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  • September 5, 2013 |

    Skadden closes Vienna office as sole partner leaves for CMS

    Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom has closed its Vienna base, with the departure of office managing partner Rainer Wachter to CMS Reich-Rohrwig Hainz. Skadden said the decision was made following a strategic review which found that the firm could continue to provide advice on Austrian matters from other European bases.

    1 minute read

  • September 4, 2013 |

    DLA Piper's Hong Kong insurance head to leave private practice

    The head of DLA Piper's insurance practice in Hong Kong is leaving the firm to pursue opportunities in legal consulting. Will Harrison, who joined DLA in 2007 as a senior associate from Clifford Chance in Hong Kong, is highly rated for contentious insurance work in the region.

    1 minute read

  • September 3, 2013 |

    Skadden and Simpson Thacher on call for £4.6bn Nokia sale to Microsoft

    Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom and Simpson Thacher have taken the lead roles on Microsoft's €5.44bn (£4.6bn) acquisition of Nokia's mobile phone business. The deal, through which Nokia will also license its patents to Microsoft, is expected to close in early 2014 and will see the transfer of around 32,000 Nokia staff to Microsoft.

    1 minute read

  • August 27, 2013 |

    Skadden, K&L Gates lead as Baidu takes stake in group-buying site

    Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom and K&L Gates were lead advisors as Chinese social networking company Renren agreed to sell shares of its Groupon-like subsidiary Nuomi Holdings to Chinese internet search giant Baidu. The deal, which remains subject to approval, will see Baidu take a 59% equity interest in Nuomi for a purchase price of $160m, giving it a bigger share of China's fast-growing group-buying market.

    1 minute read

  • August 20, 2013 |

    Gibson Dunn recruits Skadden litigation partner in London

    Gibson Dunn & Crutcher has made a rare partner hire in London with the appointment of Skadden Arps Meagher & Flom litigation and arbitration lawyer Penny Madden. An English-qualified solicitor who was promoted to the Skadden partnership in 2012, Madden has a practice focus on telecoms, international trade and insurance disputes.

    1 minute read

  • August 19, 2013 |

    Linklaters partner questioned by police in hacking investigation

    Linklaters litigation partner John Turnbull has been interviewed under police caution on behalf of Rupert Murdoch's News UK, it has emerged, amid further revelations in the ongoing investigation into the hacking scandal. News UK - which rebranded from its former identity of News International last month - is being investigated by Scotland Yard as a "corporate suspect" over hacking and bribery offences, according to a report in The Independent.

    1 minute read

  • August 13, 2013 |

    Skadden and Canada's Torys advise as BlackBerry considers sale

    Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom and Canadian firm Torys are advising smartphone maker BlackBerry as it kicks off a strategic review that could result in the sale of the company. The Canadian telecoms giant has announced that it is forming a committee to consider options for a new business model, with options in the table including a sale, as well as joint ventures, strategic partnerships or alliances.

    1 minute read

  • August 12, 2013 |

    Skadden and Sullivan advise on Samsung's $350m Germany tech purchase

    Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom and Sullivan & Cromwell have landed lead roles on Samsung's $350m (£225.3m) acquisition of German technology company Novaled. Samsung Electronics and Cheil Industries this week agreed to acquire a 90% stake in the Dresden head-quartered business, as a means to break into the organic light-emitting diodes (OLED) technology market.

    1 minute read

  • July 26, 2013 |

    Elite US quartet advises on Activision's $8.2bn Vivendi buyout

    Gibson Dunn, Skadden, Wachtell and Sullivan & Cromwell are leading on an $8.2bn (£5.3bn) share buyout of Vivendi's controlling stake in video games giant Activision Blizzard. The games maker, which counts World of Warcraft and Call of Duty (pictured) among its highest selling titles, is purchasing $5.8bn (£3.8bn) worth of shares from Vivendi, while a separate investor group led by CEO Bobby Kotick is buying about $2.3bn (£1.5bn) of shares.

    1 minute read

  • July 25, 2013 | International Edition

    What's in a name – could Messrs King and Wood trump Stanley Berwin?

    To date, UK law firms have been somewhat more restrained than their US counterparts when it comes to the question of names. Getting your name on the letterhead is of course a nice benefit of establishing your own partnership, and eponymous partnerships are a legal requirement for the most part in the US, but the resulting firm names hardly trip off the tongue – Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom, Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison, Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr, to name but a few. In the UK at least, law firms have not been required to use the names of founding partners for many years, and the main reason law firm naming convention has continued in this fashion appears to be tradition, as well as a degree of inertia. This said, the advent of the Legal Services Act and related regulatory changes have allowed a little outside influence to filter through, with distinctly less traditional brands such as Brilliant Law, Thinking Legal and QualitySolicitors emerging. If some of the new law firm names lack the gravitas of their more longstanding peers, you can at least argue their line of business is obvious.

    1 minute read