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  • October 13, 2008 |

    Magic circle firms head up £37bn bank bailout

    Allen & Overy, Slaughter and May and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer are among the top City firms winning roles on the UK Government's £37bn bailout of three of the country's biggest banks. Freshfields has reprised its role for longstanding client the Bank of England on the rescue plan, fielding a team under corporate partner Michael Raffan. Slaughters is acting for the Treasury on the agreement, which will lead to the Government owning around a 60% stake in Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and a stake of around 40% in the merged HBOS and Lloyds TSB.

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  • October 8, 2008 |

    Morgan Lewis makes Latham partner hire

    Morgan Lewis & Bockius has bolstered its London employment team with the hire of Christopher Hitchins as a partner from Latham & Watkins.Hitchins, who was a counsel at Latham, specialises in all aspects of employment work on cross-border M&A transactions, outsourcing and employee incentives.He is joined by an associate from DLA Piper, who will also start in the employment team. Earlier this year the firm also promoted London-based senior associate Angela Gill was promoted to of counsel in the practice.

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  • October 6, 2008 |

    Goldsmith on 'credit crunch plus' litigation

    Lord Goldsmith, the former Attorney General, was due to deliver the keynote address at last month's Legal Week Litigation Forum in London. In the event, Debevoise…

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  • October 2, 2008 |

    Fried Frank loses capital markets team to Willkie Farr in Germany

    Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson has lost the bulk of its German capital markets team to US rival Willkie Farr & Gallagher, with the hires marking the launch of Willkie Farr's capital markets practice in Frankfurt. Fried Frank's Frankfurt-based capital markets head and office co-managing partner, Michael Schlitt, joined Willkie Farr this week (1 October) with the bulk of his team of four associates expected to follow suit. Schlitt joined Fried Frank last August after seven years with Allen & Overy (A&O) where he was head of the law firm's German equity capital markets group.The departures will leave Fried Frank with only two partners in Frankfurt - corporate co-managing partners Sven Schulte-Hillen and Juergen van Kann - and a team of around eight associates. It is understood that the firm has yet to decide whether or not to rebuild its capital markets group as a result of the poor market conditions.Schlitt, who has previously worked with clients including Citi, Credit Suisse, Dresdner Kleinwort, Morgan Stanley, UBS, JPMorgan, Merrill Lynch and Allianz, becomes the sixth partner for Willkie Farr in Frankfurt.His hire means Willkie's Frankfurt office now covers four main practice areas - mainstream corporate, M&A and private equity; tax; finance and capital markets. M&A partner Jochen Winter, who joined Willkie Farr in early 2006 from Linklaters, said: "With the addition of Schlitt we now have in place the four cornerstones of our practice and can offer a project-based practice in Frankfurt built around top local practitioners, as promised to the market." Schlitt added: "I joined Willkie Farr because it is an excellent Wall Street firm with a prominent capital markets practice. I also see very high potential for synergies, especially on the private equity, public M&A and tax side."Fried Frank, which opened in Frankfurt in 2004 with Schulte-Hillen and van Kann, also has offices in London and Paris. Willkie's European coverage includes London, Paris, Milan, Rome and Brussels as well as Frankfurt.

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  • September 26, 2008 |

    US firms eye Heller talent after firm's collapse

    In the wake of Heller Ehrman's dissolution, attention will now turn to where various practice groups and offices of the San Francisco firm will end up, reports The Recorder. Two legal recruiters said they had heard that Los Angeles office managing partner Nancy Cohen, a rainmaker in Heller's insurance recovery practice, will move to Proskauer Rose. One legal consultant close to the situation said that Heller's insurance recovery group, which includes 40 lawyers, will make the move with Cohen.

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  • September 25, 2008 |

    Heller partnership briefed on closure

    Heller Ehrman inched closer to its likely dissolution this Wednesday (24 September), writes The Recorder.Management held a firm-wide videoconference at 4:30pm to update the partnership on the status of the firm's line of credit, opportunities for groups and offices, and "plans for an orderly transition (or wind-down)," according to an email announcing the meeting.Also on Wednesday, firm chairman Matthew Larrabee sent out an email, apparently to all lawyers and staff, apologising for keeping discussions of the firm's fate under wraps, and promising clearer communication later in the week.

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  • September 24, 2008 |

    Krispy Kreme appoints new general counsel

    Krispy Kreme Doughnuts has appointed Daryl Marsch to the position of general counsel. Marsch had been in the role, based in North Carolina, on an interim basis since May last year, but has now taken up the post permanently. He will report to president and chief executive Jim Morgan. Prior to his position with the American fast food chain, Marsch was senior counsel at RJ Reynolds Tobacco. He has also spent time as a trade regulation lawyer with law firm Jones Day in Washington.

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  • September 24, 2008 |

    Heller's familiar fate

    They may not be quite as flaky as their banking counterparts, but news this week of Heller Ehrman's dissolution is a reminder that US law firms…

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  • September 24, 2008 |

    Is there a better balance in-house?

    Leaving behind private practice - and the holy grail of partnership - to join an in-house legal division has become an increasingly popular career option for assistants. The appeal of a move in-house is clear, with companies generally offering more favourable working hours and the chance to provide a greater variety of advice.We surveyed a host of top legal recruiters to gauge their opinion on which sectors present the best opportunities for prospective in-house lawyers and what companies are the best to work for.

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  • September 23, 2008 |

    US trio act on Morgan and Goldman transformations

    A trio of elite US firms have taken the lead roles on the transformation of Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs into bank holding companies, reports The American Lawyer. Cravath Swaine & Moore, Sullivan & Cromwell, and Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz. played key advisory roles on the groundbreaking deals, and the same three firms also advised Morgan Stanley and Japan's Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group in a deal under which Mitsubishi, known as MUFG, will purchase up to 20% of Morgan Stanley's common stock. The bank holding deal is the most momentous in terms of Wall Street history. In return for access to deposits and the Federal Reserve's lending facilities, Morgan Stanley and Goldman will now be subject to the tight federal regulations that will hamstring their ability to take billion-dollar risks. The Federal Reserve can demand more public disclosure and limit the level of debt the banks can take on in relation to their capital reserves.

    1 minute read