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  • December 17, 2010 |

    Linklaters identified as UK's most diverse law firm by new study

    Linklaters has been named as the UK's most diverse law firm in 2010 according to the Black Solicitors Network (BSN) Diversity League Table, which ranks firms based on information from 48 law firms. The ranking combines law firm demographics across four different strands of diversity - disability, ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation - with policy and practice information from the firms.

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  • December 14, 2010 |

    Apax set to hire Goldman Sachs lawyer for senior in-house role

    Apax Partners is set to bring in Goldman Sachs lawyer Simon Cresswell for a senior in-house position with the buyout house. The appointment, which is expected to take effect from the New Year, follows an 18-month search for a legal chief by Apax.

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  • December 7, 2010 |

    M&A Team of the Year

    Herbert Smith's regional focus on India and Africa combined neatly with its telecoms expertise to land it the plum role advising Bharti Airtel on its £7bn acquisition of Zain Africa, which operated in no fewer than 15 African countries. This was the second-largest overseas acquisition by an Indian company ever and handed Herbert Smith a unique set of logistical and technical challenges. The team was led by corporate partners Michael Walter and Alan Montgomery and head of global TMT Nick Elverston. Merger deals involving telecoms companies always tend to be complex because of the regulatory implications of such deals. The fact that this transaction spanned 15 African countries, including the likes of Chad, Congo-Brazzaville and Uganda, made securing regulatory approval particularly difficult.

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  • November 24, 2010 |

    Simpson Thacher and Weil Gotshal promote seven partners apiece

    Simpson Thacher & Bartlett and Weil Gotshal & Manges have announced the results of their global promotions rounds, with just one City lawyer made up among 14 partner promotions at the two firms. Simpson Thacher's appointments, which will take effect as of 1 January next year, include six in the US firm's New York HQ, alongside one City promotion in its London corporate department.

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  • November 10, 2010 |

    Weil Gotshal calls in McKinsey to advise on international strategy

    Weil Gotshal & Manges has hired bluechip management consultant McKinsey & Company to review the US law firm's international strategy. The initiative, which is being led by the Wall Street firm's executive partner, Barry Wolf, is an attempt to analyse Weil's current global offering, and to review which jurisdictions to prioritise for expansion. The appointment was first reported by Legal Business.

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  • November 2, 2010 |

    Ropes & Gray expands in London with ex-Cadwalader restructuring partner

    Ropes & Gray has ramped up in London with the hire of a restructuring partner and the promotion of its first home-grown City partner. The US firm has brought in former Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft restructuring partner James Douglas, doubling the number of partners in its London restructuring team.

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  • October 27, 2010 |

    Milbank hires from Weil Gotshal to expand City deal finance team

    Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy has hired a high yield specialist from the City arm of New York rival Weil Gotshal & Manges as leading law firms continue to invest in their deal finance teams. Peter Schwartz is joining as a partner in Milbank's global securities group in London. His practice is focused primarily on representing underwriters and issuers in securities offerings, particularly high yield debt. The US and UK-qualified Schwartz, who was in 2008 promoted to partner at Weil Gotshal, also has experience of covering equity capital markets transactions.

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  • October 15, 2010 |

    Mayer Brown acts on late Liverpool bid as £300m takeover goes through

    Mayer Brown has advised investment company Mill Financial on its failed eleventh-hour bid for Liverpool FC, as US sports group New England Sport Ventures (NESV) completes its £300m takeover of the Premier League club. US investor Mill, which was advised by Mayer Brown's UK corporate head Peter Dickinson and corporate partner Kate Ball-Dodd, today (15 October) held negotiations with co-owner Tom Hicks over the acquisition of his stake in the club.

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  • October 13, 2010 |

    Top names ready to battle for honours at 2010 British Legal Awards

    Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Hogan Lovells and Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) are among the firms shortlisted for a number of categories in the 2010 British Legal Awards. The group has been nominated for the much sought after Law Firm of the Year award alongside Clyde & Co, Sullivan & Cromwell and Travers Smith.

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  • October 13, 2010 |

    Leading firms vie for roles on first post-Lehman BarCap US roster

    Barclays Capital has kicked off a review of its legal advisers in the US, marking the first time the group has overhauled its panel since its acquisition of Lehman Brothers' US investment banking operations. The review, which is being led out of New York by Americas general counsel Michael Crowl, is believed to be part of a bid to reduce the number of external counsel after the bank's $1.75bn (£950m) acquisition of Lehman Brothers' North American investment banking and capital markets business in 2008.

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