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  • July 7, 2008 |

    French indie signs up Freshfields partner

    Parisian independent Bredin Prat has recruited leading employment lawyer Pascale Lagesse from the local offices of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer to launch a new practice area. Lagesse, who heads the employment department at the local office of Freshfields, is set to join Bredin Prat in October this year. The hire represents the first foray into employment law for the corporate boutique, which operates a 'best friends' relationship with Slaughter and May in the UK.

    1 minute read

  • July 7, 2008 | International Edition

    French indie signs up Freshfields partner

    Parisian independent Bredin Prat has recruited leading employment lawyer Pascale Lagesse from the local offices of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer to launch a new practice area. Lagesse, who heads the employment department at the local office of Freshfields, is set to join Bredin Prat in October this year. The hire represents the first foray into employment law for the corporate boutique, which operates a 'best friends' relationship with Slaughter and May in the UK.

    1 minute read

  • July 3, 2008 |

    Global 100: Cloning the big four

    “We did better in the first half… strong growth in emerging markets… challenging times… we’re not profiteering, honest”…

    1 minute read

  • July 3, 2008 |

    BHP/Rio role helps power Linklaters to lead four key M&A leagues in H1

    Linklaters' corporate team has put in a commanding performance in the first-half M&A rankings with the magic circle firm topping separate rankings for Europe, UK, global and Asian deals. The firm comfortably outpaced rivals in the key European M&A tables on both value and volume in the first half of 2008, with Linklaters advising on 108 deals in Europe worth E229.4bn (£182bn) and 43 deals in the UK worth E198.1bn (£157bn).The rankings, provided exclusively to Legal Week by its data partner Mergermarket, show Linklaters securing the top spot for deal activity after winning a string of major bids, including advising Belgian brewer InBev on its proposed $46bn (£23.1bn) takeover of US beer giant Anheuser-Busch.

    1 minute read

  • July 2, 2008 |

    China telecoms giant calls on Slaughters and Freshfields to advise on restructuring

    Slaughter and May and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer have won roles on a major restructuring of the Chinese telecoms market worth around $72bn (£36.3bn). Freshfields has taken the lead for China Unicom - the country's second largest mobile operator - on its intended merger with landline provider China Netcom and its disposal of mobile network CDMA to China Telecom.

    1 minute read

  • July 2, 2008 | International Edition

    Sympathy for Silk Street as JPMorgan takes the hard line

    "It's a disgrace" may not be the first words you would associate with a commercial decision by a bank but the expression neatly sums up opinion across the Square Mile regarding JPMorgan's decision to blacklist Linklaters thanks to its role litigating against Bear Stearns. After all, Linklaters had accepted the instruction from Barclays Capital months before the stricken lender collapsed as a result of its exposure to the plunging credit market and months before JPMorgan in March agreed to buy the bank for a fraction of its previous value. Linklaters had also been open with JPMorgan's legal team about the litigation at the time of the takeover. Initially, Linklaters had the impression that JPMorgan was taking a pragmatic stance; it is widely accepted that Linklaters' position, while commercially awkward, was not a legal conflict. But apparently, when the bank's executive team became aware of the issue, they took a rather less charitable view. Hence Linklaters being asked to stand down. Given US bar rules and its client commitments to Barclays, that gave Link-laters little option but to regretfully tough it out and see itself, temporarily at least, frozen out by one of its top banking clients.

    1 minute read

  • July 2, 2008 |

    Sympathy for Silk Street as JPMorgan takes the hard line

    "It's a disgrace" may not be the first words you would associate with a commercial decision by a bank but the expression neatly sums up opinion across the Square Mile regarding JPMorgan's decision to blacklist Linklaters thanks to its role litigating against Bear Stearns. After all, Linklaters had accepted the instruction from Barclays Capital months before the stricken lender collapsed as a result of its exposure to the plunging credit market and months before JPMorgan in March agreed to buy the bank for a fraction of its previous value. Linklaters had also been open with JPMorgan's legal team about the litigation at the time of the takeover. Initially, Linklaters had the impression that JPMorgan was taking a pragmatic stance; it is widely accepted that Linklaters' position, while commercially awkward, was not a legal conflict. But apparently, when the bank's executive team became aware of the issue, they took a rather less charitable view. Hence Linklaters being asked to stand down. Given US bar rules and its client commitments to Barclays, that gave Link-laters little option but to regretfully tough it out and see itself, temporarily at least, frozen out by one of its top banking clients.

    1 minute read

  • July 2, 2008 |

    Ward Hadaway's animal magic

    "Big, powerful and intelligent... we must mean business," reads the spiel on the website for top four Newcastle firm Ward Hadaway, accompanied by a (presumably Photoshopped) picture of a gorilla in a pinstripe suit. Either that or the PG Tips chimps have been to acting classes.With law firms certainly not averse to 'borrowing' good ideas from rivals - we should launch in Milan, we need to merge, we should sack everyone over 40 - it's only a matter of time before more firms start defining themselves in terms of the animal kingdom. How about:

    1 minute read

  • July 1, 2008 |

    Travers partnership votes in LLP conversion

    City firm Travers Smith has become the latest firm to convert to a limited liability partnership (LLP). The conversion takes effect from today (July 1) and will apply to the firm's office in London. The practice's Paris office will become an AARPI, the French equivalent of an LLP.The move follows a partnership vote in May. The LLP will apply to both equity and non-equity partners.

    1 minute read

  • June 29, 2008 |

    CIS - staying independent, going international

    Today's first panel discussion of the CIS Local Counsel Forum featured a Who's Who of the independent Russian legal market, which now includes 16,500 firms…

    1 minute read