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  • April 30, 2008 |

    Fried Frank ties up Virgin Media notes offering

    Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson has secured a role advising longstanding client Virgin Media on a $1bn (£504m) notes offering.

    1 minute read

  • April 30, 2008 |

    Corporate Counsel: The life in-house in the dock

    It is not often that in-house lawyers are featured on the pages of the Daily Mail - but then Gillian Switalski is not your average in-house lawyer.The high-profile former head of legal at F&C Asset Management - a frequent speaker at conferences and in the press - left the company in September last year before launching a sexual discrimination claim against her former employers.

    1 minute read

  • April 30, 2008 |

    Taylor Wessing promotes UK half-dozen

    Taylor Wessing is to appoint six new UK partners from a total of 19 promotions firm-wide, the Anglo-German firm announced today (30 April). The total is up from last year's tally of 17 and sees six new partners made up in the City and nine in Germany.

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  • April 29, 2008 |

    A&O in for HBOS on £4bn rights issue

    Allen & Overy (A&O) has landed a plum role advising HBOS on a £4bn rights issue. The bank announced the plans to raise the capital today (29 April) as UK lenders continue to wrestle with turbulent market conditions. The team from A&O is led by London-based corporate partner David Broadley alongside HBOS relationship partner Alistair Asher. They are being assisted by senior associates Ben Jacobs and Nick O'Donnell.

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  • April 29, 2008 |

    NY rivals chew over $23bn Mars-Wrigley deal

    Elite Manhattan firms Simpson Thacher & Bartlett and Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom have taken lead roles on Mars' merger with rival confectionary group Wm Wrigley Jr Co - one of the largest M&A deals of the year so far. The deal - worth approximately $23bn (£11.5bn) - sees Simpson Thacher client Mars acquire Wrigley, with Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway investment group taking a $2.1bn (£1.05bn) stake in Wrigley.

    1 minute read

  • April 24, 2008 |

    Mexican mining company calls on Freshfields and Links for London Stock Exchange debut

    Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Linklaters have won roles on the planned London Stock Exchange float of silver producer Fresnillo. The initial public offering (IPO), which will make Fresnillo the first Mexican company to list on London's main market, follows a slow period for UK listings.

    1 minute read

  • April 17, 2008 |

    Slaughters makes rare partner secondment to bank

    Slaughter and May has made a rare partner secondment to a client, as the magic circle firm looks to boost its private equity credentials. Tim Pharoah, who sits in Slaughters' general corporate and financing group, is on a long-term secondment to investment bank Morgan Stanley.

    1 minute read

  • April 17, 2008 |

    Crunch sees Reed Smith end blanket ban on suing banks

    Reed Smith has ended its self-imposed ban on litigating against banks with the firm now reviewing financial disputes on a case-by-case basis. The move, an apparent reaction to the expectations of a surge in bank-related litigation due to prolonged credit turmoil, is a shift for the firm, which called time on legacy UK firm's Richards Butler's practice of acting against banks after their 2007 merger.

    1 minute read

  • April 16, 2008 |

    Duck the downturn

    Legal Week's career clinic recently received an anxious message from a newly-qualified corporate associate at a US firm. No doubt having heard stories of the gruelling hours put in at such firms, the associate expressed surprise - and concern - that they were not exactly run off their feet. "I am concerned that the lack of work coming into the department will mean that heads will start to roll and I may be picking up my P45 sooner or later."

    1 minute read

  • April 16, 2008 |

    US Focus: Legal aid

    When a London-based partner at a magic circle firm took an American colleague and his wife out to the opera recently, the conversation turned to politics.The English lawyer expressed surprise that the US partner appeared to be so familiar with the political views and activities of his fellow partners. Indeed, the US lawyer observed: "Partners are likely to have lunchtime conversation about politics or pull someone across the room and say 'did you read that article today about that speech by Obama?'"While in the UK there are numerous high-level politicians who initially trained as lawyers, on the other side of the Atlantic practising lawyers tend to be more engaged in politics, at both a local and national level. "In the US a large proportion of prominent lawyers are very politically active," says the US partner. "Many may run for office some day or, even if not, they are very politically connected. A significant reason for why lawyers become lawyers in the US is that they have political ambitions or interests - they would like to have some influence."

    1 minute read