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  • January 20, 2009 |

    Sidley and DLA Piper secure roles on Asia IPO

    Sidley Austin and DLA Piper have played key roles in one of the first initial public offerings (IPOs) of the year on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Sidley Austin served as issuer's counsel to Chinese oil products trader Strong Petrochemical Holdings, whose 12 January IPO raised about HK$250m (£21m).The firm's team was led by Hong Kong partner Constance Choy, alongside associates Eugene Lai and Iris Yuen. China's King & Wood represented Strong on issues involving mainland Chinese law. DLA Piper represented the sponsor and underwriter, China Everbright Capital. The DLA Piper team was led by partner Esther Leung.

    1 minute read

  • January 15, 2009 |

    BLP boosts London arm with Katten finance duo hire

    Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) has bolstered its London finance practice with a double partner hire from US law firm Katten Muchin Rosenma's City arm. Structured finance and real estate partners Jayne Black and Eleanor Hunwicks joined BLP at the beginning of this month from Katten, where they established the firm's London real estate finance group two-and-a-half years ago.Both advise lead managers, servicers, originators and ratings agencies on real estate finance and securitisation deals.Prior to joining Katten, Black and Hunwicks - both UK-qualified - worked at Sidley Austin's City office, building a practice advising servicers of commercial loans.

    1 minute read

  • December 1, 2008 |

    Kirkland regains former restructuring chief

    Kirkland & Ellis is set to re-hire restructuring rainmaker James Sprayregen, as the US firm's former co-head of bankruptcy and restructuring returns later this month after two and a half years at Goldman Sachs. Sprayregen left Kirkland in 2006 to take up a non-legal role as managing director in Goldman's investment banking division.He had previously spent 16 years at Kirkland in Chicago and New York.

    1 minute read

  • November 19, 2008 |

    Funds find law risk is one unhedged position

    Camulos Capital, a Stamford-based hedge fund with approximately $2bn (£1.3bn) in assets, was one of the lucky ones. In late July, Camulos saw trouble looming on the calendar. Like many of Camulos's peers, the performance of its funds had dropped, and the deadline for year-end redemptions was fast approaching. If too many investors fled - and there was $43bn (£28.6bn) withdrawn from US funds in September - the run on capital could have brought operations to a halt."We saw what was happening in the markets, and we thought that it was a prudent time to lock up the capital," says Michael Iuliano, the fund's general counsel.

    1 minute read

  • November 9, 2008 |

    Obama looks to Am Law 100 firms for best and brightest

    While most of the speculation surrounding possible appointments by President-elect Obama focuses on the treasury secretary and attorney and solicitor general,…

    1 minute read

  • October 24, 2008 |

    Goodwin set for City launch with Heller team

    Goodwin Procter is set to secure its long-awaited City launch as the Boston leader secures a deal to take a UK hospitality and real estate finance duo from Heller Ehrman. The initial launch, revealed today (24 October) by legalweek.com, will see US-qualified partners Bob Asher and Brian Smith join Goodwin along with two other fee earners. They will take their book of business, which includes relationships with clients such as Starwood and Dorchester Group, to Goodwin.The opening will give Goodwin its first office outside the US. The firm features in the Am Law top 50 and reported profits per equity partner of $880,000 (£543,000) during the last financial year. Goodwin, a regular referral partner of SJ Berwin, has been in expansive form over the last five years, achieving 2007 revenues of $611m (£377m).

    1 minute read

  • October 23, 2008 |

    Kirkland recruits trio in boost for restructuring

    Kirkland & Ellis has added to its City restructuring practice with the hire of two new partners and an associate from the London offices of Sidley Austin, Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft and DLA Piper respectively. Jason Salman has joined the firm as a partner from Cadwalader, where he was a special counsel, while Paul Atherton is set to join the firm as a partner in November from Sidley. Meanwhile, Mark Knight joins as an associate from DLA Piper.

    1 minute read

  • October 23, 2008 |

    Analysis: Banking on change

    "The leveraged finance market reality is that there is no new business. The banks will not lend."So says Clifford Chance's (CC's) James Johnson, a man who has built a good chunk of his career in leveraged finance, a market that, more than a year after the credit crunch first struck, is still in a state of dysfunction.Such comments also reflect the attempts by finance advisers to come to terms with a sector that, in the month since the collapse of Lehman Brothers, is facing its biggest shake-up for a generation.Lehman's collapse on 15 September triggered a global run on bank assets as investors feared for banks' solvency. In the weeks since, finance partners have witnessed escalating turmoil and repeated government attempts to head off the crisis. This process culminated last Monday (13 October) with the injection of £37bn of taxpayers' money into Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), Lloyds TSB and HBOS.

    1 minute read

  • October 17, 2008 |

    More staff laid off as Heller nears closure

    Today is the last day for most of the remaining Heller Ehrman staff, reports The Recorder. Affected employees were notified by an email from the dissolution committee on Thursday morning, similar to the email sent out last Friday when at least 100 employees were laid off. While it is unclear how many employees are being laid off today, employees in the firm estimate the number to be in the hundreds. The email said that staff would receive health insurance through the end of the month, but it is unclear whether insurance for current or former employees will continue beyond that point. "The firm is devoting intense effort to negotiate a continuation of benefits, and we will keep former employees informed by postings on the firm's internet site," the email promised. The homepage of Heller Ehrman's website has been wiped clean of all but one link to a list of placement opportunities for staff and lawyers.

    1 minute read

  • October 15, 2008 |

    Clifford Chance to lay off 20 US lawyers

    Clifford Chance (CC) is set to cut the jobs of 20 US associates, it has emerged.A statement obtained by Legal Week's US sister title The American Lawyer today (14 October) confirms that the magic circle firm is to lay off 20 associates in its US litigation and dispute resolution group stating that "sluggishness in litigation matters continues despite market volatility".

    1 minute read