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  • November 14, 2007 |

    Deal Week Dispatch: 14/11/07

    Deal Week Dispatch brings readers an early taster of news from Legal Week's unparalleled deals coverage, with Ashurst, Wragges and Bakers among the movers and shakers

    1 minute read

  • October 31, 2007 |

    Companies under backdating spotlight shell out massive legal fees for independent investigations

    Perhaps no corporate scandal of recent years has created such wide-ranging troubles as the stock option backdating mess. Companies have spent untold millions on legal fees for independent investigations, government negotiations and shareholder and derivative suits. And even if the companies clean house, the disgraced executives can - and do - insist that their former employers keep paying their high-priced lawyers, thanks to indemnification contracts that are a standard perk in executive suites. In the case of Brocade Communications Systems, which cut ties with its convicted former chief executive, Gregory Reyes, legal fees could eventually reach $100m (£48.7m).

    1 minute read

  • October 24, 2007 |

    View from here: Countering corruption

    Enacted by the US Congress in 1977, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), an anti-bribery law, prohibits the payment of bribes to foreign government officials to obtain business. Multinational companies based in the US are quite aware of the FCPA. But in recent years, US enforcement authorities have made it clear that the FCPA's reach does not end at the US border. Mark Mendelsohn, deputy chief of the fraud section in the criminal division of the Department of Justice (DoJ), stated: "People are going to jail because of these kinds of things.

    1 minute read

  • October 10, 2007 |

    LG expands into Middle East market with Dubai launch

    LG is set to open its second office outside the UK with a launch in Dubai, relocating construction partner James Foster to the region.

    1 minute read

  • October 3, 2007 | International Edition

    Gibson Dunn becomes latest firm to open in Dubai

    Gibson Dunn & Crutcher is to become the latest firm to launch in Dubai after announcing its plans to open in the region before the end of 2007. The West Coast US firm will open its new office in the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) with Washington tax partner Peter Baumbusch relocating to oversee the launch.

    1 minute read

  • October 3, 2007 |

    Gibson Dunn becomes latest firm to open in Dubai

    Gibson Dunn & Crutcher is to become the latest firm to launch in Dubai after announcing its plans to open in the region before the end of 2007. The West Coast US firm will open its new office in the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) with Washington tax partner Peter Baumbusch relocating to oversee the launch.

    1 minute read

  • September 26, 2007 |

    Links cashes in on $4bn sale of Nordic exchange OMX

    Linklaters has become the latest firm to benefit from a complex deal that sees US exchange Nasdaq set to take charge of Nordic stock market operator OMX in a $4bn (£2bn) deal.

    1 minute read

  • September 26, 2007 |

    Gibson Dunn recruits Latham M&A partner

    US law firm Gibson Dunn & Crutcher has recruited corporate partner David Hernand from West Cost rival Latham & Watkins, as the firm looks to beef up its Century City office. Hernand focuses on public and private M&A in the technology industry. Prior to joining Latham in 1994, he also spent two years as managing director at Idealab, a Pasadena-based technology company and later as CEO of New.net, an Idealab portfolio company.

    1 minute read

  • August 1, 2007 |

    The sporting life

    Maybe it's a lifetime spent with documents in airless offices that gives partners the urge to throw themselves off cliffs or into frozen waters by way of recreation - or perhaps it's just hanging out with corporate counsel that does it.

    1 minute read

  • July 25, 2007 |

    Germany: Interested parties

    Earlier this month, the German Corporate Tax Reform 2008 secured the approval of all Germany's legislative bodies and will become effective on 1 January next year. The Corporate Tax Reform 2008 does not provide for any 'grandfather clauses' for current transactions but for structures involving German entities with deviating fiscal years, the changes might already have an impact on fiscal years starting in 2007. The reform can be divided into two key elements: firstly, the intended reduction of an overall tax rate for corporations (corporate and trade tax) from 38.6% to slightly below 30%; and secondly a new general interest deduction limitation rule - the new rule - which will have a significant impact on leveraged transactions in Germany.

    1 minute read