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  • October 15, 2008 | International Edition

    Magic circle firms take lead on £37bn bailout for trio of banks

    Allen & Overy (A&O), Slaughter and May and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer are among the top City firms winning roles on the UK Government's £37bn bailout of three of the country's biggest banks. Freshfields has reprised its role for longstanding client the Bank of England on the rescue plan, fielding a team under corporate partner Michael Raffan. Slaughters is acting for the Treasury on the agreement, which will lead to the Government owning a majority stake in Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and a stake of 43% in the merged HBOS and Lloyds TSB.

    1 minute read

  • October 15, 2008 |

    Magic circle firms take lead on £37bn bailout for trio of banks

    Allen & Overy (A&O), Slaughter and May and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer are among the top City firms winning roles on the UK Government's £37bn bailout of three of the country's biggest banks. Freshfields has reprised its role for longstanding client the Bank of England on the rescue plan, fielding a team under corporate partner Michael Raffan. Slaughters is acting for the Treasury on the agreement, which will lead to the Government owning a majority stake in Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and a stake of 43% in the merged HBOS and Lloyds TSB.

    1 minute read

  • October 15, 2008 |

    Global 100: Oil in the blood

    In previous careers, Vinson & Elkins (V&E) lawyers were roustabouts and roughnecks - petroleum engineers, land men and oil tanker dispatchers. They anchored pipelines to the Persian Gulf bed and the Atlantic Ocean floor, to the Alaskan tundra and the West Texas plains. Their families were entrenched in this world, too. Litigator Paula Hinton toured a wellhead factory on her first date with the man who became her husband. Regulatory expert Kathleen Lake grew up napping in her family's Oldsmobile station wagon while her father and grandfather, geologists, checked hydrocarbon cores in the dust of South Texas. Carbon trading guru Larry Nettles has six close family members now or formerly in the energy business. "This is the type of 'in the blood' relationship that simply does not exist in New York or London," he says. 'Oil in the blood' is a metaphor that pops up a lot in Houston, especially at the two leading deal firms, V&E and Baker Botts. But some in London are sceptical, including the general counsel of BP, who controls as many billable hours as any oil man on the planet. "Those [law firms] that say they have oil in their veins need to be clear about the distinctive contribution they can make on a particular matter, separate from in-house counsel or other outside firms," says BP general counsel Rupert Bondy.

    1 minute read

  • October 15, 2008 |

    Sam Szlezinger: A government that likes to say yes

    The proposed merger of Lloyds TSB and HBOS has put the UK's merger control enforcement regime firmly in the spotlight, with the Government's willingness to put competition law on hold grabbing many of the headlines. But when the Government says it will not allow competition rules to stand in the way of the transaction, it does not mean it will be immune to regulatory scrutiny. The new secretary of state for business enterprise and regulatory reform, Peter Mandelson, may yet face a delicate balancing act when it comes to justifying his final decision. UK merger control is governed by the Enterprise Act 2002, which introduced several major changes to the previous legislative regime. Chief among them was the conferring of decision-making power previously exercised by the Secretary of State onto independent competition authorities, the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) and the Competition Commission.

    1 minute read

  • October 9, 2008 | International Edition

    UK trio lead on Icelandic bank administrations

    Denton Wilde Sapte, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Slaughter and May are among the advisers lining up to act on the administration of the UK arms of Icelandic banks Kaupthing and Landsbanki. Freshfields is thought to have taken the lead role for the administrators Ernst & Young on the collapse of Heritable Bank - the Scottish subsidiary of Iceland's Landsbanki - under a team led by head of restructuring and insolvency Ken Baird, restructuring and insolvency partner Nick Segal, dispute resolution partner Neil Golding and restructuring and insolvency counsel Anne Sharp.

    1 minute read

  • October 9, 2008 |

    UK trio lead on Icelandic bank administrations

    Denton Wilde Sapte, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Slaughter and May are among the advisers lining up to act on the administration of the UK arms of Icelandic banks Kaupthing and Landsbanki. Freshfields is thought to have taken the lead role for the administrators Ernst & Young on the collapse of Heritable Bank - the Scottish subsidiary of Iceland's Landsbanki - under a team led by head of restructuring and insolvency Ken Baird, restructuring and insolvency partner Nick Segal, dispute resolution partner Neil Golding and restructuring and insolvency counsel Anne Sharp.

    1 minute read

  • October 8, 2008 |

    Offshore: Going offshore

    Globetrotting Daniel Mackelden, now a partner at Isle of Man law firm Cains, laughs when he thinks of advertisements aimed at luring lawyers to offshore jurisdictions, especially in the Caribbean. The typical ones involve references to the exotic and tropical, with maybe a showy sunset on display. Palm trees tend to feature heavily."I do remember that in my office in the British Virgin Islands you could see a palm tree out of the corner of the window," recalls Mackelden, 38. "But you are not sitting under it. You are sitting in front of a computer. I suppose, when you left the office for the day you could have gone and sat under it."Mackelden knows only too well the differences between perception and reality when viewing the offshore world, having moved from Linklaters offshore to Walkers in 2002, where he worked in the British Virgin Islands (BVI), before joining Cains. Offshore locations are seen as places where play trumps work, but it is usually the opposite, he says.

    1 minute read

  • October 1, 2008 |

    Burges Salmon joins City trio on board £1.5bn Angel Trains development deal

    Burges Salmon has joined a trio of City firms advising on the £1.5bn agreement between Angel Trains and French train manufacturer Alstom for new trains for the West coast mainline track.Allen & Overy (A&O), Norton Rose and Denton Wilde Sapte as well as Burges Salmon all played integral roles on the deal, which will see Angel Trains purchase four new trains and lengthen 52 existing Pendolino trains for £1.5bn, which includes a 10-year maintenance package.

    1 minute read

  • October 1, 2008 |

    Every man for himself

    The Diary recently stumbled upon an intriguing insight into the cutthroat world of insolvency and fraud litigation.An eye-catching profile of Denton Wilde Sapte partner Neil Griffiths on the firm's website includes his own personal take on the oft-ignored practice area."Fraud work is fun," says the chipper-looking Griffiths, who says that it keeps him on his toes at all times and allows him to take on a Sherlock Holmes-esque detective persona.However, Griffiths' definition of fun is perhaps undermined by the revelation that sometimes even solicitors go down with their dishonest clients.In Griffiths' own words: "By the end of one recent case, the defendant and his solicitor were in jail and three other opposing solicitors had been struck off!" Nice to see the spirit of fraternity is still alive and well among the legal profession.

    1 minute read

  • September 25, 2008 |

    Orrick adds to City partner count with Dentons recruit

    The London arm of Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe has boosted its project finance team with the hire of a partner from Denton Wilde Sapte.Elisabeth Gaunt's hire takes Orrick's London projects group to five partners, and the office to 20 partners in total. Gaunt, who joined Dentons in 1992 as a partner, has a practice focusing on the telecoms and energy sector. She has acted for clients including Nokia, Millicom International Cellular, Citi and ABN Amro in the past.Gaunt told Legal Week: "The move represents a fresh challenge for me - the global platform that the firm offers is one of the major draws for coming here."Martin Bartlam, head of Orrick's London office, said: "We are very pleased that [Gaunt] is joining us as her capability is a significant boost to the London office."The hire is Orrick's third partner-level appointment so far this year in the City. In May, Mark Fennessey joined from the London office of US rival Hunton & Williams and in February corporate veteran Hilary Winter came from Jones Day. The firm has also been actively expanding in Europe, opening in Germany through a merger with national independent Hoelters & Elsing

    1 minute read