• May 30, 2007 |

    Bank of Beijing IPO generates trophy mandates but lawyers wary of Hong Kong listing threat

    A raft of firms including DLA Piper and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer are in line to bag roles on the Bank of Beijing's initial public offering (IPO) - the latest of the Chinese state-owned banks to go public.

    1 minute read

  • May 23, 2007 |

    Bingham hires Shearman counsel for City finance

    Bingham McCutchen has hired Shearman & Sterling counsel Elisabeth Baltay as a partner in its London finance practice. Baltay, who is UK-qualified, has experience in international structured finance deals as well as restructurings, public-to-private financings, projects and secured syndicated corporate lending. She joins projects partner Stephen Peppiatt, who also quit Shearman to join Bingham's local finance practice last October.

    1 minute read

  • May 23, 2007 |

    Shearman, BLP and Milbank lead on record Saudi utilities project

    Shearman & Sterling, Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy and Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) have signed a $2.8bn (£1.42bn) financing agreement for the world's largest independent water and power plant (IWPP) - the $3.5bn (1.77bn) Marafiq project in Saudi Arabia.

    1 minute read

  • May 22, 2007 |

    Manhattan duo lead GE's $12bn plastics sale

    Weil Gotshal & Manges and Shearman & Sterling have bagged lead roles on the sale by General Electric (GE) of its plastics business to Saudi Basic Industries in a $11.6bn (£5.9bn) deal. Shearman advised the buyer, with firm co-managing partner John Madden and New York-based corporate partner Stephen Besen leading the team acting on behalf of Saudi.

    1 minute read

  • May 17, 2007 |

    Top firms to cash in as L-Cat ups spend again

    Government spending through its much-vaunted L-Cat super-panel has increased for the fourth year running as Whitehall presses on with a drive to centralise its legal procurement. Provisional figures obtained by Legal Week from the Office for Government Commerce (OGC) show £14.5m in fees has been paid out to the 33-firm panel during the last 12 months - a rise of 10% on £13.3m last year. The increase is a more modest result than the previous year, which saw annual spending rocket by 100%.

    1 minute read

  • May 16, 2007 |

    Three more City firms bulk up NQ salaries to match rivals

    Lovells, Simmons & Simmons and Nabarro are the latest firms to increase newly-qualified salaries to meet the new City benchmark. The increases, effective from 1 May, take Lovells' and Simmons' newly-qualified salaries from £55,000 to £63,500 - joining Clifford Chance, Slaughter and May and Norton Rose at that rate. Nabarro has increased its newly-qualifed rate to around £62,500.

    1 minute read

  • May 14, 2007 | International Edition

    Lovells hikes NQ pay to £63,500 to match CC

    Lovells has become the latest City firm to up its associate salaries, with the top 10 UK outfit boosting its rate for newly-qualified lawyers by 15% to £63,500. The hike is Lovells' second pay-rise for newly-qualified lawyers in the last year, having raised salaries from last May's £53,000 to a new mark of £55,000 in November.

    1 minute read

  • May 14, 2007 |

    Lovells hikes NQ pay to £63,500 to match CC

    Lovells has become the latest City firm to up its associate salaries, with the top 10 UK outfit boosting its rate for newly-qualified lawyers by 15% to £63,500. The hike is Lovells' second pay-rise for newly-qualified lawyers in the last year, having raised salaries from last May's £53,000 to a new mark of £55,000 in November.

    1 minute read

  • May 14, 2007 |

    Schulte Roth joins NY giants on Chrysler sale

    New York outfit Schulte Roth & Zabel has bagged a lead role alongside Milbank Tweed Hadley McCloy, Shearman & Sterling and Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom on Cerberus' acquisition of DaimlerChrysler's Chrysler division in a €5.5bn (£3.8bn) deal. Schulte Roth and Milbank are representing the US buy-out house on M&A and financing of the bid respectively, while Shearman and Skadden are representing DaimlerChrysler on the sale.

    1 minute read

  • May 11, 2007 |

    Real estate hire continues Shepherds' City push

    Shepherd & Wedderburn has underlined its ambitions in the capital with the hire of a new real estate partner for its burgeoning City arm. Elaine Colville will join the big four Scots firm at the end of this month from City outfit Taylor Wessing, where she was also a partner in the real estate division.

    1 minute read