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  • April 21, 2011 |

    Pinsents adds two partners in Dubai boost

    Pinsent Masons has boosted its Middle East projects and construction team with two new partners, with one more set to relocate to the region later this year. Projects and finance specialist Simon Harvey will join Pinsents' Dubai office from Baker & McKenzie this June, while international arbitration specialist Bjorn Gehle will join in July from Clayton Utz's Sydney base. Gehle, a special counsel at the Australian firm, advises on infrastructure and construction projects, international trade, energy and resources as well as corporate disputes.

    1 minute read

  • April 14, 2011 |

    Linklaters and Bakers win roles as Total signs energy partnership in Russia

    Linklaters and Baker & McKenzie have taken lead roles on a $4bn (£2.5bn) energy deal that saw French oil company Total buy a 12% stake in Russian gas producer Novatek as part of a strategic partnership. Linklaters advised the acquirer on the deal, which also saw Total take a 20% stake in Novatek's Yamal liquefied natural gas (LNG) project. London corporate partner Dominic Sanders led the Linklaters team advising Total.

    1 minute read

  • April 6, 2011 |

    Linklaters and Norton Rose win Prudential panel spots after five-month competitive tender

    Linklaters and Norton Rose have won hotly-contested places on Prudential Group's new global legal panel following a five-month competitive tender process. The review, which kicked off in October and closed last month, also saw legacy advisers Slaughter and May, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Hogan Lovells reappointed.

    1 minute read

  • March 30, 2011 |

    Standard Chartered reappoints six firms to roster after adviser review

    Standard Chartered Bank has concluded a review of its international legal panel, with the bank reappointing all six of its current advisers for another two-year term. Magic circle firms Allen & Overy, Clifford Chance, Linklaters and Slaughter and May are among the firms to have been reappointed. The other firms on the roster are Hogan Lovells and Baker & McKenzie.

    1 minute read

  • March 30, 2011 |

    Govt announces July implementation date for new UK anti-bribery laws

    Businesses have just three months to ensure they comply with the Bribery Act, after Justice Secretary Ken Clarke today (30 March) announced that the UK's updated anti-corruption laws will come into force on 1 July. The new guidelines issued earlier today confirm that a business can be held liable if a senior person within the organisation commits a bribery offence. Organisations may also be liable for failing to prevent bribery conducted on their behalf, but only if the person committing the crime performs services connected with the business - this means companies are unlikely to face action because of the actions of suppliers.

    1 minute read

  • March 29, 2011 |

    Back at the gate - the challenges ahead for private equity

    A few weeks ago news got out that Bain Capital, one of the world's leading private equity firms, was holding interviews for junior investment professionals a month earlier than usual. Bain's competitors, which include Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co (KKR) and The Blackstone Group, moved quickly, bringing forward their pre-scheduled cocktail party recruiting events. This was not a surprising development. Five years ago private equity houses often did their entry-level hiring in September. During the boom, such intakes kept drifting earlier into the year as rivals jostled to secure the best aspiring deal-doers.

    1 minute read

  • March 25, 2011 |

    Slaughters and Wachtell take lead on Colgate-Unilever double deal

    Slaughter and May and Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz have taken lead roles on a multimillion-pound two-part deal involving Unilever and Colgate-Palmolive. The deal will see Unilever sell its Sanex personal care brand to Colgate for €672m (£590m), while also paying $215m (£132m) for a portfolio of Colgate laundry detergent brands in Colombia.

    1 minute read

  • March 23, 2011 |

    Lawyers give budget guarded welcome as Osborne moves to drive UK business

    City lawyers have given the 2011 budget a "guarded welcome" with small tax relief measures included in Chancellor George Osborne's speech today aimed at encouraging businesses to operate in the UK.

    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 14, 2011 |

    Closer ties - a new era for Switzerland's law firms?

    The Swiss legal market is so well established and its clients so well served by large and reputable local firms operating within an entirely stable and predictable regime that the country often falls below international firms' radar – but not so of late. Not only are new legislative changes to the cantonal civil procedure system being touted by some as the most important reforms since the beginning of the 20th century, but as countries such as the UK come to terms with tightening tax measures, local Swiss lawyers are reaping the benefit of a growing hub of international businesses from large bluechips to lucrative hedge fund managers now headquartered in Zurich and Geneva.

    1 minute read