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  • October 14, 2008 |

    US duo join magic circle on UK bank bailouts

    Two New York firms have scored roles advising the UK Government on its £37bn plan to recapitalise three major banks, reports the Am Law Daily. Cravath Swaine & Moore and Davis Polk & Wardwell are advising HM Treasury on US securities laws and regulatory issues associated with the British Government's direct investments in The Royal Bank of Scotland, HBOS, and Lloyds TSB.Robbins Kiessling, the New York-based head of Cravath's banking practice, and London-based corporate and capital markets partner Philip Boeckman are advising the British Treasury with respect to US matters related to its preferred and common equity investments in the three banks.

    1 minute read

  • October 14, 2008 | International Edition

    Northern Rock calls off negligence action

    Northern Rock is not intending to bring legal action against its former directors after taking advice from Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and KPMG Forensic. The nationalised lender announced today that it has concluded that there are insufficient grounds to proceed with negligence action against the ex-directors with the bank's auditors also off the hook. The decision follows a review of the previous board's conduct carried out with the assistance of Freshfields and KPMG as external advisers. The former board was led by then chief executive Adam Applegarth, who stood down last year.

    1 minute read

  • October 14, 2008 |

    Northern Rock calls off negligence action

    Northern Rock is not intending to bring legal action against its former directors after taking advice from Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and KPMG Forensic. The nationalised lender announced today that it has concluded that there are insufficient grounds to proceed with negligence action against the ex-directors with the bank's auditors also off the hook. The decision follows a review of the previous board's conduct carried out with the assistance of Freshfields and KPMG as external advisers. The former board was led by then chief executive Adam Applegarth, who stood down last year.

    1 minute read

  • 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