White & Case has been granted renewal for its Qualifying Foreign Law Practice (QFLP) licence. The Singapore government has extended the firm’s QFLP licence for four years to April 2019, following the firm’s request for renewal.
Continue reading “Staying local: White & Case wins foreign licence renewal in Singapore”
Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) has shaken up its global council to bring in two non-executives. The move sees Commonwealth Bank of Australia director Jane Hemstritch and senior independent director of insurer at RSA Johanna Waterous become the first external members on HSF’s main oversight body.
Continue reading “HSF brings in two senior non-execs amid shake-up to governance board”
The apparent international retrenchment of Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe continues with the top 40 US law firm announcing this week that it is closing its Frankfurt and Berlin offices.
Continue reading “Orrick strips down on global stage as two German branches are shut”
The latest round of partner promotions among international firms sees Clyde & Co and Dentons announce 13 and ten new partners respectively.
Continue reading “Promotions round: Clyde & Co and Dentons increase partner intake on last year”
With a mandate to increase its Asia revenues, Hogan Lovells continues to recruit at partner level, today (28 April) announcing the hire of Wataru Kamoto from local boutique Hibiya-Nakata to its corporate practice in Tokyo. Continue reading “Hogan Lovells expands Tokyo practice with corporate hire from local boutique”
On the back of robust financial growth for the 2013/14 year, high-flying boutique Signature Litigation is exploring developing a trainee scheme, with a proposal to match itself with non-competing firms and ‘facilitate a programme of reciprocal secondments’.
Continue reading “Grow your own – Signature Litigation plans trainee scheme with other law firms”
In a sign that the Magic Circle firm has renewed confidence in its traditional M&A stronghold, Linklaters has promoted nine corporate lawyers to the partnership, nearly 40% of the 23-strong round, spread across the City, Shanghai and its European offices.
Following a round of redundancies last year which saw 33 roles cut, Ince & Co is restructuring its partnership and support staff with six partners and ten secretarial staff set to depart.
Continue reading “Redundancy watch: Six partners and 10 staff set to leave Ince & Co”
Norton Rose Fulbright (NRF) has today (27 April) announced a total of 51 lawyers were made up to partner across the US, Canada Europe, Asia and Africa in what constitutes its largest promotions round since its 2013 combination.
The Law Society today (27 April 2015) published its Annual Statistics Report 2014, showing that while the number of solicitors rose, returning to growth in 2014 after dipping in 2013, and those graduating with a law degree reached record highs, the number of training contracts continued to fall.
King & Wood Mallesons real estate team hire from Eversheds may have made the headlines last week, but there were plenty of notable hires elsewhere. Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) bolstered its Frankfurt office which it launched in 2013 with a finance partner from K&L Gates while Bird & Bird welcomed a new partner in Denmark and Ogier added to its dispute resolution team in the Cayman Islands with a hire from Kirkland & Ellis’ London office.
Travers Smith, Herbert Smith Freehills and Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison have all landed roles on the $2.1bn sale of Pace to Arris as another UK company gets acquired by the US.
Continue reading “Dealwatch: Travers, HSF and Paul Weiss advise on $2.1bn Pace sale”
Slaughter and May and best friend firm Uría Menéndez plus Davis Polk & Wardwell in the US were instructed by Santander to combine its asset management arm with Linklaters-client Unicredit’s Pioneer Investments to create one of Europe’s biggest asset managers.
Addleshaw Goddard has secured a lucrative mandate from British-based multinational Tate & Lyle, a client traditionally associated with the Magic Circle firm Linklaters.
Stephenson Harwood and Ince & Co are the latest firms to announce their partner promotions, with the former making up five partners in London while Ince made up two in the City and a third partner in Dubai.
Three months after persuading Eversheds‘ heavyweight real estate trio William Naunton, Clive Jones and Cornelius Medvei to stay in Big Law and not launch their own boutique, King & Wood Mallesons (KWM) has hired a team of Eversheds partners as it seeks to reshape its London office.
For the second time since its UK-Australia merger in 2012, the bulk of partner promotions at Herbert Smith Freehills have come from Asia Pacific, while a record 43% of those being made up are women.
Famed for its work on blockbuster M&A, Slaughter and May had five partners working around the clock as Deutsche Bank received a $2.5bn fine from regulatory authorities in the US and UK over investigations into its role in the manipulation of interest rates Libor and Euribor between 2005 and 2010.
The acquisitive DWF shows no signs of slowing down with the announcement today that it is to acquire niche insurance practice Watmores Solictors.
Continue reading “Consolidation: DWF to merge with City-based insurance practice Watmores”
Lloyds Banking Group group general counsel (GC) Andrew Whittaker (pictured) is stepping down from his role after two years and leaving the bank, where he will be succeeded by deputy GC Kate Cheetham in the top legal role.
