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  • September 14, 2011 |

    After the impact - how 9/11 is still affecting the legal market

    Just days after the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001, then Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor kept a longstanding commitment to help dedicate a new building at New York University (NYU) School of Law. She visited Ground Zero first and told her NYU audience: "I am still tearful from that glimpse." O'Connor went on to predict: "The trauma that our nation suffered will and already has altered our way of life, and it will cause us to re-examine some of our laws pertaining to criminal surveillance, wiretapping, immigration and so on… As a result, we are likely to experience more restrictions on our personal freedom than has ever been the case in our country."

    1 minute read

  • September 12, 2011 |

    Norton Rose Paris corporate chief takes team to Jones Day

    Jones Day has hired a four-lawyer team from Norton Rose in Paris including the head of the UK firm's French corporate practice. Herve Castelnau joined the Paris office of Jones Day on 1 September along with three associates, two of whom - Silvain Fock-Yee and Thibaut Kazemi - have been promoted to counsel in the move.

    1 minute read

  • September 9, 2011 |

    Anti-terrorism powers for a rainy day - the effects of 9/11 on the law, ten years on

    This weeked will mark the 10th anniversary of the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks. Despite the intervening decade, the states threatened by terrorism are still puzzling out the right balance between the powers of security services and the rights of suspected terrorists to due process. Although terrorism is now mercifully low on the public agenda, the effects of 9/11 are still being felt across the legal system. The UK is soon to open an independent inquiry into the improper treatment of detainees by security services following the terrorist attacks. As things stand, the UK's major human rights groups are boycotting the inquiry for fear that the Government will be able to suppress evidence.

    1 minute read

  • September 7, 2011 |

    The merger master - how James Retallack's merger experience served him well on the board of takeover target

    Aggregate Industries' (AI's) former legal and compliance director James Retallack knows a thing or two about mergers. In the glare of the public eye he guided Birmingham and London law firm Edge Ellison through the rocky aftermath of dramatically collapsed merger talks with then Pinsent Curtis (now Pinsent Masons) in 1997 and, after an oft-challenging three years, into a union with legacy Hammond Suddards. Only four years later, at major heavy building materials company AI, he was part of the board guiding the FTSE 250 company through a £1.8bn merger with Swiss-founded aggregate and cement giant Holcim.

    1 minute read

  • September 6, 2011 |

    Team of SJ Berwin funds associates follow partner duo to Proskauer

    SJ Berwin is set to lose a team of funds lawyers in addition to the two partners exiting to join Proskauer Rose. The resignation of the team of associates, who are moving to the US firm alongside departing partners Nigel van Zyl and Oliver Rochman, will be seen as a further blow to the top 20 UK firm, which is especially well-known for its heavyweight funds practice.

    1 minute read

  • September 6, 2011 |

    Weil boosts London restructuring team with Jones Day partner hire

    Weil Gotshal & Manges has added a partner to its London restructuring team with a lateral hire from Jones Day. Paul Bromfield is set to join Weil later this month, with the move reuniting him with Jones Day's former restructuring head Adam Plainer, who joined Weil in January this year.

    1 minute read

  • August 31, 2011 |

    Rising from the rubble - the Arab Spring becomes a summer

    The Arab Spring has become a summer. More than six months since a solitary act of protest in Tunisia became the catalyst for widespread political unrest that swept throughout much of the Arab world, the swelling tide of uprisings in the Middle East continues. As the Muslim month of fasting comes to an end, the region is radically different to how it was one year ago. A violent transformation has taken place: dictators have fallen, dynamics have shifted and the institutional setup of the region has been radically altered. Most pressingly for the legal sector, markets in places such as Bahrain, Egypt and Libya have been hit hard.

    1 minute read

  • August 15, 2011 |

    Jones Day, Norton Rose, A&O lead raft of firms on €3.3bn French PPP deal

    Jones Day, Norton Rose and Allen & Overy (A&O) are among a raft of firms winning advisory roles on one of the first ever French public-private-partnership (PPP) rail infrastructure projects, valued at €3.3bn (£2.9bn).

    1 minute read

  • August 3, 2011 |

    After false starts, Proskauer still looks a promising City player

    While the world and his wife seem to be reviewing their transatlantic merger options, Proskauer Rose's recent spate of London hires marks something of a U-turn after years of casting around for a sizeable City union. Last week's announcement that Nigel van Zyl and Oliver Rochman from SJ Berwin and Kate Simpson from US rival Kirkland & Ellis were set to join the top 50 US law firm came after the arrival in the spring of high-profile corporate duo Russell Carmedy and Michael Nouril from Jones Day.

    1 minute read

  • July 29, 2011 |

    A&O, Jones Day and Irish duo advise as investors plough $1.6bn into Bank of Ireland

    Allen & Overy (A&O), Jones Day and two Irish firms are advising as Bank of Ireland receives $1.6bn (£983m) of investment from a consortium that will own 34.9% of one of the country's leading banks, reports The Am Law Daily. The investment group is led by turnaround group WL Ross and Fairfax Financial of Canada, which will each own a 9% stake in Bank of Ireland following the investment. The consortium also includes US real estate firm Kennedy-Wilson Holdings, Fidelity Investments, and the Capital Group of Companies, a mutual fund firm that will take a 6% stake in the bank.

    1 minute read