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  • October 2, 2008 |

    Rail organisation set to form first legal panel

    Cross London Rail Links (CLRL) is in the process of creating its first-ever legal panel.The organisation, the delivery vehicle for the Crossrail project, began the tendering process at the beginning of September and is expecting to appoint a panel of between two and four firms to deal specifically with land acquisitions.The organisation currently has no formal panel for its general legal work but works regularly with Ashurst.The advisers will help CLRL purchase the land necessary to complete the development of the new rail routes. CLRL head of legal Mark Fell said: "CLRL is about to commence the task of acquiring over 13,000 interests in land pursuant to the powers granted by the Crossrail Act. He added: "We are committed to performing this function... in an efficient and cost effective manner to enable the construction works to proceed to programme. We will be looking to our external lawyers to support us in meeting those objectives."The panel is expected to be completed early next year. In addition to Ashurst, which was appointed as an adviser to the organisation in February 2002, CMS Cameron McKenna also has ties to the organisation as it advised the UK Government on the funding of the project.Crossrail is a 50/50 joint venture between Transport for London and the Department for Transport. Once completed, new rail links will run through London from Maidenhead to Shenfield and Abbey Wood via both Liverpool Street and Heathrow Airport.

    1 minute read

  • October 2, 2008 |

    Law firms land B&B, Dexia and Fortis roles

    A raft of leading law firms have landed roles on the latest bank bailouts with Bradford & Bingley (B&B), Dexia and Fortis all agreeing rescue deals this week.Herbert Smith, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Slaughter and May and Ashurst all won major roles on the £40bn nationalisation of B&B. Herbert Smith advised longstanding client B&B, fielding a team under London corporate chief Michael Walter. Slaughters, fielding a team under London corporate partner Charles Randell, acted for the UK Government, which nationalised the bank on Monday (29 September). Freshfields advised Bank of England on its role overseeing B&B, with partner Michael Raffan leading the team.Ashurst advised Banco Santander-owned Abbey on its acquisition of B&B's £20bn deposit business, which includes 200 branches. As the banking crisis spread to continental Europe, Herbert Smith ally Stibbe won lead roles advising on the state bailouts of Belgian banking leader Fortis and Dexia. The firm is advising the Belgian Government, which has taken minority stakes in both of the troubled banks. The firm is acting opposite Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton for Dexia, which is to receive a E6.4bn (£5.1bn) injection from the governments of Belgium, France and Luxembourg and shareholders. Linklaters took the lead for Fortis on its E11.2bn (£8.9bn) cash injection from the governments of Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.

    1 minute read

  • October 2, 2008 | International Edition

    Withers invests in corporate after hiring department head from Bevan

    Withers has hired a new European head of corporate after targeting national outfit Bevan Brittan for the law firm's practice head Adam Duthie.Duthie joined Withers this week (1 October) as a partner after two years at Bevan Brittan, where he was national head of corporate. He replaces Tim Taylor, who is stepping down to return to full-time fee earning after 10 years as head of the European corporate group.Duthie's practice covers general corporate, including mergers and acquisitions, public and private equity, debt finance and Alternative Investment Market transactions. He has particular in emerging markets as well as in the UK leisure and retail sectors.Prior to joining Bevan Brittan in 2006, Duthie also held roles with law firms including Baker & McKenzie and Ashurst, as well as serving as a senior counsel at Guinness/Diageo. Anthony Indaimo, Withers' chairman and international corporate head, said: "Adam is a first-rate corporate practitioner and we look forward to him joining the London team. We act for ambitious entrepreneurs who value commercial acumen and understanding as highly as technical ability."Duthie's departure from Bevan Brittan follows a difficult period at the southwest law firm. Last year profits per equity partner fell to £184,000 from the previous year's figure of £234,000. Meanwhile in May, the firm announced a redundancy consultation which affected six fee earners and 24 support staff. The number was less than the original 40 that were expected to be hit. Commenting on his departure the firm's chief executive, Andrew Manning, said: "Adam is keen to focus on international corporate work, particularly in emerging markets and acting for highly entrepreneurial clients, while we are concentrating on further growing our blue-chip corporate client base. "With this in mind, we have now agreed with Adam that his ambitions will be better met at another firm."Bevan Brittan has yet to decide on a replacement for Duthie as corporate head.

    1 minute read

  • October 2, 2008 |

    Withers invests in corporate after hiring department head from Bevan

    Withers has hired a new European head of corporate after targeting national outfit Bevan Brittan for the law firm's practice head Adam Duthie.Duthie joined Withers this week (1 October) as a partner after two years at Bevan Brittan, where he was national head of corporate. He replaces Tim Taylor, who is stepping down to return to full-time fee earning after 10 years as head of the European corporate group.Duthie's practice covers general corporate, including mergers and acquisitions, public and private equity, debt finance and Alternative Investment Market transactions. He has particular in emerging markets as well as in the UK leisure and retail sectors.Prior to joining Bevan Brittan in 2006, Duthie also held roles with law firms including Baker & McKenzie and Ashurst, as well as serving as a senior counsel at Guinness/Diageo. Anthony Indaimo, Withers' chairman and international corporate head, said: "Adam is a first-rate corporate practitioner and we look forward to him joining the London team. We act for ambitious entrepreneurs who value commercial acumen and understanding as highly as technical ability."Duthie's departure from Bevan Brittan follows a difficult period at the southwest law firm. Last year profits per equity partner fell to £184,000 from the previous year's figure of £234,000. Meanwhile in May, the firm announced a redundancy consultation which affected six fee earners and 24 support staff. The number was less than the original 40 that were expected to be hit. Commenting on his departure the firm's chief executive, Andrew Manning, said: "Adam is keen to focus on international corporate work, particularly in emerging markets and acting for highly entrepreneurial clients, while we are concentrating on further growing our blue-chip corporate client base. "With this in mind, we have now agreed with Adam that his ambitions will be better met at another firm."Bevan Brittan has yet to decide on a replacement for Duthie as corporate head.

