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  • February 25, 2009 |

    Bakers cuts staff in Kiev and Moscow as firms retrench in CEE and CIS

    Baker & McKenzie is cutting jobs in the CIS in what is expected to reflect a wider trend in the Central and Eastern European (CEE) region and former Soviet states as law firms retrench.Around eight staff members have been laid off in Bakers' Kiev office, including three associates. Three associates were also made redundant in Moscow.Bakers has a longstanding presence in the region, with around 125 lawyers in Moscow and around 75 in Kiev.

    1 minute read

  • February 25, 2009 |

    Media darling

    With his thick-rimmed designer glasses and close-cropped hair, AOL international general counsel Tony Wales does not look like a lawyer. And, as he talks animatedly with a slight Brummie accent about 'brand value' and 'social networking verticals', neither does he sound like one.

    1 minute read

  • February 19, 2009 |

    CC scoops top spot in 2008 global project finance league

    Clifford Chance (CC) has topped the global project finance league tables for 2008 by value, according to new research. Infrastructure Journal's (IJ's) 2008 global rankings of legal advisers on project finance deals show the magic circle firm advised on 47 deals last year, worth $64.5bn (£44.4bn). CC's deal tally included the two largest transactions of 2008 - the $11bn (£7.7bn) Asia Trans Gas pipeline and the $10bn (£7bn) Saudi Kayan Petrochemical Complex, as well as deals such as the Future Strategic Tanker Aircraft (FSTA) project early last year.

    1 minute read

  • February 17, 2009 |

    Eversheds Swiss ally gains new office in Geneva

    Eversheds' Swiss ally has opened an office in Geneva, with the top 10 UK firm's international network now covering three sites in Switzerland. Schmid Eversheds merged with Geneva-based firm MCP Avocats earlier this month (1 February) and has rebranded as Eversheds Schmid Mangeat, adding to its existing bases in Zurich and Berne.The Geneva office consists of ten lawyers and houses two of the firm's eight partners. The remaining lawyers are spread equally between Zurich and Berne.

    1 minute read

  • February 11, 2009 |

    Graduate law jobs to defy downturn with 2009 rise

    The number of graduate positions in the legal profession is set to increase during 2009, despite a widespread drop-off in opportunities across a host of other industries, new research has revealed. According to the Graduate Recruitment Survey 2009 Winter Review, compiled by the Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR), the number of graduate positions in the legal sector is likely to rise by 2%.The projected increase is in contrast to a number of other industries that are likely to see a decline in opportunities in the coming 12 months. The banking and financial services sector is predicted to see a decrease in graduate jobs of 10.7%, while investment banking and fund managers are set to be the hardest hit with a drop of 28%. Across the board, vacancies are expected to decline by 5.4%.

    1 minute read

  • February 5, 2009 |

    Editor's comment: That Davos dividend

    Some of the US's banking titans are not there, and many of President Barack Obama's top advisers and cabinet members have taken a pass, but a handful of lawyers were rubbing shoulders with the great and the good last weekend at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Mingling with the likes of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Wen Jiabao were partners from Clifford Chance (CC), Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Baker & McKenzie and Covington & Burling.

    1 minute read

  • February 5, 2009 |

    City boutique brushes up alongside US trio on $400m haircare buyout

    Cravath Swaine & Moore, Jones Day, Baker & McKenzie and London boutique Wallace have been handed roles on the $411.5m (£288m) sale of haircare business TIGI to consumer products giant Unilever. The deal gives Unilever its first entry into the salon hair-care market, with brands such as Bed Head and S-Factor. Cravath advised Unilever on the US corporate aspects of the deal, fielding a team led by New York corporate partner Peter Wilson and tax partner Michael Schler.

    1 minute read

  • January 28, 2009 |

    Switzerland: An island of calm

    In a country renowned for its banking prowess, the financial turmoil of the last months has been keenly felt in Switzerland. While the financial haven is proving less than rosy for many bankers with two of its major institutions, UBS and Credit Suisse, both caught up in the financial storm, Switzerland's legal elite has a more positive story to tell.For many of the country's main firms, the crisis has meant an inflow of lucrative instructions, landing roles in the wake of the collapse of Lehman Brothers - with its plentiful Swiss creditors - for example, or on one of the many reorganisations within Swiss banks.Several of Switzerland's largest firms, including Lenz & Staehelin, Baer & Karrer, Homburger and Schellenberg Wittmer, credit the banking crisis with a major upturn in work in the region."It is clear that last year was dominated by the financial crisis. It has taken a lot of our time and made us quite busy," says Homburger managing partner and co-head of M&A Heinz Schaerer.

    1 minute read

  • January 28, 2009 |

    Switzerland: Code breaking

    It is a popular view that Swiss bank secrecy attracts undeclared, illegal money - that it exists only for this purpose and that the need for its removal is self-evident. Many believe that the first steps to achieve this have been successfully taken, with the US Justice Department's attack on UBS. However, first a reminder before you read on: in 1934 Switzerland enacted specific legislation to make divulging bank secrets a criminal offence, partly in response to a law introduced by Adolf Hitler that any German with foreign capital should be put to death.

    1 minute read

  • January 28, 2009 |

    Strength in numbers

    There are some people in this world who live life to the full and others who do not know when to say 'no'. I am trying to decide if I fall into the former or the latter. As a US securities partner at Simmons & Simmons, one would think that my day job keeps me occupied enough. In truth, it does, and then some. However, I think when you have a passion for something, that energy can be channelled to accomplish even more. Over the past few years I have been involved in two exciting projects, one rooted in the familiarity of US securities law and the other involving a journey into the realm of equality and diversity which has been unexpected, demanding and very rewarding.

    1 minute read