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  • 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

  • July 25, 2013 |

    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

  • July 17, 2013 |

    Akin Gump set for capital injection as firm moves to all-equity partnership

    Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld is shifting its firm-wide partnership to an all-equity structure from January 2014, following an extensive canvassing of partners' opinion. The New York-based firm - which counts 21 partners in its London office - is giving all income partners an opportunity to make a capital investment.

    1 minute read

  • July 11, 2013 |

    M&A activity levels continue to languish – but lawyers cling to hopes of deal revival

    "It's clear Europe is under-delivering, and it can't stay down for much longer." Speaking to Legal Week at the beginning of the year, Cravath Swaine & Moore EMEA M&A head Richard Hall expressed a view that many deal lawyers have shared for some time now. However, the months since have seen transaction activity levels across Europe fall lower still, with total H1 deal value down 23% on last year and deal volumes down 12% to 5,854 – the worst half-year for European M&A since 2010. The second quarter of 2013 was particularly sluggish, with just 1,140 deals, marking the quietest quarter for European M&A by volume since Q1 2010...

    1 minute read

  • July 11, 2013 |

    Making Haigh – GFH Capital's general counsel David Haigh on buying Leeds Utd

    When David Haigh recounts his first meeting with Ken Bates the anecdote reveals as much about himself as it does about the famously combative ex-chairman of Leeds United Football Club. "He had his leaving event recently and I was reminding him about the first time we met in Monaco," recalls Haigh, whose Dubai-based GFH Capital bought the club from Bates at the end of last year. "His first question to me, in a rather gruff voice, was 'how old are you?' – to which the answer was about a third of his age." The comments are typical of the chipper self-confidence exuded by 35-year-old Haigh, the Islamic private equity group's general counsel and deputy chief executive – and now managing director of Leeds United, with responsibility for the daily running of the club.

    1 minute read