head of legal Marion Venman is driving an international agenda of integration, with language lessons at its core When Scottish Power head of legal Marion Venman joined the company in 2001 she might have expected to learn about power plants, but she did not think she would need the Spanish vocabulary to […]
Local and international firms are scrapping for work in Europe’s ‘golden boy’. But the market is not without its risks, including from neighbour Ukraine Poland had a good financial crisis. But then the country that has spent much of its history being pushed from pillar to post by Germany and Russia has had a good […]
Top disputes partners are quitting all over the place for the quieter boutique life Conflict is the wheel on the arbitration bus that goes round and round. But it’s also the problem driving heavy-hitting arbitration partners out of high-ranking firms and into boutiques. Last month it emerged that Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer’s London arbitration head Constantine […]