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  • December 19, 2008 |

    2008: A year in review

    Legalweek.com covered all of the big stories of 2008. Here's a selection of some of the website's most-read stories of the year.

    1 minute read

  • December 16, 2008 |

    CC unveils new head of Washington DC office

    Clifford Chance has named litigator David DiBari as its new Washington DC managing partner. DiBari will take charge of the 11-partner and 50 fee earner office, working closely with regional managing partner Craig Medwick.He replaces former head Leiv Blad, who left the firm in November with two other lawyers for Bingham McCutchen. Since Blad's departure, Medwick has managed both the Washington and New York offices.

    1 minute read

  • December 14, 2008 |

    Restructuring round-up: the happy holidays edition

    Looking for some seasonal cheer? One might be hard-pressed to find it in this economy, unless of course you're a bankruptcy lawyer. The long-awaited 'tidal…

    1 minute read

  • December 11, 2008 | International Edition

    Leading legal figures review effectiveness of Law Society

    A group of high-profile legal figures including Linklaters senior partner David Cheyne and Simmons & Simmons managing partner Mark Dawkins have questioned the effectiveness of the Law Society as a single regulator. The issue is one of a number raised in the first - and only - report from the Government's high-level Professional Services Global Competitiveness Group, which is expected to be released later this month.The group, which also includes Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom European managing partner Bruce Buck and Clifford Chance senior partner Stuart Popham, as well as senior members of the accounting profession, was appointed in September to champion the professional services sector and come up with recommendations to ensure that the UK is not at a competitive disadvantage to other countries.

    1 minute read

  • December 11, 2008 |

    Cross-border M&A team of the year

    Cross-border deals are arguably the ultimate test for today's global law firm and this award - a new category - attracted heavyweight entries. Linklaters fought off intense competition to take the prize, thanks in no small part to its role advising Royal Bank of Scotland on its consortium acquisition of ABN Amro. Although the deal may have turned sour for the client, it was nevertheless the largest takeover in financial services history and a supreme test of Linklaters' ability to deliver multi-jurisdictional advice. The firm fielded some 400 lawyers across 24 offices to seal the transaction, which was the most prominent among a series of headline-making deals.

    1 minute read

  • December 11, 2008 |

    Anheuser-Busch and InBev overhaul legal teams

    Anheuser-Busch InBev has overhauled its internal legal function in the wake of the merger that has established it as the world's largest brewer. The company has combined the legal teams from Anheuser-Busch and InBev, which completed their $52bn (£36bn) union last month (18 November), creating a single 250-strong legal group.

    1 minute read

  • December 11, 2008 |

    Leading legal figures review effectiveness of Law Society

    A group of high-profile legal figures including Linklaters senior partner David Cheyne and Simmons & Simmons managing partner Mark Dawkins have questioned the effectiveness of the Law Society as a single regulator. The issue is one of a number raised in the first - and only - report from the Government's high-level Professional Services Global Competitiveness Group, which is expected to be released later this month.The group, which also includes Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom European managing partner Bruce Buck and Clifford Chance senior partner Stuart Popham, as well as senior members of the accounting profession, was appointed in September to champion the professional services sector and come up with recommendations to ensure that the UK is not at a competitive disadvantage to other countries.

    1 minute read

  • December 10, 2008 |

    Skadden boosts Moscow with partner relocation

    Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom is boosting its Russia practice with the relocation of a senior corporate partner from London to Moscow. Linda Davies is set to transfer to the region in the new year, becoming the third partner on the ground in the Russian capital. Davies will join Alexey Kiyashko and Dmitri Kovalenko as full-time partners in the office, with two further partners - Pranav Trivedi and Richard Muglia - splitting their time between London and Moscow.

    1 minute read

  • December 10, 2008 |

    Behind the veil

    On Monday, January 21, 2008, back when extreme stock volatility was still a novelty, world equity markets plunged 6% with no full explanation apparent. Then, on Thursday, the mystery abated when at least a partial explanation for the sell-off appeared. The French bank Societe Generale (Soc Gen) announced that a young trader named Jerome Kerviel had somehow, without the bank noticing, bet A50bn that stock markets would rise. Soc Gen had spent the past few days desperately selling his positions - and set a new standard for rogue trading losses at A6.4bn. Hit by scandal and a potential legal mess, Soc Gen did what plenty of other rich and powerful French institutions would do in such a situation: It hired Jean Veil.

    1 minute read

  • December 10, 2008 |

    Italy: Jostling for position

    Italian lawyers have a history of finding international law firms as unpalatable as a drop of cream in their afternoon coffee. Allen & Overy, Clifford Chance, Linklaters, McDermott Will & Emery, and White & Case all bear the marks of high-profile partner departures, failed mergers, and collapsed alliances in Italy. Most have struggled to challenge the hegemony of the elite independent Italian practices, led by the trio of Bonelli Erede Pappalardo, Chiomenti Studio Legale, and Gianni, Origoni, Grippo & Partners. But for Latham & Watkins and Linklaters, history is no barrier to entry. Throughout 2007, both firms announced ambitious raids on Italian firms to launch outposts focused, at least initially, on winning high-end corporate and finance work. Linklaters made a series of hires from Allen & Overy and local practices Pedersoli e Associati, Bonelli and Camozzi Bonissoni Varrenti e Associati to build an eight-partner team of corporate, finance, and capital markets lawyers. In one fell swoop, Latham took a five-partner team from Bonelli, giving the firm its first Italian-qualified lawyers, split between Milan and Rome, to augment a US and English-qualified team of Italian specialists in London and Brussels.

    1 minute read