• June 1, 2011 |

    CC and Anderson Mori advise on $1.7bn Samurai bond for HSBC

    Clifford Chance (CC) and Anderson Mori & Tomotsune have advised HSBC on the issuance of $1.7bn (£1.04bn) in yen-denominated bonds, writes The Asian Lawyer. The so-called 'samurai' bonds - yen-denominated debt floated in Japan by a non-Japanese issuer - comprised a $1.3bn (£802m) fixed-rate tranche and a $434m (£267m) floating-rate tranche, each with a five-year term.

    1 minute read

  • May 31, 2011 |

    Freshfields checks in for lead role on Samsonite's $1.5bn Hong Kong IPO

    Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has won a lead role on Samsonite International's $1.5bn (£909m) Hong Kong initial public offering (IPO), reports The Asian Lawyer. Luggage maker Samsonite is set to become the second foreign consumer brand to go public in Hong Kong, following French skincare brand L'Occitane International's $780m (£473m) launch last year.

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  • May 25, 2011 |

    Side by side - one year in, how is Hogan Lovells shaping up within the Am Law 100?

    In early March the Gaylord National Hotel and Convention Center outside Washington DC teemed with hundreds of lawyers from Hogan Lovells. The firm was holding its first global partnership conference, and one of the hotel's ballrooms had been turned into a marketplace with stations representing each of the firm's 40 offices. At each station, partners were on hand to provide information about the office. The stations also offered local treats to entice lawyers to linger. "The Paris station had champagne, the Northern California station had wine and the Beijing station had baijiu," recounts Warren Gorrell, the firm's co-chief executive. "But it wasn't all alcohol," he adds quickly. (The Brussels station had chocolate.) The event, while certainly cliche, was nonetheless important for the 2,400-lawyer firm, which was created in May 2010 through a combination of Washington DC-based Hogan & Hartson and London's Lovells.

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  • May 24, 2011 |

    Simmons set to recruit team of finance partners from BLP

    Simmons & Simmons is set to recruit a team of finance partners from Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP). The team is believed to include John Hayward and Mark Waghorn, with three further partners understood to be in discussions to follow the pair to Simmons. BLP has confirmed that Hayward and Waghorn have left the firm.

    1 minute read

  • May 18, 2011 |

    Nomura in senior UBS hire as Morgan Stanley names new EMEA GC

    Nomura has hired UBS global co-general counsel David Graham to take up a new senior legal role in London. Graham will join Nomura this summer in the new role of head of legal and GC for the bank's global wholesale division.

    1 minute read

  • May 13, 2011 |

    SJB eyes real estate finance hires as partner seals Australia return

    SJ Berwin is looking to rebuild in real estate finance ahead of the departure of City partner Nathan Briner, who is moving to an Australian corporate and private client firm. Briner, an Australian native who joined the UK top 20 firm in 1998 and made partner in 2005, is leaving in August to join Arnold Bloch Leibler's Sydney office after deciding to return to his home country.

    1 minute read

  • May 11, 2011 |

    The greatest resource: how online crowd-sourcing could unlock huge benefits for in-house teams

    Anyone with responsibility for looking after small children in either a personal or professional capacity will know that life becomes easier for both the carer and the child once they learn how to share, in particular how to 'share nicely'. Eventually this develops into a desire to swap as well as share. I currently observe this with my own children's obsession in trading Match Attax cards (other brands of football cards or stickers are available). And heading straight into the lazy, simplistic, but true analogy, life is easier for lawyers, too, when we share with each other.

    1 minute read

  • May 5, 2011 |

    Ashurst rebuilds US securities team with ex-Linklaters veterans

    Ashurst has moved to rebuild its US securities practice in London after all three partners in the group handed in their notice earlier this year. The top 10 City law firm has hired two partners for the team - Linklaters corporate finance partner Ray Fisher, who is currently based in the magic circle firm's New York office, and Jennifer Schneck, who left Linklaters' London office in 2009. Both joined Ashurst this week.

    1 minute read

  • April 12, 2011 |

    Linklaters and CC set for roles on landmark $10bn-plus Glencore IPO

    Linklaters and Clifford Chance (CC) are in line to take lead roles on commodities trader Glencore's planned initial public offering (IPO), which is set to value the company at around $60bn ($36.7bn). The offering, likely to become the largest ever in London, will see the Swiss-based company sell a 20% stake worth between $10bn (£6.1bn) and $12bn (£7.3bn).

    1 minute read

  • April 8, 2011 |

    Davis Polk votes in Scot as firm's first-ever non-US managing partner

    Davis Polk & Wardwell has announced that corporate head Thomas Reid has been elected managing partner of the US firm, reports The Am Law Daily. Reid, who was born in Kircaldy in Scotland, is the first managing partner in Davis Polk's history born outside the US. He attended the University of Edinburgh School of Law and Columbia Law School.

    1 minute read