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  • June 15, 2011 |

    Linklaters and Norton Rose secure first-time RSA panel roles

    Linklaters and Norton Rose have won first-time appointments as UK insurer RSA expands its global legal panel from three firms to five. The FTSE 100 company has selected the pair to sit alongside existing panel firms Allen & Overy, Slaughter and May and Ashurst, with all five firms appointed to advise on corporate and commercial matters for a three-year term.

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  • June 15, 2011 |

    Paul Hastings hires Macfarlanes M&A partner for City deal push

    Macfarlanes corporate and M&A partner Garrett Hayes has left the firm to join Paul Hastings Janofsky & Walker in London. Hayes, who specialises in M&A and private equity advice and acts primarily for private equity sponsors and portfolio companies on leveraged buyouts, restructurings and auctions, joins the US firm after 16 years at Macfarlanes. He had been a partner since 2005.

    1 minute read

  • June 8, 2011 |

    Clients, partners polled on merger with Clydes and BLG set for July vote

    Barlow Lyde & Gilbert and Clyde & Co partners could approve their potential merger as early as July, with the resulting tie-up likely to go live later this year. The merger talks, exclusively revealed by Legal Week on 3 June, have now reached advanced stages, with both firms this week discussing with clients and partners a high-stakes deal that would be the largest-ever merger between two UK law firms. Talks have been ongoing since March this year, after Barlows insurance dispute resolution partner Tim Taylor and Clydes senior partner Michael Payton held initial discussions.

    1 minute read

  • June 8, 2011 |

    Double or quits - can a high-stakes bid create a global insurance giant?

    With the dust settling on the surprise merger talks between arch-rivals Clyde & Co and Barlow Lyde & Gilbert, the question is how likely a deal will be to happen. As Legal Week went to press, the odds looked maybe better than even, with talk that a proposal could be put to the firms' partnerships in a matter of weeks – most likely in July. The need to press on is understandable. If mergers are worth doing they get done quickly – at least once they have gone public. At the least, both firms will want to resolve the situation before the summer dead-zone starts.

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  • June 3, 2011 |

    Exclusive: Clydes and Barlows in advanced stage talks over merger

    Clyde & Co and Barlow Lyde & Gilbert are in advanced merger talks, Legal Week can reveal, with a potential deal set to create a £300m law firm in one of the largest-ever unions between two UK practices. Senior partners at the two firms have been in discussions for several months, and it is understood that details of the proposed union could go to partners as soon as the end of June, when Clydes will hold its annual partner conference.

    1 minute read

  • June 3, 2011 |

    Clyde & Gilbert – some initial thoughts

    United merging with City? Microsoft with Apple? Linklaters with Freshfields? That, in City insurance terms, is pretty much what you've got with the news exclusively revealed on legalweek.com today that Clyde & Co and Barlow Lyde & Gilbert are in merger talks. A tie-up would unite the two biggest brands in the legal insurance market, and in revenue terms constitute the largest union ever executed between two UK law firms (the deal that created Clifford Chance happened at a time when magic circle firms were about as big as Howard Kennedy).

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  • June 1, 2011 |

    Clydes to allow fee earners to count pro bono as billable hours

    Clyde & Co has introduced a new policy that will see UK fee earners allowed to include up to 50 hours of pro bono work in their billable hours targets. The new policy, which came into effect last month, means lawyers will be able to count some pro bono work as chargeable hours for the purpose of performance-related bonus targets.

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  • June 1, 2011 |

    Mishcons posts 30% revenue growth as UK firms unveil healthy 2010-11 financials

    Mishcon de Reya and Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) have announced soaring turnover and profits for the 2010-11 financial year, as the first wave of UK law firms to post their results continue to unveil strong growth. Mishcons has seen turnover jump 30% to £61.5m, up from £47.5m in 2009-10, while profits per equity partner (PEP) also leapt by a similar percentage, growing from £450,000 to at least £575,000, with the final audited figure yet to be confirmed.

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  • June 1, 2011 |

    US law firms score high marks for London vacation schemes

    Three US firms have been rated among the best vacation scheme providers in the UK market, with Legal Week research also seeing Allen & Overy (A&O) identified by students as the most prestigious global law firm for the second year running. The Legal Week Intelligence 2011 Law Student Report saw Latham & Watkins and Baker & McKenzie take the top two spots for UK vacation schemes, with Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton coming in fourth place behind Ashurst.

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  • May 31, 2011 |

    Macfarlanes turns to Clifford Chance for structured finance hire

    Macfarlanes has boosted its structured finance practice with the hire of Clifford Chance (CC) partner Rachel Kelly.Kelly is set to join the firm next week from the City banking and finance practice at CC and will be the first partner in Macfarlanes' London structured finance team.

    1 minute read