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  • August 6, 2010 |

    Court ruling in A&O layoff dispute reopens debate over status of France associates

    Allen & Overy (A&O) has been ordered to pay damages to a former Paris associate who was laid off last year as part of the firm's global redundancy programme. The magic circle firm declined to comment on the ruling, first reported on RollOnFriday, other than to state: "The court found in favour of the associate and the matter has now been settled."

    1 minute read

  • August 4, 2010 |

    Trio of firms line up on Rio Tinto's $2bn joint venture with Chinese aluminium giant

    Linklaters, Baker & McKenzie and Allens Arthur Robinson have all advised on the $2bn (£1.3bn) joint venture between Rio Tinto and Chalco to build a new mine, rail and port infrastructure in Guinea. Linklaters advised Rio on UK and US law with a team led by corporate partner James Inglis alongside competition partner Gavin Robert, tax partner Elizabeth Conway and US corporate partner Tom Shropshire. Allens also acted for Rio with a team comprising energy partners Scott Langford, Nic Tole and Ted Hill, banking and finance partner Steve Pemberton and M&A partner Richard Kriedemann.

    1 minute read

  • August 2, 2010 |

    Bakers to pay $6.65m compensation to Coudert Brothers estate

    Baker & McKenzie has agreed to pay $6.65m (£4.2m) to compensate the bankruptcy estate of Coudert Brothers for profits Bakers earned from unfinished business that partners took with them when they left the defunct firm, reports The Am Law Daily. The settlement resolves a lawsuit brought in April 2009 by the liquidation plan administrator for Coudert's estate seeking to recover fees that allegedly should have gone to the firm, which dissolved nearly five years ago.

    1 minute read

  • July 28, 2010 |

    RenCap reviews panel after Cleary hire in bid to expand outside counsel ranks

    Russian investment bank Renaissance Capital (RenCap) has kicked off a review of its advisers, aiming to double its panel to 12 law firms. The bank has asked around two dozen law firms to pitch for the review, which comes less than a year after the bank appointed its first formal panel last August. The review is being led from London by executive vice chairman Ashar Qureshi, who joined the bank earlier this year from Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton. RenCap is due to conclude the review in August and has not set a limit on the length of the panel appointments.

    1 minute read

  • July 22, 2010 |

    Bakers and Olswang mark up roles on $31m Paperchase MBO

    Baker & McKenzie and Olswang have advised on the $31m (£20.5m) private equity-backed management buyout of Borders' Paperchase business. Olswang advised Primary Capital on the deal, which saw the private equity group take a 70% stake in stationery business Paperchase, with the existing management team taking the remainder of the shares. The Olswang team was led by private equity partner Stephen Rosen, with support from associates Carsten Greve, Victoria Chandler and Gordon Geiser.

    1 minute read

  • July 21, 2010 |

    Financial regulation: Hunting the hunter

    The FSA is to be broken up as part of a huge shake-up of regulation by the new Government - despite strong misgivings from City professionals. Alex Aldridge charts the watchdog's rise and fall and looks at the new bodies that will replace it

    1 minute read

  • July 19, 2010 |

    Orange and T-Mobile set to review adviser line-up in wake of merger

    Orange and T-Mobile have combined their legal teams and will kick off a panel review later this year in the wake of the telecoms companies' merger deal to create the UK's largest telecoms provider, Everything Everywhere. The new legal team contains 60 lawyers - 25 from T-Mobile, 35 from Orange - and is headed up by former T-Mobile legal chief James Blendis, who will take on both the general counsel and company secretary functions.

    1 minute read

  • July 19, 2010 |

    Bakers partner quartet break away to launch new Frankfurt boutique

    Baker & McKenzie is set to lose a team of antitrust partners in Frankfurt, including the firm's German and European competition head, as the group splits off to launch a new competition boutique. Practice chief Joerg-Martin Schultze is quitting Bakers along with fellow partners Dominique Wagener, Stephanie Pautke and Johanna Kuebler. The group will open a new boutique in Frankfurt this September under the name Commeo. The three associates who make up the remainder of Bakers' Frankfurt antitrust practice are expected to join the partners at Commeo, although a final decision has not yet been taken.

    1 minute read

  • July 14, 2010 |

    Basel III - ill-advised sequel or sound banking rules?

    Amid the swathe of proposed rules and regulations that are likely to apply to banks, financial institutions, rating agencies and others in the wake of the financial crisis, there are a significant number of new rules relating to capital adequacy treatment for securitisation transactions. Although widely dubbed Basel III, the proposed rules do not really constitute a new regime so much as a series of amendments to the existing Basel II framework. Like a bad Hollywood sequel, the danger is that Basel III will be longer, more involved and less thought through than the original (and probably worse received by its target audience).

    1 minute read

  • July 12, 2010 |

    Hogan Lovells pharmaceuticals team quits to join Bakers in Warsaw

    A five-strong Hogan Lovells pharma team has quit the firm's Warsaw office to join Baker & McKenzie in the Polish capital. Ewa Rutkowska, the head of Lovells' life sciences and product liability practice in Warsaw, will now jointly lead Bakers' pharmaceuticals, healthcare and product liability group in the city alongside pharma partner Paulina Kieszkowska-Knapik. Rutkowska is joined at Bakers by a team of four associates. The new hires increase headcount in Bakers' pharma, healthcare and product liability group to eight.

    1 minute read