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  • 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

  • December 3, 2008 | International Edition

    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

  • November 28, 2008 |

    Beringer calls for rethink of measures of success

    Former Allen & Overy (A&O) senior partner Guy Beringer has called for law firms to grasp the opportunity to redefine their notions of success in the wake of the credit crisis. Speaking in his acceptance speech for the City of London Law Society Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2008 British Legal Awards, Beringer outlined his advice for law firms facing a challenging year ahead of them.He said: "One of the things I have tried to steer people away from is definitions of success which relied largely on them comparing themselves financially to others, which always seemed as a measure doomed to failure."

    1 minute read

  • November 28, 2008 | International Edition

    Eversheds, Links honoured at British Legal Awards

    Eversheds was among the winners at the 2008 British Legal Awards, beating a strong field of competition to scoop the coveted Law Firm of the Year award.Former Allen & Overy senior partner Guy Beringer - who now holds non-executive positions at investment managers Fleming Family & Partners and on the board of Her Majesty's Courts Service - was honoured with the City of London Law Society Lifetime Achievement award after 30 years at the magic circle law firm.

    1 minute read

  • November 28, 2008 |

    Eversheds, Links honoured at British Legal Awards

    Eversheds was among the winners at the 2008 British Legal Awards, beating a strong field of competition to scoop the coveted Law Firm of the Year award.Former Allen & Overy senior partner Guy Beringer - who now holds non-executive positions at investment managers Fleming Family & Partners and on the board of Her Majesty's Courts Service - was honoured with the City of London Law Society Lifetime Achievement award after 30 years at the magic circle law firm.

    1 minute read

  • November 27, 2008 |

    ITV switches off billable hour after panel review

    ITV has become one of the first major British companies to entirely phase out the billable hour as the broadcasting giant unveils its new roster of legal advisers. Group legal director and general counsel Andrew Garard has cut ITV's advisers from almost 50 to nine, with each firm agreeing to use alterative billing methods.Slaughter and May, Lovells, Addleshaw Goddard, DLA Piper, Olswang, Charles Russell and Goodman Derrick have all landed roles on the panel, with US law firm Dewey & LeBoeuf and media boutique Wiggin also on the roster.

    1 minute read