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  • May 6, 2009 |

    Litigation support and e-discovery: Sooner rather than later

    The English Civil Procedure Rules (CPR) were amended in 2005 to give more clarity in respect of electronic discovery (ED), yet it was some three years later before a substantive judgment was given in this area. In Digicel v Cable & Wireless, Mr Justice Morgan highlighted the fact that the parties had not conducted a case management conference to address the subject of ED - as defined in the revised CPR 31. Clearly, most of the issues in the case should have been discussed and resolved at this stage rather than in court.The legal team spent 6,700 hours systematically reviewing around 1,140,000 electronic documents and emails. They determined that about 5,200 were relevant at a cost of around £2m. Mr Justice Morgan determined that "the rules do not require that no stone should be left unturned. This may mean that a relevant document, even 'a smoking gun' is not found. This attitude is justified by considerations of proportionality".

    1 minute read

  • May 6, 2009 |

    An evening with corporate counsel

    Last week a group of leading senior in-house and general counsel gathered at the Renaissance Chancery Court Hotel, central London, to discuss some of the critical issues currently facing in-house legal departments.The underlying theme of the discussion was the shifting role of corporate counsel, not to mention mounting workloads in the light of global economic turmoil. Other issues on the agenda included the strengthening of the corporate counsel role within company hierarchies, team management and handling of tough cost constraints. Below is the pick of the evening's debate.

    1 minute read

  • April 29, 2009 |

    Charles Russell wins role on £900m mining listing

    Charles Russell has won a role opposite Norton Rose and Linklaters advising on the main market listing of newly-merged company Peter Hambro Mining (PHM) for nearly £900m. Charles Russell corporate partner Alexander Keepin advised JP Morgan Cazenove and Canaccord Adams as joint sponsors to Russia's secondlargest gold producer PHM on its listing on the London Stock Exchange.

    1 minute read

  • April 29, 2009 |

    Skadden and Norton Rose secure $3bn energy sale in Kazakhstan

    Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom has landed a role advising on two acquisitions in Kazakhstan thought to be worth about $3bn (£2.06bn) in total. The New York leader advised Kazakhstan's largest privately-owned oil company, JSC MangistauMunaiGaz (MMG) and its holding company Central Asia Petroleum (CAP) on the sale of a 100% stake in MMG to Mangistau Investments - a joint venture between China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) and KazMunaiGas (KMG).

    1 minute read

  • April 22, 2009 |

    Faegre set for German closure with 15 laid off at 'distressed practice'

    Faegre & Benson has announced plans to exit Germany, with the US firm's Frankfurt office to be closed down later this year.The closure will result in 15 lawyers, including seven partners, being laid off. The decision to close the office, which covered corporate, real estate, employment, dispute resolution and trademark law, was made at the beginning of the month, with Frankfurt staff informed on 3 April.

    1 minute read

  • April 17, 2009 |

    Top firms line up on Glaxo/Pfizer AIDS treatment JV

    A raft of City firms have landed roles advising pharmaceutical giants Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) on a joint venture that will see the creation of a new HIV and AIDS treatment company. Allen & Overy (A&O), Slaughter and May, Clifford Chance (CC), Jones Day and Morgan Lewis & Bockius have all won instructions on the deal, which will see the drug companies merge their treatment companies into one entity.Slaughters was instructed by GSK as lead counsel, fielding a team led by M&A partners David Johnson and Simon Nicholls. Johnson and Nicholls provided corporate advice, alongside intellectual property (IP) partner Susie Middlemiss, tax partner Steve Edge, competition partner Bertrand Louveaux, and employment partner Sandeep Maudgil.

    1 minute read

  • April 2, 2009 |

    Faegre boosts London arm with Crowell & Moring double partner hire

    Faegre & Benson has bolstered its London corporate practice with the hire of two partners and a special counsel from Crowell & Moring. Paul Finlan, who previously headed Crowell's London office, and fellow partner Gary Laitner joined the firm as partners last month (23 March) with their colleague Linda Crow joining as special counsel.Finlan and Laitner had been at Crowell since 2005 when they were brought in to kick-start the practice from Pinsent Masons. At Pinsents they were two of the national firm's most senior partners.

    1 minute read

  • April 1, 2009 |

    Pinsents, Simmons and MoFo line up for £340m placing as SIG moves to cut debt

    Pinsent Masons, Simmons & Simmons and Morrison & Foerster have won lead roles on a £341.3m fundraising as building materials company SIG moves to cut its debt burden. Sheffield-based SIG is raising money in order to pay off creditors and avoid breaching loan agreements, making additional shares available to existing shareholders as well as on open offer.

    1 minute read

  • April 1, 2009 |

    Professional negligence: Courage under fire

    Recent media stories suggest that the current recession will trigger a huge increase in disputes, including claims against lawyers. And the legal profession is itself concerned - a recent risk management survey sponsored by Marsh of the UK's top 100 law firms indicates 79% of respondents believe that the downturn increases the risks faced by their firm, including that of clients looking to apportion blame, other key perceived recessionary risks being bad debts, credit problems and increased regulatory burden.

    1 minute read

  • March 30, 2009 |

    Freshfields leads on Morgan Stanley Japan tie-up

    Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Sullivan & Cromwell have taken lead roles on the merger of the Japanese securities units of Morgan Stanley and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), a deal which will form the third-largest brokerage in the country. Freshfields acted for Morgan Stanley, with a team led by Tokyo-based partners James Lawden, Naoki Kinami, James Wood, Junzaburo Kiuchi and Kazuki Okada. The US bank had previously instructed Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz on its $9bn (£6.4bn) sale of a 20% stake to MUFG shortly after the collapse of Lehman Brothers last September. MUFG turned to Sullivan for advice on the merger - the same firm its used on the Morgan stake purchase.

    1 minute read