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  • March 22, 2011 |

    Wragges recruits new partner for healthcare practice

    Wragge & Co has strengthened its healthcare practice with the hire of a new partner in London. Robert Breedon is set to join Wragges on 4 April from his own consultancy Nomos Legal, where he provides consultancy services to various in-house legal teams. These include the Department of Health, where he has spent much of his time as in-house counsel for the department's commercial directorate.

    1 minute read

  • March 16, 2011 |

    Top UK law firms to target more universities in diversity push

    A raft of the UK's leading law firms are set to increase the number of universities they target for graduate recruitment in a bid to attract a wider pool of students. Linklaters, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Hogan Lovells and Bird & Bird are all planning to up the number of universities they visit during the next recruitment round, starting in September.

    1 minute read

  • March 15, 2011 |

    Bakers latest to sign on to College of Law's tailored fast-track LPC

    Baker & McKenzie has become the first firm outside of the magic circle to switch to a fast-track Legal Practice Course (LPC) with the College of Law. The international firm has announced that it is set to switch to the condensed course from next summer, with the first set of trainees due to start the seven-month course in July 2012. From then on, the course will run twice a year to accommodate both the March and the September intakes.

    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

  • March 14, 2011 |

    Slaughters competition partner departs for new role at Ofgem

    Slaughter and May competition partner Sarah Cardell is set to leave the firm to take up a role at energy watchdog Ofgem. Cardell is due to join Ofgem next month as partner for legal markets, after three years as a partner at Slaughters. Her appointment comes after the energy regulator's joint legal director Duncan Sinclair resigned last year to return to the Bar. He joined 39 Essex Street in October 2010.

    1 minute read

  • March 10, 2011 |

    Slaughters and A&O advise on £1.2bn Gatwick refinancing deal

    Allen & Overy (A&O) and Slaughter and May have taken lead roles on a £1.2bn refinancing for Gatwick Airport. The refinancing, which closed last week ( 2 March), saw Slaughters act for Gatwick Airport and its largest shareholder Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), with A&O advising the lead arranger Royal Bank of Scotland. The two-part refinancing comprised a £600m bond issue combined with a new £600m bank loan, with the deal fully refinancing GIP's £1.5bn acquisition of Gatwick from BAA in 2009.

    1 minute read

  • March 10, 2011 |

    Simmons ECM team wins key corporate mandate from UBS

    Simmons & Simmons has won its first major corporate instruction from banking giant UBS, with the firm's equity capital markets (ECM) team advising on a multimillion-pound deal. The top 15 City firm advised UBS Investment Bank as lead financial adviser, sole corporate broker and sponsor to Henderson Group on its February acquisition of Gartmore Group for £392m.

    1 minute read

  • March 9, 2011 |

    City firms stall on preparation for radical regulatory shake-up

    Many of the City's leading law firms are delaying their preparations for fundamental changes to the way firms are regulated, as they wait for amended guidelines from the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA). Only two of the UK's 10 largest law firms by revenue have confirmed that they have started to make changes in preparation for outcomes-focused regulation (OFR), which will see the SRA's detailed rulebook replaced with an approach founded on broader principles, rather than prescriptive rules, from October this year.

    1 minute read

  • March 9, 2011 |

    Ropes signs up Jones Day partner for new City private equity team

    Ropes & Gray has recruited a Jones Day partner for its London private equity practice, in the second partner addition to the new team this month. The US firm has sealed the hire of Peter Baldwin, who has been at Jones Day since 2008 after joining from Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft.

    1 minute read

  • March 4, 2011 |

    OC and Slaughters lead on Whitbread's £59.5m coffee purchase

    Osborne Clarke (OC) and Slaughter and May have taken lead roles on the £59.5m sale of Coffee Nation to the Whitbread Group. Coffee Nation, which operates 900 coffee vending machines throughout the UK, instructed OC in early January, with the negotiations beginning later that month. The UK top 50 firm's team was led by corporate partner Paul Cooper.

    1 minute read