Filter This View

  • March 15, 2010 |

    Davis Polk posts 10% profits hike as elite NY trio unveil 2009 financials

    Davis Polk & Wardwell has posted a 10% increase in profits per equity partner (PEP) for 2009, marking the firm out as one of the strongest performers among New York's elite law firms, reports The Am Law Daily. The firm also saw revenues rise by 7%, which represents the highest percentage growth reported so far among New York firms.

    1 minute read

  • March 10, 2010 |

    US briefing: Still paved with gold

    Nothing captured the spirit of the leveraged age for Wall Street law firms quite so much as the private equity 'club' deal. As the name suggests, the deals attracted quite the crowd: lawyers for the consortium of buyers, the underwriters who scrambled over themselves to fund the buyouts and the target company. To celebrate a closing, the lawyers even threw what passes in the corporate legal world as a party: speeches, champagne and the exchange of Lucite trophies.

    1 minute read

  • March 9, 2010 |

    Sullivan and Weil lead on $15.5bn AIG sell-off

    Sullivan & Cromwell and Weil Gotshal & Manges have taken key roles on AIG's $15.5bn (£10.4bn) sale of its life insurance unit to rival company MetLife, reports The Am Law Daily. Sullivan advised AIG on the sale of the American Life Insurance Company (Alico), in the latest in a series of sell-offs designed to help the company repay its massive debt to the US Government.

    1 minute read

  • February 23, 2010 |

    A&O takes lead role for Vietnam Government on $1bn bond offering

    Allen & Overy (A&O) has advised the Vietnamese Government on a $1bn (£648m) sovereign bond offering. The deal also handed a role to Wall Street's David Polk & Wardwell as lead international adviser to the underwriting banks.

    1 minute read

  • February 2, 2010 |

    CC and Davis Polk lead $12bn Brazilian ethanol JV

    Clifford Chance (CC) and Davis Polk & Wardwell have secured lead roles on Royal Dutch Shell's entry into Brazil's sugar-based ethanol market in a $12bn (£7.5bn) joint venture with the Brazilian biofuel giant Cosan, writes The AmLaw Daily.CC partner Anthony Oldfield led the team for Shell, according to sources familiar with the deal. CC has a long relationship with Shell; the firm has advised the company on several deals around the world. The London-based law firm also has had an office in Brazil for more than a decade.

    1 minute read

  • January 21, 2010 |

    No more baby steps

    Nothing was ordinary about the first civil trial stemming from Pfizer's controversial epilepsy treatment, Neurontin. Both sides loudly complained about witness intimidation. Colourful plaintiffs lawyer Mark Lanier opened to the jury one day, then settled the next after an anonymous donor deposited $50,000 (£31,000) into an account for the alleged victim's daughter. And at the defence table, high-powered product liability specialists from three separate firms worked as though they were partners - and all on a flat fee basis. "It was," says Pfizer general counsel Amy Schulman, "an extraordinary victory."

    1 minute read

  • 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