It’s never easy learning the in-house all-rounder approach, but when you’re head of legal for The Economist Group Oscar Grut and you’re taking on media mogul and heavyweight politician Silvio Berlusconi in a libel case, you know you’ve got your work cut out. Perry Thakrar reports The Economist Group is one of the leading sources […]
Niche media firm Crockers Oswald Hickson has been swallowed up by City firm Farrer & Co. The merger will create a 52-partner firm which will retain Farrers’ name and management team. The merged firm will have a six-partner media team headed by Farrers’ head of media Robert Clinton and Crockers’ senior partner Rupert Grey. Crockers […]
Bird & Bird has taken on a partner from Andersen Legal’s Paris arm SG Archibald to advise on competition work in the IT sector. Olivier Fréget, who joined the firm last week, was a partner in the intellectual property/IT group at SG Archibald and also head of competition and European Union work. He advises major […]
Wragge & Co has won a beauty parade to advise Slough Borough Council on a multimillion pound regeneration project. Invitations to tender for the role of legal adviser on the “Heart of Slough” scheme were issued in January. The project involves the development of a 29-acre town centre site for creative, media, information and communication […]
Linklaters & Alliance has reaffirmed its relationship with top client British Telecommunications (BT) and advised on its mammoth rights issue to raise £5.9bn. Linklaters advised BT on the deal – the UK’s biggest ever rights issue – even though the client has strayed in the last year, calling in Allen & Overy (A&O) to advise […]
North West firm Davies Wallis Foyster (DWF) has hired leading personal insolvency lawyer Mark Davies from Hillyer McKeown. Davies was senior partner for the nine-partner regional firm and was the firm’s sole insolvency partner. Based in DWF’s Manchester office, Davies will manage the expansion of DWF’s bankruptcy, individual voluntary arrangment (IVA) and insolvency practice. He […]
Lovells is advising on the first pan-European property outsourcing deal involving the £200m sale of property owned by cash-poor Swedish telecoms company Ericsson. Ericsson is close to sealing a deal to take a swathe of European properties off its balance sheet. The deal plays to Lovells’ strength as a leader in the property outsourcing business […]
Magic circle rivals Allen & Overy (A&O) and Linklaters & Alliance have together completed one of the biggest telecoms financings of the year. In a German deal, A&O advised E-Plus and its major shareholder KPN Mobile on a euro2.5bn (£1.54bn) non-recourse facility to refinance its existing project financing and to provide finance for further network […]
Richards Butler has advised its longstanding client MTV on a major deal that sees the music television company relaunch in Italy. The firm was instructed by Svenja Geissmar, general counsel and senior vice-president of corporate business affairs, and Kathryn David, of the corporate business affairs department of MTV Networks Europe, to sell MTV’s Italian operations […]
Lovells’ highly-rated corporate finance partner Allan Murray-Jones is joining the London office of Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom to spearhead a move into private equity. Murray-Jones, who resigned from Lovells at the start of the year, will join Skadden Arps in September to launch a European assault on the buyouts market. Until now, the […]
Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) has made its first post-merger lateral partner hire with an appointment to its property department. Lesley-Anne Avis joins later this month from Rowe & Maw, where she is a fixed-share partner. She specialises in property development and local authority-related work and has worked on PFI transactions. Avis has been at Rowe […]
Osborne Clarke is launching an attack on the London property market by merging with niche West End property firm McGuinness Finch. Four property partners, two planning partners and one property litigation partner will join Osborne Clarke on 1 June, following several months of discussions. The team also includes five assistants. Founded in 1985, McGuinness earned […]