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  • April 20, 2011 | International Edition

    Addleshaws, A&O lead on Yorkshire Building Society merger deal

    Addleshaw Goddard and Allen & Overy (A&O) have picked up lead advisory roles on Yorkshire Building Society's merger with Norwich and Peterborough (N&P) Building Society, creating a combined company with three million members and 224 branches. A&O is advising longstanding client Yorkshire, which is the UK's second largest building society with assets exceeding £30bn. The magic circle firm's team is being led by corporate partner Richard Slynn, assisted by associates Ilan Kotkis and Susannah Gwyn-Thomas.

    1 minute read

  • April 14, 2011 | International Edition

    Asset finance - increasingly not for every banking team

    Recent weeks have seen no less than five asset finance partner moves announced, with Berwin Leighton Paisner, Ince & Co, Mayer Brown, and, most notably, Hogan Lovells all moving to strengthen their City practices. While the timing of the appointments is more down to coincidence than any single driver in the market, the moves illustrate the differing approaches to asset finance across large law firms.

    1 minute read

  • March 15, 2011 |

    Then we take Manhattan - can Norton Rose really take on the world?

    Not too long ago, Norton Rose looked like an also-ran. The London firm, known for its financial institutions practice, stumbled badly after its offices were bombed - twice - by IRA terrorists in the early 1990s. It jumped belatedly on the global bandwagon, establishing a network of European offices that did not turn a profit for half a decade. By the early 2000s, key partners were running for the exits. The magic circle, formerly Norton Rose's closest rivals, had pulled far ahead.

    1 minute read

  • February 10, 2010 | International Edition

    Women in law: Role models

    "When I first started out I was doing a range of work - it was excellent exposure and I had to grow up very fast. It was the boom time in the late 80s and I decided to try my hand at a bigger firm. It was intimidating at first - every second person seemed to be public school and I thought I'd made a mistake. But I realised it was a lot more diverse, grew to love it and got involved in all sorts of interesting work. I haven't looked back."

    1 minute read

  • February 10, 2010 |

    Women in law: Role models

    "When I first started out I was doing a range of work - it was excellent exposure and I had to grow up very fast. It was the boom time in the late 80s and I decided to try my hand at a bigger firm. It was intimidating at first - every second person seemed to be public school and I thought I'd made a mistake. But I realised it was a lot more diverse, grew to love it and got involved in all sorts of interesting work. I haven't looked back."

    1 minute read

  • February 10, 2010 | International Edition

    Latham makes a statement with lucky 13

    For a firm of its size and ambition, Latham & Watkins has remained curiously under the radar outside the US, emerging only occasionally for significant moves such as 2008's three-pronged launch in the Middle East, before it all goes quiet again. This tendency makes this month's news that the firm is to bring in no fewer than 13 partners from White & Case across London, New York and the Middle East all the more striking.

    1 minute read

  • December 21, 2009 | International Edition

    Law firm management: The hard sell

    "A consultant is a man who asks you for your watch and then tells you the time with it." Probably one of the more polite descriptions by one managing partner of the band of consultants circling law firms as the recession batters a profession that had grown used to unbroken growth. Though the legal sector has not been a major target for the consultancy industry until very recently, there are an increasing number of widely varying consultants aiming to advise firms on everything from marketing, client relationship management, IT general strategy and everything inbetween.

    1 minute read

  • October 28, 2009 | International Edition

    A competitive revolution

    After years of stalemate and resentment, the debate regarding the regulation of the profession has been thrust into a brave new world. Georgina Stanley talks to the key players and assesses the potential outcome

    1 minute read

  • September 23, 2009 | International Edition

    Commentary: Partner hires - the revolving door starts spinning again

    With the first half of 2009 defined by widescale redundancies and partnership restructurings at some of the City's top names, the fallout has meant the trend post-summer is equally clear: lateral hiring - and lots of it. Barely a day goes by without claim or confirmation of another partner move; generally someone heading out of a top 10 City firm for somewhere smaller, although not exclusively - as Linklaters' hire of Herbert Smith litigation partner Christa Band demonstrates.

    1 minute read

  • September 23, 2009 | International Edition

    Renewable energy: Great light hope

    There are growth markets, there are long-term bets and then there is renewable energy. But however many false dawns alternative energy has had over the years, in the long run the business of green energy and nuclear power looks certain to ultimately establish itself as a huge, globally-significant industry.

    1 minute read