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  • January 8, 2014 |

    Latham makes fifth London hire in a year with Weil PE partner Benson

    Latham & Watkins has made another foray into the UK private equity market with the recruitment of Weil Gotshal & Manges partner Nick Benson.

    1 minute read

  • January 1, 2014 |

    Cleary partner joins HK regulator as corporate finance director

    Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton partner Megan Tang has left the firm to join Hong Kong's market watchdog the Securities & Futures Commission (SFC) as director of the corporate finance division. Tang, who joined Cleary's Hong Kong office as a partner in 2008, will begin her new role at the SFC in February this year.

    1 minute read

  • December 19, 2013 |

    Barclays to revamp legal panel structure as review commences

    Barclays' long-awaited review of its global legal panel has started, with the bank set to split its roster of law firms into separate pools of 'preferred' and 'approved' advisers.

    1 minute read

  • December 19, 2013 |

    Shearman adds two to City partnership in global promotions round

    Shearman & Sterling has elected seven of its lawyers to partner, including two in London, marking an increase on last year when five lawyers were made up, with none in the City. The promotions, which are effective from 1 January 2014, include David Dixter (capital markets) and James Webber (antitrust) in London. Dixter advises public and private sector companies and investment banks on equity and debt capital markets. Webber has acted as lead advisor on European Union Merger Regulation and Office of Fair Trading merger approvals, as well as coordination of multi-jurisdictional merger filings, cartel damages actions, and counseling with respect to UK market investigations and studies.

    1 minute read

  • December 12, 2013 |

    Ropes & Gray hires Weil Gotshal tax partner Brenda Coleman

    Ropes & Gray has hired Weil Gotshal & Manges highly-ranked tax partner Brenda Coleman in London. Coleman, who moved to Weil from Allen & Overy (A&O) in 2009, advises on all areas of corporate tax, including private equity, restructuring, funds and finance matters. At Weil she worked on a part-time basis however at Ropes, she will return to full-time practice.

    1 minute read

  • December 12, 2013 |

    British Legal Awards 2013: who won what - and why...

    A run-down of all the winners at this year's British Legal Awards, including full details of the judging panel's reasoning for each award.

    1 minute read

  • November 28, 2013 |

    NQ intake at London offices of top US firms dips by 6%

    The intake of newly qualified lawyers (NQs) at the largest US and international firms in the UK fell by 6% in the last year, highlighting the continued uncertainty for lawyers at the junior end of the profession. Just a handful of firms in the group of 21 surveyed by Legal Week posted year-on-year increases in the number of NQs who were offered and accepted a training contract. These included Mayer Brown, Shearman & Sterling, McDermott Will & Emery and Sidley Austin. Sidley Austin, alongside Paul Hastings and Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom were the only firms to retain 100% of their intake. The research also highlighted the sizeable impact US and international firms have had on the graduate recruitment market, with Reed Smith, Dentons and Baker & McKenzie each taking on at least 25 NQs in 2013.

    1 minute read

  • November 28, 2013 |

    Return of the independent – how independent law firms are outperforming global rivals in Germany

    It is 23 years since international firms were first allowed to practise local law in Germany. Glance down the list of today's top 20 German firms (by number of lawyers and by revenue) and 75% of them are familiar magic circle names and Wall Street powerhouses, supplemented by a range of UK and US firms with global ambitions. It goes deeper: of the top 50 firms, barely a third are independent. But something interesting has been happening in Germany – from Frankfurt to Stuttgart, the independents are fighting back. Recent data shows that independent firms' annual revenues have increased by 6%-7%, the best figures among independents in all European jurisdictions, while their international counterparts have flatlined. Andreas Urban, managing partner at mid-size independent Heuking Kuhn, says: "There is stagnation among the top law firms – if you look at the top 10, many of them have relatively low growth rates, very flat. A lot of firms below that are developing higher growth rates. There is a shift by clients going to these firms."

    1 minute read

  • November 21, 2013 |

    A continent on the rise – why top law firms are eager to tap into the African market

    Andrew Jones of Linklaters is doing it. Kem Ihenacho of Clifford Chance (CC) is doing it. Philip Stopford and Stuart Matty of White & Case, Dentons' Paul Bugingo, Covington & Burling's Witney Schneidman – turns out they're all at it too. Regularly. What is it they're up to? The answer is short: travelling to Africa. They are among an expanding cadre of senior lawyers and advisers from leading global law firms who have been told to seek out opportunities and develop their practices on the vast continent.

    1 minute read

  • November 21, 2013 |

    Elite firms line up on $11bn stock exchange M&A deal

    A clutch of firms including Shearman & Sterling, Sullivan & Cromwell, Slaughter and May and Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz have advised on IntercontinentalExchange's $11bn (£7bn) acquisition of NYSE Euronext.

    1 minute read