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  • September 23, 2013 |

    The Transfer Window: recent moves including Eversheds, Bakers and OC

    Eversheds has hired Wragge & Co's head of UAE projects Gurmeet Kaur in a boost for the firm's Middle East projects team. Kaur, who will take on the same leadership role at her new firm, joined Wragges' Dubai office in 2011 from DLA Piper, where she had been a partner for three years. She will be based in Eversheds' Dubai office, and is also qualified to practise in Australia and Malaysia.

    1 minute read

  • September 19, 2013 |

    Will Dentons deliver? After a succession of mergers does Dentons add up to more than the sum of its parts?

    If this year's three-way mega-deal between SNR Denton, Salans and Canada's Fraser Milner Casgrain (FMC) still generates a large dose of scepticism among rivals, it does not seem to have knocked the confidence of the merged firm's chairman. Indeed, in an interview with Legal Week, Joe Andrew, an approachable American corporate lawyer, says that far from being the 'merger of weakness' that critics portray, his new 'polycentric' firm should be a blueprint for the world's leading legal practices.

    1 minute read

  • September 18, 2013 |

    White & Case, Norton Rose act on Indonesia's $1.5bn sukuk offering

    White & Case and Norton Rose Fulbright have advised on the Republic of Indonesia's (ROI's) latest sukuk offering of $1.5bn (£943m). This is the largest ever issuance of Shariah-compliant securities by the country, and part of a government-led initiative to boost its foreign-exchange reserves and promote Islamic finance in the region.

    1 minute read

  • September 17, 2013 |

    Webber Wentzel, A&O and Virgin Active make shortlist for African Legal Awards

    Anjarwalla & Khanna, Bowman Gilfillan and Webber Wentzel are among the entrants to be shortlisted for the title of African Law Firm of the Year as Legal Week unveils the contenders for its inaugural African Legal Awards, to be held at La Toscana Montecasino in Johannesburg on 24 October.

    1 minute read

  • September 12, 2013 | International Edition

    The home guard – the missing identity of global law firms

    If year-on-year fee increases and a buoyant M&A market imbued a certain stasis, five years of economic woes have certainly driven change through the conservative legal profession. The comparative proliferation of global giants of the ilk of Hogan Lovells, Norton Rose Fulbright and, more recently, King & Wood Mallesons SJ Berwin (KWM) serve as fine examples of the diverging market, with an increasingly international client base driving the case for cross-border mergers.

    1 minute read

  • September 12, 2013 |

    Firms set sail on Chinese bank's $1.5bn boat purchase

    Norton Rose Fulbright and Watson Farley & Williams have taken roles on the first stage of a $1.5bn (£962m) deal that has seen French oil and gas group Bourbon sell nine boats to the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC). The first phase of the sale, worth $144m (£92m), comes after a deal was drawn up by Bourbon and ICBC Financial Leasing earlier this year, which will see 51 vessels sold to the Chinese company by mid-2014.

    1 minute read

  • September 12, 2013 |

    All systems go – why IT considerations are front and centre in law firm mergers

    The recent spate of big law firm mergers has brought IT to the front and centre of strategic discussions as partners recognise how reliant on technology their work has become...

    1 minute read

  • September 12, 2013 |

    The home guard – the missing identity of global law firms

    If year-on-year fee increases and a buoyant M&A market imbued a certain stasis, five years of economic woes have certainly driven change through the conservative legal profession. The comparative proliferation of global giants of the ilk of Hogan Lovells, Norton Rose Fulbright and, more recently, King & Wood Mallesons SJ Berwin (KWM) serve as fine examples of the diverging market, with an increasingly international client base driving the case for cross-border mergers.

    1 minute read

  • September 12, 2013 |

    Government announces plans to launch planning court in 'radical' shake-up of UK justice system

    The Ministry of Justice is considering the establishment of a specialist planning court to speed up the review process for large-scale infrastructure projects, as part of a "radical" set of proposals to reform public law and speed up the economic recovery. An eight-week consultation on a raft of proposed changes to the judicial review system was announced by Justice Secretary Chris Grayling (pictured) last week, including a separate 'planning chamber' staffed by expert judges; a tighter timeframe for applications; only allowing people with a direct interest in cases to apply for judicial review; and changing the rules around who has to pay legal costs so applicants foot part of the bill.

    1 minute read

  • September 12, 2013 |

    Wall Street weighs up the world – are New York's elite committed to competing on a global level?

    In 1989, only seven million Americans owned a passport – a derisory 3% of the US population and a figure that was oft-brandished by scornful Europeans. Since then the situation has improved markedly, with a far more respectable 110 million of the country's 313 million citizens holding a valid passport at the last count. That still lags the 70% of British passport-holders, but the change shows a US that has taken up full residence in the global village – an unavoidable response to the emergence of rival economic powerhouses such as China.

    1 minute read