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  • April 1, 2009 |

    Orrick and Arnold & Porter step up lateral hiring in London as partners move between US firms

    Mayer Brown, Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe and Arnold & Porter were the most active recruiters of lateral partners among US law firms in London last year. Legal Week research has found that Orrick picked up seven new partners - with the most significant haul of five partners coming from collapsed firm Heller Ehrman, including venture law group partners Richard Eaton, Chris Grew and Struan Penwarden.

    1 minute read

  • March 26, 2009 |

    US firms in City reach new high for lateral hires

    Lateral partner hiring across the top US and international firms in London has almost doubled over the last five years, according to research from Legal Week.A survey of hiring trends at 33 US and transatlantic firms with operations in the City found the group made a total of 79 lateral partner hires during 2008 - 11 more than in 2007, despite the banking crisis and the onset of the global recession.

    1 minute read

  • March 26, 2009 |

    Merrill UK legal team cut by 25% after BoA merger

    Merrill Lynch's UK legal team has been cut back by 25% following the bank's merger with Bank of America. The legal team learned late last month (25 February) that 15 of the 60 London lawyer positions would go following a review of the business carried out in the wake of the merger. The majority (11) of the cuts affect lawyers in Merrill's sales and trading group, which covers areas such as emerging markets, derivatives, structured credit and retail structured products.

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  • March 26, 2009 |

    Shearman freezes pay for UK-qualified lawyers

    Shearman & Sterling has announced that it is to freeze salaries for all of its UK-qualified lawyers in London, Asia and the Middle East. The measure means that associates will not move up the lockstep, and will continue to earn the same amount as they did during 2008. Lawyers with one year post-qualification experience (PQE) will continue to earn £80,000, while 2PQE associates will take home £84,000 and 3PQEs £92,000.

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  • March 26, 2009 |

    With bankruptcies set to sweep Asia, foreign firms face resource crunch

    When economic crisis struck Asia in the late 1990s and early 2000s, international law firms with newly-crippled clients in the region flew in their top restructuring specialists from the US and Europe.This time around, though, those lawyers are much in demand at home, leaving Asian offices somewhat strapped for bankruptcy talent."There will be a resource crunch," says Matthew Bersani, Asia managing partner for Shearman & Sterling. His firm worked on some of the region's largest restructurings of the past decade - including those of Chinese conglomerate Guangdong Enterprises and Singapore-based Asia Pulp & Paper - largely by relying on big-name bankruptcy partners from New York.

    1 minute read

  • March 24, 2009 |

    Elite trio take lead roles on $2.7bn Daimler sale

    Shearman & Sterling, Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer have all won lead roles on the high-profile sale of a $2.7bn (£1.9bn) stake in embattled German car giant Daimler to Middle East investors. Shearman advised the buyer, Aabar Investments, a subsidiary of Abu Dhabi's International Petroleum Investment Company, on its purchase of up $2.7bn worth of Daimler shares.The New York law firm has advised various Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth funds on several recent deals, including Mubadala Investments decision to form $8bn (£5.7bn) joint ventures with both Advanced Micro Devices and General Electric.

    1 minute read

  • March 12, 2009 |

    London-based lawyers braced as major US firms announce global redundancy plans

    A number of London positions at US law firms are under threat after Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe, Dewey & Leboeuf, Shearman & Sterling and O'Melveny & Myers all announced plans to cut global headcount last week.Orrick is making a deep set of cuts in its second redundancy round with 100 associates and 200 staff members likely to be affected across the US, Asia and Europe.

    1 minute read

  • March 4, 2009 |

    Dewey set to let 30 staff go in London office

    Dewey & Leboeuf's London office has launched a redundancy consultation set to affect around 30 legal and support staff. Firmwide managing partner and London head Steve Davis sent a memo to all staff today (4 March) detailing the cuts, with are likely to see 15 lawyers and 15 administrative staff losing their jobs. The cuts equate to 9% of London legal staff and around 13% of City support staff. The firm also plans to defer the start of a small number of its September 2009 trainee intake in London to next year.

    1 minute read

  • March 3, 2009 |

    Shearman London arm set for 18 staff cuts

    Shearman & Sterling's London office has kicked off a redundancy consultation that could see up to 18 secretarial and support staff lose their jobs. The process, which started this week (3 March), does not include any lawyers and the firm said it had no imminent plans to launch a separate consultation focussing on fee earners.The London arm currently houses 104 support staff including some part-time employees.

    1 minute read

  • March 2, 2009 |

    Norton Rose and Links lead on £12.5bn HSBC rights issue

    Norton Rose and Linklaters have landed major roles on a record-breaking £12.5bn rights issue for HSBC.Norton Rose is advising key client HSBC, fielding a team under London corporate partner Martin Scott. Corporate partners Nick Adams and Chris Randall, employment partner David Cohen and tax specialist Dominic Stuttaford are also acting, while corporate partner Richard Crosby is leading a team in Hong Kong.Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton is advising on HSBC on US issues with London capital markets partner Ashar Qureshi leading the firm's team.

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