Last week saw both Clifford Chance (CC) and Allen & Overy (A&O) lose partners in Europe while, in Hong Kong, Linklaters lost a capital markets partner to Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer. In South Africa, Baker & McKenzie made a significant hire, bringing in DLA Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr’s head of projects and infrastructure.
A 400-strong partnership: Pinsent Masons makes a record 29 partner promotions
Pinsent Masons has made a record 29 promotions to its partnership, with the majority in four sectors: energy, financial services, infrastructure, and advanced manufacturing and technology.
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Singapore scramble: Morgan Lewis teams up with Stamford Law to enter market
Singapore continues to be an attractive legal market for many Western law firms targeting the fast growing Asia-Pacific region with Morgan Lewis & Bockius being the latest to combine with a local outfit – teaming up with Stamford Law Corporation.
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An 11-strong panel: Ashurst and Addleshaws lose out as Carillion finalises adviser review
Construction giant Carillion has finalised its legal panel review, with Ashurst and Addleshaw Goddard losing spots and Irwin Mitchell gaining a place for the first time.
A $40m award: Clyde & Co client Glencore loses High Court fraud case
Withers‘ client, Romanian oil company OMV Petrom, has succeeded in its high profile dispute against natural resource giant Glencore at London’s High Court, with Glencore, represented by Clyde & Co, ordered to pay out just over $40m for fraudulently shipping oil of a lower than supposed quality to Romania in the 1990s.
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Dealwatch: Linklaters, A&O and HSF win places on Sabadell’s £1.7bn TSB offer
Linklaters, Allen & Overy (A&O) and Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) have all been instructed on the high profile £1.7bn takeover offer for TSB by Spain’s Banco Sabadell, in a bid made less than a year after Lloyds floated the bank.
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Breaking into law: RSA latest to gain ABS licence as it teams up with Parabis
UK insurer RSA is the latest business to be awarded an alternative business structure (ABS) licence by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA), in a joint venture with Parabis Law.
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Q&A: A long-term commitment – Severn Trent’s in-house team share the thinking behind the new five-year sole adviser mandate with Eversheds
FTSE 100 water company Severn Trent recently re-appointed Eversheds as its sole adviser for a five-year term, commencing 1 April. Deputy general counsel Stuart Kelly and legal counsel Kristin Garret talk to Kathryn McCann about the mandate, getting monthly updates and the key performance indicators (KPIs) the firm will be judged on.
So much for the rule of law – Ted Greeno on court fees and undermining the City
Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan disputes veteran Ted Greeno (pictured) argues that a self-defeating stance on hiking court fees will undermine London.
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Mounting departures: Another senior exit for Barclays as EMEA investment bank GC steps down
Barclays’ EMEA investment bank general counsel (GC), Erica Handling, has left the bank, which has already seen global GC of corporate and investment banking Judith Shepherd and global head of financial crime Jonathan Peddie announce their departures recently.
Comment: It’s the ‘decade of the lawyer’ – Law firms beware
Our third annual GC Power List report looks more like a state-of-the profession piece than its two predecessors. While the earlier reports focused on standout individuals, in 2015 we highlight 50 exceptional in-house teams, which inevitably addresses how clients operate.
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An opportunity to ‘build something’: KWM’s City litigation head Alex Leitch leaves for Covington
US firm Covington & Burling has bolstered its European disputes capabilities with the hire of King & Wood Mallesons London head of litigation, Alex Leitch (pictured), to its City office, as its plans to bulk up the practice this year.
Senior appointments: Linklaters appoints new US head as Dentons picks Jones’ successor as UKMEA chief
Yesterday saw two high-level legal appointments with Linklaters appointing Scott Bowie as head of its global US practice and Dentons selecting London partner Jeremy Cohen as UKMEA CEO.
Panel review: Clyde & Co, DAC Beachcroft and Kennedys among seven on revised NFU Mutual panel
The NFU Mutual has appointed seven law firms including Clyde & Co, DAC Beachcroft and Kennedys to its revised English and Welsh legal panel following a comprehensive review and tender process.
Global London: King & Spalding hires Latham’s Daniel Friel as it builds City office
King & Spalding has hired Latham & Watkins’ former European vice chair of tax Daniel Friel, the latest in a number of strategic hires over the last 12 months as it looks to grow its London offering.
Mass hires: Fresh wave of Pillsbury partners join move to Winston & Strawn
Eight more Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman partners have resigned in New York, Washington DC and San Francisco to join Winston & Strawn, taking the firm’s haul of Pillsbury partners up to 11.
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GC Power List 2015: The Team Elite
Quality, outside scrutiny and Paxman – the LB Awards loom
Fantastic as I look in a DJ, I wouldn’t say by character I’m a natural awards-type person but I have always said that if you are going to do an awards ceremony, there’s no point unless you do it really well. And doing it well means putting your shoulder to the wheel in the research and judging. Which brings me to the 18th Legal Business Awards, which we will be holding later this month.
While we have traditionally judged the awards internally, it had long been my intention to set up an external judging panel to bring in outside scrutiny and increase the rigour of the process. Though we have always put a lot of effort into drawing up the shortlists and selecting the winners, inevitably having knowledgeable outsiders keeps you on your toes, increases the focus on the process and makes it harder to be swayed by personal bias.
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Life after Sir Nigel – They built it, now what?
DLA Piper’s new head Simon Levine jokes about avoiding becoming the David Moyes to his high-profile predecessor’s Alex Ferguson, but you could make a stronger case that Sir Nigel Knowles’ transformative track record at DLA Piper is closer to making him the firm’s Tony Blair.
Knowles took over an institution amid a period of upheaval and had to fight to establish his authority, which he duly did with a mix of flair, charisma and vision. Because those qualities – not in abundance in the legal profession at executive level during the 1990s – were supported by astute operational point-men like Andrew Darwin, it proved an incredibly potent formula.
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The case against value – the virtue that can become vice
It’s the spirit of the age that law firms feel the need to not only deliver better value and efficiency but to be seen to do so by clients.
And what could be wrong with that? The northshoring trend has been increasingly apparent in recent years, with Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer – the closest to a traditional partnership in the big four – now gearing up for a huge move to Manchester. Clifford Chance, meanwhile, has made much of its efficiency and push to align itself to clients, a stance clear under the leadership of David Childs and even more front-and-centre under Matthew Layton.
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