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  • October 28, 2011 |

    Slaughters and Cleary act on Sony's £920m purchase of Ericsson JV stake

    Slaughter and May and Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton have taken lead roles on Sony's £920m acquisition of Ericsson's stake in mobile phone joint venture Sony Ericsson. The deal, which has seen Sony buy Ericsson's entire 50% stake in the joint venture, will allow the Japanese company to ramp up its smartphone efforts as it positions itself to compete with Apple and Samsung in the market.

    1 minute read

  • October 26, 2011 |

    Addleshaws and Slaughters advise on creation of property advisory giant

    Addleshaw Goddard and Slaughter and May have advised on the merger of Dutch consulting and management services company Arcadis with UK property management company EC Harris. The deal creates one of the largest property advisory and project services companies in the world with a global turnover of €2.3bn (£2bn) and almost 19,000 staff across Europe, the US and Brazil.

    1 minute read

  • October 26, 2011 |

    Nabarro wins multiple roles for betting company Sportingbet

    Nabarro has taken a hat-trick of corporate roles for Sportingbet, including advising on the company's high-profile takeover approach from betting rival Ladbrokes. Corporate partner Graham Stedman advised the online betting company – a longstanding client of the firm – on Ladbrokes' 75p-a-share offer, which was withdrawn earlier this month (10 October). The initial approach was first made in June.

    1 minute read

  • October 20, 2011 |

    QualitySolicitors secures majority investment from private equity firm

    QualitySolicitors has become one of the first legal organisations to secure private equity backing, with Palamon Capital Partners becoming the majority shareholder in the high street law franchise. The size of the investment - which has seen Palamon take a majority stake in QualitySolicitors' holding company - is undisclosed, but it is thought to be as much as £100m. The money will be principally used for marketing purposes in the short term and operational purposes in the medium term.

    1 minute read

  • October 20, 2011 |

    Will QualitySolicitors' private equity deal silence the critics?

    You've got to hand it to Craig Holt - he keeps pulling rabbits out of his hat. To what will no doubt be the chagrin of its many critics, QualitySolicitors (QS) has surely announced itself on the big stage by securing investment from a private equity firm. We did well to get him to the Legal Futures conference on Monday, it turns out, as he was in the middle of signing piles of documents to finalise the deal.

    1 minute read

  • October 19, 2011 |

    Slaughters invests in associates with new development initiatives

    Slaughter and May has overhauled its associate development programme, bringing in a number of measures intended to improve feedback for junior lawyers and get them more involved in client development. Associates are being encouraged to build relationships with in-house lawyers of their own level of seniority and to think more about business development themselves, rather than seeing it as the reserve of partners.

    1 minute read

  • October 19, 2011 |

    Linklaters, Gianni and Credit Suisse settle £118m negligence dispute

    Linklaters, Gianni Origoni Grippo & Partners and Credit Suisse have settled a £118m professional negligence dispute relating to advice given to the bank on a deal with Italian food company Parmalat nearly 10 years ago. It is unclear how much the firms have settled for; however, the figure, which both law firms are contributing to, is expected to be only a fraction of the original claim value.

    1 minute read

  • October 19, 2011 |

    What I wish I knew when I left uni - the profession's finest offer some life advice

    They say hindsight is 20/20 – London's senior lawyers offer their very best advice to Legal Week readers...

    1 minute read

  • October 17, 2011 |

    Slaughters and Herbert Smith head up £5.2bn facilities takeover

    Slaughter and May and Herbert Smith have won lead roles on one of this year's largest M&A deals - the £5.2bn purchase of Danish facilities outsourcing firm ISS by UK security group G4S. The acquisition is set to make the Crawley-based security services provider the world's largest combined security and facilities service provider, with revenues of around £15.9bn.

    1 minute read

  • October 14, 2011 |

    China's Jun He continues recent growth with Weil Gotshal hire

    Leading Chinese firm Jun He Law Offices has bolstered its Beijing corporate practice with a hire from Weil Gotshal & Manges, marking the firm's fourth new partner addition since August. Jasson Han is set to rejoin Jun He as a partner, after leaving in 1993 to pursue a degree in commercial law. Since then, he has worked at Simmons & Simmons in London and Hong Kong, and then in Weil Gotshal's Beijing and Hong Kong offices as a partner-level senior consultant.

    1 minute read