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  • October 13, 2008 | International Edition

    Magic circle firms head up £37bn bank bailout

    Allen & Overy, Slaughter and May and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer are among the top City firms winning roles on the UK Government's £37bn bailout of three of the country's biggest banks. Freshfields has reprised its role for longstanding client the Bank of England on the rescue plan, fielding a team under corporate partner Michael Raffan. Slaughters is acting for the Treasury on the agreement, which will lead to the Government owning around a 60% stake in Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and a stake of around 40% in the merged HBOS and Lloyds TSB.

    1 minute read

  • October 13, 2008 |

    Magic circle firms head up £37bn bank bailout

    Allen & Overy, Slaughter and May and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer are among the top City firms winning roles on the UK Government's £37bn bailout of three of the country's biggest banks. Freshfields has reprised its role for longstanding client the Bank of England on the rescue plan, fielding a team under corporate partner Michael Raffan. Slaughters is acting for the Treasury on the agreement, which will lead to the Government owning around a 60% stake in Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and a stake of around 40% in the merged HBOS and Lloyds TSB.

    1 minute read

  • October 9, 2008 | International Edition

    Orrick completes 27-partner Heller haul

    Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe has become the latest firm to gain from the collapse of Heller Ehrman - picking up a haul of 27 partners and one senior counsel, including one partner in London. The group includes three former chairmen of the defunct firm and eight practice group leaders. All of the partners are expected to join either this week or next, with Orrick's San Francisco office gaining 14 new partners, Washington DC gaining five, and Seattle, New York and London gaining four, three and one partners apiece. In London, competition partner Douglas Lahnborg has become the first partner from Heller's City base to join another firm, despite firms including Arnold & Porter and Cooley Godward Kronish picking up teams of lawyers in the US.

    1 minute read

  • October 9, 2008 |

    Orrick completes 27-partner Heller haul

    Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe has become the latest firm to gain from the collapse of Heller Ehrman - picking up a haul of 27 partners and one senior counsel, including one partner in London. The group includes three former chairmen of the defunct firm and eight practice group leaders. All of the partners are expected to join either this week or next, with Orrick's San Francisco office gaining 14 new partners, Washington DC gaining five, and Seattle, New York and London gaining four, three and one partners apiece. In London, competition partner Douglas Lahnborg has become the first partner from Heller's City base to join another firm, despite firms including Arnold & Porter and Cooley Godward Kronish picking up teams of lawyers in the US.

    1 minute read

  • October 9, 2008 | International Edition

    UK trio lead on Icelandic bank administrations

    Denton Wilde Sapte, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Slaughter and May are among the advisers lining up to act on the administration of the UK arms of Icelandic banks Kaupthing and Landsbanki. Freshfields is thought to have taken the lead role for the administrators Ernst & Young on the collapse of Heritable Bank - the Scottish subsidiary of Iceland's Landsbanki - under a team led by head of restructuring and insolvency Ken Baird, restructuring and insolvency partner Nick Segal, dispute resolution partner Neil Golding and restructuring and insolvency counsel Anne Sharp.

    1 minute read

  • October 9, 2008 |

    UK trio lead on Icelandic bank administrations

    Denton Wilde Sapte, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Slaughter and May are among the advisers lining up to act on the administration of the UK arms of Icelandic banks Kaupthing and Landsbanki. Freshfields is thought to have taken the lead role for the administrators Ernst & Young on the collapse of Heritable Bank - the Scottish subsidiary of Iceland's Landsbanki - under a team led by head of restructuring and insolvency Ken Baird, restructuring and insolvency partner Nick Segal, dispute resolution partner Neil Golding and restructuring and insolvency counsel Anne Sharp.

