Filter This View

  • September 24, 2008 |

    Simmons leads as Lehman litigation kicks off

    Simmons & Simmons has scored a role on the first litigation to emerge against the European administrators of Lehman Brothers. The City firm is taking the lead for hedge fund RAB Capital, which has come forward as one of the first claimants looking to recover some of the £22bn-worth of assets frozen when Lehman went into administration last week.

    1 minute read

  • September 24, 2008 | International Edition

    Ashurst lands Lehman role on Nomura takeover

    Ashurst is the latest firm to benefit from the fallout of Lehman Brothers' spectacular collapse, with the top 10 City firm advising Lehman's European investment banking division on its takeover by Nomura. Corporate head Adrian Clark and corporate partner Gavin Gordon are leading the team, which also includes employment, incentives and pensions head Caroline Carter. Nomura announced today (23 September) that it had agreed to buy the European and Middle Eastern equities and investment banking operations of the stricken bank. The Japanese bank also beat Barclays to take on Lehman's Asia-Pacific operations.

    1 minute read

  • September 24, 2008 |

    Ashurst lands Lehman role on Nomura takeover

    Ashurst is the latest firm to benefit from the fallout of Lehman Brothers' spectacular collapse, with the top 10 City firm advising Lehman's European investment banking division on its takeover by Nomura. Corporate head Adrian Clark and corporate partner Gavin Gordon are leading the team, which also includes employment, incentives and pensions head Caroline Carter. Nomura announced today (23 September) that it had agreed to buy the European and Middle Eastern equities and investment banking operations of the stricken bank. The Japanese bank also beat Barclays to take on Lehman's Asia-Pacific operations.

    1 minute read

  • September 24, 2008 |

    ...Legal Week Lunchbox: 24/09/08...

    The five most popular articles on legalweek.com today; the pick of the day's posts; and more

    1 minute read

  • September 22, 2008 |

    Geffen wins Ashurst senior partner vote

    Charlie Geffen has been elected as Ashurst's new senior partner with effect from the end of the year. Voting closed at the top 10 City firm earlier today. Private equity head Geffen and litigation partner Ed Sparrow went head-to-head to succeed Geoffrey Green as the firm's new senior partner. Geffen has long been linked to the senior partner position. As previously reported by Legal Week, Sparrow only emerged as a serious contender earlier this year.

    1 minute read

  • September 19, 2008 |

    FSA short-selling block backed by lawyers

    Lawyers have come out in support of the Financial Services Authority's (FSA's) decision to put a temporary hold on short-selling in a bid to restore market confidence. The dramatic intervention by the regulatory authority comes in the face of market abuses which have seen investors making huge profits from ailing businesses.The ban on shorting is effective until 16 January, 2009, when the FSA will take a view on the market conditions and decide whether to extend the trading restrictions.FSA chief executive Hector Sants said: "While we still regard short-selling as a legitimate investment technique in normal market conditions, the current extreme circumstances have given rise to disorderly markets."

    1 minute read

  • September 18, 2008 |

    Lehman advisers set to be hit in bank's collapse

    Regular advisers to Lehman Brothers could lose millions of pounds in legal fees following the shock demise of one of Wall Street's leading investment houses. City firms including Ashurst, Allen & Overy (A&O), Linklaters, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Lovells all sit on Lehman's UK legal panel, with the bank estimated to spend some £40m in legal fees globally each year.Data from Mergermarket shows that Ashurst, Linklaters and Herbert Smith took the lion's share of Lehman's work on European M&A deals over the last year, with roles on deals including Carlsberg's takeover of Scottish & Newcastle and Alcoa's acquisition of a stake in Rio Tinto.Similarly, in the US, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett and the already troubled Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft have close links to the 158-year old investment house.While several firms have since won lucrative roles relating to the bankruptcy, it leaves others exposed at a time of already decreased activity in both the finance and corporate markets. In addition to a lack of future mandates from the bank, the firms look set to lose fees for work they are already owed.

    1 minute read

  • September 18, 2008 |

    Ashurst adds funds partner to Paris arm

    Ashurst has hired the first dedicated fund formation partner for its Paris office, taking on SJ Berwin partner Xavier Comaills, who joined the City firm's French arm earlier this week (15 September).Comaills helped launch SJ Berwin's Paris office in 2001. Prior to that he worked at Salans Hertzfield & Heilbronn. Comaills' practice focus ties in well with the Paris arm's private equity offering, but he will be the only partner in the office purely dedicated to funds work. Paris managing partner Frederic Pinet told Legal Week: "We have a team of six lawyers doing tax structuring and funds work but hiring someone of Xavier's calibre was an opportunity we could not miss. He is one of very few specialists in this area in France."We did not have any dedicated partners in Paris because this is a very narrow market. It is not as big a market as London but it has expanded in recent years." The hire takes Ashurst's Paris office to 18 partners and around 75 lawyers in total. The firm has made relatively few partner hires for the office in recent times but hired Orrick Rambaud Martell finance partner Sylvie Perrin in April 2007. Outside private equity, the office also handles litigation and competition work. Before joining Salans, Comaills worked at Richards Butler where he was part of the M&A team

    1 minute read

  • September 16, 2008 |

    Lehman lawyers look for work as CC acts on Barclays asset hunt

    More than 50 UK lawyers at Lehman Brothers are searching for work in the wake of the bank's shock bankruptcy filing at the weekend. Specialist in-house recruiters are now working in and around the bank's Canary Wharf offices amid widespread expectations that Lehman's 5,000 UK staff will be made redundant.Recruiters working with Lehman lawyers said that there had been no formal notice of redundancy for the group's UK lawyers but it is expected that a UK legal team estimated at between 50-60 lawyers will lose their jobs.

    1 minute read

  • September 15, 2008 |

    The cats fall in line

    For an avowedly conservative profession, attitudes can change at a fair old pace in law. Diversity, race, corporate social responsibility – these…

    1 minute read