Big Four accountant EY continues to enhance its international legal offering and has recruited Clifford Chance’s (CC) competition-focused counsel Steven Verschuur to lead its EU State aid, competition and trade law practice.
Keep calm and call counsel
‘There cannot be a crisis next week. My schedule is already full.’ So said former US diplomat and politician Henry Kissinger (according to The New York Times Magazine on 1st June 1969). Most of our readers will have had the same thought – perhaps on multiple occasions – but, as veterans of business crises all know: the GC simply has to make time.
The sum of its parts – Charles Handy and the human factor
Charles Handy is often mistakenly claimed as a homegrown British management guru. He’s actually Irish, but he did spend most of his working life in Britain and still resides in the UK.
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What did you do when you weren’t at the office today?
In the last few months I’ve been involved in a number of roundtable discussions, World Café events, advisory boards, awards and publication launches, all within the in-house world. I’ve enjoyed the interactions, the company, the humour and the conversation. Some of you may even have met me at one or two of these occassions.
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GC reads… Covering – The Hidden Assault On Our Civil Rights
NYU School of Law professor Kenji Yoshino’s Covering makes the impassioned argument that despite the enshrinement of equality in the American justice system, the right of the individual not to have to ‘cover’ or mute aspects of their difference that are perceived as a ‘choice’ remain unprotected to a large degree – in everyday life as well as the courtroom.
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Fight for your rights
Nina Macpherson (NM): We are a truly global company and, as such, we do business in more or less every country of the world. In meeting the challenges of a global operation, Ericsson has a code of business ethics based on the UN Global Compact principles, which covers human rights, labour standards, environmental management, anti-corruption and so on.
Cutting out corruption
Once upon a time, in a country far, far away, there was a local tax official. He approached the local manager of a major multinational, offering a reduction in the company’s tax bill in exchange for a bribe. When asked for advice, the general counsel of the multinational forbade the bribe, because to make a payment to the local tax official would be a violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).
In-house life: Marek Szydłowski, TVN Group
Every day at TVN is different. Not a lot of it is spent on practising law, although when that happens, the matters that land on my desk are the most strategic or confidential legal issues. Quite a lot of time is spent on management work with my direct reports. My duties also include monitoring and presenting TVN’s point of view on any legislative initiatives that may impact operations.
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Legal fusion
GC: Schneider has been acquisitive over the last few years. In terms of the core legal team, what challenges does that represent?
Peter Wexler (PW): There are a couple of things you need to look at when you’re doing an acquisition of a company. Does it have a legal team? Some of the acquisitions we did came with small teams, some with none, and some with large legal teams.
Creating a fun and interesting compliance programme – Pernod Ricard tells us how
The compliance stakes are climbing higher and higher for global companies. Over the past few years, French companies in particular have had a wake-up call: three of the ten biggest-ever FCPA fines have been levied on businesses headquartered in the country.
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Private equity: the equity of in-house
It happens in every private equity deal; private equity firms engage outside legal counsel to conduct extensive pre-acquisition due diligence. The primary result of outside counsel’s hundreds – or even thousands – of hours of legal review is a thorough due diligence report highlighting actual and potential legal risks associated with the target company.
Focus on… RPC
Along the way, RPC has taken on an increasingly international focus, making strategic headway into Asia and beyond, building on its existing membership of international network TerraLex.
GC Powerlist: Middle East
The Middle East is never boring. The West has long been fascinated by its geo-strategic importance and abundant oil and gas reserves, and frustrated by its variable codification of commercial laws and (in some cases) capricious political stability.
Revolving doors: Global 100 firms expand in Europe as Hill Dickinson hires a captain
Last week saw Global 100 firms building their presence in Europe, with White & Case bolstering its private equity (PE) practice and Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton expanding its competition offering in Brussels. Meanwhile Hill Dickinson hired two partners for its Asia offering including Captain Joe Quain and K&L Gates benefitted from Dentons’ Singapore office closure.
45 jobs at risk as Shakespeare Martineau launches post-merger redundancy round
Newly-merged firm Shakespeare Martineau has launched a redundancy consultation which could see the loss of 45 jobs, mainly within the firm’s business support group but also including fee earners.
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Winning work: Freshfields takes Slaughters’ place as government cuts its stake in Lloyds
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has stolen a march on rival Slaughter and May after winning the role representing the UK government in its latest disposal of holdings in Lloyds Banking Group.
Dealwatch: Weil and White & Case lead on Ukraine’s $18bn debt restructure
London teams at Weil, Gotshal & Manges and White & Case were selected as the lead advisers as Ukraine struck a debt-relief deal yesterday on its $18bn sovereign debt pile in a bid to rebuild its fragile economy.
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Slater & Gordon sets sights on Global 100 in 2016 as revenues hit A$522m
Slater & Gordon has published its financial results for the year to 30 June 2015, recording a 27% increase in revenues as it continued its acquisitive streak throughout the year.
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Eversheds’ Manchester office loses partner trio to DLA Piper as firm builds up in construction
DLA Piper has targeted Eversheds‘ Manchester base, hiring three of the firm’s partners from the office, as its bulks up it infrastructure and construction practice.
‘Why £70k? That’s where we think we need to be’: Travers Smith boosts NQ salaries by 9% to match Slaughters
Having enjoyed another respectable financial performance for the 2014/15 year, Travers Smith has boosted its newly qualified (NQ) associate salaries by £6,000 to £70,000 from £64,000, constituting a 9% rise and putting its rates on a par with Slaughter and May and Hogan Lovells.