US and the Americas

Updates and analysis from The Lawyer covering law firms from the US and the Americas.

News

BDB Pitmans prioritises US firms for network launch

BDB Pitmans is throwing its entire weight into finding mid-market US firms to join its soon-to-be-launched international network, Broadfield. The Lawyer understands there is space in the proposed network for multiple US firms with BDB Pitmans managing partner John Hutchinson describing the UK and US as “starting points” for its grand plan. The firm announced […]

Cleary: We can pay lateral partner hires $20m too

Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton has prepared the groundwork for its first $20m partner lateral hire, if it “can find that special person”, The Lawyer can reveal. The move comes as Cleary looks to build on an unprecedented growth spurt in the City over the past few years, which has seen partner headcount increase by […]

Candey, British Virgin Islands office

Candey jets to Caribbean with BVI office launch

Litigation boutique Candey has opened an office in the British Virgin Islands (BVI), marking the firm’s crossover into the offshore legal market. The firm is among a handful of firms that practise both BVI law and English law, with several of its lawyers already able to practise there, including partner Lisa Walmisley and BVI legal […]

Central Park, New York

Uría Menéndez to close New York office in strategic shift

Iberian firm Uría Menéndez will close in New York when its Park Avenue lease expires, after more than three decades in the US. The firm runs with a small staff in New York of just three lawyers, led by office managing partner and corporate lawyer José Félix Zaldivar. Uría Menéndez felt its US strategy would […]

Fieldfisher promos 2024

London eclipses Europe in latest Fieldfisher promos

Fieldfisher has promoted 10 lawyers to partner in its 2024 promotions round, eight of whom have been made up in London.  The London promotions, effective from 1 April, comprise four women. This includes private client lawyer Alice Vink, banking and finance director Anna Crosby, clinical negligence director Helen Thompson and Shaheen Mosquera, who specialises in […]

Football

FIFA seeks new recruits ahead of Miami office move

Four senior in-housers have quit football organisation FIFA over the last couple of months for new general counsel positions. The governance body is now recruiting for the four in-house legal positions, including a new head of commercial partnerships, a head of digital and technology, a senior counsel for esports and digital, and a senior counsel […]

Analysis

Toilet timer

Financial year-end: The myths and legends of billing on the loo

April is the busiest month as the end of the financial year looms. As firms rush to get bills out and paid, The Lawyer takes a deep dive into key financial hygiene and behavioural issues. According to legend, time recording has been a thing in law firms for over 100 years. It is thought to date back […]

Amazon

Cooley’s problem with Amazon

Last month, Cooley unveiled its first revenue dip since it opened in the City in 2015. Behind that lies a major tussle over firm strategy – and in particular, its relationship with one of the most powerful companies in the world.

Century City

After O’Melveny came Akin: How A&O’s LA plans shifted

“Now we have a presence in LA, it expands our opportunities,” says Allen & Overy’s US senior partner Tim House in reflection of the firm’s bold hire of Akin Gump’s West Coast project finance team last week. The magic circle firm has established itself in LA through the hire of six partners and 13 lawyers […]

Silicon Valley

Four reasons why Freshfields’ Silicon Valley launch affects the City

For a UK-headquartered firm, launching in Northern California is high-risk and high-impact. Unimaginably, a firm from the magic circle – that supposedly fragile, fading band – has opened its doors with seven senior lawyers, having lured not only prominent capital markets partner Sarah Solum from Davis Polk, but at the same time Boris Feldman, a […]

Featured Briefings

Bill 64 marks a new direction in Quebec privacy law — Key takeaways for businesses

On September 22, 2021, the Quebec government adopted Bill 64, An Act to modernize legislative provisions as regards the protection of personal information, enacting significant changes to the requirements governing the use and protection of personal information under various statutes, including notably the Act respecting the protection of personal information in the private sector and the Act respecting Access to documents held by public bodies and the Protection of personal information.

Canada: Employment, Labour & Equalities Law Webinar Series | Remote Workplace

Remote work – what was once the exception in most workplaces is now becoming the new standard. With the shift to remote work, however, comes new legal issues and challenges for employers. In this on-demand webinar, a panel of legal professionals unpack the various employment, health and safety, privacy, tax and immigration issues that may arise within the remote work environment and highlight the best practices through which to address these issues.

Depp v Heard, and what is SLAPP litigation/Anti SLAPP?

Currently taking place in the Fairfax County Courthouse, Virginia, US, and with a celebrity witness line-up and livestream, Johnny Depp v Amber Heard is sure to attract the most column inches of any libel case this year.

Canada: Revisiting five noteworthy expropriation cases from 2021

In Expropriation Law: 2021 A Year in Review, Gowling WLG’s national Expropriation Law Group has summarized several complex and compelling expropriation cases from across Canada in 2021. In the article, the team highlights a number of important issues and key takeaways for those parties involved in the expropriation process.

Launch of Ontario’s life sciences strategy coincides with announcement of investment in OmniaBio Inc. biomanufacturing facility

On March 31, 2022, Ontario announced its life sciences strategy, “Taking Life Sciences to the Next Level,” together with a press release detailing a $40 million loan through Invest Ontario to build a $580 million commercial scale cell and gene therapy contract and development manufacturing facility at McMaster Innovation Park in Hamilton, Ontario. The investment in OmniaBio Inc., a subsidiary of the Centre for Commercialization of Regenerative Medicine is part of Phase I of Ontario’s two phase life sciences strategy.