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  • June 19, 2009 |

    Freshfields lands Europe role on Chrysler/Fiat alliance

    Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has won the European mandate on the high-profile strategic alliance between automotive giants Chrysler and Fiat. Freshfields has been instructed as the main European adviser to Chrysler on the deal, which was announced last week (10 June) and saw the Italian car maker take a 20% stake in the new Chrysler entity, which is emerging from its bankruptcy proceedings.

    1 minute read

  • June 16, 2009 |

    Weil Gotshal bills $54m as GM work pays out to the tune of $80m

    General Motors has paid out more than $80m (£49m) over the past six months to the three firms advising on the troubled automaker's Chapter 11 case, reports the Am Law Daily. Weil Gotshal & Manges, Jenner & Block and Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn have all filed their applications for employment as counsel to GM. As lead bankruptcy counsel, Weil Gotshal has the lion's share of the billings at more than $54m (£33m) - roughly equivalent to the $55m that Weil billed Lehman Brothers between September 2008 and January 2009.

    1 minute read

  • June 3, 2009 |

    Greenberg in hot water over Heller representation

    Greenberg Traurig is facing a malpractice investigation by the Heller Ehrman estate, according to court filings and a lawyer representing Heller's creditors committee, writes The Recorder. At issue is Greenberg's apparent failure to discover that Heller's biggest creditor, Bank of America (BoA), had terminated its security interest in the firm. Lawyers familiar with the matter say that Heller, which retained Greenberg last summer, would have had much better leverage with its banks and other creditors if it had known BoA was not a secured creditor and may have even been able to avoid bankruptcy.

    1 minute read

  • May 28, 2009 |

    Kirkland bankruptcy team defects to Jones Day

    Seven Kirkland & Ellis lawyers have quit the firm's Los Angeles office to join Jones Day, reports The Am Law Daily. Kirkland's West Coast restructuring group head Richard Wynne, partner Bennett Spiegel, of counsel Erin Brady and Lori Sinanyan, and associates Christopher Healey, Stacie Torres, and Lance Miller will all join Jones Day's Los Angeles office, with the exception of Miller, who is based in New York. The lateral hires leave Kirkland with only three restructuring lawyers in Los Angeles. Wynne said the idea of leaving Kirkland had been "percolating" in his head for six months, but that he and the other lawyers were only interested in moving as a group.

    1 minute read

  • May 19, 2009 |

    Lehman-Barclays: the deal that won't die

    In the frenzied week after Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy on 15 September last year, lawyers for Lehman (a group that included bankruptcy counsel at Weil Gotshal & Manges, Lehman's longtime outside counsel at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett and a team from Sullivan & Cromwell) worked around the clock with lawyers representing Barclays to arrange the sale of Lehman's prized US assets.

    1 minute read

  • May 14, 2009 |

    Partners leave German arms of a string of UK top firms

    SJ Berwin has lost its Frankfurt head of corporate as a raft of other international law firms, including Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, see German partner departures. Michael Roos, who joined SJ Berwin in 2000, left the top 20 law firm to set up his own boutique - RoosLegal - from the start of this month. He has been replaced as local corporate head by Frankfurt M&A partner Julian Lemor.

    1 minute read

  • May 12, 2009 |

    That was then, this is now

    Allen & Overy (A&O), Ashurst and Addleshaw Goddard recently topped a table of graduate employers in a major survey of law students' views on which firms are the best to work for. They may be household brands these days - well, for houses containing lawyers and law students - but it wasn't always this way.

    1 minute read

  • May 12, 2009 |

    Law couture

    Going for a job interview is scary enough at the best of times. But when interviewing at a law firm or barristers' chambers, making a good first impression is crucial. Fantastic academic credentials aside, careful choice in your attire can help give you an edge over the other candidates. Looking professional has become more important than ever in today's difficult economic climate. Cliff Burgess, business development manager at gentleman's clothing retailer TM Lewin, comments: "It has been said that people in the City regard wearing a smart suit, tie and cufflinks as donning a suit of armour. That applies more than ever right now."

    1 minute read

  • May 7, 2009 |

    Do bankruptcy lawyers bill illegally?

    In the past few weeks, we've all marvelled at the huge amounts Jones Day, Schulte Roth & Zabel, and Weil Gotshal & Manges have billed in the country's two most-watched Chapter 11 cases (Chrysler for Jones Day and Schulte Roth, Lehman Brothers for Weil Gotshal). But we have to admit we haven't stopped to ponder - are those fees illegal? According to a new study co-authored by UCLA bankruptcy law professor Lynn LoPucki, the answer might be yes. LoPucki and his co-author, fellow UCLA prof Joseph Doherty, essentially argue that bankruptcy judges allow lawyers to bill their debtor clients for months at a time before submitting those billing statements to the judge for approval. That goes against the federal bankruptcy code, the study argues, and it has allowed legal fees to increase faster than inflation rates. Judges in theory have the option of objecting to those bills and demanding law firms pay back some of the money, but "payments are harder to reverse than to prevent," the study says.

    1 minute read

  • May 5, 2009 |

    Jones Day bills $18.5m on Chrysler bankruptcy

    Jones Day has billed Chrysler more than $18.5m (£12.3m) during the past five months, reports The Am Law Daily. In late November the embattled car manufacturer paid Jones Day $1m (£660,000) to establish a retainer, and according to the US firm's application to be Chrysler's lead counsel, around $5.8m (£3.8m) remains in the retainer, meaning the firm has drawn down more than $13m (£8.6m) so far.

    1 minute read