DAC Beachcroft set for defining post-merger management election

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DAC Beachcroft is gearing up for a management election this summer between both insurance and non-insurance partners as the firm looks to select its first new executive team since the merger of Davies Arnold Cooper and Beachcroft in October 2011.

Current senior partner Simon Hodson and managing partner Paul Murray have been in place since 2005 when they were elected to the roles at legacy Beachcroft and then re-elected for a second term in 2010. Neither will stand again this time around.

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News in brief – May 2015

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WHITTAKER STEPS DOWN AS LLOYDS GC

Group general counsel (GC) Andrew Whittaker is stepping down from his role at Lloyds Banking Group with deputy GC Kate Cheetham set to replace him. Whittaker joined the bank in May 2013 after having served as the legal head of the Financial Services Authority. The bank also saw the departure of disputes chief Philippa Simmons last month and began a redundancy consultation looking at cutting up to 25 mid-level positions.

 

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Singapore scramble: Morgan Lewis teams up with Stamford Law to enter market

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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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News in brief – March 2015

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JP MORGAN TURNS TO GOLDMAN SACHS FOR NEW EMEA GC

JP Morgan Chase hired heavyweight counsel, and former lawyer at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, John Tribolati from Goldman Sachs to succeed Piers Le Marchant as EMEA general counsel. Le Marchant is remaining with the banking giant as global head of compliance for corporate and investment banking.

 

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Comment: What a ‘combination’! Dentons Dacheng pushes the concept of a firm to breaking point

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In January 2005 DLA hooked up with US duo Piper Rudnick and Gray Cary Ware & Freidenrich, triggering a debate that looks no more resolved as I type these words in January 2015. The issue boils down to: what is a firm? And can unions between legal practices maintaining separate finances, partnerships and governance be considered by clients, staff, peers and regulators to be a single institution?

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What a ‘combination’! Dentons Dacheng pushes the concept of a firm

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In January 2005 DLA Piper hooked up with US duo Piper Rudnick and Gray Cary Ware & Freidenrich, triggering a debate that looks no more resolved as I type these words in January 2015. The issue boils down to: what is a firm? And can unions between legal practices maintaining separate finances, partnerships and governance be considered by clients, staff, peers and regulators to be a single institution?

The debate has only become more intense given the string of verein-based tie-ups since 2009. Hard and fast rules are elusive. In reality some – notably Hogan Lovells and in recent years DLA Piper – operate as a single institution. But with some other firms, discerning the nature of the merger, sorry ‘combination’ – the word increasingly bandied around to reconcile these conflicting realities – is a challenge.

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Targeting Australia: Withers establishes presence with local tax firm BLW and corporate boutique alliance

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Private-client focused firm Withers has launched a presence in Australia, creating Withers SBL through an alliance with tax practice Balazs Lazanas & Welch (BLW) and corporate boutique SBL Shmith, as it continues its strategy of ‘expanding into key markets for high net worth clients’.

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Uría Menéndez takes stake in first major Latin America tie-up

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As Dentons hires IDB’s general counsel in hunt for regional mergers

Last month saw leading Iberian law firm Uría Menéndez acquire a 30% stake in the merger of its best friend firms and national heavyweights, Chile’s Philippi and Colombia’s Prietocarrizosa, as part of its strategy to consolidate its commitment in the region.

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