Jonny Myers and Oliver Felsenstein (pictured), global co-heads of private equity at Clifford Chance (CC) speak to Legal Business about nurturing young talent, client relationships, and the strategy behind competitive US players.
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Jonny, you’re a seasoned private equity lawyer, why did you take a management role?
Continue reading “Q&A with Clifford Chance’s Jonny Myers and Oliver Felsenstein”
Carlyle abandons flotation to sell half of its majority stake
Since the summer, London’s IPO market has seen postponements, cancellations and low pricings as confidence ebbed. Feeling the effects, US private equity giant Carlyle, advised by Linklaters corporate partners Charlie Jacobs and Alex Woodward, recently abandoned plans to exit roadside recovery service company RAC through a flotation, in favour of a sale to Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC.
Continue reading “Linklaters, Freshfields and Travers Smith fix RAC deal with Singapore’s GIC”
Last month, Allen & Overy (A&O), Hogan Lovells and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer led on Heathrow Airport Holdings’ final airport disposal as Aberdeen, Glasgow and Southampton airports were sold to a consortium formed by Ferrovial and Macquarie for £1.05bn.
Heathrow Airport Holdings (formerly BAA) agreed to sell its 100% stake in all three airports, though the deal is still subject to EU approval. Closing is expected before the end of January 2015, with the consideration expected to increase to compensate Heathrow for the delay.
Continue reading “Top firms help Heathrow’s £1bn airport sale take off”
Firm opens Johannesburg office after hire of Bowman Gilfillan finance team
Allen & Overy (A&O) finally put its stamp on South Africa with the launch of office number 45 in Johannesburg last month. The move sees A&O become the first Magic Circle firm to establish a presence on the ground, with the hire of a banking and finance team from local firm Bowman Gilfillan.
Continue reading “Allen & Overy becomes the first Magic Circle firm to set up in South Africa”
Tie-up occurs after August & Debouzy quit network in March
French law firm Lefèvre Pelletier & associés will join Nabarro’s international alliance following the exit of former French member August & Debouzy in March this year.
Continue reading “Nabarro forms new French alliance with Lefèvre Pelletier”
Renewed interest from international investors leading to increased deal flow means real estate practices are back in favour again. We ask leading practitioners about the future of this volatile market
Solemn vows
‘We’ve treated real estate like a marriage – in sickness and in health, for richer, for poorer. We haven’t reneged on our responsibilities, so when potential new clients talk to existing ones about our relationship, they hear the same thing – that we’re a committed and consistent team that has continued to deliver.’
Leona Ahmed, real estate divisional managing partner, Addleshaw Goddard
With the fall-out from the merger of Herbert Smith and Freehills subsiding, the emerging global challenger needs to galvanise its business under new leadership. Will the Australian suitor’s ambition provide the jolt needed or has Herbert Smith been absorbed?
‘I couldn’t talk about this over the phone,’ said one senior partner at Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF), with a glance over his shoulder. What could not be recounted electronically was the surprising news that HSF veteran James Palmer – widely regarded as the firm’s top City deal lawyer – had recently missed out on a place on its partnership council, the firm’s main oversight body.
As investors place their bets on London’s property market, battered real estate teams are finally seeing a revival after the bleak post-Crunch years. Legal Business talks to the property lawyers who are back at the table.
Any Londoner will tell you that the Capital resembles a mass construction site these days. Around Victoria, for example, the noise of jackhammers perpetually fills the air, the result of a £2bn Land Securities redevelopment project to provide new luxury homes, shops, offices and improved transport facilities. This development has seen City real estate heavyweights Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP), Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Nabarro, CMS Cameron McKenna, Hogan Lovells and Eversheds lead on the legal side.
Continue reading “Back in the game – revival at last for real estate but the players have changed”
Knowledge in law firms remains crucial but hard to capture. In a special report, we assess the standout KM teams aiming to give their lawyers an edge and clients the intelligence they crave.
