The Energy & Infrastructure Finance team at Wragge Lawrence Graham & Co has advised Ecotricity on the refinancing of a portfolio of 19 operational wind and solar assets worth £70m. The investment from Aviva Annuity UK Limited replaces financing from two of Ecotricity’s long-standing finance providers. Kieron Dwyer, head of international energy, and principal associate James […]
Weil Gotshal & Manges executive partner Barry Wolf has apologised for an “insensitive” April Fools’ email sent to all fee earners in its London and New York offices on Wednesday. In the firmwide email, entitled “Important New Email Policy,” bosses announced they would be putting a block on work email and phone calls between 11pm […]
Mr Justice Flaux has ruled Gibson Dunn & Crutcher and the Republic of Djibouti must jointly pay £880,000 to businessman Abdourahman Boreh for the unsafe freezing order it obtained on his assets in 2013. Further payments could be ordered by the courts pending a ruling by a costs judge. Flaux J made the ruling in […]
Following the news that Mr Justice Eder is retiring early from the bench, The Lawyer asks whether low pay and low morale in the judiciary could result in others following suit. Mr Justice Eder stepped down from the bench on Wednesday with little fanfare. After just four years as a judge at the Commercial Court, […]
All the latest partner hires and other appointments within Continental European firms and offices. Benelux Simmons & Simmons has hired Peter Voorhees as a partner in its Amsterdam office. Voorhees was previously a lawyer at Linklaters. He is a US-qualified international capital markets lawyer. Central & Eastern Europe Wolf Theiss has promoted six lawyers to […]
Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire county councils have launched an ABS, known as LGSS Law, today (1 April 2015) after gaining a licence from the Solicitors’ Regulation Authority (SRA). LGSS Law will integrate the council’s legal services under the management of head of legal practice Virginia Moggeridge and head of finance and administration Keith Rudwick. LGSS Law […]
Slaughter and May and Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison have advised banking start-up Shawbrook Group on its initial public offering (IPO) on the London stock exchange, valued at £725m. Slaughter and May London corporate and commercial partners David Johnson and Susannah Macknay advised Shawbrook and its principal shareholder Pollen Street Capital, supported by tax […]
Risk adviser Willis Group has appointed Travelers’ senior vice president and general counsel Matthew Furman as global general counsel in its New York office. Furman will report to chief executive Dominic Casserley. He replaces Adam Rosman, who moved to First Data Corporation as general counsel in October last year. Casserley said Furman’s appointment will help the […]
US firm Foran Glennon Palandech Ponzi & Rudloff is planning to launch a London office through the hire of two Locke Lord lawyers, partner Gavin Coull and consultant Damian Cleary. Both lawyers specialise in insurance and reinsurance, and joined Locke Lord in 2012 from Steptoe & Johnson, where they were both partners (29 May 2012). […]
Shoosmiths has confirmed plans to convert to an all equity partnership structure from 1 May, with eight per cent of the firm’s partners opting out of the new one-tier partnership. A total of 76 of the firm’s partners opted to become members of the LLP as fixed share equity partners. Shoosmiths will have an equity […]
Former Leeds United managing director David Haigh has instructed Stephenson Harwood to bring a case against his former employers and Gibson Dunn & Crutcher partner Peter Gray, alleging they engaged in human trafficking to lure him to Dubai, where he is now in prison. Haigh, who was also GFH general counsel, has been imprisoned in […]
US firms have matched and exceeded the rates charged by their magic circle counterparts for the first time in 2015, with work-hungry partners charging up to £900 per hour and newly qualified lawyers up to £400. Partners in top US firms are charging between £700 and £900 an hour, with the rates at the top […]