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  • June 4, 2008 | International Edition

    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

  • June 2, 2008 |

    DAC latest to go LLP after City merger

    Davies Arnold Cooper (DAC) has become the latest firm to covert to a limited liability partnership (LLP), it was announced today (2 June). The conversion, which took effect from the beginning of the month, was backed via a partner vote at the end of last year and will apply to the firm's UK offices in London, Manchester and St Albans as well as offices in Spain and Mexico.

    1 minute read

  • June 1, 2008 |

    Only Links boosts FTSE 100 clients in Q2

    Linklaters was the only City firm to increase its FTSE 100 client tally over the last quarter, according to the latest quarterly rankings from Hemscott. The firm gained two FTSE 100 clients over the quarter running from 6 Feb to 9 May, taking its tally to 21 with a market cap of £588bn. The firm's position was bolstered through the listing of Kazakhstan mining company Kazakhmys and Tate & Lyle and Alliance Trust, which entered the FTSE 100 over the quarter.

    1 minute read

  • June 1, 2008 |

    Global 100: restructured Freshfields smashes into PEP elite

    Last year it was Linklaters that proved you could be big and global and among the most profitable firms in the world. This year it looks like Freshfields’…

    1 minute read

  • May 29, 2008 |

    Editor's Comment: The pace-setter

    As if it needed saying again, recent weeks and speculation among rivals regarding Linklaters' strategy in the Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) region have underlined the extent to which the firm has become established as the pace-setter that peers follow. That's not to say the firm is 'better' than rivals, simply that the strategic momentum Linklaters has shown in recent years has established it as the City's most influential top-tier operator. As such, management figures at magic circle rivals have been keeping a watchful eye to get a sense of what the CEE review says about the firm's direction.

    1 minute read

  • May 28, 2008 |

    Lord's of the manor

    The Saturday of the first Test of the summer at Lord's is always a good time to catch up with old friends and colleagues. So imagine Maurice Allen's delight, mere weeks into his new career at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, to find that he had time to share a cup of tea with his former White & Case mates in the Mound Stand shortly before play started against the Kiwis on the third day.

    1 minute read

  • May 22, 2008 | International Edition

    City leaders tough on promotions but expansive band powers forward

    Partner promotions across the top 10 City firms fell by 10% over the last financial year, according to Legal Week research which suggests law firms are already tightening their belts in preparation for a downturn.The group made up 207 partners in total compared with 231 in 2007, even though across the top 50 as a whole new partner promotions are marginally up on 2007.

    1 minute read

  • May 22, 2008 |

    Long road to the top for associates as partner track continues to grow

    The track to partnership at the UK's leading firms has grown for the third consecutive year, according to research by Legal Week. UK associates at the country's top law firms took 8.8 years on average to make partner this year, compared with 8.2 years in 2006.

    1 minute read

  • May 22, 2008 |

    Editor's Comment: Naked partnership

    There is a theory in scientific circles that the act of observing something will alter the subject. You can see the logic with the UK legal profession, which has gone through radical changes at the same time as it has become used to unprecedented transparency. There is no doubt that the publication and benchmarking of revenue and partner profit figures made these targets more central to law firm thinking. On that basis, the question becomes whether a more rigorous analysis of partnership will do to the demographics of law firms what the reporting of financial results did to the economics of partnership.

    1 minute read

  • May 22, 2008 |

    OFT kicks off hunt for new GC as McHenry steps down

    The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) is looking for a new general counsel following the retirement of Brian McHenry.The organisation has appointed Ali Nikpay as acting general counsel while it conducts its search, with applications for the post expected to close at the beginning of June.

    1 minute read