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  • March 6, 2014 |

    Two more quit BLP's finance team as new boss faces tough job to stem partner exits

    Berwin Leighton Paisner's (BLP) finance practice has had something of a revolving door recently, with the announcement of a new practice head last week prompting yet more departures. Since September a total of 13 partners have left BLP – a mix of voluntary and forced moves – with the majority coming out of the finance team. Two more – structured finance partner Lucy Oddy and real estate finance partner Andrew Flemming – are expected to hand in their notice next week. Things started to look precarious when, following months of speculation about a significant drop in profitability, BLP finally revealed its 2012-13 financial results in September. Profit per equity partner (PEP) had plummeted 39% to £401,000, while net profit had fallen 38% to £39.4m.

    1 minute read

  • February 28, 2014 |

    Trio of partners quit BLP for DLA in wake of finance chief appointment

    Three Berwin Leighton Paisner partners, including head of real estate finance Laurence Rogers, have resigned from the firm to join DLA Piper. Rogers has left the firm alongside commercial real estate partner Richard Hopkinson-Woolley and corporate tax partner Neville Wright.

    1 minute read

  • February 27, 2014 |

    HSF misses out on Singapore local licence, W&C gets conditional permit

    Herbert Smith Freehills will not practice local law in Singapore from October this year after not renewing its Qualifying Foreign Law Practice (QFLP) licence. The UK firm was one of six outfits originally permitted to practice local law in 2008 and understood to have been in discussions with the authorities about renewing its licence along with the other firms.

    1 minute read

  • February 26, 2014 |

    Adam Dann appointed BLP's finance head as department review comes to a close

    Berwin Leighton Paisner has named Adam Dann as its new finance head, replacing Matthew Kellett following his resignation last year. Dann, head of projects and infrastructure at the firm, was one two names in the frame, along with head of real estate finance Laurence Rogers.

    1 minute read

  • February 26, 2014 |

    Shearman, Jones Day and Covington partners to join Freshfields trio in establishing new arbitration firm

    Partners from Shearman & Sterling, Jones Day and Covington & Burling are set to join three senior disputes lawyers from Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in establishing a global arbitration boutique.

    1 minute read

  • February 19, 2014 |

    Jones Day to open second Australian base in Perth with Allens hire

    Jones Day is to open its second base in Australia with an office in Perth this April. The US firm has hired Allens partner construction partner Stephen McComish to head up in the city, and said it plans to focus on projects and project-related disputes and the energy sector. It currently has one Australian office in Sydney which opened in 1998 and now counts 40 lawyers, of which 13 are partners.

    1 minute read

  • February 19, 2014 |

    Singapore expected to announce successful licence renewals this month

    The first international law firms to receive local licences to practice in Singapore are expecting to hear later this month whether they have will be renewed

    1 minute read

  • February 12, 2014 |

    TTIP of the iceberg – what the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership means for lawyers on both sides of the Pond

    It has been billed as the largest free trade agreement in history, yet many trade lawyers are still in the dark when it comes to the details of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) deal. TTIP, which was announced last summer and is now being negotiated, will for the first time create a trade treaty between the US and the EU in its entirety. Designed to drive growth by removing trade barriers and tariffs, independent research cited by the European Commission suggests the annual benefits could be as much as €120bn (£99.9bn) to the EU economy, €90bn (£74.9bn) to the US and €100bn (£83.2bn) to the rest of the world. "Everybody is going to be affected by this, and it really will change the balance of political power," says Ross Denton, a UK-qualified partner in Baker & McKenzie's European competition and trade department. "In recent years the balance [of US trade] has been gradually shifting towards Asia, because they don't have the same heavy tariffs. But if you eliminate most tariffs between the EU and US, then this will have huge ramifications for business."

    1 minute read

  • February 11, 2014 |

    Jones Day appoints first ever Asia managing partner

    Jones Day has appointed its first ever Asia managing partner, with the re-hire of former disputes lawyer and the US' first ambassador to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), David Carden. Carden, who will be based with the firm in Singapore, previously co-led the securities litigation and SEC enforcement practice in New York before starting his ambassadorship in March 2011.

    1 minute read

  • February 10, 2014 |

    BLP head of R&I Ben Larkin joins Jones Day exodus

    Berwin Leighton Paisner's head of restructuring & insolvency Ben Larkin has quit the firm to join Jones Day, marking the third BLP partner the US firm has hired in the last six months.

    1 minute read