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  • July 8, 2009 |

    Deals hit a low but M&A lawyers wary of predicting turning point

    Freshfields and Links top UK and Euro tables, but overall figures fell

    1 minute read

  • July 2, 2009 |

    Success stories

    With their weakness for long-winded sentences, concern with preserving reputation and grinding 24/7 workloads, lawyers aren't the sort of people you'd immediately associate with creative writing. But the link between law and literature has always been strong. And where Charles Dickens, Henry Cecil Leon and John Mortimer once walked, now come the next generation of lawyer-novelists.

    1 minute read

  • June 18, 2009 |

    US leaders secure roles as high yield launches return to Europe

    The London offices of White & Case and Latham & Watkins have advised on two high-yield deals worth nearly £400m for European video, voice and broadband internet services provider UPC.

    1 minute read

  • June 4, 2009 |

    Stretched too far

    The suicide of Kilpatrick Stockton's Mark Levy in April was a tragedy. Susan Beck tries to make sense of the pressures faced by individuals in the legal profession

    1 minute read

  • May 29, 2009 |

    Cravath takes top role on AOL-Time Warner split

    Cravath Swaine & Moore has taken the lead role on Time Warner's split from AOL, signalling the end of a $124bn (£77bn) tie-up that in 2000 was the biggest deal ever

    1 minute read

  • May 28, 2009 |

    Asian leaders embrace lockstep as firms aim to handle growing pains

    In US legal circles, lockstep compensation is most frequently described as a relic of the profession's past. Although a handful of elite firms continue to embrace it, most others long ago discarded lockstep and its seniority-based pay scale in favour of performance-based compensation schemes for partners. Many large US law firms are now looking at abolishing lockstep for associates too.

    1 minute read

  • May 19, 2009 |

    Lehman-Barclays: the deal that won't die

    In the frenzied week after Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy on 15 September last year, lawyers for Lehman (a group that included bankruptcy counsel at Weil Gotshal & Manges, Lehman's longtime outside counsel at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett and a team from Sullivan & Cromwell) worked around the clock with lawyers representing Barclays to arrange the sale of Lehman's prized US assets.

    1 minute read

  • May 13, 2009 |

    The Am Law 100: By the numbers

    Want an example of just how much the world changed in 2008? Look no further than The Am Law 100's top revenue per lawyer (RPL) gainers and decliners. Cravath Swaine & Moore was the year's biggest loser, posting an 18.2% drop in RPL, to $1.2m (£810,000). A year earlier, Cravath posted a 9.2% gain. By contrast, 2008's biggest RPL increase, 15.2%, was seen at Howrey; in 2007 that firm's RPL slid 8.5%.

    1 minute read

  • May 13, 2009 |

    The Am Law 100: Losing their balance

    What has the world come to when Cravath Swaine & Moore has a terrible year? The firm that has served for decades as the touchstone for prestige in the profession last year suffered a 13% drop in revenue and a 24% plunge in profits per equity partner (PEP), and has asked incoming first-year associates to delay their start dates.

    1 minute read

  • May 7, 2009 |

    CC partner quartet quit to form New York boutique

    A four-partner litigation team from Clifford Chance's (CC) New York office has left the firm to set up an arbitration boutique. Disputes partners Peter Chaffetz, David Lindsey, Charlie Scibetta and James Hosking have left the magic circle firm to launch Chaffetz Lindsey - which officially opened earlier this week (5 May).The new firm, which also includes former CC counsel Cecilia Moss, will focus on arbitration, reinsurance and litigation work.

    1 minute read