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  • April 19, 2010 |

    The top-rated Indian TV show about corporate lawyers - really

    "Ah, Friday night . Time to kick back and relax. Hey, The Firm is on. Corporate lawyers talking about corporate law. Great show. Tonight, Jeff Smith of Cravath Swaine & Moore is talking about SEC rules on climate change disclosure? Excellent." That imaginary train of thought doesn't come from The Twilight Zone . It's from India, where The Firm: Corporate Law in India , airing on TV18, is all the rage.

    1 minute read

  • April 14, 2010 |

    Weil Gotshal recruits McDermott partner Blanch in City disputes boost

    Weil Gotshal & Manges has made a key hire for its London litigation team, taking on McDermott Will & Emery's disputes partner Juliet Blanch. Blanch - who heads up the law firm's international dispute avoidance and resolution practice group - is set to join Weil Gotshal's two-partner London disputes group, headed up by partner Matt Shankland.

    1 minute read

  • April 14, 2010 |

    US Briefing: Road trip

    At around 3pm on 6 October 2009, roughly 100 lawyers and executives filed into a conference room in Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom's Manhattan office. It had taken three years, 11 months and 29 days to get to this moment: Delphi was emerging from the depths of bankruptcy and passing into the hands of its former parent, General Motors Company (GM), as well as two lenders. There was a palpable sense of exhaustion in the room; the close had been convened seven hours earlier. The Veuve Clicquot, selected by Delphi lead lawyer John 'Jack' Butler Jr but poured prematurely, was flat.

    1 minute read

  • April 14, 2010 |

    M&A teams cheered as global market sees modest Q1 revival

    The UK M&A market is showing signs of recovery as activity levels begin to improve, according to new research from mergermarket. The figures show that 171 UK M&A deals were announced in the first quarter of 2010, compared to 150 during the same period last year, while the total value of deals during Q1 also increased, rising from $18.6bn (£12.2bn) last year to $20.7bn (£13.6bn).

    1 minute read

  • April 8, 2010 |

    Herbert Smith and Links head up UK firms for Q1 M&A as activity picks up

    The UK M&A market is showing signs of recovery as activity levels begin to improve, according to new research from mergermarket. The figures show that 171 UK M&A deals were announced in the first quarter of 2010, compared to 150 during the same period last year, while the total value of deals during Q1 also increased, rising from $18.6bn (£12.2bn) last year to $20.7bn (£13.6bn).

    1 minute read

  • April 1, 2010 |

    'We don't want to talk to clients - they'll ask for lower fees': time to get intimate with clients

    When I was in college in the late 1970s, I had a close friend whose grandfather (let's call him 'John'") was a retired partner at White & Case. John had a number of outstanding traits, not the least of which was that his father-in-law had been the chief executive of one of White & Case's largest clients, Banker's Trust, and his brother-in-law was the chairman of another major client, Mellon Bank.

    1 minute read

  • March 26, 2010 |

    Mayer Brown, Camerons and Bakers at the table on £400m Camelot sale

    Mayer Brown and Baker & McKenzie have taken the lead roles on the sale of the National Lottery operator Camelot for just under £400m. The board of Camelot has agreed to sell the company to one of Canada's largest pension funds, Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan (OTTP), in favour of a rival bid from buyout giant CVC.

    1 minute read

  • March 18, 2010 |

    Trio of firms in dispute over Lehman bankruptcy fees cut

    Three US law firms are in a dispute over fees on the mammoth US bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers - which has already generated $300m (£200m) in legal costs - after their fees were reduced by marginal amounts, writes The Am Law Daily The fees dispute gained momentum earlier this week when three firms - Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy, Jones Day and Curtis Mallet-Prevost Colt & Mosle - filed papers protesting the Lehman fee committee's reductions of their bills for the period of 1 June 2009 through the end of September 2009.

    1 minute read

  • March 17, 2010 |

    White & Case City base posts 20% drop in revenues for 2009

    White & Case's London office has emerged as the worst performing City arm of a US law firm in 2009 - a year in which results varied significantly between firms. White & Case saw London revenues plunge by just under 20% to $197m (£130m) during the 2009 calendar year, with profits per equity partner (PEP) dropping by 11% to $1.32m (£872,000).

    1 minute read

  • March 16, 2010 |

    Simpson Thacher and Wachtell lead on Apax's $3bn Tommy Hilfiger sale

    Simpson Thacher & Bartlett and Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz have taken lead roles on buyout house Apax Partners' sale of Tommy Hilfiger to US clothing giant Phillips-Van Heusen for $3bn (£1.9bn). The sale comes around four years after Apax purchased Tommy Hilfiger for $1.6bn (£1.1bn) and took the company private.

    1 minute read