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  • November 11, 2009 |

    Time for FIA to change gear in Formula 1 regulation

    This season's Formula 1 World Championship saw previously heretic talk of budget caps and redundancies. Huge sponsorship contracts and $300m-plus budgets became hard to justify - Honda went and BMW is going. Despite this, the season has been as exciting as ever, both on and off the track.

    1 minute read

  • November 9, 2009 |

    Former A&O finance partner joins Fried Frank's London office

    Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson has made a rare lateral hire in London, bringing in former Allen & Overy (A&O) leveraged finance partner Mark Wesseldine. Wesseldine will join the US firm's City arm towards the end of the year after serving as a partner with A&O since 2007.

    1 minute read

  • October 22, 2009 |

    High-profile restructuring chief Norley quits Kirkland's City base

    The high-profile head of Kirkland & Ellis's European restructuring practice, Lyndon Norley, has left the US firm's City office. The reason for his departure is unknown and the firm was unavailable for comment. Norley joined Kirkland in 2002 from Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft to launch a UK insolvency team for the leading Chicago firm.

    1 minute read

  • October 6, 2009 |

    Microsoft cuts back legal budget by 15% due to recession

    Microsoft's legal department has seen its legal budget cut by 15% over the last 18 months, leading to a 5% reduction in headcount, according to the software giant's general counsel, Brad Smith. Before the cuts, Microsoft's legal department had a $900m (£564m) annual legal budget and 1,050 staff, including 450 lawyers.

    1 minute read

  • October 6, 2009 |

    Global 100: The great game

    Soon after Simon Davies took over as Linklaters' managing partner at the end of 2007, he brought together a group of the firm's partners for some scenario planning. Turbulence in the subprime mortgage sector had not yet grown into a global economic downturn, but Davies knew that the legal services market was already changing. "We had been striving to run ourselves as efficiently as possible to deliver clear value to our clients and avoid increasing rates," he says. The purpose of the gathering was to run through some 'what-ifs,' determine how the firm would be affected, and consider how it would respond. Scenario three, the worst one under consideration, was the collapse of a major investment bank.

    1 minute read

  • September 2, 2009 |

    New recruits help Dewey secure eBay work on $1.9bn Skype deal

    Dewey & LeBoeuf has secured a new role as eBay's go-to M&A counsel after hiring the online auction site's long-term advisers from Cooley Godward Kronish last month. Three M&A lawyers Dewey hired from Cooley last month led the firm's team representing eBay on its $1.9bn (£1.15bn) deal to unload a controlling interest in Skype to a consortium of investors.

    1 minute read

  • August 10, 2009 |

    Linklaters takes top spot in Euro debt and equity capital markets rankings

    Linklaters has topped the Thomson Reuters European debt and equity capital markets rankings, advising managers on twice as many equity deals over the first half of 2009 as its nearest rival and overtaking Allen & Overy (A&O) in the debt rankings. The magic circle firm advised underwriters on 21 European equity capital markets (ECM) deals worth $36.9bn (£22.2bn) during the first six months of this year, with key deals including a role advising JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs on HSBC's £12.5bn rights issue - the largest so far this year.

    1 minute read

  • July 2, 2009 |

    Addleshaws wins Barclays role as bank confirms new panel line-up

    Barclays has completed its panel review, with Addleshaw Goddard winning a coveted spot on the bank's main panel. The national firm joins Allen & Overy, Clifford Chance , DLA Piper, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Linklaters, Lovells and Simmons & Simmons on the bank's general advisory roster, with Barclays also appointing a string of firms to 10 specialist panels.

    1 minute read

  • July 1, 2009 |

    BLP boosts finance and litigation with hire of partners from A&O and CC

    Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) has picked up two partners from the magic circle, with the firm set to bolster its finance and litigation practices. Clifford Chance (CC) litigation partner Nic Fletcher will join BLP's international arbitration practice while, as legalweek.com reported last week (26 June), Allen & Overy (A&O) leveraged finance partner Andrew Bamber is also set to join the firm.

    1 minute read

  • June 26, 2009 |

    BLP makes A&O partner hire for finance practice

    Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) is to bolster its finance practice with the hire of high profile Allen & Overy (A&O) leveraged finance partner Andrew Bamber. Bamber is set to join BLP over the coming weeks after seven years as a partner in A&O's leveraged finance team. He came over to the magic circle firm in 2002 from Norton Rose as part of a team of four partners to leave the firm, including current leveraged finance chief Tim Polglase.

    1 minute read