Sir Nigel Knowles, who is set to step down as co-CEO and managing partner at DLA Piper later this year, has been appointed chairman of UK investment banking boutique Zeus Capital.
Guest post: what might the Tory human rights plan be?
Although Tory hostility to human rights law is obvious, there’s been vagueness till now about what actual policy a Conservative government would pursue. For a long time the plan was to draft a ‘British Bill of Rights’ the content of which was unclear – and the idea hasn’t gone away.
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‘A very satisfactory outcome’: Hill Dickinson wins payment in ‘Alexandros T’ case
The Court of Appeal has handed down judgment on the long-running litigation between Starlight Shipping versus Hill Dickinson, a host of insurance companies, and others, allowing defendants Hill Dickinson and insurance services company Charles Taylor Adjusting to recover damages of £225,000 and £100,000 respectively and giving a 60% interim payment.
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82 join the club – eight new partners in City as Kirkland makes up more than Macfarlanes’ entire partnership
In one of the largest global partnership promotion rounds, Kirkland & Ellis has made up eight of its London associates to partner in a round that saw 82 lawyers join the global partnership, including one promotion from of counsel to partner.
Edwards Wildman loses associate quartet to City firms as tensions mount over potential Cooley takeover
Having endured a spate of high profile partner exits during the summer, US firm Edwards Wildman has now seen four associates depart from its London office, and join the ranks of Eversheds, Travers Smith, Pinsent Masons and automobile giant Nissan in recent weeks as uncertainty over Cooley talks continues.
Bingham’s Hong Kong office looks set to close as Akin Gump pounces again
Bingham McCutchen’s Hong Kong office has been put in a precarious position with Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld making a two partner hire to take the number of partners joining the firm from Bingham to 28, while remaining capital markets partner Vincent Sum’s future is unclear.
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Revolving doors: OC hires from Bakers in international push while Ashurst and Dentons build European presence
Last week saw LB 100 firms Dentons, Ashurst and Osborne Clarke (OC) expand European offices while Addleshaw Goddard boosted its litigation offering.
Offshore firms join in as Cleary and Clifford Chance lead on Rusal’s $5.15bn debt restructuring
Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton and Clifford Chance picked up the lead roles along with a raft of offshore firms as Russian aluminum giant Rusal carried out a $5.15bn debt restructuring following a slower than expected recovery in the commodities market.
‘Steven has been a tremendous force’: Proskauer turns to KWMSJB’s best-known London M&A lawyer as it shifts focus
Steven Davis, who led SJ Berwin’s City corporate team before its $1bn Sino-Australian merger, is set to leave the firm for Proskauer Rose, whose own merger plans with SJ Berwin collapsed before the City firm looked eastwards for growth.
Dealwatch: Linklaters, Freshfields and Travers Smith fix RAC deal with Singapore sovereign wealth fund
Linklaters’ corporate heavyweight Charlie Jacobs and private equity partner Alex Woodward advised US private equity firm Carlyle on the sale of half of its majority stake in roadside recovery service RAC after abandoning plans to exit the company through a London IPO.
The Friday Edit: Wrongdoing in high and low places, the latest on Bingham and cutting edge New Law twaddle
Welcome to the latest instalment of our weekly recap of interesting things that happened in law land this week.
Guest post: Let’s avoid a huge constitutional talkfest – how devolution needs to be handled
The main constitutional business that ought to be on MPs’ minds at the moment is how to deliver the party leaders’ ‘Vow’ to grant ‘extensive new powers’ to the Scottish Parliament. The extent of powers to be transferred, and particularly the extent of power over tax that will be devolved, is far more urgent and important to the future of the UK than ‘English votes for English laws’ (the principle that MPs for English constituencies should decide on proposals only affecting England).
