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  • June 19, 2008 |

    Magic circle M&A teams hold steady as credit squeeze hits deal markets

    European M&A activity levels have held up across the magic circle despite the downturn in the credit markets. Statistics compiled for Legal Week by Mergermarket show that volume levels fell by a third across magic circle advisers in the first calendar quarter of 2008, compared with Q1 2007. Despite the significant drop, the firms put in a better performance than many would have expected given the slowdown in overall deal activity.

    1 minute read

  • June 18, 2008 |

    Dealmaker: Jon Vivian

    Jon Vivian heads up SJ Berwin's highly-rated real estate practice

    1 minute read

  • June 18, 2008 |

    Substance with style

    This year's Intendance 'Fast Fifty' benchmarking of the 50 fastest-growing law firm websites is further proof of how the legal sector is stepping up its online operations. Famed throughout the business-to-business sector, sometimes unfairly, as being among the least innovative of the professional services in terms of harnessing the power of the internet, law firms are now showing signs of shedding that image. Of course, the big news since last year's report is the arrival of the much-heralded Legal Services Act, which will open the sector up to outside competition. It is too early to tell whether the Act has focused partners' attention on developing hitherto untapped business streams, but there are advantages to be had by developing online capabilities. For the past seven years, Intendance has been evaluating how the legal profession presents itself online and how it communicates with a whole host of stakeholders, from clients to potential trainees. The success - and increase in scope - of previous Fast Fifty reports has led to a change in format this year, from a single document to a three-part series.

    1 minute read

  • June 18, 2008 |

    ...Legal Week Lunchbox: 19/06/08...

    The five most popular articles on legalweek.com today; plus the pick of the day's posts; a new Career Clinic dilemma; and more

    1 minute read

  • June 16, 2008 |

    ...Legal Week Lunchbox: 16/06/08...

    The five most popular articles on legalweek.com today; plus the pick of the day's posts; a new Career Clinic dilemma; and more

    1 minute read

  • June 13, 2008 |

    Dewey joins Slaughters for Zurich's RBS bid

    Dewey & LeBoeuf has snared a lead advisory role alongside City royalty Slaughter and May to advise one of the front-runners in the race to acquire the insurance business of the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS). Dewey is advising Zurich Financial Services alongside the elite City firm as one of four bidders in an auction for RBS's insurance arm, which is expected to fetch around £7bn.

    1 minute read

  • June 11, 2008 |

    Dealmaker: Martin Bartlam

    Orrick London head Martin Bartlam on jet-setting deals, Yorkshire cheese and dancefloor moves

    1 minute read

  • June 4, 2008 |

    Technology, media and telecoms: Under the influence

    Among the various disputed origins for the word lobbying, the 18th President of the United States Ulysees S Grant claims the most noteworthy. He apparently coined the term at Washington DC's Willard Hotel, using it to describe the machinations of political hustlers who frequented the hotel's lobby, where Grant habitually enjoyed a cigar and brandy, to gain an audience with the him. Big money is now commonplace in day-to-day lobbying in Washington DC, and few are more successful than those major law firms that have a substantial presence within the shadow of Capitol Hill. As the 50 highest-grossing lobbying practices in the US were recently reported to have passed $1bn (£505m) in annual revenues for 2007 - a new landmark - the specialist lobby shops in the top 50 were notably outpaced by Washington DC law firms. Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld ranked number one on the list with $89.8m (£45.3m) in lobbying income, just ahead of Patton Boggs with $89.3m (£45.1m).

    1 minute read

  • June 4, 2008 |

    What the papers say

    Sources at Bryan Cave suggest that the US upstart employs an in-house librarian at its City outpost to pore over the hallowed pages of Legal Week before reporting back to any lawyers lucky enough to get a mention (hi Dave, by the way).

    1 minute read

  • June 4, 2008 |

    Slaughters joins Freshfields on £2bn TNS deal

    Elite City firms Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Slaughter and May have gone head to head on the £2bn merger between information and research groups Taylor Nelson Sofres (TNS) and GfK Aktiengesellschaft. Freshfields has taken the lead for UK group TNS fielding a team led by London corporate partner Jeff Roberts and also including corporate partners Stephen Hewes in London and Heiner Braun and Rick Van Aerssen in Frankfurt.

    1 minute read