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  • December 10, 2008 |

    Life is sweet

    If longevity is anything to go by, working as the top lawyer at confectionery giant Cadbury seems to be one of the, ahem, sweeter in-house roles going.After all, the company - one of the world's largest confectionery businesses - has a knack of being able to retain its staff. Chief legal officer and group secretary Hank Udow has been at the company for more than 20 years and is still fascinated by his work.He says: "It still amazes me how many interesting and complex transactions I have had the opportunity to do at Cadbury. It is never dull. The scope of activities from a legal perspective is enormous."

    1 minute read

  • December 10, 2008 |

    Law firm strategy: Seat belts on

    "Throughout the world, change is the order of the day." So said Franklin Delano Roosevelt in his 1935 State of the Union address, as the world grappled with the Great Depression. Shortly after his inauguration next January, President-elect Obama will undoubtedly echo this theme. With his message likely to have a major effect on the global economy, lawyers at Europe's independent law firms will be listening especially hard.At present, there are no siren voices to be heard openly predicting another great depression in Europe. But there is widespread talk of how much recent economic events have changed the world in which law firms and their clients operate. Managing partners abound with stories of frustrated lawyers - always in rival firms - "sitting at their desks with nothing to do" and "desperately twiddling their thumbs all day".

    1 minute read

  • December 10, 2008 |

    Belgium: Belgian blues

    Although it has been a fairly tranquil year for Belgium's independent law firms, there are signs that conditions could be about to worsen. "The legal market over the last 12 months has been pretty stable," says Loyens & Loeff managing partner Peter Callens. "We haven't seen great movements, mergers or people leaving to join other firms. In fact, on average it has maybe been steadier than ever before." Of late, however, there has been a noticeable fall in transactional work, say lawyers. "There has been a slow-down in very large transactions because of the difficulty of getting them financed and I have the impression that private equity players are less active," observes Callens.

    1 minute read

  • December 10, 2008 |

    France: Vive l'independence

    Nixon Peabody has become the latest US law firm to fall under the spell of La Ville Lumiere. This autumn it opened a Paris practice with 26 lawyers from UK firm Taylor Wessing, including 13 partners. They joined other recent newcomers Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Preston Gates Ellis, which has set up a labour and employment practice in the French capital, and Bryan Cave, which established a small Paris outfit this summer after opening Italian and German branches in 2007. The latest Americans in Paris are jumping into a market that local lawyers already describe as extremely competitive - and France's hardcore of solidly independent firms does not appear overly concerned about their arrivals, with most offering little more than a Gallic shrug. The haemorrhaging of partners to Anglo-Saxon rivals appears to have let up, with US and UK firms primarily raiding other international outfits for their partners these days.

    1 minute read

  • December 10, 2008 |

    Norway: Frozen market

    It is a sign of the depth of the global financial crisis that even Norway, one of the world's wealthiest nations, has felt significant tremors. The Scandinavian country has also been hit by the sharp fall in oil prices in recent weeks."Norwegian companies, like companies elsewhere, are cutting dramatically back on investments as a result of the banking situation, where banks really cannot say whether loan financing will be available," says Erik Thyness, managing partner of Wiersholm, one of the country's leading firms.

    1 minute read

  • December 10, 2008 |

    Russia: Bear market mauls Russia

    For much of this decade it seemed that hardly a week would go by without a high-profile Russian company going public with widely reported floats on the London or New York stock exchanges. In the first half of 2007 alone, four Russian companies - Sitronics, Polymetal, Sberbank and Integra - launched initial public offerings (IPOs) that raised a total of £7.1bn.For now, though, the flurry of Russian capital markets deals appears to be over - an obvious casualty of the global financial crisis, which has significantly curbed investor appetites and the willingness of financial institutions to lend money. According to various estimates, 40-50 Russian IPOs were cancelled or postponed this year. One of the biggest still on hold is aluminum giant UC RUSAL's £6.7bn float, which was originally targeted for the London stock exchange but is now on ice while the company receives a £3bn bailout from Vnesheconombank to help finance its debt obligations.

    1 minute read

  • December 5, 2008 |

    Leading UK lawyers added to new Who's Who list

    Weil Gotshal & Manges City managing partner Mike Francies, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer financial institutions co-head Will Lawes (pictured) and Slaughter and May corporate heavyweight Charles Randell are among a string of high-profile lawyers to land a mention in the 2009 edition of Who's Who.

    1 minute read

  • December 5, 2008 | International Edition

    Leading UK lawyers added to new Who's Who list

    Weil Gotshal & Manges City managing partner Mike Francies, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer financial institutions co-head Will Lawes (pictured) and Slaughter and May corporate heavyweight Charles Randell are among a string of high-profile lawyers to land a mention in the 2009 edition of Who's Who.

    1 minute read

  • December 3, 2008 |

    Nabarro, Linklaters and Slaughters appointed on London Scottish collapse as crunch continues

    A raft of City law firms have landed roles on the collapse of specialist financial services house London Scottish Bank. Linklaters and Nabarro have been instructed by the bank, which went into administration earlier this week (1 December).The firms worked alongside each other with London banking partner Bruce Bell leading a team for Linklaters advising London Scottish on the finance side, while Nabarro restructuring and insolvency head Patricia Godfrey advised on corporate matters.

    1 minute read

  • December 3, 2008 |

    Slaughters, SJB lead on BA-Qantas merger talks

    Slaughter and May and SJ Berwin have landed leading roles as British Airways (BA) and Qantas enter into merger talks. Slaughters M&A head Stephen Cooke has taken the lead for regular client BA which confirmed yesterday (2 December) that it was exploring a potential merger with Qantas via a dual-listed company structure.

    1 minute read