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  • January 25, 2011 |

    Russia and Ukraine: Happily single?

    It was a grim morning in November 2008 when Andrey Goltsblat, managing partner of leading Russian law firm Pepeliaev Goltsblat & Partners (PGP), set out for one of the most difficult meetings of his 20-year career. Moscow was already deep in the grip of winter, the streets buried beneath inches of snow. But it wasn't the weather that troubled Goltsblat as he arrived at the firm's premises and headed to the office he shared with Sergey Pepeliaev, the firm's senior partner. Goltsblat had a dramatic announcement to make: he was leaving the business they'd spent the last two decades building together. And he was taking half the firm with him. Neither man will talk about exactly what was said in that meeting - Pepeliaev would only describe his reaction as "appropriate" - but it's safe to say that Goltsblat's news didn't go down well. In one fell swoop, nine partners and a full 70 lawyers - PGP's entire corporate practice and the firm's heads of real estate, dispute resolution and employment - left to join UK firm Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP).

    1 minute read

  • January 25, 2011 |

    Asia round-up: DLA, White & Case and O'Melveny secure senior lawyers

    The former head of the tax practice at leading Chinese law firm King & Wood has joined DLA Piper in Hong Kong, writes the Am Law Daily. Stephen Nelson joined King & Wood's Shanghai office four years ago from Baker & McKenzie, where he had practised for 20 years. Nelson is bucking a recent trend that has seen a number of veteran Western lawyers in China jump from international firms to local ones. He said he hopes to have a broader practice at DLA Piper, focusing on foreign investment into China as well as tax matters.

    1 minute read

  • January 20, 2011 |

    Howrey antitrust co-head Soames becomes latest departure for firm

    Howrey's Brussels chief and global antitrust co-head Trevor Soames has become the latest in a string of partners to quit the US firm's European network. Soames, who works from Brussels and London, sent an email to contacts earlier today (20 January) confirming that he has left the firm.

    1 minute read

  • January 19, 2011 |

    Expansive Dewey secures seven senior lateral hires in a day

    Dewey & LeBoeuf has struck an expansive note for the New Year after announcing the hire of seven high-profile lawyers from firms including Dechert, Howrey and Sullivan & Cromwell, writes the Am Law Daily. The hires include Howrey intellectual property litigation partners Henry Bunsow, Denise Mory and Brian Smith, who will join Dewey's San Francisco office, and Craig Allison, a patent litigation partner from Dechert, who will join Dewey's Silicon Valley office.

    1 minute read

  • January 18, 2011 |

    Local leaders rank alongside Links, Freshfields and Herbert Smith in Middle East/Asia M&A

    South African practice Webber Wentzel and Linklaters have topped the rankings by deal volume and value respectively in the Middle East and Africa after deals increased 6.3% last year. While both deal value and volume are up on 2009 figures, with 302 deals worth $49.4bn (£31bn) in 2010 compared to 284 deals worth $32.2bn (£20bn) the previous year, both fall far short of pre-recession figures, according to the latest Mergermarket statistics.

    1 minute read

  • January 12, 2011 |

    Seven law firms cited among UK's top 100 gay-friendly employers

    Seven law firms have been included in this year's Workplace Equality Index compiled by gay rights charity Stonewall, with Simmons & Simmons topping the rankings for the second year in a row. The index, which ranks the top 100 gay-friendly employers in the UK, included Simmons & Simmons in 19th place, down from its 15th-place ranking last year. Other firms to be featured in the rankings include Baker & McKenzie, Eversheds, Herbert Smith, Hogan Lovells, Irwin Mitchell and Pinsent Masons.

    1 minute read

  • January 11, 2011 |

    Linklaters and A&O win spots on National Australia Bank's new UK legal panel

    Linklaters and Allen & Overy (A&O) are among seven firms to have won places on National Australia Bank's (NAB) new UK legal roster. The panel review, which was led out of London by UK co-general counsel Richard Speak and principal counsel Iris Edwards, covers not only NAB but also the Australian bank's UK subsidiaries Clydesdale Bank and Yorkshire Bank.

    1 minute read

  • December 17, 2010 |

    Linklaters identified as UK's most diverse law firm by new study

    Linklaters has been named as the UK's most diverse law firm in 2010 according to the Black Solicitors Network (BSN) Diversity League Table, which ranks firms based on information from 48 law firms. The ranking combines law firm demographics across four different strands of diversity - disability, ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation - with policy and practice information from the firms.

    1 minute read

  • December 7, 2010 |

    Assistant Solicitor/Associate of the Year

    When Paul Groves qualified at Harbottle & Lewis in March 2006 he was offered a place in every department he trained in. With great prescience he made the case that he should straddle two groups that were regarded as very different at the time: the interactive entertainment group and the sports and sponsorship group. Paul foresaw that the two sectors would become increasingly linked through digital media. Since then, he has become instrumental in developing one of the firm's niche expertise areas - granting and exploiting sponsorship rights across new media platforms. Only three years after qualifying, Groves had developed his own practice and started instructing trainees and junior assistants.

    1 minute read

  • December 7, 2010 |

    CSR Initiative/Programme of the Year

    The Legal Response Initiative (LRI) is the result of collaboration among lawyers based at Oxfam GB and World Wildlife Fund UK and a number of law firms and barristers' chambers. Its purpose is to provide pro bono legal advice to non-governmental organisations (NGOs) taking part in the ongoing United Nations climate change negotiations. By doing so it seeks to redress the imbalance between the level of legal representation enjoyed by the world's richest nations and the advice at the disposal of the least developed nations, who rely on NGOs to support them. The LRI provided legal advice at last year's Barcelona and Copenhagen sessions and two sessions in Bonn this year. Liaison offices based at the conferences passed on legal queries to a 'situation room' in the London office of Simmons & Simmons.

    1 minute read