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  • October 13, 2010 |

    Grabiner and Snowden secure court win for RBS and Liverpool FC board

    Lord Grabiner QC and Erskine Chambers' Richard Snowden QC have secured a High Court victory in the Liverpool takeover battle after the presiding judge ruled that the club's £300m sale to New England Sport Ventures (NESV) can proceed. Mr Justice Floyd handed down his judgment this morning in favour of the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), Liverpool's main creditor, which is owed around £280m by the club's US owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett.

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  • October 12, 2010 |

    Freshfields enters the fray as Liverpool court battle kicks off

    Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Erskine Chambers' Richard Snowden QC have taken centre stage alongside Lord Grabiner QC in today's high-profile Liverpool court battle. Freshfields instructed Erskine's Snowden after being appointed to advise the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) on the dispute, which is being heard today in the Chancery Division of the High Court by Mr Justice Floyd.

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  • October 12, 2010 |

    Weil Gotshal leads as $3.9bn PE sale ends record hotel group bankruptcy

    A raft of US firms have taken roles on the bankruptcy of Extended Stay Hotels, the largest Chapter 11 case ever filed by a US hotel owner, reports The Am Law Daily. The hotel chain operator, which operates 700 hotels throughout the US and Canada, was sold to a private equity consortium last Friday (8 October) in a $3.9bn (£2.5bn) deal after filing for bankruptcy in New York in June 2009.

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  • October 11, 2010 |

    Macfarlanes advises Singapore billionaire on £360m Liverpool counter-offer

    Macfarlanes has become the latest law firm to take a role on the protracted Liverpool takeover saga, representing a Singapore billionaire who has lodged an improved bid for the Premier League club. The City law firm is advising Peter Lim, who has made an increased £360m offer after last week losing out to US sports group New England Sport Ventures (NESV), whose £300m bid was accepted by the club's board. The new bid values the club at £320m, with a further £40m made available to purchase new players.

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  • October 11, 2010 |

    Grabiner joins Liverpool dream team as takeover dispute heads for courts

    One Essex Court heavyweight Lord Grabiner QC is set to represent Liverpool Football Club as the boardroom wrangle over the club's future moves into the courts tomorrow morning (12 October). Grabiner has been instructed to advise Liverpool FC's board alongside magic circle firm Slaughter and May on the proposed £300m sale of the club to Boston Red Sox owners New England Sport Ventures (NESV). One Essex Court's Jamie Goldsmith, son of former attorney general Peter Goldsmith, has also been instructed to provide advice.

    1 minute read

  • October 6, 2010 |

    Slaughters and US law duo advise on Liverpool takeover boardroom battle

    A raft of law firms are advising on the potential sale of Liverpool Football Club to Boston Red Sox owners New England Sport Ventures (NESV), amid a boardroom wrangle at the club. Slaughter and May, Weil Gotshal & Manges and Shearman & Sterling are advising the Liverpool board, US owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett and NESV respectively on the proposed takeover.

    1 minute read

  • October 4, 2010 |

    Weil and Wachtell in pole position as multi-billion Sanofi bid goes hostile

    Weil Gotshal & Manges and Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz are taking the key advisory roles as Sanofi-Aventis's multibillion-dollar bid for US biotechnology company Genzyme goes hostile. Weil Gotshal is acting for French pharma company Sanofi on its $18.5bn (£11.7bn) bid with a team including corporate partners Claude Serra in Paris and Michael Aiello in New York. Wachtell is advising Genzyme, with corporate partners Andrew Brownstein and Greg Ostling taking the key roles.

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  • September 29, 2010 |

    Dealmaker: Mark Soundy

    Weil Gotshal buyout veteran Mark Soundy on keeping it in the family and why you can't trust a banker

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  • September 17, 2010 |

    Hogan Lovells and Ropes & Gray head up $925m pharma sale

    Hogan Lovells and Ropes & Gray have taken lead roles on Genzyme's $925m (£591m) sale of its genetic testing business, Genzyme Genetics, to Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings (LabCorp), reports The Am Law Daily. Hogan Lovells advised LabCorp, with M&A partner Michael Silver taking the lead role alongside partners John Booher, William Intner and Joseph Krauss. Longstanding Genzyme adviser Ropes & Gray advised the US company on the deal, with Boston M&A partner Chris Comeau leading the firm's team.

    1 minute read

  • September 16, 2010 |

    US briefing: The repo man

    On 1 July 2009, in a conference room high above downtown Chicago, a small group of lawyers were interviewing Matthew Lee, a former executive vice president of finance at Lehman Brothers Holdings. The attorneys were part of a team working for Anton Valukas, the chairman of Jenner & Block and the Lehman bankruptcy examiner. During a break, Lee turned to Matt Basil, a Jenner litigation partner and member of the investigative team. "By the way," Lee asked, "I suspect you want to talk to me about Repo 105?" Lee explained that Repo 105 was the designated term for a bit of accounting sleight of hand involving repurchase agreements that Lehman had used to shift illiquid assets off its books to make its balance sheet appear less leveraged than it actually was. Lee had tried to sound the alarm on Repo 105 several months before Lehman collapsed, but neither bank management nor the company's outside auditors did anything about it, he said.

    1 minute read