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  • December 15, 2009 |

    Skadden and Davis Polk lead on Exxon's $31bn natural gas buyout

    Davis Polk & Wardwell and Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom have won lead roles on the biggest energy deal since 2006 - Exxon Mobil's acquisition of natural gas company XTO Energy for $31bn (£19bn). Davis Polk, which represented Exxon on its $80bn (£49bn) purchase of Mobil in 1999, reprised its role as lead M&A counsel, with a team led by M&A head George Bason, alongside corporate partners Louis Goldberg and Arthur Golden, tax partner Avishai Shachar, benefits partner Edmond FitzGerald and environmental partner Gail Flesher.

    1 minute read

  • December 1, 2009 |

    Weil Gotshal makes up just three to partnership as London misses out

    Weil Gotshal & Manges has announced a depleted partner promotions round, with just three lawyers set to join the partnership on 1 January 2010. No London-based lawyers will join the firm's partnership in this year's round, with the total of three promotions representing less than half of last year's tally, when seven were made up worldwide, including one in the City.

    1 minute read

  • November 9, 2009 |

    Ashurst identifies six key US referral firms in renewed Stateside push

    Ashurst has drawn up a list of US firms to use as preferred referral partners in a bid to deliver a more structured approach in the region. The firm has identified Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, Davis Polk & Wardwell, Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison, Ropes & Gray, Schulte Roth & Zabel and Quinn Emanuel Urquhart Oliver & Hedges as its main referral firms, although the relationships are understood not to be exclusive.

    1 minute read

  • October 27, 2009 |

    Freshfields heads up firms on ING restructuring and €7.5bn rights issue

    Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Sullivan & Cromwell and Stibbe have all landed roles on ING's restructuring, which includes a €7.5bn (£6.8bn) rights issue. Sullivan and Stibbe have been instructed to advise on the bank's rights issue, which was launched yesterday (26 October) as part of a wider restructuring that will see the Dutch banking giant split into two.

    1 minute read

  • October 21, 2009 |

    JPMorgan finalises panel review with rates frozen at 2008 levels

    JPMorgan has completed a review of its preferred legal advisers as Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) nears the end of its review process. The US investment bank, which launched a review of its preferred law firms earlier this summer, contacted its closest advisers over the last few weeks to confirm that they will secure work for the next year, as long as they agree to various conditions. The conditions are believed to include a freeze on rates at 2008 levels - already reduced by 5% on the previous year.

    1 minute read

  • October 7, 2009 |

    Links and Freshfields dominate Euro M&A but activity hits six-year low

    Linklaters and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer have dominated the battered European M&A markets over the first three quarters of 2009. Research from Mergermarket exclusively provided to Legal Week shows Freshfields topping the European rankings by value after working on 105 deals worth $127.9bn (£80bn). Linklaters tops the volume rankings and comes second by value, with roles on 116 deals worth $111.4bn (£70bn) in Europe.

    1 minute read

  • October 1, 2009 |

    Stars at the Bar

    Without the well-honed PR teams of many a law firm and legally unable to promote themselves, barristers rely to a great extent on the recommendations of peers and instructing solicitors for reputation and referral. Unlike the majority of their solicitor counterparts, many commercial barristers will turn their hand to several sectors of the law. And not only do they need to be team players, working closely with law firm partners, they also need to be savvy with strong client skills.

    1 minute read

  • September 30, 2009 |

    Quartet of firms lead on second-largest IPO of the year so far

    Four international firms have landed roles on Metallurgical Corporation of China's (MCC's) initial public offering (IPO) - the second-largest listing of the year so far. The $5.2bn (£3.2bn) raised from the sale of shares on the Shanghai and Hong Kong exchanges makes MCC the second-largest IPO this year after the $7.4bn (£4.6bn) raised by China State Construction Engineering Corporation in July.

    1 minute read

  • September 23, 2009 |

    Herbert Smith advises Yell on £500m fundraising

    Herbert Smith has landed a role advising longstanding client Yell Group as it prepares to raise £500m from shareholders. London corporate partner Ben Ward is advising the company, which announced today (23 September) that it hopes to sell new shares to raise the funds and lower its debt. It has not yet specified how it intends to raise the £500m.

    1 minute read

  • September 18, 2009 |

    Slaughters and Freshfields take roles on major Hong Kong IPOs

    Slaughter and May and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer are among a number of international law firms to have picked up mandates on two major Hong Kong Stock Exchange listings which closed this week. China's largest pharmaceutical company, Sinopharm, raised HK$8.73bn (£688m), while Metallurgical Corp raised HK$18.2bn (£1.4bn) from the listings, which together dwarfed the initial public offering (IPO) activity to have taken place on the Hong Kong exchange so far this year.

    1 minute read