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  • July 21, 2010 |

    Financial regulation: Hunting the hunter

    The FSA is to be broken up as part of a huge shake-up of regulation by the new Government - despite strong misgivings from City professionals. Alex Aldridge charts the watchdog's rise and fall and looks at the new bodies that will replace it

    1 minute read

  • July 15, 2010 |

    Cleary and Shearman sign off deal double on HSBC securities offers

    Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton and Shearman & Sterling have lined up on a series of finance deals for banking giant HSBC. The most recent deal saw HSBC offer $2bn (£1.3bn) worth of senior notes with a five-year term, with regular adviser Cleary instructed to provide UK, US and Russian law advice. Moscow-based corporate partner David Gottlieb led the team, assisted by associate Blake Klein.

    1 minute read

  • July 14, 2010 |

    Second acts: Dentons-Sonnenschein tie-up offers a chance for reinvention

    The upcoming union of Denton Wilde Sapte and Sonnenschein offers two firms that have suffered their fair share of setbacks a chance to reinvent themselves for the global legal market. Sofia Lind and Alex Novarese ask if the deal can help the pair to galvanize their businesses

    1 minute read

  • July 13, 2010 |

    Simmons appoints Middle East finance chief as former head returns to London

    Simmons & Simmons has appointed a new Middle East finance head as City partner Philip Abbott returns to London after his secondment to the region. The Middle East financial markets group will now be overseen by Qatar partner Samer Eido, who has been at Simmons since 2005 and is based in the Doha office. Eido's practice is focused on general banking law, corporate lending, trade finance, real estate finance, debt restructuring and refinancing with a focus on conventional and Islamic structured finance. He also advises on capital markets.

    1 minute read

  • July 8, 2010 |

    Blackstone recruits Simpson Thacher M&A partner as new top lawyer

    Private equity fund The Blackstone Group has appointed a new top lawyer with the hire of John Finley, the co-chair of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett's M&A group, reports The Am Law Daily. Notable transactions that Finley has worked on in recent years at Simpson Thacher include representing Lehman Brothers on the sale of its North American operations to Barclays and Mars's $23.1bn (£15.3bn) leveraged buyout-style purchase of chewing gum manufacturer Wrigley.

    1 minute read

  • July 7, 2010 |

    Bakers targets City banking work with new key client strategy

    Baker & McKenzie has overhauled its London banking strategy to focus on 15 key clients as the firm looks to raise its profile in the sector. The international firm has identified approximately 15 UK and international banking clients with which it wants to strengthen relationships and cross-sell into other departments at the firm.

    1 minute read

  • July 2, 2010 |

    Morgan Stanley recruits Cravath litigation partner for top legal job

    Morgan Stanley has recruited long-serving Cravath Swaine & Moore partner Francis Barron as its new chief legal officer, reports The Am Law Daily. Barron, who has spent 32 years at Cravath, is the third partner to leave the US firm for an in-house role in the last three months.

    1 minute read

  • June 29, 2010 |

    Iberian plateau

    "I am really confident in the medium and long-term prospects for the Spanish economy." So concluded the head of the International Monetary Fund, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, adding that Spain - the fifth largest economy in the eurozone and the ninth largest in the world - is "in a rather good situation" economically. He was speaking on 18 June after a meeting in Madrid with Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.

    1 minute read

  • June 25, 2010 |

    Slaughters and A&O check out for Ocado IPO

    Slaughter and May and Allen & Overy (A&O) have taken a lead role as online grocer Ocado looks to go public. Slaughters is taking the lead for the retailer, which is offering employees and all customers who have spent more than £300 with Ocado since the beginning of the year the chance to invest, in addition to institutional investors.

    1 minute read

  • June 22, 2010 |

    Herbert Smith wins role on landmark Chinese bank IPO

    Herbert Smith has won a role on what is set to be the world's largest-ever initial public offering (IPO) as the Agricultural Bank of China (AgBank) gears up to go public. The UK top 10 law firm is advising the underwriting banks on the landmark listing, which was initially valued at as much as $30bn (£20.2bn), although market estimates have since been tempered by a drop in China's stock market, with a figure of $23bn (£15.5bn) now thought to be more likely.

    1 minute read