The success of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett where others have failed in luring Clifford Chance (CC)’s Amy Mahon to the other side has dealt a blow to CC’s corporate practice and other US firms vying to hire her. Mahon – who in Legal Business last year told of her long-standing grievance with popstar Adele after …
‘If you look at Wall Street, this model is replicated again and again. There is no reason it shouldn’t work in the UK.’ David Patient, now seven months into his second term as Travers Smith’s managing partner, responds philosophically to this Legal Business comment on the performance of his firm and Macfarlanes: ‘If two firms …
Continue reading “Defying gravity – Inside the improbable rise of Travers and Macfarlanes”
If the news in late 2017 that Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer private equity veteran David Higgins was joining Kirkland & Ellis was an insult to his Magic Circle firm, the announcement barely into 2019 that Kirkland was following up with his colleague Adrian Maguire looks like grievous injury. The record-breaking transfer of Higgins was a symbolic …
Continue reading “Beyond barbarian: Kirkland signs PE’s most wanted”
‘Most listed companies have run across activists by now or at least come close,’ says Andy Ryde, Slaughter and May’s head of corporate. Shareholder activism, once barely registering on UK shores, is becoming a fact of life for corporate counsel. Is the trend set to continue? Allen & Overy (A&O) M&A partner Richard Browne certainly …
White & Case’s expansive London office was responsible for 17% of firm-wide revenue as Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy has a hiring spree to thank for its pace-setting 25% uptick in City turnover. White & Case’s City revenue was up 7% to $350m, as firm-wide revenue increased 13.7% to break the $2bn mark at $2.05bn. Profit …
Travers Smith and DLA Piper have sated their appetites on The Carlyle Group’s £150m disposal of graze while a raft of advisers sat tight as a further twist in the Interserve saga unfolded. Unilever last Tuesday (5 February) sealed the deal to acquire ubiquitous healthy snack brand graze, having fended of competition from rival bidders Pepsi and …
Slaughter and May, Sullivan & Cromwell, CMS Cameron McKenna Nabarro Olswang and Ashurst have defied a challenging market to take key roles on a pair of UK mergers as listed Gateley leads on the collapse of Patisserie Valerie. Last week saw the £3.3bn takeover of UK listed plastics manufacturer RPC Group by funds managed by Apollo Management …
Andrew Trahair, Allen & Overy’s (A&O) former banking co-head, has been enlisted to head the firm’s Advanced Delivery technology and consulting group a week after its Peerpoint chief executive stood down. Trahair, who was co-head of A&O’s banking practice from 2008 to 2016, will lead the firm’s dedicated resources and technology services group, which includes …
Continue reading “Former banking chief Trahair takes the helm of A&O’s consulting and tech arm”
Dechert has ramped up investment in its European funds business with a pair of hires, including Marianna Tothova in London from Ashurst. The hire of Tothova, which comes amid a pacey recruitment drive for the US firm in London in recent months, coincides with that of Carol Widger from Maples and Calder as the managing partner …
Continue reading “Dechert bolsters European funds team with key City and Dublin hires”
‘The truth is no-one’s got the faintest idea what finance practices will look like in the future,’ shrugs Tony Bugg, Linklaters’ head of banking, when asked to describe a top City finance practice in 2030. Of the dozens of London finance chiefs and partners to whom Legal Business posed the question, Bugg’s take is at …
Continue reading “Banking and finance focus: Back to the future”
