Filter This View

  • March 12, 2009 |

    UK firms to miss out as Korea green-lights liberalisation

    UK law firms will not benefit from moves to open up the Korean legal market to foreign law firms due to the lack of a trade agreement between the two countries. The Korean authorities last week (2 March) gave a green light to the first step in a three-stage process to open up the local legal market. The process will effectively allow foreign law firms to set up representative offices in the country, however, it only applies to those countries with an active free-trade agreement (FTA) with Korea.

    1 minute read

  • March 3, 2009 |

    Debevoise reports 7.2% revenue increase for 2008

    Debevoise & Plimpton has reported a 7.2% increase in revenues for 2008, however, profits per equity partner lagged behind, falling by nearly 3% over the year. The New York firm saw turnover increase to $760.8 (£537.25m), on the back of significant litigation and white-collar investigation work for clients including Siemens AG. However, PEP dropped to $2.23m (£1.57m), showing that the firm is not immune to the effects of the financial crisis.

    1 minute read

  • March 2, 2009 |

    Norton Rose and Links lead on £12.5bn HSBC rights issue

    Norton Rose and Linklaters have landed major roles on a record-breaking £12.5bn rights issue for HSBC.Norton Rose is advising key client HSBC, fielding a team under London corporate partner Martin Scott. Corporate partners Nick Adams and Chris Randall, employment partner David Cohen and tax specialist Dominic Stuttaford are also acting, while corporate partner Richard Crosby is leading a team in Hong Kong.Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton is advising on HSBC on US issues with London capital markets partner Ashar Qureshi leading the firm's team.

    1 minute read

  • March 2, 2009 |

    Davis Polk leads a raft of firms on $50bn Citi recap

    Government-backed recapitalization of Citigroup in the latest of a string of deals to refinance struggling banking giants.The complex deal agreed with the Treasury Department will increase the Government's stake in Citi to as much as 36%. The deal sees up to $27.5bn (£19bn) in preference shares converted into common stock, which the Government, which owns $45bn (£31.25bn) in Citi preference shares, will match up to $25bn (£17.3bn) of conversions.Davis Polk is advising Citi and negotiating with the private investors, a group that includes Capital Research Global Investors and Capital World Investors, the Government of Singapore Investment Corp (Singapore's sovereign wealth fund) and the Saudi prince Alwaleed bin Talal. The Kuwait Investment Authority also plans to participate in the exchange, according to several lawyers involved in the talks.The Davis Polk team consists of Randall Guynn, M&A partners Gar Bason, Louis Goldberg and Michael Davis and tax partners Avishai Shachar and Neil Barr.Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton advised Citi on drafting the various securities agreements, a complicated task considering there are all sorts of contingency agreements should Citi shareholders vote down the exchange plan.Simpson Thacher & Barlett is advising the Treasury.Investor's counsel include Hogan & Hartson for bin Talal, a loyal Hogan client since before the first Persian Gulf War, according to Hogan partner Bruce Gilchrist. The prince's holdings illustrate the complications of the deal. He holds both preferred and common shares, meaning the exchange he agreed to may end up diluting the value of common stock he already owns, lawyers say.Several sources say Gibson Dunn & Crutcher advised the Kuwaiti authority, but Steven Guynn, who advised the authority in its initial $3bn (£2.1bn) investment in Citi preferred stock last year, declined comment.Sidley Austin reprised its role advising Singapore's sovereign wealth fund. Sidley has been representing the fund in various investments for more than 15 years.The Capital Group relied on in-house counsel, says Andrew Felner, the deputy GC for Citi who handled much of the internal work on the exchange plan.Citi's shares dropped about 40% upon the deal's announcement, mostly over fears that the exchange will dilute the value of common shares. Citi, which lost about $28bn (£19.4bn) last year, also agreed to eliminate the dividend on preferred stock and re-jig its board of directors so that a majority of directors are new and independent.Cleary will also be handling Citi's disclosure work and filings with federal regulators. Partners David Lopez, Neil Whoriskey and Jeff Karpf are leading the firm's team.

