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  • October 2, 2013 |

    HSF ramps up in Australia with hires from Bakers, Norton Rose Fulbright

    Herbert Smith Freehills has ramped up in Australia with the hire of two new partners. Corporate partner David Ryan joins the Sydney team from Baker & McKenzie, whilst finance partner David Lyons has moved to HSF in Brisbane from Norton Rose Fulbright. Ryan was global head of mining and metals with Bakers, and had a strong energy and resources practice focusing on M&A in the electricity and gas sector. He will continue to concentrate on M&A and offer more general commercial advice in his new role.

    1 minute read

  • September 30, 2013 |

    Burges Salmon advises as Europe's largest tidal power generation project gets go-ahead

    Burges Salmon has helped secure consent for the largest tidal power generation project to have gained approval in Europe. The firm has advised MyGen - a joint venture between investment bank Morgan Stanley (45%), GDF SUEZ (45%) and tidal technology provider Atlantis Resources Corporation (10%) - on the 86MW Phase 1 Pentland Firth tidal generation development, which was given approval earlier this month.

    1 minute read

  • September 30, 2013 |

    CMS partner appointed as new lord mayor of the City of London

    CMS Cameron McKenna energy partner Fiona Woolf has been appointed Lord Mayor of the City of London. Woolf was elected today as the 686th Lord Mayor but only the second female holder of the post in its 800-year history.

    1 minute read

  • September 26, 2013 |

    UK duo take top roles on creation of world's biggest solar power plant

    Ashurst and Norton Rose Fulbright have landed key roles on the creation of the world's largest solar power plant, which is under construction in Ouarzazate, Morocco. Ashurst advised the project company ACWA Power on the development and financing of the first phase of the programme, with a team led by energy partner David Wadham and finance partner James Coiley. ACWA Power will sell the plant's output to the Moroccan Agency for Solar Energy (Masen) under a 25-year power purchase agreement. Masen currently owns 25% of ACWA Power. Norton Rose Fulbright advised Masen, with global head of energy Simon Currie taking the lead role.

    1 minute read

  • September 26, 2013 |

    HSF set to overhaul partner pay in post-merger shake-up

    Herbert Smith Freehills is set to introduce a merit-based element to partner pay as part of its post-merger restructuring, in a clear departure from legacy Herbert Smith's rigid eight-year lockstep. The system will take into account a number of factors including financial performance and business development, engagement with staff, client servicing and contribution to the success of others, bringing the firm closer to merger partner Freehills' system, which is more heavily linked to individual performance. The new 'balanced scorecard' system has been given the go-ahead by management and comes as proposals on the wider remuneration structure are due to be put to partners.

    1 minute read

  • September 26, 2013 |

    Action plan shows human rights breaches are still a serious legal risk for UK companies

    On 4 September 2013, the UK Government became the first to release a national action plan to implement the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. The plan follows the European Commission's appeal, as part of its policy on corporate social responsibility, for EU member states to develop national action plans to implement the Guiding Principles by the end of 2013. The principles were formulated by Professor John Ruggie, the former Special Representative of the UN Secretary General for Business and Human Rights, and recognise, through a "protect, respect and remedy" framework, that: states have a legal duty to protect against human rights abuses; businesses have a responsibility to comply with applicable laws and respect human rights; and effective remedies are needed for victims of human rights abuses.

    1 minute read

  • September 26, 2013 |

    AIG appoints 25 firms following EMEA legal panel review

    Linklaters, Mayer Brown and Travers Smith are among a clutch of 25 firms to have won places on AIG's legal panel, as the insurance group announces the creation of a new centre to manage its EMEA legal advisers. Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and US headquartered firms Morrison & Foerster and Chadbourne & Parke have also taken places on the panel , which covers its claims and corporate legal panels for the UK and its nine largest European operations.

    1 minute read

  • 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