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  • December 5, 2008 |

    Leading UK lawyers added to new Who's Who list

    Weil Gotshal & Manges City managing partner Mike Francies, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer financial institutions co-head Will Lawes (pictured) and Slaughter and May corporate heavyweight Charles Randell are among a string of high-profile lawyers to land a mention in the 2009 edition of Who's Who.

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  • December 5, 2008 |

    Weil leads on Lehman asset management sell-off

    Weil Gotshal & Manges and Proskauer Rose have taken the lead roles on Lehman Brothers Holdings' deal to sell its asset management division, which includes Neuberger Berman, to a group of Lehman managers, reports The Am Law Daily. Under the terms, which were announced on Wednesday (3 December), the management group will acquire 51% of a newly-formed business called Neuberger Investment Management. The new entity will have about $160bn (£109bn) in assets under its control. Lehman Brothers Holdings will retain a 49% stake. Weil Gotshal partners Lori Fife and Michale Lubowitz led the team advising Lehman on the deal. Weil Gotshal is bankruptcy council for Lehman.

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  • December 3, 2008 |

    Weil Dubai launch gets new year go-ahead

    Weil Gotshal & Manges' Dubai office will officially launch in January after the US law firm was last week awarded its licence to practise in the country. The New York law firm's European co-ordinating partner, Joe Tortorici, will relocate to the Middle East from Prague to lead the practice. He will not be replaced in his European management role.

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  • December 3, 2008 |

    Commentary: Banking regulation work emerges as the new private equity

    Has there ever been a better time be a specialist in financial services regulation? For years, such lawyers toiled away little-noticed within a dozen or so major commercial firms, prospering in sizeable numbers in Allen & Overy (A&O), Clifford Chance (CC) and CMS Cameron McKenna. But despite the creation of the Financial Services Authority (FSA) a decade ago, this group was hardly the most visible or loved of its breed, despite in recent years enjoying some of the highest charge-out rates in the City.

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  • December 2, 2008 |

    Simpson Thacher makes up City duo to partnership

    Simpson Thacher & Bartlett has announced its 2008 promotions, with the US firm making up five new partners. The firm's City arm will gain two new corporate partners, Ian Barratt and Sinead O'Shea, while New York-based Joshua Levine and Nancy Mehlman have been made up in litigation and tax respectively. Beijing was gifted one new partner - Shaolin Luo - in corporate.The promotions will become effective as of January 2009.

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  • November 27, 2008 |

    Weil makes up seven with one in the City

    Weil Gotshal & Manges is the latest firm to announce its new partner promotions with the US firm making up only a fraction of the number promoted last year. The firm is making up seven new partners worldwide, down from 21 last year. Three of the new partners are in offices across the US with Prague gaining the same number. London gains one partner, down from two last year, with Joanne Etherton, of counsel in the pensions practice, joining the partnership in January.

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  • November 26, 2008 |

    Managing a law firm: Daddy day care

    In the last generation there has been a shift in attitude towards male lawyers taking time off to care for their children. What was once looked on as a perk is swiftly beginning to be seen as a right at firms in the US. Kirkland & Ellis, White & Case and Morrison & Foerster all give upwards of four weeks' paid leave to male lawyers at all levels working in their US offices. And one recent case in the Weil Gotshal & Manges Boston office saw a lawyer take an unprecedented 10 weeks' paid paternity leave.

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  • November 19, 2008 |

    A landscape that's changed forever

    The mantra of responsible investors is diversify. Don't be too heavily committed to one sector or one type of investment. A balanced portfolio is the key to success. In the good times, you won't get the spectacular results but in the bad times you'll avoid painful losses.But many of the top US law firms have ignored - even flouted - that rule. Few firms are as focused on one sector as the big Wall Street law firms are on financial institutions. In past downturns, no one questioned that the premier firms would fare just fine. They were too prestigious, too wealthy, too strong. But this downturn, everyone agrees, is different. This time, should the big New York law firms be worried?

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  • November 19, 2008 |

    Blink and you missed it

    For the lawyers officiating at the funeral of Lehman Brothers, the only thing more shocking than the investment bank's sudden demise was the speed with which its most visible asset, the broker-dealer operation, was packaged and sold.It was over in less than a week. On Monday, 15 September, Lehman filed for Chapter 11 protection at the US Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan. Over the next five days, Lehman's lawyers at Weil Gotshal & Manges - more than 100, according to an internal memo - worked around the clock. The frenzy ended in the early hours of 20 September, after a rowdy, marathon hearing that began the previous afternoon, when a weary Judge James Peck signed off on the sale of Lehman's investment arm to Barclays Capital, for $1.35bn (£900m).

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  • November 13, 2008 |

    UBS wealth management head in fraud charge

    Raoul Weil, the chairman and CEO of the global wealth management and business banking division at UBS, has been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges that he helped US taxpayers avoid income taxes on assets in overseas accounts. According to the indictment, Weil and other UBS bankers used encrypted laptops and other counter-surveillance techniques to assist US clients in concealing their identities and nearly $200bn (£135bn) in offshore assets from US authorities. The indictment claims that Swiss bankers who reported to Weil routinely travelled to the US to discuss Swiss bank accounts with current and prospective clients. Between 2002 and 2007, these activities allegedly generated nearly $200m (£135m) in cross-border business for UBS.

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