Page 580 – Legal Business

Continue reading “Real estate round-up: Clifford Chance, Taylor Wessing and Burges Salmon start New Year on front foot”

Real estate round-up: Clifford Chance, Taylor Wessing and Burges Salmon start New Year on front foot

Clifford Chance (CC), Taylor Wessing and Burges Salmon have emerged as the pace setters for real estate work in the first few days of 2014, with each having completed significant UK commercial property deals recently.

Clifford Chance advised GIC, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, on both the purchase of a 50% interest in the Broadgate Estate from Blackstone Real Estate Partners Europe III and Blackstone Real Estate Partners VI and GIC’s 50:50 joint venture with British Land to ‘enable the future development of the estate,’ according to the firm.

Continue reading “Strategic recruitment: A&O hires employment team in Paris”

Strategic recruitment: A&O hires employment team in Paris

Allen & Overy (A&O) has underlined the importance of its global employment practice with a significant hire in France, recruiting highly regarded partner Claire Toumieux to head its employment and benefits department in Paris.

Toumieux joins from 18-partner, top-tier local employment firm Flichy Grangé Avocats where she was a partner, along with a team of three associates – Susan Ekrami, Alexandre Couvreur and Alexandre Orts. A recommended partner in The Legal 500 EMEA, Toumieux has experience of representing both listed and unlisted corporate groups and investment funds through mergers and acquisitions, collective bargaining agreements and reorganisations.

Continue reading “Corporate: Freshfields makes Paris M&A lateral hire as 2013 M&A adviser tables do little to instil confidence”

Corporate: Freshfields makes Paris M&A lateral hire as 2013 M&A adviser tables do little to instil confidence

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has become the second elite global firm to make a high-profile corporate lateral hire this week, as the latest M&A deal tables released today (9 January) show European and global transaction levels fell again in 2013.

The Magic Circle firm has strengthened its international capital markets, M&A and corporate advisory offering in Paris with the hire of partner Olivier Rogivue from leading French practice Bredin Prat.

Rogivue has been a partner for at Bredin Prat for the last six years before which he worked at Slaughter and May’s Paris and London offices for 11 years, giving him extensive experience of advising large industrial clients in France on international transactions.

Continue reading “Herbert Smith Freehills announces hire of Maitland Chambers Tom Leech QC as Murray Rosen QC retires”

Herbert Smith Freehills announces hire of Maitland Chambers Tom Leech QC as Murray Rosen QC retires

Herbert Smith Freehills has today (9 January) announced the hire of Tom Leech QC, who has left Maitland Chambers to join the top 10 LB100 firm as a partner in its advocacy group in London.

Having joined the Bar in 1988 and taken silk in 2010, Leech has spent his entire career at Maitland Chambers. He is experienced in commercial litigation, professional negligence, company and property litigation, as well as offshore jurisdictions, while his portfolio includes high profile cases in the High Court, Court of Appeal and the House of Lords.

8 January 2014

Board level appointment for incoming Tui general counsel

Leading European travel group Tui AG has become the latest major corporate to announce a board level legal appointment as former Clifford Chance (CC) lawyer and Demag Cranes head of legal Hilka Schneider joins as general counsel (GC).

Schneider, who in 2008 took over as head of the legal department at Demag and in 2011 saw the company through its $1.4bn hostile takeover by New York Stock Exchange-listed heavy equipment manufacturer Terex, will join the management board of TUI and will assume responsibility for group legal affairs, governance, risk and compliance.

German-headquartered Tui’s three business sectors are TUI Travel; TUI Hotels & Resorts; and Cruises, with its 2011/12 group turnover standing at €18.3bn.

As of mid-2014 Schneider, a corporate lawyer who started her legal career at CC in 2000 before joining DAX-listed Deutsche Post DHL in 2005, will also head the executive board office of the company. Continue reading “Board level appointment for incoming Tui general counsel”

8 January 2014

Fallout begins as Dundas & Wilson suffers spate of partner exits post-CMS merger deal

The fallout from Dundas & Wilson‘s recently announced takeover by CMS Cameron McKenna has begun in earnest, with the Scottish firm confirming that a number of partners are to leave.

Construction partner Siobhan McCloskey-Oudahar; head of real estate disputes Andrew Walker; employment partner David Walker; head of environment Mark Brumwell; employment partner Mandy Laurie; IP/IT partner Allan Wardhaugh; and corporate partner and former chairman David Hardie have either left or will leave the ailing Scottish giant ahead of the merger this summer. Continue reading “Fallout begins as Dundas & Wilson suffers spate of partner exits post-CMS merger deal”

8 January 2014

Latham sets pace for 2014 as expansive City arm hires Weil private equity partner

For many watchers of the upper reaches of City law, Latham & Watkins has in recent years established a profile as one of the most upwardly mobile players in London, a reputation the US-based giant has moved to underline early in 2014 with the recruitment of Weil, Gotshal & Manges funds partner Nick Benson.

The move is the fifth partner hire for Latham’s City arm within the last 12 months and a further high-profile addition to the 600-partner firm’s UK buyout practice after the recruitment last April of Clifford Chance’s (CC) private equity head David Walker, which was followed up in October with the appointment of fellow CC partner Tom Evans. Continue reading “Latham sets pace for 2014 as expansive City arm hires Weil private equity partner”

7 January 20146 February 2025

Hires for Squire Sanders and Morgan Lewis as 2014 lateral window opens

After a flurry of lateral hire announcements before the City broke for Christmas in 2013, yesterday (6 January) saw two noteworthy partner moves between international law firms as DLA Piper partner Martin Rees joins Squire Sanders regulatory practice group and private equity and investment funds partner Tom Cartwright joins Morgan Lewis & Bockius London office from Taylor Wessing. Continue reading “Hires for Squire Sanders and Morgan Lewis as 2014 lateral window opens”

Continue reading “Asia-Pacific: Clydes eyes further China expansion as it hires Eversheds Asia employment head”

Asia-Pacific: Clydes eyes further China expansion as it hires Eversheds Asia employment head

Clyde & Co has further expanded its China operations with the hire of Eversheds’ Asia head of employment Iris Duchetsmann to lead its Shanghai office.

