Slaughter and May corporate partners Richard de Carle and Susannah Macknay are spearheading a demerger at mining giant BHP Billiton, which is spinning off its less profitable aluminium, silver, South African coal, manganese and nickel businesses into a new company estimated to be worth around $14bn.
The legacy Squire Sanders practice in the Middle East, a team of 23 lawyers that included five partners, has exited Squire Patton Boggs following the firm’s merger, leaving it with Patton Boggs’ legacy affiliate The Khalid Al-Thebity Law Firm.
Mishcon de Reya is set to bring all partners into the equity and convert to a limited liability partnership at the end of autumn in 2015, following a vote made by the firm around eight months ago.
After a long-running dispute between Clyde & Co and former partner Krista Bates van Winkelhof, the firm has finally settled the whistleblowing case outside of court.
Following a string of international lateral hires over recent months, Clyde & Co continues to bolster its team in the Middle East with Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) Islamic finance specialist Adil Hussain joining the firm.
PwC Australia has hired former King & Wood Mallesons managing partners, Tony O’Malley and Tim Blue, to spearhead the expansion of the accounting giant’s corporate legal services business across the Asia Pacific.
Reed Smith and Berwin Leighton Paisner have led on a £430m purchase of three UK business parks by asset management groups Oaktree Capital Management and Patrizia.
Hong Kong lawyers turned out in force last night (14 August) to cast a vote of no confidence in local law society president Ambrose Lam, following his recent support of a Beijing white paper perceived to raise issues over Hong Kong’s judicial independence.
There has been more attention of late on the corporate ambitions of major audit groups but news this week is a reminder that accountants are also targeting the high street legal services market.
In the days when in-house lawyers have gained increasing influence in law and business, the Law Society could be seen to have played safe in the appointment of its new head. Chancery Lane today (14 August) announced the appointment of NHS Litigation Authority (NHSLA) chief executive Catherine Dixon to succeed its outgoing chief executive Des Hudson, who is to retire at the end of August.
