Russian steel giant Mechel has secured a deal to refinance $2.6bn (£1.58bn) of its short-term debt, leading to mandates for Gide Loyrette Nouel and Linklaters. Gide, acting for Mechel, is leading the transaction from Moscow, with banking partner Grigory Marinichev working alongside partner Michael Doran in London. Linklaters was instructed by the 27 lending banks. […]
Nabarro has advised longstanding client Land Securities on one of the largest property sales in the West End so far this year. The firm was instructed on the sale of retail and office development Portman House on Oxford Street for £155m to Libyan Foreign Investment Company subsidiary Kinloss Property. The sale of Portman House, which is […]
A group of UK and US firms has landed key roles advising on the $2.1bn (£1.28bn) recapitalisation of the Icelandic banking sector. Lovells equity capital markets partner Richard Brown is leading a team advising the Icelandic government on a deal that will see it issue bonds to the three new banks created to replace the […]
Birmingham City Council has restructured its legal team, appointing David Tatlow to the newly created role of director of legal services. He will work under corporate director of governance Mirza Ahmad, the council’s most senior lawyer. Tatlow was previously one of three assistant directors and was in charge of the litigation division. The reorganisation will […]
Schillings has teamed up with US firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld to tackle the issue of enforcing UK court orders in the US. Simon Smith Schillings partner Simon Smith and founding partner Keith Schilling are meeting in-house counsel in the US in September alongside Akin Gump white-collar crime partner Mark MacDougall to discuss how and […]
Lovells has been instructed by a group of former Babcock & Brown staff who have bought out the failed firm’s €2.2bn (£1.9bn) European infrastructure fund. Babcock’s former senior partner Simon Gray, managing partner Toto Lo Bianco and five other partners have bought out the Babcock & Brown European Infrastructure Fund (BBEIF) in their new company, […]
Norton Rose’s global litigation chief Antony Dutton has some big ambitions. He is on a mission to fill gaps in the firm’s litigation practices. He has his sights set on making the group contribute 20 per cent of the firm’s turnover by 2012. Currently it stands at 12 per cent of overall turnover, the equivalent […]
Lawyers are gearing up for potential changes to invasion of privacy compensation in the wake of the News International phone hacking scandal. Discussions on compensation have come after The Guardian reported that Gordon Taylor, chief executive of the Professional Footballers’ Association, was paid £700,000 in a settlement after his phone was tapped. The sum is […]
As the deadline for responses to Lord Justice Jackson’s interim report on civil litigation costs draws closer, it is worth noting that across the City senior litigators are questioning the motives behind the review. In the first in a series of profiles by The Lawyer of leading litigation practices, Norton Rose global head of dispute […]
It’s hard to escape Blackstone Chambers QC Dinah Rose at the moment. The Lawyer Awards Barrister of the Year is currently involved in three cases either for or against the government (see feature). She has been instructed by the Treasury Solicitors office to act as an intervener in Seldon vs Clarkson Wright & Jakes on […]
Longstanding White & Case client Serco has been awarded preferred bidder status on the £600m Belmarsh West and Maghull new-build prisons PFI, The Lawyer understands. Relationship partner Anthony Fine is thought to be advising a consortium made up of Serco Group and Skanska on the venture. Skanska will start building the facilities at Belmarsh West […]
Lovells has advised M&G, the investment management arm of Prudential, on the launch of a £1bn company financing fund. Partner Nicholas Holman led a team from Lovells advising M&G. The deal comes after Lovells advised the fund manager on the establishment of private equity infrastructure fund Infracapital in 2005. “We started advising on the deal […]