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  • November 19, 2008 |

    Many balls in the air

    At 7:30am on 12 September, Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton managing partner Mark Walker got a call from Barclays Bank. The bank - a sometime client of the firm - was pursuing the purchase of Lehman Brothers, and wanted Cleary on the deal.At that point, Walker was already up to the eyeballs in the Lehman meltdown, so he was conflicted out. Also, he says, the Barclays deal was not exactly in his area of expertise. Still, Walker wanted Cleary to get the work, and he had to act fast in order to find lawyers to do the work - conflict-free lawyers.

    1 minute read

  • November 19, 2008 |

    Something to bank on

    The transformation of Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley into bank holding companies may be the end of one era, but it is the start of another. And one group of lawyers is thrilled about the change: banking regulatory specialists.That's because Goldman and Morgan now face scrutiny from the Federal Reserve and the Federal Deposit -Insurance Corporation. Also, they will have to adopt risk-management policies which limit how much debt they can take on.

    1 minute read

  • November 19, 2008 |

    A&O makes OFT senior director hire

    Allen & Overy (A&O) is boosting its competition practice with the hire of a senior director from the Office of Fair Trading (OFT).Simon Pritchard is set to join the magic circle firm in the New Year as a partner from the OFT, where he is currently senior director of mergers.Pritchard's experience covers UK antitrust matters as well as UK involvement in European merger control.He most recently advised on the £357m acquisition of GCap Media by Global Radio and InBev's $47bn (23.6bn) bid for US drinks giant Anheuser-Busch.

    1 minute read

  • November 10, 2008 |

    Cleary makes up eight to partnership

    Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton has elected eight new partners and two counsel in its latest round of promotions, with the London office missing out for the second year running. The promotions will take effect from 1 January, 2009, with the bulk coming in the firm's New York office where six new partners and a counsel have been made up.While London is missing out, the New York leader is boosting its partnership in continental Europe. The firm's Rome arm will pick up one new partner and a counsel while the Brussels office will gain one new partner to round off the promotions.

    1 minute read

  • October 31, 2008 |

    It's bonus time

    Since bonuses were introduced by law firms in the late 1990s as a way to limit the long-term effects of salary inflation, amounts paid out - and the hoops that lawyers have to jump through in order to get their hands on the cash - have varied wildly between firms. Some firms give tens of thousands of pounds to lawyers regardless of individual performance, while others require Olympian levels of all-round commitment in return for sums that could probably be more easily obtained through a few after hours' shifts at the local pub.We take a look behind the main bonus systems operating at the major City and regional firms and assess what the future of bonuses in the legal world is likely to be.

    1 minute read

  • October 29, 2008 |

    Cleary and Slaughters pair up to advise Glaxo on $210m Egyptian acquisitions

    Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton and Slaughter and May have teamed up to advise GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) on its $210m (£128m) acquisition of some of Bristol Myers Squibb's (BMS's) Egyptian assets. The pair worked opposite DLA Piper on the deal, which sees GSK buying BMS's Egyptian mature products business

    1 minute read

  • October 23, 2008 |

    A global model (except Italy)

    Forget France’s much-touted cultural exceptionalism, in Europe the country that truly ignores the established rules of international legal practice…

    1 minute read

  • October 22, 2008 | International Edition

    Macfarlanes advises PE bidder circling beleagured Baugur as asset sale looms

    Macfarlanes is among a group of firms in line to benefit as potential bidders emerge for the assets of troubled Icelandic investor Baugur. The firm is advising regular private equity client Alchemy Partners, which is understood to have held talks with Mosaic Fashions, one of Baugur's major British investments. Corporate partners Ian Martin and Simon Perry are leading the Macfarlanes' team advising Alchemy. Mosaic - the company behind High Street names including Oasis, Coast and Karen Millen - has turned to Manchester-based Heatons for advice on any potential bid.

    1 minute read

  • October 22, 2008 |

    Macfarlanes advises PE bidder circling beleagured Baugur as asset sale looms

    Macfarlanes is among a group of firms in line to benefit as potential bidders emerge for the assets of troubled Icelandic investor Baugur. The firm is advising regular private equity client Alchemy Partners, which is understood to have held talks with Mosaic Fashions, one of Baugur's major British investments. Corporate partners Ian Martin and Simon Perry are leading the Macfarlanes' team advising Alchemy. Mosaic - the company behind High Street names including Oasis, Coast and Karen Millen - has turned to Manchester-based Heatons for advice on any potential bid.

    1 minute read

  • October 20, 2008 |

    Simpson Thacher set for $300k Treasury payout

    The Treasury Department has released its contract with Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, reports The American Lawyer. The firm will make $300,000 (£174,000) over the next six months for its work as the Treasury's lead adviser on the US Government's banking bailout. As The Am Law Daily has previously reported, the Treasury reached out to six law firms, requesting proposals for the work. Four declined: Davis Polk & Wardwell, Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz, Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, and a mystery firm.

    1 minute read