Clifford Chance (Mark Carroll) assisted investment products provider Man Group on acquiring a 25 per cent stake in BlueCrest Capital Management. The £105m deal consists of £33m in cash funded from existing resources and approximately five million new ordinary shares. Simmons & Simmons (Colin Leaver) advised BlueCrest. Burges Salmon (Jennifer Handler) acted for engineering group […]
With the $3bn SCO-IBM litigation in full swing, is the free ticket that was open source finally coming to an end? Andrew Dunlop reports In March 2003, the SCO Group filed a lawsuit against IBM in the US for $3bn (£1.74bn) in damages – a sum that made even the giant of the industry rush […]
MasterCard dumps Dentons; firm must fight to keep Premier League. Helen Power reports You can bet that the phones have been ringing off the hook at the Premier League since Dentons’ two biggest competition stars announced that they were quitting the firm. The Premier League is a trophy client for Dentons, but it is a […]
Herbert Smith has been ditched by the partners at the centre of Deacons’ successful Hong Kong court action against White & Case. Former Deacons insolvency partners Mark Fairbairn and Edward Cairns are now being represented by Johnson Stokes & Master partner Nick Hunsworth. Hunsworth is also advising White & Case on the appeal against the […]
Accountants’ law firms to form independent alliance as MDPs suffer another blow
Denton Wilde Sapte’s depleted competition department has lost one of its most important clients: the group of major high street banks being investigated by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) over MasterCard fees. The loss of this high-profile instruction compounds the problems of a competition practice that lost its two biggest stars last month when […]
Mobile operator mmO2 has undertaken a wholesale review of its legal function, which has already resulted in the company’s head of legal, the highly respected Giuseppe Sanna, being made redundant. The review is part of a broader restructuring of the business following the sale of its Dutch division and the integration of O2 Products into […]
Leading music and entertainment boutique Lee & Thompson advised David Beckham on the settlement of his dispute with sports agency SFX. The deal, a worldwide exclusive from The Lawyer (revealed on www.thelawyer.com on 5 December) will see the Real Madrid player end months of speculation by splitting with his longstanding agency and his manager Tony […]
Emma Vere-Jones gives the lowdown on London’s hot property market as firms look for the best deal
The Legal Services Ombudsman has slammed the Bar Council for its handling of a complaint against two barristers. In separate reports rel-eased on 3 December 2003, Ombudsman Zahida Manz-oor criticises the management of complaints against two of its members. The Lawyer has agreed not to name the barristers concerned. The matter arose out of a […]
The high-profile former global head of real estate at Fresh-fields Bruckhaus Der-inger James George has resurfaced as part of a double lateral hire by Nabarro Nathanson.He joins Nabarros’ partnership as the firm also takes on Berwin Leighton Paisner …
Eversheds has hired Dechert partner Mark Packer for its London office as part of a concerted push on real estate finance work. Packer’s move is a blow to Dechert, as his property finance focus is in line with the firm’s own real estate strategy. However, it has gained its first finance and real estate lawyer […]