A trio of tax partners who joined Reed Smith in a 17-partner move from collapsed legacy SJ Berwin have moved on again after little more than a year, joining DLA Piper. DLA has hired Sylvie Vansteenkiste, Fanny Combourieu and Raphaël Béra from Reed Smith. The three tax partners came to Reed Smith in January last …
Continue reading “A long time in law: DLA Piper hires SJ Berwin tax escapees from Reed Smith”
West End firm Gordon Dadds has its sights set on becoming a ‘nine-figure’ business after making its fourth acquisition since its public float in August last year . Gordon Dadds announced yesterday (19 February) it had acquired Cardiff-based Thomas Simon for £1.875m, paying £187,500 up front with 20 quarterly instalments to come thereafter, plus a further amount …
Continue reading “Firepower: £100m revenue a ‘natural target’ for acquisitive Gordon Dadds”
Get your Magic Circle-meets-Geordie Shore quips ready as Clifford Chance (CC) has made a surprise acquisition of Carillion’s pioneering in-house legal arm. The Newcastle-based business Carillion Advice Services (CAS) was put up for sale following the collapse of its Wolverhampton-headquartered parent in January in one of the largest UK insolvencies for years. Carillion filed for liquidation …
Continue reading “CC hits Newcastle for surprise takeover of Carillion’s volume legal arm”
Network Rail has begun its longest-ever panel review process for external adviser work, which could be worth up to £70m over five years from next April. The rail company’s review will be the first under new group general counsel Stuart Kelly, who was promoted from deputy group GC following the departure of Suzanne Wise in …
National insurance and shipping specialist Hill Dickinson has completed the sale of part of its insurance business group to fellow LB100 firm Keoghs. The sale involves the transfer of 17 partners and 311 staff, giving Keoghs a new presence in Liverpool, where it will sublet premises from Hill Dickinson, as well as adding staff to its …
Hamish McNicol looks at the frontrunners amid a bumper season of senior leadership changes DLA Piper is making up for lost time in its first senior partner election in a decade. The month-long process, which initially involved eight candidates, two voting stages and ten days of hustings, has been heralded by the firm as showing …
Continue reading “DLA whittles senior partner race to three-way contest as elections grip the City”
Eversheds Sutherland corporate head Richard Moulton cannot remember a busier December than in 2017 and believes the January deal market is already gathering pace. As the transatlantic tie-up marked a year since going live this month, the firm has enjoyed a robust start to 2018. On 4 January, Eversheds advised as British retailer Poundland secured …
Continue reading “On a roll: Eversheds Sutherland sees December deal flurry carry over”
Newcomers to London quickly learn the rules of the escalator: stand still on the right or keep moving on the left. The risk with changing your mind is you can land flat on your face. For Eversheds Sutherland, the consensus view is that its corporate team has stood on the right for years, moving along …
Continue reading “Deal view: Eversheds deal team – so much promise but so much steady”
DLA Piper has elected firm veteran Andrew Darwin its new senior partner after last year’s surprise departure of Juan Picón sparked the firm’s first contested senior partner election in a decade. Darwin has been at DLA his entire career since joining in 1981, and previously held management roles within the firm including chief operating officer, head …
Continue reading “Natural selection: Darwin’s evolution to DLA Piper senior partner ‘only fitting’”
DLA Piper and Addleshaw Goddard have won roles advising on the sale of part of recently-collapsed Carillion’s business while Watson Farley & Williams (WFW), Allen & Overy (A&O), Weil, Gotshal & Manges, Paul Hastings and Kirkland & Ellis all picked up major deals this week. Addleshaw Goddard advised engineering and construction company J Murphy & …
