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  • February 4, 2011 |

    Pinsents signs up Winston & Strawn Bootlaw bloggers for London office

    Pinsent Masons has boosted its regulatory capabilities ahead of the implementation of the Bribery Act with the hire of Winston & Strawn partner Barry Vitou. Vitou joined the UK firm's London office as a partner earlier this week from the City arm of Winston, where he headed up the regulatory and technology practice. He will work closely with Pinsents' outsourcing technology and commercial group head Clive Seddon.

    1 minute read

  • February 1, 2011 |

    Pinsents and LG strengthen London practices with one partner hire apiece

    LG and Pinsent Masons have expanded their respective partner ranks with two hires in the City. Pinsents has appointed Virginie Colaiuta as a partner in its international arbitration team in London. She joins from the Paris arm of US firm Hughes Hubbard & Reed.

    1 minute read

  • January 31, 2011 |

    Linklaters secures lead role for Carlyle on £450m buyout

    Linklaters has secured a lead corporate role for The Carlyle Group on the buyout giant's £450m acquisition of Integrated Dental Holdings (IDH). The City law firm was instructed to advise Carlyle on the acquisition of IDH from the buyout division of Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Linklaters fielded a team under private equity head Ian Bagshaw, finance partner Brian Gray and competition specialist Nicole Kar.

    1 minute read

  • January 26, 2011 |

    Official figures reveal top public buyers of law

    Sixteen Government departments racked up legal fees of more than £1m each over the last three years through the panel designed to centralise Whitehall legal spend, with JobCentre Plus emerging as the biggest spender. The data, obtained by Legal Week through a Freedom of Information Act request, shows JobCentre Plus spent just under £11m in legal fees through the Government's legal services framework panel.

    1 minute read

  • 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