• June 4, 2008 | International Edition

    Gibson Dunn grows German real estate

    Gibson Dunn & Crutcher has bagged a new partner for its Munich property practice, taking Peter Decker from local firm Graf von Westphalen. Decker joins the US firm as a partner in its German real estate practice. He formerly headed the real estate practice at Graf von Westphalen and has experience advising on real estate development, construction and commercial property projects.

    1 minute read

  • June 4, 2008 |

    Gibson Dunn grows German real estate

    Gibson Dunn & Crutcher has bagged a new partner for its Munich property practice, taking Peter Decker from local firm Graf von Westphalen. Decker joins the US firm as a partner in its German real estate practice. He formerly headed the real estate practice at Graf von Westphalen and has experience advising on real estate development, construction and commercial property projects.

    1 minute read

  • June 2, 2008 |

    US leaders join China quake aid effort

    A clutch of leading US law firms have opened their wallets to help China's recent earthquake victims, writes The American Lawyer, including a number of firms with active China practices. Firms to have contributed to various relief organisations working to aid the Chinese include New York's Dewey & LeBouef and Sullivan & Cromwell; West Coast outfits Heller Ehrman, Morrison & Foerster (MoFo) and Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe; and the Chicago pair of Kirkland & Ellis and McDermott Will & Emery.

    1 minute read

  • May 30, 2008 |

    Bakers training head takes up BPP post

    BPP College of Professional Studies has bagged Baker & McKenzie's director of learning and development Colin Dworkin to co-ordinate its tailored in-house education function. Dworkin, who joins in July, will fill the newly-created role of director of talent development programmes. The position will see him take responsibility for working with individual law firms to produce specially designed courses for their employees.

    1 minute read

  • May 29, 2008 |

    UBS tasks in-house trio with GC cover

    UBS has appointed a trio of in-house staff to fill Peter Kurer's general counsel role while the bank looks for a replacement for Kurer, who was named chairman last month. Global head of compliance Neil Stocks, group legal head and general counsel for the corporate centre Bernard Schmid and David Aufhauser, global general counsel for investment banking and general counsel of UBS Americas, will act as co-general counsels until the bank chooses a replacement.

    1 minute read

  • May 28, 2008 |

    Law firm networks: Model of understanding

    During the past three years, Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), including Russia, generated 15 deals, each with a value exceeding E3.5bn (£2.8bn), according to Mergermarket. In the same period, Clifford Chance acted on 98 CEE deals with a total value of more than E48bn (£38bn), Baker & McKenzie acted on 95 deals while White & Case acted on 85. This is a stark contrast with 15 years ago when the deal volumes in the CEE region were among the lowest in the world and the local independent law firms typically consisted of two people sharing a desk in an apartment building somewhere in a dusty capital city. Now the local lawyers are no longer the poor relatives: Ion Nestor was on the cover of Business Week Romania. His firm, the 182-people strong Nestor Nestor Diculescu Kingston Petersen, was recognized as one of the Business Superbrands Romania 2007-08.

    1 minute read

  • May 28, 2008 |

    Lord's of the manor

    The Saturday of the first Test of the summer at Lord's is always a good time to catch up with old friends and colleagues. So imagine Maurice Allen's delight, mere weeks into his new career at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, to find that he had time to share a cup of tea with his former White & Case mates in the Mound Stand shortly before play started against the Kiwis on the third day.

    1 minute read

  • May 28, 2008 |

    Ex-Bakers partner indicted for second time

    Brooklyn federal prosecutors have further charged a former Baker & McKenzie partner, indicted last autumn on securities fraud charges, with stealing from a client escrow account. Martin Weisberg, 57, then a corporate partner in Chicago-based Baker & McKenzie's New York office, was charged in October by the Eastern District US Attorney's Office with participating in an illegal short-selling scheme that netted two Israeli investors $55m (£28m). The counts in the indictment include securities fraud, conspiracy and money laundering.

    1 minute read

  • May 21, 2008 |

    Bakers closes €800m UBS securitisation deal

    Baker & McKenzie has won a lead role advising UBS on the €800m (£637m) securitisation of a portfolio of Piraeus Bank's residential mortgages. The deal, which closed earlier this month, saw UBS acting as sole arranger and lead manager on the Greek bank's securitisation.

    1 minute read

  • May 20, 2008 |

    Jones Day hires hand Gibson Dunn Singapore debut

    Gibson Dunn & Crutcher has launched an office in Singapore after hiring a three-partner team from rival US firm Jones Day. Gibson Dunn corporate partner Jai Pathak has moved from the firm's Los Angeles headquarters to lead the new branch, where he will be joined by three new partners.

    1 minute read