    1 minute read

  • October 9, 2008 |

    AkzoNobel finalises in-house shake-up after ICI

    Dutch chemicals group AkzoNobel has streamlined its in-house legal team in the wake of its acquisition of ICI, losing around 25% of the combined company's legal function.The merger, which completed at the beginning of this year, created a combined legal function of 240 lawyers but this has been trimmed to 180, with departures including that of former ICI general counsel Andy Ransom to Rentokil in March this year. The restructuring, led by AkzoNobel general counsel Jan Karel van der Staay, has also seen the company's central legal function disbanded with lawyers now sitting within the decorative paints, performance coatings or speciality chemicals divisions.The legal team still report directly into van der Staay but work within their business lines on a day-to-day basis. All specialise in either corporate law, finance, competition, M&A, sourcing, compliance, US litigation, US employment or environmental law, with each business division including a number of specialists.Van der Staay told Legal Week: "People from ICI have joined AkzoNobel in all functions from young, talented lawyers to very senior professionals. We are using the opportunity to enhance the strength of the legal function."A number of ICI staff hold important positions within the legal function and we feel that the integration process with ICI has gone well and there is a good fit."AkzoNobel is headquartered in Amsterdam and has lawyers positioned across the globe, with van der Staay supported by assistant general counsel in the Americas and the Asia-Pacific region as well as a further three heading the European function. Prior to the ICI takeover the team had 120 lawyers.AkzoNobel has worked with a number of high-profile law firms in the past including Slaughter and May, Eversheds, Sullivan & Cromwell and Dutch firm De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek.

    1 minute read

  • October 9, 2008 |

    Linklaters edges aside Freehills to top Asia-Pacific M&A rankings table

    Linklaters has topped Mergermarket's Asia-Pacific (excluding Japan) M&A rankings by value for the first three quarters of this year. The firm is closely followed by Wall Street leaders Sullivan & Cromwell and Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom in second and third place respectively, while Australian firm Freehills - which topped the ranking at year-end 2007 - has been knocked into eighth place. The rankings show Slaughter and May and Lovells making significant improvements to their positions over the first three quarters of 2008, with Slaughters jumping from number 53 at year-end 2007 to sixth place and Lovells leaping from 38th to 10th position. Australian leader Mallesons Stephen Jaques tops the Asia-Pacific M&A deal rankings by volume so far this year, followed by Freehills and Baker & McKenzie.Linklaters and Shearman & Sterling have advised on the region's largest deal over the period - the $30bn (£17bn) takeover of China Netcom Group Corporation by China Unicom which closed on 2 June. The deal saw Linklaters advise the target while Shearman advised the seller.Mergermarket's rankings also show Linklaters making a significant improvement in the US M&A tables by value. The firm ranked at number 50 at the end of 2007 but jumped to number 10 over Q1-Q3 2008. Only three UK law firms feature in the US M&A rankings, with Allen & Overy climbing from number 21 to 17 and Clifford Chance (CC) from 27 to 18. Skadden is in first place for 2008 swapping places with Sullivan & Cromwell. CC was the only UK firm to feature in the US M&A table by volume, with the firm coming in at number 16 - down from 12th place at the end of 2007.

    1 minute read

  • October 9, 2008 |

    Magic circle duo lead on €750m Sappi deal

    Linklaters and Slaughter and May have taken the lead roles on Sappi's €750m (£583m) acquisition of Finnish graphic paper business M-real.The deal includes the purchase of four graphic paper mills in Finland, Germany and Switzerland.The deal represents Link-laters' first major M&A instruction for Sappi, although the firm has advised the South African company on other matters in the past.London corporate partners Charlie Jacobs and John Lane led the Linklaters team, with the firm also working with local counsel in Finland, Switzerland and Austria. Bowman Gilfillan acted as lead South African adviser to Sappi, with Cravath Swaine & Moore providing US advice. M-real turned to Slaughters where London M&A partner Craig Cleaver headed the team.South African firm Werksmans, Germany's Hengeler Mueller, Finland's Roschier and Switzerland's Barr & Karrer all provided local advice to M-real, while Latham & Watkins advised the banks.

    1 minute read

  • October 8, 2008 |

    Bank turmoil helps elite firms to tighten grip on M&A market

    Top UK and US law firms dominate the latest European M&A rankings for Q3 2008 - a period in which global deal volume fell by 36% compared with the same quarter the previous year. The latest research from Legal Week's data provider, Mergermarket, shows the magic circle taking the top positions by value and volume for European M&A, with New York leaders also featuring highly.

    1 minute read