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  • February 10, 2011 | International Edition

    The Legal Services Act - a great opportunity, but not for us

    Given the pressure to avoid being crushed by the firms above or ousted by the firms below, it is in many ways surprising that the rising 25 aren't paying more heed to the Legal Services Act (LSA) and the potential for change it could bring. To date, a limited few have expressed interest in making fundamental changes to their business, including taking advantage of outside investment permitted under the Act. While undoubtedly all firms are watchful of the LSA's impact, most are unwilling to be the sacrificial lamb that tries it first.

    1 minute read

  • February 10, 2011 |

    The Legal Services Act - a great opportunity, but not for us

    Given the pressure to avoid being crushed by the firms above or ousted by the firms below, it is in many ways surprising that the rising 25 aren't paying more heed to the Legal Services Act (LSA) and the potential for change it could bring. To date, a limited few have expressed interest in making fundamental changes to their business, including taking advantage of outside investment permitted under the Act. While undoubtedly all firms are watchful of the LSA's impact, most are unwilling to be the sacrificial lamb that tries it first.

    1 minute read

  • February 9, 2011 |

    Freshfields and A&O lead on London Stock Exchange's Canadian merger

    Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has taken a lead role advising the London Stock Exchange (LSE) on its merger with TMX Group, which owns and operates the Toronto Stock Exchange. The magic circle firm is fielding a team led by corporate partners Philip Richards and Andrew Hutchings on the deal, which will combine Europe's and Canada's leading diversified exchange groups.

    1 minute read

  • February 8, 2011 |

    Rising 25: tales of success and woe from the law firms outside the UK top 50

    Sitting just off junction nine of the M27 between Southampton and Portsmouth is the unglamorous Segensworth business park, where for the last two years Blake Lapthorn - the 60th largest law firm in the UK - has paid £450,000 to rent vacant office space. When the firm moved into New Kings Court on the outskirts of Southampton as part of a consolidation following a series of mergers, managing partner Walter Cha thought he would be able to sublet the space. But unsurprisingly, he hadn't counted on a global banking crisis and the subsequent recession. It was costs such as these that saw Blake Lapthorn's profit per equity partner (PEP) fall to just £65,000 in its 2008-09 year. Although this figure has since risen to £116,000, it is still well short of the UK top 51-75 law firm peer group average of £276,000.

    1 minute read

  • February 1, 2011 |

    Simmons names new finance head to succeed incoming managing partner

    Simmons & Simmons has appointed a successor to lead the firm's finance practice in anticipation of current head Jeremy Hoyland taking up the managing partner role as of 1 May. The top 15 City firm has appointed City-based capital markets head Jonathan Hammond to assume both the sector group head and practice group head roles currently held by Hoyland.

    1 minute read

  • February 1, 2011 |

    Morgan Cole signs Integreon deal to use shared back office centre

    Integreon has signed up another law firm to its stable of outsourcing clients with Morgan Cole the latest to take up the use of its Bristol service centre. The 340-lawyer law firm has signed a deal for Integreon to run its library and information service, joining existing clients Osborne Clarke, Beachcroft and TLT Solicitors in the use of the service centre, which now employs around 120 staff.

    1 minute read

  • January 31, 2011 |

    Wilson Sonsini and Cooley connect for roles on upcoming LinkedIn IPO

    US firms Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati and Cooley have won roles on LinkedIn's upcoming initial public offering (IPO), reports The Am Law Daily. LinkedIn, which had 90 million registered users at the end of 2010, is set to become the first of the major social networking websites to go public. However, the company did not specify a timeframe for the listing in its S-1 prospectus filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) last Thursday (27 January).

    1 minute read

  • January 21, 2011 |

    Weil Gotshal hires former Ashurst partner for London finance group

    Weil Gotshal & Manges is to strengthen its City finance practice with the hire of former Ashurst banking partner James Hogben. Hogben, who stepped down from Ashurst's partnership in March 2010, is set to join Weil next week (23 January). He specialises in general banking law and has particular expertise in cross-border leveraged finance and acquisition finance transactions. At Weil, Hogben will work alongside London finance head Jacky Kelly and structured finance partner Steven Ong.

    1 minute read

  • January 20, 2011 |

    Outward bound - can Chinese giant King & Wood join the global aristocracy?

    Wang Junfeng does not come across as an empire builder. Chatting in an office strewn with Chinese antiques in Beijing's Guomao skyscraper district, the 48-year-old chairman of Chinese law firm King & Wood sounds modest about where his firm stands relative to the big names from UK and America. "The legal society here really admires the US and UK professions," says Wang. "They have such a long history. And in the last 20 to 30 years, the foreign law firms here have really given a lot of support."

    1 minute read

  • January 18, 2011 |

    Simmons corporate team: still looking for a place of its own

    Simmons & Simmons' corporate practice has long been viewed as the struggling child in a family of high performers in finance and litigation. Ask City rivals about its corporate performance and you often you get the same answer: Simmons is a great firm full of really good lawyers, but it is inexplicably failing to translate its strengths into a more substantial corporate practice.

    1 minute read