    1 minute read

  • February 19, 2009 |

    Brick Court quartet among 104 to take silk

    Barristers at a number of leading chambers have received silk status in the latest round of QC appointments announced today (19 February). Brick Court Chambers saw four of its members - Alan Maclean, Fergus Randolph, Aidan Robertson and Mark Hoskins - receive the accolade, while One Essex Court's David Wolfson, Daniel Toledano and Alain Choo-Choy all claimed the elite kitemark.Fountain Court, Blackstone Chambers and Four Pump Court each saw two barristers gain QC status.However, top set Essex Court only saw one member - Christopher Smith - take silk, as did a number of other top sets including 3 Verulam Buildings, 11 Stone Buildings and 7 King's Bench Walk.

    1 minute read

  • February 19, 2009 |

    Nabarro strikes up LPC deal with Kaplan

    Nabarro has signed an exclusive agreement to send all of its trainees taking the Legal Practice Course (LPC) to Kaplan Law School from autumn 2009. The City firm is the third firm to sign up to Kaplan exclusively, after similar deals were struck up by Bird & Bird in October 2008 and Mayer Brown in November 2006.The education provider teaches Nottingham Law School's LPC, which was last year awarded top marks by the Law Society in all assessment categories.

    1 minute read

  • February 18, 2009 |

    QC 2009 – they'll be back

    You have to give the QC system credit - no matter how many times it's predicted to be on the way out, just like the Terminator, it keeps coming back for more. And the current round, announced today, appears to be winning more support at the Bar after the two earlier rounds of the relaunched QC kitemark were met with criticism for an unwieldy and expensive applications process. By general consent, the revised and slimmed-down version has been an improvement, even if the new version has come at a considerable cost – around £6,000 for successful applicants.

    1 minute read

  • February 12, 2009 |

    Profits dip at Sullivan, Skadden and Davis Polk

    Wall Street leaders Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom, Sullivan & Cromwell and Davis Polk & Wardwell have all posted falling profits for 2008, it has emerged, despite the trio avoiding year-on-year declines in revenues. The Am Law Daily reports that Skadden managed to remain the highest-grossing law firm in the US top 100 to date, eking out a 1.4% increase in gross revenue to reach a 2008 total of $2.2bn (£1.47bn). In a dreadful year for M&A, Skadden's corporate practice was relatively strong, particularly in representing takeover targets.Gross revenue at Sullivan and Davis Polk, both of which logged thousands of hours in hectic bailout-related work in the last quarter of 2008, was flat. Sullivan grossed $985m (£670m) and Davis Polk $789m (£537m) - both exactly matching their 2007 results.

    1 minute read

  • January 21, 2009 |

    Nice work... if you can get it

    These are bleak times for corporate lawyers. But there is one ray of light in this storm - sovereign wealth funds. These funds, which are loosely defined as investment vehicles owned by foreign governments, have generated many headlines over the past 18 months. Their high-profile transactions range from the buyout of luxury retailer Barneys New York to multibillion-dollar investments in Wall Street banks. In 2007 alone, sovereign entities spent $92bn (£61.3bn) in publicly recorded equity transactions, according to Monitor Group.But the real moment for sovereign wealth funds is now. These powerhouse investors globally control about $2.3trn (£1.5trn), a pocketbook that exceeds both the private equity and hedge fund industries. And they could quadruple in size by the middle of the next decade, even with the global slowdown and the recent decline in oil prices, according to Morgan Stanley chief currency economist Stephen Jen. Funds in the Gulf region account for more than half of those sums.

    1 minute read

  • January 21, 2009 |

    Pinsents signs up to College of Law LPC deal

    Pinsent Masons has become the latest firm to sign an exclusive agreement to send all of its trainees to the College of Law. The five-year agreement, which starts in September this year, will see the firm send 60 of its trainees to take the LPC each year at the College's four campuses in London, Manchester, York and Manchester.Pinsent Masons training principal Catherine Workman commented: "One of the key benefits of the firm moving to a single LPC provider is that, in addition to a greater level of consistency, there will be a bespoke element to the course."

    1 minute read