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  • November 23, 2010 |

    SJB, Freshfields, Ashurst and A&O act on £871m Westfield Olympic mall stake sale

    A raft of top UK law firms have taken roles on Westfield's sale of a 50% stake in its shopping centre next to the site of the London 2012 Olympics, after the retail giant struck a £871.5m deal with two overseas pension funds. Westfield has instructed three law firms on the deal, which will see the Australian property developer sell off 50% of Westfield Stratford City to Holland's APG and the Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board.

    1 minute read

  • November 23, 2010 |

    Linklaters spin-off firm hires Bird & Bird litigation partner in Sweden

    Linklaters' Swedish spin-off Kastell has hired Bird & Bird litigation partner Henrik Bielenstein. The hire gifts Kastell, which was launched earlier this month by former Linklaters competition partners Kent Karlsson and Erik Soederlind, with a litigation capacity.

    1 minute read

  • November 17, 2010 |

    BarCap revamps legal team as in-house lawyers depart

    Barclays Capital has rejigged its legal function in the wake of two high-profile appointments earlier this year, while rival Deutsche Bank has lost its deputy general counsel for the UK and Western Europe. BarCap global general counsel Judith Shepherd has taken on additional responsibility for managing the bank's compliance division and will now take the title of global head of legal and compliance.

    1 minute read

  • November 16, 2010 |

    Ashurst wins key Mid East mandate with Kuwaiti public railway PPP role

    Ashurst has picked up a key mandate to advise on the creation of Kuwait's first-ever public railway system. The top 10 City firm is advising new government body, the Partnership Technical Bureau (PTB), as it manages the tender process for the new Kuwait Metropolitan Transportation System, which is expected to cost at least $6bn (£3.8bn).

    1 minute read

  • November 15, 2010 |

    Ashurst hires Dewey ECM partner in Frankfurt

    Ashurst has enhanced its European equity capital markets (ECM) team with the hire of a Dewey & LeBoeuf partner in Frankfurt. Matthias Von Oppen, who will join the firm next month (1 December), has spent three years as a corporate partner at the US firm's Frankfurt base. After qualifying at White & Case in Frankfurt in 1999, he was seconded to Swiss banking giant UBS, as well as the firm's London office. He made partner in 2004 and moved to Dewey in 2007.

    1 minute read

  • November 12, 2010 |

    When the music's over – SJ Berwin goes home alone

    "The talks [between SJ Berwin and Proskauer Rose] remain at a relatively early stage but with the UK firm's strategy becoming increasingly public, neither party is expected to needlessly draw the process out." That line from a blog in May certainly isn't going to go down as one of my more astute predictions because, of course, the pair did go on to draw the process out, before today (12 November) announcing the end of the protracted merger discussions.

    1 minute read

  • November 10, 2010 |

    Half-year financial results show UK leaders edging back to growth mode

    Many of the UK's leading law firms are on course to report increases in revenue over the first half of 2010-11, as the economic recovery continues to gather pace. Allen & Overy (A&O) kicked off the reporting season on Monday (8 November), posting a 3% growth in revenues for the six months ending 31 October.

    1 minute read

  • November 10, 2010 |

    Ex-Linklaters Asia chief goes in-house at energy company

    Linklaters' former Asia managing partner Andrew Roberts has been appointed as in-house counsel by energy company Fontenergy. Roberts, who began his career in 1981 as a solicitor at New Zealand firm Bell Gully, joined Linklaters in 1986 and became the magic circle firm's first Asia managing partner in 2000. During this time at the firm, Roberts also spearheaded the development of Linklaters' Middle Eastern practice.

    1 minute read

  • November 9, 2010 |

    Partners believe tuition fee hikes will damage law's diversity efforts

    Fewer than one in four partners are in favour of Government proposals to allow universities to charge students up to £9,000 in fees, with the clear majority of senior lawyers believing it will damage efforts to improve social diversity in commercial law. Legal Week's latest Big Question survey has found that 61% of partners believe plans to allow universities to increase fees to almost three times the current annual level will damage diversity, with a further 25% thinking it may have a minor impact.

    1 minute read

  • November 2, 2010 |

    Linklaters partner duo quit to launch competition boutique in Stockholm

    Two Linklaters competition partners have left the firm's Stockholm and Hong Kong offices to set up their own boutique in Sweden. The new boutique, launched by Stockholm partner Kent Karlsson and Hong Kong partner Erik Soederlind, went live yesterday (1 November) under the name Kastell. Both partners joined Linklaters' Swedish competition practice in 2001 through its merger with local firm Lagerloef & Leman. Soederlind later relocated to the firm's Hong Kong office in 2008 to become head of competition and antitrust in Asia - a position he held at the time of his departure.

    1 minute read