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  • February 13, 2014 |

    Bakers hires 13-strong Toronto team from Heenan Blaikie

    Baker & McKenzie has hired a team of 13 lawyers from collapsed Canadian firm Heenan Blaikie to join its Toronto office. The group, which is made up of at least six partners, is led by corporate & securities partners Kevin Rooney and Sonia Yung, and will be spread across Bakers' corporate & securities, tax, and banking & finance practices. The other partners include Peter Clark (tax), Ilia Danef (finance), Charles MacCready (public M&A), and Corey MacKinnon (corporate).

    1 minute read

  • February 12, 2014 |

    Bakers hires City intellectual property partner from McDermott

    Baker & McKenzie has hired McDermott Will & Emery intellectual property and life sciences partner Hiroshi Sheraton in London. Sheraton, who trained as a medical chemist before he became a lawyer, practices on all aspects of intellectual property and patent law, with a particular focus on the life sciences sector.

    1 minute read

  • February 12, 2014 |

    TTIP of the iceberg – what the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership means for lawyers on both sides of the Pond

    It has been billed as the largest free trade agreement in history, yet many trade lawyers are still in the dark when it comes to the details of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) deal. TTIP, which was announced last summer and is now being negotiated, will for the first time create a trade treaty between the US and the EU in its entirety. Designed to drive growth by removing trade barriers and tariffs, independent research cited by the European Commission suggests the annual benefits could be as much as €120bn (£99.9bn) to the EU economy, €90bn (£74.9bn) to the US and €100bn (£83.2bn) to the rest of the world. "Everybody is going to be affected by this, and it really will change the balance of political power," says Ross Denton, a UK-qualified partner in Baker & McKenzie's European competition and trade department. "In recent years the balance [of US trade] has been gradually shifting towards Asia, because they don't have the same heavy tariffs. But if you eliminate most tariffs between the EU and US, then this will have huge ramifications for business."

    1 minute read

  • February 9, 2014 |

    Singapore's Drew & Napier hires Reed Smith's former Dubai office head

    Singapore outfit Drew & Napier has hired Reed Smith's former Dubai office managing partner Lee Chau Ee to lead its construction and engineering practice. He replaces the firm's previous construction head Liam Beng Tan, who left at the end of 2013. Lee, who worked for Drew & Napier between 1995 until 2000 as an associate, departed from US firm Reed Smith in November 2013 to return to his home base.

    1 minute read

  • February 6, 2014 |

    Calling the tune – PPL legal director David Harmsworth on music licensing, litigation and his pop picks of the year

    Next time you are placed on hold by a phone operator or patiently queuing at the hairdresser, listen out for the background music. If it is a piece by an artist you recognise, there's a fairly good chance PPL legal director David Harmsworth and his team have had a role in that recording reaching your ears. If they haven't, they still may need to get involved. PPL – or Phonographic Performance Limited – is a non-profit organisation that grants companies licences to play music recorded by its members, which range from performers and session musicians to studio producers and composers. Given music played for personal consumption at home or at a private party are the only real exceptions, this adds up to a lot of licenses. At the last count, it was more than 300,000. When I meet Harmsworth at PPL's offices – the Bob Marley room to be exact – I cannot hear any background music, despite him assuring me he is a firm believer in workplace music. Which means PPL itself also has to have a PPL licence.

    1 minute read

  • February 4, 2014 |

    White collar lawyers prepare for introduction of new SFO powers

    A type of plea bargain that will radically alter City-based white collar partners' dealings with the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), will come into effect at the end of this month. Deferred prosecution agreements (DPAs), which are heavily used in the US, allow self-reporting companies to strike a deal with the SFO to pay a fine rather than face the uncertainty of a criminal prosecution.

    1 minute read

  • February 4, 2014 |

    Candidates emerge for HSF disputes head as Leydecker prepares for CEO role

    Candidates have emerged for the role of global dispute resolution head at Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) as Sonya Leydecker prepares to take up the role of the firm's joint-CEO in May. In December the firm named current global disputes head Leydecker and managing partner Mark Rigotti as its new joint chief executives. The new appointments will take effect from 1 May 2014 for a three year term.

    1 minute read

  • February 3, 2014 |

    HSF grows Germany practice with first disputes partner hire

    Herbert Smith Freehills has hired Baker & McKenzie dispute resolution partner Mathias Wittinghofer to join its growing Germany practice.m's dispute resolution group.

    1 minute read

  • January 23, 2014 |

    McLaren F1 team puts Norton Rose in driving seat as firm secures global adviser mandate

    Norton Rose Fulbright has becoming the first law firm to form a partnership with Formula 1 team McClaren Mercedes. The firm will work closely with McLaren Group's in-house legal team to advise on corporate and M&A, contractual and intellectual property, real estate and employment law.

    1 minute read

  • January 21, 2014 |

    Bakers and Freshfields on hand for $2.9bn Russian energy JV

    Baker & McKenzie and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer have landed the mandates on a major Russian energy deal which sees Novatek and Gazprom Neft jointly acquire a 60 per cent stake in Artic Russia for $2.94bn (£1.8bn).

    1 minute read