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  • March 25, 2009 |

    Escape from Gitmo

    Guantanamo Bay was where George W Bush went to avoid law, both international and domestic. President Bush detained terror suspects on murky authority in the US military enclave at Cuba's tip, and that is where he would have tried them had the US Supreme Court let him proceed.

    1 minute read

  • March 25, 2009 |

    US litigation newcomer set for Lords debut

    Quinn Emanuel Urquhart Oliver & Hedges is set to appear before the House of Lords, less than a year after the US firm's launch in the City. The US litigation leader is due to appear in the House of Lords for two days at the beginning of July representing a group of investment funds seeking to retrieve money following the collapse of the $27bn (£17.9bn) structured investment vehicle Sigma Finance.Quinn Emanuel partner Sue Prevezer QC, who joined the firm last May from Bingham McCutchen, is leading the case. She was previously a barrister with top commercial set Essex Court Chambers before spending a year with Bingham.

    1 minute read

  • March 20, 2009 |

    Mayer Brown to cut 55 City jobs and freeze pay

    Mayer Brown has revealed that is set to restructure its London office, a move which could see the loss of 55 jobs.The firm is expecting to lose up to 23 associates and 32 support staff, including secretaries, as a result of the restructuring, which is likely to hit transactional areas such as corporate and real estate the hardest.On top of the cuts, the firm is also instituting a firmwide pay freeze for staff and associates and is asking for trainees due to start at the firm in September 2010 to volunteer to defer.

    1 minute read

  • March 19, 2009 |

    Profits tanking in 09? Take comfort from Neutron Jack

    A sliver of consolation for law firms concerned with spinning awful partner profit numbers for 2008-09 came last week from celebrated ex-GE head Jack Welch, who criticised the cult that has grown up around shareholder value. In essence, Welch (pictured), regarded by many as the founder of the shareholder value movement in the 1980s, criticised companies' short-term focus on quarterly profitability at the expense of long-term goals. Interviewed in the FT, Welch said: "On the face of it, shareholder value is the dumbest idea in the world. Shareholder value is a result, not a strategy."

    1 minute read

  • March 19, 2009 |

    Mayer Brown escapes Refco shareholder claim

    Mayer Brown has moved a step closer towards putting the Refco scandal behind it after a New York judge this week dismissed a securities litigation claim against the law firm and ex-partner Joseph Collins. In a judgment that will be seen as limiting wider liability against professional advisers, Manhattan federal district Judge Gerard Lynch on Tuesday (17 March) offered a broad interpretation of the protection afforded law firms by the Supreme Court's ruling in Stoneridge.He concluded that even if Mayer Brown and Collins engaged in fraudulent activity as advisers to Refco, they were not liable to shareholders unless they made misstatements directly to them. The firm was represented by John Villa of Williams & Connolly, while Collins was represented by William Schwartz of Cooley Godward Kronish.

    1 minute read

  • March 13, 2009 |

    Mayer Brown lands £17.9m payout from landlords

    Mayer Brown has received a cash contribution of up to £17.9m from landlords British Land as part of an agreement over its new Bishopsgate building. The firm's limited liability partnership (LLP) accounts for the 2007-08 year show the firm received a developers' contribution of £17.9m to fund the firm's fit-out of its new offices at 201 Bishopsgate.The contribution was part of a 'shell and core' agreement - typically drawn up by landlords - to form an incentive for Mayer Brown to take up the new office space. Under the terms of the agreement, British Land will also acquire the firm's old Pilgrim Street office space.

    1 minute read

  • March 11, 2009 |

    Clare Canning: Yet another litigation review cannot paper over the cracks

    So, yet another review of the civil litigation system. This time it is into costs and it is going to be 'fundamental'. On the face of it, Lord Justice Jackson's brief is wide-ranging. He is to look at all civil litigation from fast track to mega-case, taking into account views on case management, conditional fee arrangements, third-party funding, cost regimes in other jurisdictions, costs shifting rules and more. The review, we are told, is the judiciary's response to the failure of the Woolf reforms to control the cost of civil justice. Do we, or should we, have any realistic hope that by 31 December 2009 Jackson and his colleagues will have happened upon the key to low-cost proportionate civil justice for all?

    1 minute read

  • March 9, 2009 |

    Mayer Brown chair to step down in firm revamp

    Mayer Brown chairman James Holzhauer is to step down before the end of the year, as the firm kicks off an overhaul of its management structure.In an email sent to his fellow partners on Friday (6 March), Holzhauer stated that he would remain as chairman through a transition period, but he would step aside once a successor was chosen or ready to take over.Mayer Brown's leadership structure last changed in June 2007 after the retirement of longtime chairman Tyrone Fahner, when Holzhauer - an appellate lawyer and former University of Chicago law professor - was named chairman.

    1 minute read

  • February 25, 2009 |

    HSBC offshore legal team in Malaysia gets go-ahead

    HSBC has established an offshore legal team in Malaysia following a successful pilot scheme last year.The bank piloted the scheme last February, sending a team of four lawyers to its global service centre in Kuala Lumpur to assist the team in the UK, with the Malaysian group largely dealing with volume legal queries.Following the trial, the bank is establishing a permanent team based in the region, with five additional lawyers joining the function. The bank is one of the first financial institutions to establish an offshore legal team.

    1 minute read

  • February 24, 2009 |

    Proskauer posts partner profits drop of 10%

    Proskauer Rose has posted its financial results for 2008, with profits per equity partner falling by 10% to $1.4m (£965,000), reports the Am Law Daily. Revenues increased marginally by 1% to $634m (£436.5m), while total headcount rose from 685 in 2007 to a new mark of 692. Proskauer chairman Allen Fagin said that, given the challenges, he was satisifed with his firm's performance. The results "put us in the vicinity of most of the firms we would consider peers," he says - the group, according to Fagin, includes Mayer Brown and Latham & Watkins.

    1 minute read