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  • March 3, 2011 |

    Popham, Djanogly, Saul, Todd QC, Eisenberg, Glover, Moulton, Leydecker... we like to give young talent a chance

    As Legal Week has a large events business, our editorial team is often asked for input on conference programmes, meaning suggested topics and speakers. This usually results in our conference producers having to put up with another mind-numbing speech from me about why I think people turn up to these things. Admittedly, for the private client events a swish hotel doesn't hurt, but it still basically boils down to the people. If you get the right calibre of speaker, you're usually laughing. If you don't, you aren't. As such, our conference team look to have done the business on a series of upcoming events. First up we have the Independent Law Firms Forum on 17 March, our main event for leading indies across the globe. Speakers this year include Magisters' Dimitri Dyakin, Burges Salmon's Stephen McNulty, PLMJ's Manuel Santos Vitor, Werksmans' Des Williams, King & Wood's Susan Ning and Nishith Desai of Nishith Desai Associates.

    1 minute read

  • March 2, 2011 |

    GE names Europe M&A counsel as Anheuser-Busch InBev reviews firms

    General Electric (GE) has reviewed its European M&A panel, with four of the five firms appointed in 2007 retaining a place on the roster. Slaughter and May, Weil Gotshal & Manges, Allen & Overy and Ashurst have all been reappointed to the panel for another four-year term. The appointments follow a tender process which kicked off last year and was concluded in January after several months of negotiations.

    1 minute read

  • March 2, 2011 |

    Linklaters and Freshfields line up for Citi's £1.9bn Egg sale to Barclays

    Linklaters and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer have taken lead roles on Citigroup's sale of the UK credit card assets of online bank Egg to Barclays. Citi instructed Linklaters on the deal, which is the latest in a series of credit card portfolio sales by the US-based banking group. The magic circle law firm fielded a London team under corporate partner Casper Lawson.

    1 minute read

  • March 1, 2011 |

    CC tops 11 law firms included in annual Superbrands rankings

    Clifford Chance (CC) has overtaken Eversheds as the top-ranked law firm in the annual Superbrands index of UK business brands. The firm placed 184th in the rankings, four places higher than magic circle rival Linklaters (188), and 16 places higher than last year's best-placed law firm, Eversheds (200).

    1 minute read

  • February 23, 2011 |

    Squire Sanders Hammonds signs up for BPP's fast-track LPC

    Squire Sanders Hammonds has become the first law firm to sign up to BPP Law School's fast-track Legal Practice Course (LPC) outside the five-firm City LPC Consortium comprising Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Herbert Smith, Hogan Lovells, Norton Rose and Slaughter and May. The decision means future trainees at the transatlantic firm's UK arm will start the seven-month course from this September. During the time between the course finishing and joining Squire Sanders Hammonds, trainees will take a three-month client secondment from May to July.

    1 minute read

  • February 22, 2011 |

    'Near-shoring' garners approval in the City

    Nearly 60% of partners see relocating support teams to lower-cost regional centres in the UK or Europe as an attractive option, with even greater numbers predicting an increase in the number of law firms embracing 'near-shoring'. The results of Legal Week's latest Big Question survey show 59% of partners consider near-shoring to be either "very" or "considerably" attractive, with only 12% dismissing the concept altogether, claiming the saving is not worth the disruption.

    1 minute read

  • February 22, 2011 |

    CC Australia launch: partner reaction from the UK and Down Under

    Clifford Chance (CC) last week became the latest firm to announce plans to enter the Australian legal market, with the magic circle firm quashing rumours of a largescale merger by instead tying up with two boutiques. The deal with Perth firm Cochrane Lishman Carson Luscombe and Sydney's Chang Pistilli & Simmons will give CC 14 partners in Australia when it goes live in May. The firms will be fully financially integrated, with equity partners in the Australian firms becoming equity partners in CC.

    1 minute read

  • February 15, 2011 |

    A&O, Slaughters and Baker Botts win top roles on $2.8bn GE acquisition

    Allen & Overy (A&O) and Slaughter and May have scored roles on a multibillion-pound cross-border deal in the energy sector. The $2.8bn (£1.7bn) transaction will see the UK-based Wood Group sell off its well support division to US industrial giant General Electric (GE). The deal, announced yesterday (14 February), saw A&O win both the US and UK mandates for GE, while Texas energy specialist firm Baker Botts advised Wood Group in the US, with Slaughters advising in the UK.

    1 minute read

  • February 11, 2011 |

    The $10m question - how long can partner comp buck the global pay race?

    Feeling light on inspiration, I'm indebted to The Wall Street Journal and Adam Smith, Esq for giving me something to get my teeth into with a prominent piece this week from The Journal. The article charts the dramatic increase in the size of pay packages being offered to star US partners and the related widening of the gap between for partners, citing top-end packages in the $10m (£6.3m) region against $640,000 (£405,000) for the water-carriers. Interesting nuggets in the article include the fact that Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom last year widened the range between top and bottom-earners, while the wide pay range is also highlighted at firms as disparate at Hogan Lovells, K&L Gates and DLA Piper. Packages for top partners cited include deals of $6m (£4m) at DLA Piper in the US and $8m (£5m) at Kirkland & Ellis. The Journal's claim is that the most sought-after rainmakers now often earn eight to 10 times that of the lowest-paid equity earners within the same firm.

    1 minute read

  • February 11, 2011 |

    Wragges wins debut corporate role for Premier Foods on £182m deal

    Wragge & Co has won a first-time corporate instruction from Premier Foods, advising the UK's largest food producer on the £182m sale of its tinned grocery business to rival Princes. The sale sees Princes, which is owned by Japanese trading company Mitsubishi Corporation, take over Premier's 1,600-staff Canned Grocery Operations arm, which includes brands such as Crosse & Blackwell, Fray Bentos, Farrows and Smedley's.

    1 minute read