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  • February 23, 2011 |

    Skadden mourns death of name partner and M&A pioneer Joe Flom

    Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom is mourning the passing of veteran New York corporate partner Joe Flom, who died this morning at the age of 87. Flom joined Skadden as the firm's first associate in 1948 and went on to become one of the most well-known corporate lawyers in the US during a career spanning six decades. He helped guide Skadden from a four-lawyer practice to a global law firm with 2,000 lawyers.

    1 minute read

  • February 22, 2011 |

    A&O and Skadden take top roles on Shell's $1bn Africa shareholding sale

    Allen & Overy (A&O) and Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom have won the lead mandates on Shell's $1bn (£617m) sale of parts of its African business. The deal, which comes as Shell moves to sell off non-core operations, will see oil trader Vitol and private equity firm Helios Investment Partners acquire the majority of Shell's shareholdings in its downstream businesses in Africa.

    1 minute read

  • February 22, 2011 |

    The Global 100: The tracks of my tiers

    Once again, it's merger-talk season. There was a flurry of activity last year that culminated in the various Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal, Norton Rose and Squire Sanders & Dempsey transoceanic combinations. They were notable because they all opted to organise as Swiss vereins rather than single-profit sharing partnerships, and all were motivated, at least in part, by a desire to get bigger so they could compete for work and talent that was waiting for those firms that, well, got bigger. The wooing continues. Consultants log George Clooney-esque air miles trying to complete promising law firm mergers. And partners seek to convince themselves either that they're not being acquired or that an acquisition is necessary to have a chance at becoming one of the Select 17 (or whatever) who will stand astride the known world, someday really soon.

    1 minute read

  • February 22, 2011 |

    Renaissance man - Ashar Qureshi on quitting Cleary for a senior banking role

    "People are realising that a single event - even a major one - isn't enough to throw emerging markets off course anymore," remarks Ashar Qureshi, vice chairman of Renaissance Group, the Russia-based investment bank specialising in investments in the CIS and Africa. "Take Egypt, where we have investments and trade securities," he continues. "Despite the crisis, stocks in companies based there haven't shown the fragility many assumed they would." Qureshi's involvement with emerging markets work dates back to the early 1990s, when he was drafted onto the privatisation of Mexican telecoms company Telmex as a junior associate in Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton's New York office. "Emerging markets comes naturally to me. Maybe it's something to do with being brought up in Pakistan," he says. His specialism in this area gathered pace when, aged 27, he left the Big Apple to take up a role in Cleary's highly-regarded London capital markets team.

    1 minute read

  • February 18, 2011 |

    Davis Polk plans Sao Paulo launch as law firms continue to flock to Brazil

    Davis Polk & Wardwell has announced plans to establish a Brazil office later this year, reports The Am Law Daily. The office, the US firm's 10th around the world, could open as early as the middle of the year, though the date is subject to approval by Brazilian authorities. The announcement comes three months after Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton announced its intention to open in Sao Paulo.

    1 minute read

  • February 15, 2011 |

    IPO outlook - finely balanced but still tipping the wrong way

    Equity capital markets (ECM) lawyers eyeing up another year of uncertainty must be wondering which will win out in 2011: irresistible force or immovable object? On one hand, you have the building pressure to tap the equity markets from the growing queue of companies that have been put off braving the market for more than two years thanks to tough market conditions. In theory, at some point issuers with solid stories for investors must accept that there will be no quick return to rosy valuations and just get on with it.

    1 minute read

  • February 11, 2011 |

    The $10m question - how long can partner comp buck the global pay race?

    Feeling light on inspiration, I'm indebted to The Wall Street Journal and Adam Smith, Esq for giving me something to get my teeth into with a prominent piece this week from The Journal. The article charts the dramatic increase in the size of pay packages being offered to star US partners and the related widening of the gap between for partners, citing top-end packages in the $10m (£6.3m) region against $640,000 (£405,000) for the water-carriers. Interesting nuggets in the article include the fact that Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom last year widened the range between top and bottom-earners, while the wide pay range is also highlighted at firms as disparate at Hogan Lovells, K&L Gates and DLA Piper. Packages for top partners cited include deals of $6m (£4m) at DLA Piper in the US and $8m (£5m) at Kirkland & Ellis. The Journal's claim is that the most sought-after rainmakers now often earn eight to 10 times that of the lowest-paid equity earners within the same firm.

    1 minute read

  • February 8, 2011 |

    BoA Merrill and Credit Agricole unveil coveted legal panels

    A raft of City law firms have won places as Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BoA Merrill) and Credit Agricole finalise their legal panels. BoA Merrill has appointed UK firms including Allen & Overy, Linklaters and Clifford Chance (CC) to its first new legal panel since the two banks merged in January 2009.

    1 minute read

  • February 2, 2011 |

    Skadden secures BP-Rosneft injunction victory for Russian oligarchs

    Skadden has won victory for a group of TNK-BP shareholders by obtaining an injunction to halt BP's alliance with Russian oil giant Rosneft. The US firm's litigation and arbitration head David Kavanagh and disputes associate Adam Baradon advised the Alfa-Access-Renova (AAR) consortium, which owns 50% of joint venture TNK-BP, on its efforts to block the planned Rosneft partnership. The AAR group, a longstanding client of Skadden, represents the interests of a group of Russian oligarchs.

    1 minute read

  • January 28, 2011 |

    Linklaters and Skadden advise on high-stakes BP-Rosneft injunction

    Linklaters is advising BP on a high-stakes dispute after Russian shareholders of the UK company's local joint venture (JV) TNK-BP launched a claim to halt BP's planned alliance with Russian oil giant Rosneft. Linklaters London head of litigation Michael Bennett was instructed to advise BP, after the billionaire shareholders who make up the Alfa-Access-Renova (AAR) consortium that owns 50% of TNK-BP filed for an injunction in the High Court earlier this week to block the planned Rosneft partnership.

    1 minute read