Neutral territory
MARKET VIEW – LITIGATION
Lalive’s Marc Henzelin and Sandrine Giroud examine the key facts on the enforcement of foreign judgments in Switzerland
Ranked among the top five financial centres in the world and top of the Global Innovation Index 2014, with postcard landscapes and a tradition of discretion and stability, Switzerland remains a top destination for companies and wealthy individuals alike to bring their business and wealth. It is therefore unsurprising that enforcement of foreign judgments against assets held in Switzerland is an issue that comes up regularly in the day-to-day practice of international litigators.
BSB enforcement report shows improvements with disciplinary action doubling as body appoints new board members
With the Bar having long been slower to change in a post-Legal Services Act environment compared to its solicitor counterpart, its regulator, the Bar Standards Board, has published its annual report on the body’s enforcement activities noting improved performance. The barristers’ regulator has further shaken up its governance and appointed three new board members.
What’s in store for London’s Commercial Court?
MARKET VIEW – LITIGATION
White & Case’s head of litigation, John Reynolds, looks at what impact the development of other countries’ specialist commercial courts will have on the future of London as a centre for international dispute resolution
Despite relentless competition, most notably from New York, the choice of English governing law dominates the international contracts market. So says a recent article from the July/August issue of Legal Business with the benefit of opinion from partners at a number of large international firms (including White & Case’s own David Goldberg).
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Conditional Fees – who wins?
MARKET VIEW – LITIGATION
Ian Gray, Litigation head at Eversheds, looks back on the firm’s experience of alternative fee arrangements in commercial disputes, explains the lessons learned, and looks ahead to the future of dispute funding
One-off conditional fees
I remember being told around 1998, just prior to the introduction of conditional fees, that the general counsel of one large client was fed up that litigation lawyers did not have any ‘skin in the game’ and that, as a result, they ran cases too far, without a care for the costs. In the years that followed, we did a series of small and large conditional-fee cases. In truth, we had some tough experiences along the way, at times losing more than just some skin.
Financial mis-selling in Ireland and the importance of knowing the consumer
MARKET VIEW – LITIGATION
John O’Riordan of Dillon Eustace explains what advisers should bear in mind
There has been a significant increase in recent years in the number of claims relating to the alleged mis-selling of financial products to consumers in Ireland. These claims have been varied in their nature but essentially they have a common theme, the sale of an unsuitable financial product to a customer, on the basis of incorrect and/or misleading advice.
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A better Judiciary to realise Turkey’s potential
MARKET VIEW – LITIGATION
Mehmet Gün, senior partner at Gün + Partners, examines the difficulties facing the Turkish judiciary and how essential a first-class justice system is to Turkey’s progress
In the 1980s, Turkey undertook significant liberalisation of its national economy. Since then, liberalisation has increasingly become a pivotal part of the international economy. Between the 1980s and 2000, Turkey learnt some very important lessons in the form of economic crises and was saved by International Monetary Fund programmes.
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Jackson – Light at the end of the tunnel?
MARKET VIEW – LITIGATION
Enyo Law’s Peter Fitzpatrick, Annabel Thomas and Lauren Gash analyse how the Jackson reforms are bedding down a year after they came into force
Over a year has passed since the Jackson reforms came into force in April 2013 under the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act. Like the Woolf reforms before them, the aim of the reforms was to cut the cost of civil litigation and streamline cases, reducing the use of court time and encouraging early settlement.
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The Disputes Dilemma
MARKET VIEW – INTRODUCTION
Quinn Emanuel’s Ted Greeno weighs up the pros and cons of the different dispute resolution options and offers his insight into which option to pursue
It’s an old chestnut: which is better, litigation or arbitration? This is the third attempt I have had at it. In the first, I wrote an article singing the praises of arbitration over litigation. In the second, I debated for the motion: ‘This house considers that litigation is better than arbitration’, at a Commercial Litigators Forum event. On that occasion, my opponent (now partner at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan), Stephen Jagusch, used the entirety of his allotted time to quote my article back at me. So I approach this question with caution.