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  • September 17, 2008 |

    DLA Piper brings in new Beijing head from HK

    DLA Piper has appointed a new head for its Beijing office this month (1 September) with Liu Wei from the Hong Kong office taking on the role. He has replaced corporate partner Mark Williams in the post. Liu's practice focuses on Hong Kong and Chinese commercial law. He is the joint head of DLA Piper's Asia capital markets practice and leads DLA Piper's China focus group. Earlier this month, DLA Piper lost Beijing-based corporate partner Henry Wang to Dechert

    1 minute read

  • September 4, 2008 |

    Reed Smith boosts Paris arm with De Pardieu real estate partner hire

    Reed Smith is to boost its Paris offering with the hire of a real estate partner from local outfit De Pardieu Brocas Maffei. Stephane Illouz will join the firm as a partner in late September with two associates. Illouz's practice focuses on transactional real estate work but he also has experience in providing corporate, restructuring and debt advice to clients in the real estate sector.

    1 minute read

  • September 3, 2008 |

    DLA Piper partner joins Dechert as Beijing chief

    Dechert has installed its first Beijing managing partner with the arrival of Henry Wang to head the firm's Asian operation. Wang joined the firm on Monday (1 September) from DLA Piper in Beijing, where he had been a partner for two years. Prior to joining DLA Piper, Wang acted as general counsel to Shanghai General Motors, a Chinese-US joint venture company.Wang, a US-qualified lawyer, worked for the United Nations and Chinese Foreign Ministry prior to pursuing a career in law.

    1 minute read

  • September 2, 2008 |

    ...Legal Week Lunchbox: 02/09/08...

    The five most popular articles on legalweek.com today; the pick of the day's posts; and more

    1 minute read

  • August 27, 2008 |

    Dealmaker: Adam Levin

    Dechert's Adam Levin on his move from New Zealand to the City, his love of Virgin Radio and his son's valuable advice

    1 minute read

  • August 27, 2008 |

    Eyeing the door

    When Arnold & Porter's director of professional development, Caren Ulrich Stacy, started working in law firm recruiting in the mid-1990s, she says there was one question she could count on hearing from every incoming associate, be it a new law school recruit or a potential lateral hire: how long does it take to make partner here? Today, Ulrich Stacy says, it goes largely unasked. "I have maybe had that question once in the past five years," she says.Why doesn't anyone ask the partnership question any more? It's not the well-documented reluctance of big law firms to make new equity partners. In The American Lawyer's most recent mid-level associate survey, which polled 7,259 respondents from 180 firms, more than 70% of respondents said they are on their firm's partnership track, and only a few indicated they strongly view partnership as an impossibility.

    1 minute read

  • August 21, 2008 |

    Ashurst recruits Dechert Islamic finance head

    Ashurst has bolstered its securities team with the hire of Dechert's Islamic finance head Abradat Kamalpour. Kamalpour, who has been a partner at Dechert since 2006, will joins Ashurst's London office. Before joining Dechert, he was an associate at Norton Rose.Ashurst Dubai managing partner Nick Bryans said that Kamalpour had joined the top 10 firm to help to build up its Islamic finance practice.

    1 minute read

  • August 15, 2008 |

    Dechert set for Beijing debut after licence win

    Dechert has become the latest firm to win a licence to practise in Beijing. The Philadelphia-based firm revealed today (15 August) that its licence application to open an office in Beijing has been approved. The new office will mark the second in Asia for Dechert, after the firm opened in Hong Kong at the beginning of the year.

    1 minute read

  • August 6, 2008 | International Edition

    Commentary: Cadwalader's tough guy image to face a punishing test

    Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft does not have a reputation for being the cuddliest law firm in the world but, even by its standards, last week's announcement that it is to lay off 96 fee earners was uncompromising stuff. Combined with the 35 job losses announced in January, Cadwalader predicts it will have 580 lawyers in September 2008 compared with around 720 at the end of 2007 - a drop of almost 20%. The only obvious recent precedent for such drastic action at a major law firm is the series of savage cuts that were seen at some of California's tech-focused firms, which had ridden the dotcom wave only to suffer badly during the slump of 2002 and 2003.

    1 minute read

  • August 6, 2008 |

    Commentary: Cadwalader's tough guy image to face a punishing test

    Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft does not have a reputation for being the cuddliest law firm in the world but, even by its standards, last week's announcement that it is to lay off 96 fee earners was uncompromising stuff. Combined with the 35 job losses announced in January, Cadwalader predicts it will have 580 lawyers in September 2008 compared with around 720 at the end of 2007 - a drop of almost 20%. The only obvious recent precedent for such drastic action at a major law firm is the series of savage cuts that were seen at some of California's tech-focused firms, which had ridden the dotcom wave only to suffer badly during the slump of 2002 and 2003.

    1 minute read