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  • January 25, 2011 | International Edition

    Government legal spending - many names, same old problems

    No matter what awful name the Government's centralised panel for external legal services is currently going by, complaints about it from those on the roster have for years remained awfully consistent: it's far too unwieldy and work is not handed out evenly. Even so, the latest figures make for startling reading, demonstrating that criticism levelled by panel firms is in many instances justified. In addition to highlighting the huge discrepancy between what individual firms are receiving from the panel, the data - covered in more depth on page 6 - demonstrates the extent to which large City firms have been moving into territory that would previously have been the preserve of smaller London and regional rivals.

    1 minute read

  • January 25, 2011 |

    Government legal spending - many names, same old problems

    No matter what awful name the Government's centralised panel for external legal services is currently going by, complaints about it from those on the roster have for years remained awfully consistent: it's far too unwieldy and work is not handed out evenly. Even so, the latest figures make for startling reading, demonstrating that criticism levelled by panel firms is in many instances justified. In addition to highlighting the huge discrepancy between what individual firms are receiving from the panel, the data - covered in more depth on page 6 - demonstrates the extent to which large City firms have been moving into territory that would previously have been the preserve of smaller London and regional rivals.

    1 minute read

  • January 25, 2011 |

    Russia and Ukraine: Happily single?

    It was a grim morning in November 2008 when Andrey Goltsblat, managing partner of leading Russian law firm Pepeliaev Goltsblat & Partners (PGP), set out for one of the most difficult meetings of his 20-year career. Moscow was already deep in the grip of winter, the streets buried beneath inches of snow. But it wasn't the weather that troubled Goltsblat as he arrived at the firm's premises and headed to the office he shared with Sergey Pepeliaev, the firm's senior partner. Goltsblat had a dramatic announcement to make: he was leaving the business they'd spent the last two decades building together. And he was taking half the firm with him. Neither man will talk about exactly what was said in that meeting - Pepeliaev would only describe his reaction as "appropriate" - but it's safe to say that Goltsblat's news didn't go down well. In one fell swoop, nine partners and a full 70 lawyers - PGP's entire corporate practice and the firm's heads of real estate, dispute resolution and employment - left to join UK firm Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP).

    1 minute read

  • January 19, 2011 |

    Freshfields and FFW top £6m in billings from Whitehall super-panel

    Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer was the top-billing law firm last year under the Government panel designed to centralise Whitehall's legal spending, according to figures obtained by Legal Week through a freedom of information request. The magic circle law firm received £6.25m during the last financial year from the legal services framework according to figures released by the Office of Government Commerce agency, Buying Solutions - around 14% of the Government's total £44.8m spend through the panel.

    1 minute read

  • January 19, 2011 |

    Eversheds brings in Pinsent Masons head of fraud for Birmingham disputes practice

    Eversheds has expanded its disputes team in Birmingham with the hire of Pinsent Masons' head of fraud, Mark Surguy. Surguy joined the national firm last week (10 January) as a partner in the commercial dispute resolution group from local rival Pinsents, where he was a legal director and head of the fraud group.

    1 minute read

  • January 18, 2011 |

    Freshfields and Cravath win roles as medical co makes £7bn takeover bid

    Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Cravath Swaine & Moore have picked up lead roles on US medical giant Johnson & Johnson's attempted £7bn bid for Smith & Nephew. Freshfields has been fielding a team led by corporate partners Barry O'Brien and Ben Spiers advising longstanding client Smith & Nephew, which has not formally confirmed or denied this month's reported takeover approach.

    1 minute read

  • January 18, 2011 |

    SNR Denton advises on £300m Thames Water outsource deal

    SNR Denton has advised London's main water distributor Thames Water on a £300m deal that will see it outsource all of its metering services. The 10-year contract will see Vennsys - a consortium led by Veolia Water UK - handle all of the meter readings and meter installation for Thames Water.

    1 minute read

  • January 13, 2011 |

    How CEOs assess the performance of their lawyers; or why it's good to say thanks for the coffee

    Let's ignore the irony that this post about assessment of lawyers' performance is written by a lawyer shall we? Yes? Good. Last week I attended the Pinsent Masons Atlas Retreat. Chatham House rules prevents me from sourcing the origin of this post, who was an ex-lawyer, ex-chair of board, ex-company director, ex-superhero etc. Let's call him in a pedantic lawyer-defined term kind of way, 'the Speaker'. The Speaker was here, so we thought, to talk about how CEOs assess the performance of their lawyers.

    1 minute read

  • January 12, 2011 |

    Drax Power promotes new GC as it looks to expand external roster

    Drax Power has promoted senior in-house counsel Kavita Singh to general counsel, with a remit to increase its roster of external law firms as the company expands internationally and to oversee the planned development of three biomass power stations with Siemens. Singh takes over at the helm of the nine-lawyer in-house team from Philip Hudson, who will now serve as director of corporate affairs following a management reshuffle.

    1 minute read

  • January 12, 2011 |

    Seven law firms cited among UK's top 100 gay-friendly employers

    Seven law firms have been included in this year's Workplace Equality Index compiled by gay rights charity Stonewall, with Simmons & Simmons topping the rankings for the second year in a row. The index, which ranks the top 100 gay-friendly employers in the UK, included Simmons & Simmons in 19th place, down from its 15th-place ranking last year. Other firms to be featured in the rankings include Baker & McKenzie, Eversheds, Herbert Smith, Hogan Lovells, Irwin Mitchell and Pinsent Masons.

    1 minute read