    1 minute read

  • October 2, 2008 | International Edition

    Field Fisher scores second Reed Smith hire in a month

    Field Fisher Waterhouse has hired its second partner from Reed Smith in a month to secure a new partner for its London pensions practice. Michael Calvert, who is the latest in a string of hires for the City law firm, will join Field Fisher's employment and pensions practice as a partner. Calvert joined Reed Smith in 2003 and, prior to that, worked at Ashurst. His practice includes acting for both employers and trustees on transactional and non-transactional matters, including mergers and acquisitions, outsourcings, scheme mergers and wind-ups and pensions regulator issues.He becomes the third lateral partner to join Field Fisher in recent weeks, following the hires of property litigator Lesley Webber, who also joined from Reed Smith, and technology and telecoms litigator Andrew Dodd from DLA Piper. The firm has already made nine lateral hires during the current financial year, taking its total partnership to 126.Calvert becomes the second partner in Field Fisher's London pensions group alongside practice head David Gallagher. The group's clients include Electricity Pensions, Arriva and the Government Actuary's Department. Gallagher said: "Calvert has an excellent reputation in the industry and his expertise in private sector pensions will be a good complement to our practice's leading public sector pension capability."

    1 minute read

  • October 2, 2008 |

    Field Fisher scores second Reed Smith hire in a month

    Field Fisher Waterhouse has hired its second partner from Reed Smith in a month to secure a new partner for its London pensions practice. Michael Calvert, who is the latest in a string of hires for the City law firm, will join Field Fisher's employment and pensions practice as a partner. Calvert joined Reed Smith in 2003 and, prior to that, worked at Ashurst. His practice includes acting for both employers and trustees on transactional and non-transactional matters, including mergers and acquisitions, outsourcings, scheme mergers and wind-ups and pensions regulator issues.He becomes the third lateral partner to join Field Fisher in recent weeks, following the hires of property litigator Lesley Webber, who also joined from Reed Smith, and technology and telecoms litigator Andrew Dodd from DLA Piper. The firm has already made nine lateral hires during the current financial year, taking its total partnership to 126.Calvert becomes the second partner in Field Fisher's London pensions group alongside practice head David Gallagher. The group's clients include Electricity Pensions, Arriva and the Government Actuary's Department. Gallagher said: "Calvert has an excellent reputation in the industry and his expertise in private sector pensions will be a good complement to our practice's leading public sector pension capability."

    1 minute read

  • October 1, 2008 |

    BLP, CC cash in on record E1.9bn lease of Santander's Madrid base

    Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP), Clifford Chance (CC) and Allen & Overy (A&O) have won roles on Europe's biggest-ever single property sale - the E1.9bn (£1.5bn) acquisition of Banco Santander's headquarters in Madrid.The deal, which completed last month, saw the building, in Boadilla del Monte in Madrid, sold to Propinvest under a sale and leaseback agreement. The UK property company turned to Spanish leader Garrigues for local and property law advice, with real estate partner Felipe Yannone taking the lead role.

    1 minute read

  • October 1, 2008 |

    Commentary: Geffen takes over as the house that Green built faces stress-test

    The election of Charlie Geffen as Ashurst's new senior partner comes at a key moment for the firm. As one of the poster boys for the firm's recent success, he now is now charged with steering the firm through its most difficult period since the aftermath of its unhappy merger talks with Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson which ended in 2003. The headline figures are undeniably impressive - for a firm renowned for conservative expansion, revenues have grown by 50% in two years and in 2008 the firm (just about) passed the magic £1m figure for profits per equity partner.This is in part seen to be due to the pairing of a frontline management team made up of senior partner Geoffrey Green and managing partner Simon Bromwich. This partnership was viewed as providing the balance between vision and detail that was so elusive under the Green/Spendlove team. The last four years have also seen the firm revive Ashurst's once-struggling international network.

    1 minute read

  • October 1, 2008 |

    SJ Berwin takes lead on MFI management rescue

    SJ Berwin has taken the lead role in the management rescue of furniture retailer MFI.The struggling retailer's management team, led by chief executive Gary Favell, has agreed to a buyout, however only 92 of MFI's 194 stores are thought likely to be saved.SJ Berwin is advising MFI retail and MFI properties on the transaction, with restructuring and insolvency partner Mike Woolard and corporate finance partner Nicholas Plant leading the team.

    1 minute read

  • September 30, 2008 |

    Ashurst helps Virgin to BSkyB court case victory

    Ashurst has advised Virgin on its successful claim that BSkyB flouted competition laws by claiming a 17.9% stake in ITV in 2006. The Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) ruled in Virgin's favour, agreeing with the decision made by the Competition Commission and business secretary John Hutton that it must reduce its holding in the UK broadcaster to less than 7.5%.The team from Ashurst was led by London's head of EU and competition, Nigel Parr, partner Duncan Liddell and associate Ross McKenzie.Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer advised ITV with competition partner Simon Priddis at the helm.

    1 minute read