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  • February 22, 2011 |

    Linklaters confirms spring bonus of up to $20,000 for US associates

    Linklaters has followed Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in handing out spring bonuses to its US associates for the first time. The firm's US managing partner Nick Rees announced the move in an email sent out to all lawyers who will receive the payout. In the email, Rees stated that "a number of our peer firms in New York have recently announced they will be paying spring bonuses to their associates. I am pleased to announce that we too will be paying an additional spring bonus to US associates."

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  • February 22, 2011 |

    Linklaters and Cleary lead on Lafarge and Anglo American UK joint venture

    Linklaters and Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton are advising on a joint venture (JV) between Anglo American and French industrial giant Lafarge which is set to create a UK building materials businesses with total sales of £1.8bn. The proposed deal is a 50:50 JV combining the companies' UK cement, aggregates, ready-mixed concrete, asphalt and contracting businesses. The parties said that the tie-up had been sparked due to complementary geographical distribution of operations.

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  • February 22, 2011 |

    Renaissance man - Ashar Qureshi on quitting Cleary for a senior banking role

    "People are realising that a single event - even a major one - isn't enough to throw emerging markets off course anymore," remarks Ashar Qureshi, vice chairman of Renaissance Group, the Russia-based investment bank specialising in investments in the CIS and Africa. "Take Egypt, where we have investments and trade securities," he continues. "Despite the crisis, stocks in companies based there haven't shown the fragility many assumed they would." Qureshi's involvement with emerging markets work dates back to the early 1990s, when he was drafted onto the privatisation of Mexican telecoms company Telmex as a junior associate in Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton's New York office. "Emerging markets comes naturally to me. Maybe it's something to do with being brought up in Pakistan," he says. His specialism in this area gathered pace when, aged 27, he left the Big Apple to take up a role in Cleary's highly-regarded London capital markets team.

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  • February 18, 2011 |

    Davis Polk plans Sao Paulo launch as law firms continue to flock to Brazil

    Davis Polk & Wardwell has announced plans to establish a Brazil office later this year, reports The Am Law Daily. The office, the US firm's 10th around the world, could open as early as the middle of the year, though the date is subject to approval by Brazilian authorities. The announcement comes three months after Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton announced its intention to open in Sao Paulo.

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  • February 18, 2011 |

    Linklaters leads on much-touted Credit Suisse 'coco' bond

    Linklaters has taken a lead role for Credit Suisse on a ground-breaking securities deal designed to bolster the banking giant's financial strength. The deal saw Credit Suisse issue $8bn (£5bn) in 'cocos' - a form of bond that converts into equity if the issuing bank's balance sheet becomes impaired.

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  • February 15, 2011 |

    Freshfields announces first-ever spring bonuses for US associates

    Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has announced that it will hand out spring bonuses to its US associates for the first time, reports The Am Law Daily. US regional managing partner Julian Pritchard announced the news in a letter to the firm's 160 US associates, with the bonuses ranging from $2,500 (£1,500) for the class of 2010 to $20,000 (£12,400) for the class of 2006 and earlier.

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  • February 15, 2011 |

    IPO outlook - finely balanced but still tipping the wrong way

    Equity capital markets (ECM) lawyers eyeing up another year of uncertainty must be wondering which will win out in 2011: irresistible force or immovable object? On one hand, you have the building pressure to tap the equity markets from the growing queue of companies that have been put off braving the market for more than two years thanks to tough market conditions. In theory, at some point issuers with solid stories for investors must accept that there will be no quick return to rosy valuations and just get on with it.

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  • February 10, 2011 |

    Linklaters and Wachtell lead on Deutsche Boerse/NYSE merger

    Linklaters and Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz have taken lead roles on the proposed merger between Deutsche Boerse and NYSE Euronext in a deal that looks set to create world's largest stock exchange by revenue and profits. Linklaters is advising longstanding client Deutsche Boerse on the proposed all-stock tie-up, which would see the merged business jointly based in New York and Frankfurt.

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  • February 2, 2011 |

    CC and Cleary lead on $500m float as Russian companies size up City market

    Clifford Chance (CC) has advised on a planned $500m (£314m) float on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) by a Russian commodities company. The City law firm has advised Siberian-based Koks Group on its intended initial public offering (IPO), with price ranges announced last week (26 January).

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  • January 25, 2011 |

    Russia and Ukraine: The bear in mind

    International firms are showing renewed interest in Russia with the proposed sell-off of state assets, the World Cup and the 2012 Winter Olympics generating a slew of mandates. Suzanna Ring reports on what's to come for the region's legal market Russia is never far off the business agenda, but after a torrid couple of years it is fair to say that many Anglo Saxon firms had scaled back their efforts in the region - albeit a temporary pause rather than a ceasefire.

    1 minute read