Duchetsmann will focus on expanding the firm’s regional employment law capabilities, its overall China offering and comes with a particular focus on cross-border issues and international human resources management.

Also joining Clyde’s Shanghai office are three employment associates from Eversheds – Lisa Li, Cynthia Zheng and Vivien Xu – bringing the lawyer headcount up to 23 and five partners in total.

King & Wood Mallesons reshuffles management team again following partner exit

King & Wood Mallesons (KWM) has made another change to its practice management team just months after restructuring its leadership following its merger with SJ Berwin in November. Legacy SJ Berwin partner Craig Pollack was today (7January) named as its new global co-ordinator for dispute resolution replacing Beau Deleuil, who left KWM a month after the merger to join Quinn Emmanuel Urquhart & Sullivan’s Sydney office.

Pollack is already on the international management committee as an alternate and will continue as head of the Europe and Middle East dispute resolution practice. Alex Leitch will take over from Pollack as the new London head of dispute resolution. Continue reading “King & Wood Mallesons reshuffles management team again following partner exit”

Continue reading “Barely into 2014 another PE house bets on law as Permira puts £122m into LegalZoom”

Barely into 2014 another PE house bets on law as Permira puts £122m into LegalZoom

It’s a deal that brings together one of the most touted ‘alternative’ legal service providers with one of Europe’s top private equity investors – just a few days into 2014. The announcement this week that Permira is investing over £100m in LegalZoom is a reminder of the growing interest from financiers in the legal sector.

Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson advised European private equity house Permira on the £122m investment in US-based LegalZoom making it the largest shareholder in the much-tipped online legal document company.

Mid-market feeding frenzy: Addleshaw, Bristows, Field Fisher and Irwin Mitchell unveil lateral hires

The New Year lateral hiring spree has gathered momentum, with Addleshaw Goddard, Irwin Mitchell, Bristows and Field Fisher Waterhouse all announcing new acquisitions today (7 January).

Leeds-based Bill Gilliam will join Addleshaw’s commercial litigation team as a partner after 20 years at Eversheds, where he was head of healthcare and life sciences. His experience includes a secondment as acting head of legal in the commercial directorate of the Department of Health, and cases include procurement disputes for Covent Garden Market Authority and Roche Diagnostics, as well as assisting with the Mid-Staffordshire Inquiry. Continue reading “Mid-market feeding frenzy: Addleshaw, Bristows, Field Fisher and Irwin Mitchell unveil lateral hires”

CC formally launches ‘first-of-its-kind’ Saudi partnership but Riyadh remains a tough nut to crack

Clifford Chance today (6 January) formally announced the launch of its joint Saudi and foreign-owned law firm in Riyadh, boasting an institutionalised career path for Saudi lawyers as it becomes the first international firm to establish an integrated partnership in the Kingdom.

The transactional lawyers of Al-Jadaan & Partners, Khalid Al-Abdulkareem and Abdulaziz Al-Abduljabbar, join Clifford Chance as partners to create a five-partner team alongside English lawyers Omar Rashid, Paul Latto and office head Tim Plews. Continue reading “CC formally launches ‘first-of-its-kind’ Saudi partnership but Riyadh remains a tough nut to crack”

Continue reading “Asia-Pacific: Pinsents continues expansion with high-profile appointments in Singapore and Shanghai”

Asia-Pacific: Pinsents continues expansion with high-profile appointments in Singapore and Shanghai

Pinsent Masons has continued to develop its Global 100 credentials, this time bulking up its Asia-Pacific corporate capability with the hire of a three-partner team in Singapore from leading local firm KhattarWong and a further senior appointment in Shanghai from SJ Berwin (now part of King & Wood Mallesons). These latest appointments add to a number of key hires made by Pinsents in the region over the course of last year.

In Singapore, partners Perry Yuen, Kelvyn Oo and Bethia Su will join the firm from KhattarWong’s general corporate and commercial advisory practice in early 2014 along with up to five associates.

Continue reading “Revolving doors: HSF loses Perth mining head to Australian rival”

Revolving doors: HSF loses Perth mining head to Australian rival

Having completed a crucial overhaul of its management and remuneration structures towards the end of 2013, Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) would have hoped to get 2014 off to a positive start but has instead suffered another setback, with news that the head of the firm’s mining practice in Perth, Justin Little, will join independent Australian outfit Gilbert + Tobin.

Little will join the Perth office of Gilbert + Tobin in its energy and resources practice. He is a member of the Australian Mining and Petroleum Law Association and has extensive experience advising Australian publically listed mining and resources companies, including BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto, on M&A transactions and equity fundraisings.

New Year, new job: Hogan Lovells boosts global partnership by 29 in latest promotion round

Hogan Lovells has increased the number promoted to partnership this year to 29, of which 11 made the cut in its City office.

Effective since 1 January, the promotions are spread throughout multiple practice areas, including disputes (7), corporate (7), finance (5), government regulatory (5), and intellectual property (5) – equating to 13 promotions in Europe across Frankfurt, London and Paris; 15 in the US across Denver, Houston, New York, and Washington DC; and one in Asia in Beijing.

In addition to the 29 new partners, 38 new appointments to the role of counsel, consultant or of counsel have been made. Continue reading “New Year, new job: Hogan Lovells boosts global partnership by 29 in latest promotion round”