Not so long ago, access to the knowledge management (KM) function at a law firm meant running the gauntlet to avoid confrontation with a law librarian or wrestling with a ridiculous microfiche machine. Thankfully, the service has evolved a lot since then. The sophisticated technology, the experienced and professional staff and the sheer volume of instantly available knowhow means that KM is an integral part of a law firm’s arsenal, and one that is increasingly being harnessed directly by the firm’s lawyers and clients.
Continue reading “The Knowledge Management Report – 20 standout teams in the know”
Increasingly mobile knowhow in law firms is not only being more flexibly deployed at law firms, it’s being packaged up for clients. We chart the evolution of KM from library to GC’s office.
Lisa Smith, head of knowledge services at DWF, provides a small but telling insight into how far knowledge management (KM) services have come in delivering value through business intelligence to their lawyers. She recalls a recent occasion where a partner had a key client meeting one morning, but there was a major development the night before involving a fire at one of the client’s premises. ‘We were able to alert the partner well in advance so that he was prepared,’ says Smith.
Continue reading “The Knowledge Management Report – Knowledge meet client”
Ian Mason and Rob Martin of Thomson Reuters explore the new KM landscape.
In its early days, some may have viewed knowledge management (KM) as a dry, back-office function. It was often confined to the law library (and predominantly practised there, away from the fee-earning frontline). Lawyers kept their precedents safely locked away in their files or drawers. They might be incentivised to share precedents in an annual precedent hunt with a bottle of champagne or similar prize for the best template produced. But that was as exciting as it got. Continue reading “The future of knowledge management: out of the library into the front line”
Andrei Gusev of Borenius looks at the effects of the latest EU/US measures.
There was a lot of speculation, stress and tension among foreign investors in Russia when the EU, the US and several other countries imposed their two latest rounds of sanctions against Russia, leading to Russia responding with its own counter-sanctions, including the so-called ‘food embargo’. A few weeks after the introduction of these measures, certain trends have already surfaced. What are these trends? Continue reading “Are sanctions affecting workloads in legal services? What are the expectations for 2015?”
Michael Kyprianou’s Christos Galanos looks at recent caselaw.
The availability of interim relief is often crucial in ensuring satisfaction of any final court judgment or arbitral award. An interim injunction can ensure that property is not alienated while a case is still pending. In other cases it can level the playing field if one party (or even non-party) is restricting access to information material to the case. The ability to apply for interim relief is a vital tool for any legal jurisdiction. Continue reading “Interim injunctions for the freezing of assets and disclosure of documents and information”
YUST’s Evgeny Zhilin outlines the benefits.
2014 has brought many challenges to the Russian economy. The already modest growth rates that were demonstrated in the previous year were targeted even more by various sanctions imposed against Russia by the US, EU and some other jurisdictions. As a reaction to these, Russia has installed counter-sanctions in the food sector, hitting some of the European food producers hard. Continue reading “Sanctions: an unprecedented moment for doing business in Russia”
The so-called West Lothian question is a political and not legal question. It was asked as long ago as 1977 by Tam Dalyell MP who represented West Lothian from 1962 to 1983 and Linlithgow from 1983 to 2005. The question asks whether MPs from Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, sitting in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, should be able to vote on matters that affect only England.
Continue reading “Guest post: The West Lothian Question – a few thoughts”
Ropes & Gray and McDermott Will & Emery are the most recent US firms to announce their partner promotions, with Ropes making up four in the City out of 20 worldwide, while McDermott is promoting three in London out of a total of 33.
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.
Kennedys chief executive officer Guy Stobart has announced he will stand down at the end of 2014 after five years of leading the firm.
Banking giant UBS has been defeated in the Commercial Court today (4 November) over a $340m dispute it mounted against German water utility company Kommunale Wasserwerke Leipzig (KWL) relating to the sale of complex derivatives products by the bank, after a five-year long battle that saw Addleshaw Goddard and German firm Noerr defeat Mayer Brown.
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.
