Gambling laws fast-tracked through Parliament before the last general election came into force on Saturday (1 September) and will lead to hardship for charities, lawyers have warned. The Gambling Act 2005, which allows casinos to open 24 hours a day with unlimited jackpots, requires any organisation that uses forms of lotteries, such as raffles, to […]
Baker & McKenzie has represented the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in an appeal in the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). The UNHCR was representing Dr Shayan Saadi, an Iraqi doctor of Kurdish origin, who sought asylum in the UK in 2000. After he was temporarily admitted to the […]
Olswang has advised on a film financing programme that has seen a new UK digital film company release its first movie. The firm secured a groundbreaking new profit-share structure for 18-month-old film business Slingshot Productions, leading to the acclaimed newly released film Sugarhouse. Traditionally film financing structures have seen financiers recoup their investments and take […]
Hammonds has advised Hamsard 3054 on a multimillion-pound secondary buyout of one of Europe’s leading plastics manufacturers. Hamsard’s management team instructed Hammonds on the buyout of Polypipe. The exact value of the deal has not been disclosed, but according to the firm it is significant. Hammonds corporate partner James McKay led the transaction for Hamsard […]
Vinson & Elkins has scooped a role advising on the first sukuk from Swiss renewable energy company EnergyMixx. The sukuk will be used to fund the expansion of EnergyMixx’s European power plants in the renewable sector. Finance partner Ayman Khaleq, who led the Vinson team, said the sukuk is unusual in that it is funding […]
Trowers & Hamlins has won a role advising Morley Fund Management on its £101m purchase of London office building 27 Knightsbridge. Morley, one of the biggest fund managers in the UK with £32.5bn in property assets, bought the building from the Henderson Central London Office Fund. The latter was represented by Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Preston […]
The laws regarding the financial rights of cohabiting couples are changing, but is the shift significant enough to reflect this sea change in society? On 31 July 2007 the Law Commission recommended reforming the law for cohabitants when their relationships end by separation or death. Subsequent criticism has attacked the proposal as unnecessary, as another […]
When the Lords threw out HMRC’s appeal against an income-splitting family business, the Government announced a change to the law. By James Johnston In July this year the long-running saga of the family business ‘Arctic Systems’ tax case (known officially as Jones v Garnett (2007)) came to a close, with the House of Lords unanimously […]
Forum shopping in divorce cases is becoming ever-more popular. And the world’s favourite shopping mall? England, of course. By Nigel Shepherd and Alison Bull England, traditionally home to fish and chips and warm beer, can also now lay claim to being the home of divorce. For wives or husbands used to having the best that […]
Lovells has bolstered its Spanish presence with the hire of Lupicinio Eversheds energy partner Hermenegildo Altozano. Altozano, Lovells’ 20th lateral hire this year, is to lead the firm’s energy, power, utilities and infrastructure practice in Madrid. He headed the energy practice at Lupicinio Eversheds, where he spent 18 years. Altozano’s main specialism is energy and […]
Ashurst has raided Freshfields in Frankfurt, scooping tax partner Matthias Kuhn as it continues to build its German operation. Kuhn will become the silver circle firm’s second tax partner in Germany and brings the total number of partners there to 19. Ashurst has been on an aggressive recruitment push under Germany managing partner Simon Beddow, […]
Yukos’s former chief executive Mikhail Khodorkovsky has won the right in the US to obtain documents related to the Russian oil giant from oil business Chevron. The US magistrate judge of the Northern District of California signed an order granting third-party discovery for Khodorkovsky’s defence team to obtain due diligence documents. Khodorkovsky’s team, led by […]