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  • September 21, 2011 |

    McDermott adds Paris partner amid busy local lateral market

    McDermott Will & Emery has strengthened its fledgling Paris office with a hire from local firm Jeantet Associes, with the hire marking the latest in a string of partner moves in the city in recent weeks. Jonathan Wohl joined McDermott as a partner in its Paris corporate practice last month from Jeantet, where he was a senior counsel specialising in cross-border M&A. Wohl joined Jeantet as a partner in 2006 after 27 years with now-defunct firm Coudert Brothers. When he moved to Jeantet in January that year he became the final partner from Coudert's flagship Paris office to find a new home in the wake of the firm announcing plans to wind up in the summer of 2005.

    1 minute read

  • September 21, 2011 |

    Weil Gotshal invited to tender for RBS panel after first-ever mandate

    Weil Gotshal & Manges is set to be invited to tender for the Royal Bank of Scotland's (RBS') legal panel next year after completing its first-ever mandate for the bank. The US law firm's London office advised the bank on the $300m (£191m) sale of its shares in luggage manufacturer Samsonite, which floated in Hong Kong in June. Weil Gotshal fielded a team led by London corporate partner Mark Soundy on the transaction, which marks the US firm's first piece of work for the bank.

    1 minute read

  • September 20, 2011 |

    Orrick London restructuring team leaves to join US rival Dewey

    Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe is set to lose its London restructuring team to US rival Dewey & LeBoeuf. The two-partner team is led by Orrick's European co-head of restructuring and insolvency, Mark Fennessy, who is joining Dewey's seven-partner London business solutions and governance practice alongside fellow restructuring partner Hazel Miller.

    1 minute read

  • 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