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  • June 22, 2012 |

    Finley Kumble's children – the familiar cycle of legal collapses

    There have been plenty of precedents for high-profile collapses in the world's largest legal market, but one failure still looms the largest over the US profession 24 years on. After all, the rise and rapid implosion of Finley Kumble Wagner Heine Underberg Manley Myerson & Casey was in some aspects even more startling than that of Dewey & LeBoeuf. Finley was built at breakneck speed on the basis of a new model. In place of the traditional focus on the practise of law, the firm hungered for partners who would win business and expansion through continuous lateral recruitment.

    1 minute read

  • June 21, 2012 |

    Top Russian investment bank RenCap kicks off 'very competitive' adviser review

    Russian investment bank Renaissance Capital has kicked off a review of its law firm roster after group head of compliance Mark Harris took up an expanded role as head of legal earlier this year.

    1 minute read

  • June 12, 2012 |

    US trio take key roles on $1bn Apax software group buyout

    A trio of US firms are advising on a $1bn (£644m) private equity deal that has seen UK-based private equity house Apax Partners team up with US tech investor JMI Equity to acquire software group Paradigm, reports The Am Law Daily. Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom is advising Paradigm on the transaction, while Kirkland & Ellis is serving as outside counsel to Apax.

    1 minute read

  • June 11, 2012 |

    A&O cuts partners in Hong Kong amid regional market slowdown

    Allen & Overy (A&O) has asked a number of Hong Kong partners to leave as the firm cuts back its local partnership by around 20%. The magic circle firm confirmed that it has asked four partners to leave, with the group understood to include partners from both transactional and disputes teams, while one further real estate partner has left the firm to set up his own practice.

    1 minute read

  • June 7, 2012 |

    Freshfields and Skadden lead on $1.7bn sale of Brazil gas company

    Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom have taken the lead roles on the $1.7bn (£1.1bn) sale of BG Group's majority holding in Brazilian gas distribution company Comgas. Freshfields led for BG Group with a team fielded by City corporate partner Graham Watson, alongside London managing partner Mark Rawlinson, Amsterdam corporate partner Robert ten Have, tax partner Sarah Falk and Eelco van der Stok.

    1 minute read

  • May 24, 2012 |

    Have QFLPs worked for Singapore?

    Singapore is to award more licences, but many still question the value of practising local law. Jessica Seah reports

    1 minute read

  • May 17, 2012 |

    NY duo act on first Brazilian investment bank float

    Shearman & Sterling and Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom are among a raft of firms to have advised on the recent initial public offering (IPO) of BTG Pactual – the first-ever float by a Brazilian investment bank.

    1 minute read

  • May 17, 2012 |

    Quality marks - a patchy partnership always bodes ill

    As Dewey & LeBoeuf this week officially became the world's largest legal failure, it seems an appropriate moment to return to a theme touched on often in this column: the difference between success and failure in the high-end legal market. Years of covering the profession have made me believe it has surprisingly little to do with business models or market positioning. Though law firm leaders and commentators often belabour the 'right' strategy or shape for a firm, the global legal market offers a bewildering array of successful outfits operating wildly different models. What have Latham & Watkins, Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, DLA Piper, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, Clyde & Co and Travers Smith got in common? Not much. There is also often confusion between correlation and cause. Is Freshfields successful because it is magic circle, or magic circle because it is successful? That isn't semantics (though there is no clear answer).

    1 minute read

  • May 17, 2012 |

    Foreign growth helps US leaders buck Dewey effect as top 100 revenues hit $71bn

    Top 100 law firms push through bumpy markets to hike revenue by 5.3% as PEP hits $1.4m

    1 minute read

  • May 10, 2012 |

    The clawback - can arbitration help Greek bondholders gain redress?

    Cynics would say that the legal sharks have already started circling the fall-out from the Greek sovereign debt restructuring. One law firm is reported to be already seeking German private investors in Greek bonds to pursue a class action-style investment treaty arbitration against Greece.

    1 minute read