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  • October 11, 2012 |

    Moods in Manhattan – mixed messages from the world's legal capital

    You don't really appreciate until you talk to Manhattan lawyers in their own habitat how Wall Street firms at times seem weighed down by history. In London, partners often struggle to remember as far back as the 1990s. But their counterparts in the bustling yet conservative Manhattan community still find their focus drawn to key moments in their firm's past.

    1 minute read

  • October 11, 2012 |

    Linklaters advises PwC on agreement over $38bn Lehman claims

    Linklaters has advised PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) on an agreement in principle to resolve all claims between Lehman Brothers (LBI) and Lehman Brothers International (Europe) (LBIE), totalling $38bn (£23.7bn). The agreement, which marks a key milestone in the Lehman Brothers administration, means assets owed to LBIE's customers can now be distributed to customers and creditors.

    1 minute read

  • October 1, 2012 |

    News Corp hires ex-WilmerHale and Davis Polk lawyers in compliance push

    News Corporation has appointed five group chief compliance officers (GCCOs) in a shake-up of its global compliance structure, including an ex-US federal prosecutor and a former lawyer at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The new compliance structure will be headed up by the recently installed group GC and chief compliance officer Gerson Zweifach, who was brought in this February to steer News Corp's efforts to shake up its governance following the phone-hacking scandal.

    1 minute read

  • September 25, 2012 |

    Slaughters mulls adding US-qualified partners in Asia

    Slaughter and May is mulling adding US law capability to its Hong Kong office, after a spate of US firms launched local practices in the region. The magic circle firm is considering whether to hire US-qualified lawyers for its Asia base - a move which would involve lateral partner hires and would represent a break from the firm's traditional strategy of organic growth.

    1 minute read

  • September 20, 2012 |

    Honeymoon period for foreign firms in Hong Kong seems over as IPO slowdown prompts fee drop

    Slump in HK IPO market has seen pricing fall by as much as 40%, as Elizabeth Broomhall discovers

    1 minute read

  • September 13, 2012 |

    Freshfields breaks lockstep in Asia to stave off US firm advances

    Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has taken steps to protect its Asian partnership from US firms' advances by breaking away from its lockstep and allowing new partners to be promoted more quickly in the region, it has emerged.

    1 minute read

  • September 6, 2012 |

    Rethinking the firm/client relationship - a conversation with Axiom CEO Mark Harris

    If one party to an exchange is satisfied and one is miserable, somebody struck a terrific bargain. But if both parties are miserable, the exchange needs to be reconceived from the ground up. The law firm/client relationship was, he felt, firmly in the latter camp...

    1 minute read

  • August 16, 2012 |

    Four US firms in the picture as Carlyle snaps up Getty for £2.1bn

    Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, Weil Gotshal & Manges, Debevoise & Plimpton and Davis Polk & Wardwell have snapped up advisory roles as the Carlyle Group yesterday (15 August) agreed to acquire Getty Images for $3.3bn (£2.1bn), writes the Am Law Daily. The acquisition of the world's largest archived photo distributor comes three months after reports surfaced that private equity firm Hellman & Friedman was looking to sell as much as $4bn (£2.5bn).

    1 minute read

  • August 2, 2012 |

    Herbert Smith and Slaughters lead on $1.5bn Chinese North Sea purchase

    Herbert Smith and Slaughter and May have advised on a $1.5bn (£959m) energy M&A deal which has seen China's Sinopec acquire almost half of Talisman Energy's UK North Sea business. The Chinese energy and petrochemical giant has taken a 49% stake in Talisman Energy (UK) Limited, which owns 46 North Sea fields and operates 11 offshore platforms.

    1 minute read

  • July 26, 2012 |

    Disruptive innovation: has Axiom got what it takes to break up the law firm party?

    "We came to the conclusion that [the temporary staffing] model works well. But if we wanted to be transformative, we have to do more than that. We have to be scalable..." Look out law firms, Axiom is trying to beat you at your own game, as Drew Combs discovers

    1 minute read