Within months of announcing a combination with one of China’s biggest law firms, Dacheng, Dentons is closing down its Singapore practice as it plans to rely on its new partner’s presence in the country.
In-house: National Grid launches UK panel review in bid to shrink roster
Energy giant National Grid has launched its first UK wide panel review for five years and is considering shrinking its current roster, Legal Business has learned.
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Targeting Warsaw: Greenberg takes A&O and NRF former Polish real estate heads in 12-lawyer hire
Greenberg Traurig has hired real estate teams from both Allen & Overy (A&O) and Norton Rose Fulbright as it bolsters its practice in Warsaw with 12 new lawyers.
Redundancy watch: Hill Dickinson starts consultation regarding 30 insurance jobs
The insurance legal market continues to be hard pressed with Hill Dickinson confirming it is set to start a 30-day consultation tomorrow (14 May) which places around 30 jobs at risk.
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‘First mover advantage’: Gateley reveals details of IPO as it launches UK float
Gateley has revealed the details of its planned initial public offering (IPO) including its board and lock-in provisions as it publishes an intention to carry out an IPO on the London Stock Exchange this morning (12 May) and applies for admission of its ordinary shares to trade on AIM.
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Promotions round-up: Bond Dickinson and Kingsley Napley promote three as Kennedys makes up female trio in round of four
In the latest round of LB100 firm promotions, Kennedys made a 75% female promotions round as three out of four of its new partners were women while both Bond Dickinson and Kingsley Napley bolstered their practices with a trio of new partners.
Travers Smith’s Dolman: The mother of invention – why necessity and high prices will push private equity to new heights
2014 was a year that saw the number and value of private equity (PE)-backed exits reach unparalleled highs globally. More benevolent economic and market conditions, including an increase in global M&A activity, created renewed confidence in the industry.
Financial results 2014/15: OC posts 15% revenue growth as strong performance continues
Osborne Clarke (OC), after being the fastest growing firm in the LB100 last year with a 26% rise in revenue to €169m, has consolidated that increase and posted another strong result for 2014/15 of €195m, up a further 15%.
‘The first phase’: EY launches financial regulatory service with Bakers hire and 11-strong team
EY Law is set to launch a financial regulatory practice in the City with the hire of Baker & McKenzie financial services partner Steven Francis, alongside an 11-strong team of lawyers.
Taking the plunge: Gateley set to be UK’s first firm to float
After Australian-listed Slater & Gordon demonstrated the benefits of greater access to capital by using a share offer to part fund its £637m Quindell acquisition, Gateley has confirmed it is set to gain the same advantages by floating on the London Stock Exchange’s AIM listing this year.
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Listing in London – King & Spalding carries US biotech to AIM listing
King & Spalding’s recent recruits in the City have helped handle Californian biotech company Verseon £300m stock market listing in London while Covington & Burling advised from San Francisco.
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Comment: Going native – ethics and the modern GC
The in-house profession has doubled in size in the UK over the last 15 years and gained once unthinkable levels of influence in delivering legal services to corporate Britain. And what have the profession and its watchdogs done to recognise that seismic shift in the legal industry, with all its far-reaching ethical implications? Pretty much nothing.
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Frontbench reshuffles: Gove replaces Grayling at MoJ as Lord Falconer set to shadow
Former education secretary Michael Gove has replaced Chris Grayling (pictured) as Secretary of State for Justice as part of Prime Minister David Cameron’s post-election reshuffle while Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher partner, Lord Falconer, has been named as the Labour Party’s opposition spokesperson for the ministry.
Hiring the team: 15-strong group exits Simpson & Marwick to join Brodies
Scottish firm Simpson & Marwick’s well-regarded, 15-strong, family law team, including its current head Shaun George, has quit the firm to join Brodies.
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Can Clydes seal the deal? Firm in advanced merger talks with Simpson & Marwick
Following the failed merger attempt between Scottish firm Simpson & Marwick and Kennedys in 2013, UK top-20 firm Clyde & Co is hoping to seal the deal this time having confirmed it is in advanced merger talks with the Scots outfit.
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Coming off the naughty step: Bakers’ Jonathan Walsh charts the quiet rehabilitation of asset-backed lending
Securitisation has taken a battering in recent years. A complex financing technique, little understood by the public, it was an easy scapegoat as a principal cause of the global financial crisis. For a while after the crisis it seemed as if various supervisory authorities would regulate it to the point of extinction.
Poll-axed: The City gets shock election result it wanted but EU vote looms after Conservative sweep
It has turned out to be the biggest election upset since 1992 and months of polling have been proved wrong but as the final results from the 2015 UK general election come in, the Conservative Party looks highly likely to win enough support to secure a working majority.
A Noble pursuit – DLA Piper launches corp fin boutique to build TMT profile
DLA Piper has made its first foray into the consultancy business, launching corporate finance advisory arm Noble Street to focus on media and sports ventures that have been neglected by traditional banks.
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‘A curious atmosphere of consensus’ – HSF fraud veteran Robert Hunter on how smart teams can make bad decisions
Many admire John Kennedy and his advisers’ deft handling of the Cuban missile crisis. It is generally thought to result from some of the best-judged decisions of the era. Yet a year earlier, much the same group of people decided to support the Bay of Pigs invasion (a crackpot scheme for the invasion of Cuba in which the US pitted 1,600 men against 200,000), conversely thought of as one of the most idiotic.
Simmons & Simmons votes through new business plan targeting stronger US links and looking after the ‘crown jewels’
In a unanimous vote, Simmons & Simmons has voted through a new three-year business plan with a focus on strengthening referral relationships in the US, transforming its partner-client relationships and committing to a set of firm-wide values.