BATTERSEA POWER STATION SEES BAKER & MCKENZIE AND NRF TAKE THE LEAD
In one of the largest real estate financings in recent years, Bakers advised a syndicate of Asian and Middle Eastern banks on debt facilities worth £1.35bn. Norton Rose Fulbright (NRF) acted for the borrowers.
Continue reading “Deal watch: Corporate activity in November 2014”
DLA combines with local firm while Baker & McKenzie boosts its Mexican office
Mexico’s legal market has seen steady growth as President Enrique Peña Nieto’s package of reforms, including widespread tax breaks and the opening up of the energy sector to foreign companies, liberalises the economy. Last month saw both DLA Piper and Baker & McKenzie seek to capitalise on that growth by making strategic hires to broaden their offerings.
Continue reading “Baker & McKenzie and DLA Piper bet on Mexico’s growing legal market”
The Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS), the UK’s statutory compensation scheme for customers of authorised financial services firms, is currently undergoing a tender process to create its first-ever legal panel.
The FSCS, which is funded by levies authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and the Financial Conduct Authority, handles the majority of claims in-house, but has in the past turned to James Roome’s restructuring team, now at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, and litigators at Herbert Smith Freehills and Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan.
Clifford Chance (CC) was a great place to be in the 1990s. Geoffrey Howe deserves a huge amount of credit. He instilled that we were on a journey everyone else was seeking to replicate. The car was travelling fast. The concept of delivering that globalisation was a very powerful thing.
I didn’t have a plan but a lot of fortune. I took a view early on that there were hundreds of great technical lawyers and I would never be able to distinguish on just that.
Continue reading “Life During Law: Jason Glover, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett”
Larger regional pools to replace national pay by year end.
The world’s largest law firm, Baker & McKenzie, is set to overhaul its longstanding remuneration system in Europe and Asia, with a large percentage of pay set to be decided by the success of each region.
Continue reading “Baker & McKenzie overhauls pay structure in Europe and Asia”
Cofely, a subsidiary of French energy giant GDF Suez, is to establish its first legal panel in a bid to reduce legal fees and the number of firms it deals with.
In what will be a mass reorganisation of the company’s legal services expenditure, which currently involves business managers in selecting law firms, general counsel Simone Tudor is hoping to reduce the company’s go-to law firms down to just three after a review found that Cofely had instructed 25 law firms so far this year.
Continue reading “After major acquisitions, Cofely set to create first legal panel”
PWC LEGAL LOOKS FOR REGIONAL GROWTH
Addleshaw Goddard and DLA Piper veteran Neal Shepherd was recruited by PwC Legal to head a regional push out of its Manchester office. The accountancy giant is targeting the north of England, with Shepherd focusing on mid-market M&A and expanding the team into PwC business areas, including employment and pensions.
Having confirmed in early spring the launch of a new cost-efficient legal services centre in Birmingham, Hogan Lovells has hired a ten-strong associate team across multiple practice areas and from national firms, including Pinsent Masons, Clarke Willmott and Shoosmiths, to spearhead the venture as well as acquiring new office space within Birmingham’s central business district.
The nearshoring venture, dubbed the Legal Service Centre and led by London partner Alan Greenough, who will relocate to Birmingham to manage the office, will now house teams comprising three associates within the practice areas of corporate, disputes and real estate, and a tenth specialist in real estate finance. Hires include the real estate lawyers, Shoosmiths’ senior associate Mark Saunders, Clarke Willmott associate Balraj Kaur and Pinsent Masons associate Abigail Gisbourne, who are all set to join in early November. The trio will initially start working out of the London office before relocating in order to integrate with the real estate team. All associates are expected to join by January at the latest.
When Legal Business queried in September whether the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) was finally turning a corner after a year of embarrassing lows – including misplacing investigation documents and the chaotic collapse of the Victor Dahdaleh trial – the agency appeared to still be mired in controversy and questions over its future. Last month, the Home Secretary Theresa May appeared to provide an answer, as it was revealed she was considering abolishing the SFO and rolling it into the National Crime Agency (NCA), a move that some consider will ultimately dilute the attempts by the body to project a tougher image.
‘It’s not a good idea,’ said Stephenson Harwood commercial litigation partner Tony Woodcock. ‘The focus has got to be on serious and complex fraud, and properly resourcing that. I fear putting it into a far bigger organisation with a number of different responsibilities could dilute that, both as a matter of perception and as a matter of resourcing.’
Jaishree Kalia reports on the Los Angeles firm’s recent London hiring spree
Although relatively late to the game, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher is the latest US firm with aggressive expansion plans in London, with its recently announced hire of former Ashurst senior partner Charlie Geffen attracting much attention last month.
