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  • September 11, 2008 |

    Lovells pushes financial services practice with Debevoise recruit

    Lovells has brought in a financial services specialist to boost its London corporate practice with the partner hire of Vivienne de Chermont from Debevoise & Plimpton. Chermont, who joins the financial institutions group (FIG) on 6 October, was previously international counsel at the US law firm but prior to that was a partner with City rival Ashurst.She began her legal career at Lovells and then worked in-house at Woolworths and Abbey Life before joining Ashurst, where she became a partner in 2002, leaving to join Debevoise two years later. Her practice covers M&A, joint ventures, commercial agreements and schemes of arrangement.

    1 minute read

  • September 10, 2008 |

    Four Seasons £1.5bn finance talks lures major City line-up

    Macfarlanes, Allen & Overy (A&O), Linklaters, Ashurst and Kirkland & Ellis have advised as the company was this month granted a repayment reprieve until the end of October, giving it time to work with lenders on restructuring its debt.The repayment was part of an agreement with the care-home chain made in 2006 when it was bought out by investment house Three Delta for £1.4bn from former owners, Allianz Capital Partners.The original deal gave Four Seasons until the end of August to refinance the debt but the company was unable to do so owing to the poor credit markets. Macfarlanes has been acting for Four Seasons throughout the negotiations, with corporate partner Ian Martin taking the lead. The top 30 firm has advised Four Seasons since 1999 and Martin advised the company's management team during its 2006 buy-out. Four Seasons has been left with 11 tranches of debt including some payment-in-kind (PIK) loans held by lenders including Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and Trafalgar Asset Managers.

    1 minute read

  • September 4, 2008 |

    Ashurst lands Emap corporate role

    Ashurst has scored the main corporate advisory role for Emap after the publishing company reviewed its legal panel in the wake of its takeover last year. The company has added Ashurst, CMS Cameron McKenna and employment boutique Dawsons to the roster of firms it uses for legal work, with the trio joining existing panel firms DLA Piper, Farrer & Co and US firm Epstein Becker & Green.The review was conducted by Emap group legal director Nilema Bhakta-Jones, who joined earlier this year to replace general counsel Nick Folland, who left in 2007 to join Kingfisher. Ashurst has been appointed as main corporate adviser, focusing on high-value and complex matters, with Farrers appointed to advise on mid-market work, including corporate acquisitions and disposals up to £5m and litigation matters.

    1 minute read

  • September 3, 2008 |

    Lovells fends off tough property market to advise Henderson on shopping centre fund

    Lovells has advised Henderson Global Investors on the creation of a close-ended real estate fund to buy UK designer outlet shopping centres. The fund has bought three shopping malls for £365m from a consortium comprising BP Pension Fund, Axa and Morley Fund Management. Lovells funds partner James McDonald led a large cross-border team advising on the deal, which saw the fund, UK Outlet Mall Partnership, buying the three centres in Cheshire Oaks, Swindon and Bridgend. Other partners involved in the deal include tax partners Kevin Ashman in London, Herve Israel in Paris, Michael Dettmeier in Duesseldorf and Jason Kaplan in New York.

    1 minute read

  • August 29, 2008 |

    Linklaters transfers partner duo to Dubai base

    Linklaters' expansion drive in the Middle East is set to continue with the transfer of two London-based partners to the Dubai office. Banking partner James Martin and capital markets partner Richard O'Callaghan are both making the move following July's appointment of Sarosh Mewawalla as the new Dubai managing partner.

    1 minute read

  • August 28, 2008 |

    DLA boss Knowles set to lead firm until 2012

    Nigel Knowles is set to continue in his role at the helm of international heavyweight DLA Piper, after revealing his intention to stand for re-election. Knowles, whose current term as chief executive ends in December, is intending to continue his tenure at the firm for another four years. It is unlikely that anyone will stand against Knowles, who has become one of the most high profile leaders in law since heading the UK firm in 1996.Under Knowles' leadership the firm has seen significant expansion both in the City and internationally through ventures including the transatlantic tripartite merger with Piper Rudnick and Gray Cary Ware & Freidenrich at the beginning of 2005.As revealed by Legal Week, the firm overhauled its management earlier this year - cutting the number of chief executives from three to two, with Knowles and the US's Lee Miller remaining as co-chief executives. The third chief executive, Francis Burch, is taking on the global chairman role from George Mitchell.One partner at the firm told Legal Week: "I would be surprised if anyone ran against Knowles. I think the strategy we have followed of diversifying geographically has served us very well and I am sure quite a few of our UK competitors must be envious. He has come up with the strategy, so why not see it through?" News that Knowles is planning to stay in his leadership role comes as a number of firms gear up for management changes. Ashurst is seeking a replacement for outgoing senior partner Geoffrey Green, who is set to relocate to Hong Kong next year to launch the firm's office in the city, while Lovells and Eversheds are also both preparing for management elections.

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  • August 27, 2008 |

    Ashurst and Links take lead on oil giant takeover

    Ashurst and Linklaters have landed lead roles on the proposed £1.4bn takeover of Russian oil exploration giant Imperial Energy.The deal sees Linklaters score a role for Indian corporate ONGC Videsh, whose offer for the oil company has now been recommended and is subject to approval from the Russian government. London based corporate partner Michael Sullivan is heading up the team.

    1 minute read

  • August 27, 2008 |

    ...Legal Week Lunchbox: 27/08/08...

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

    1 minute read

  • August 21, 2008 |

    Ashurst recruits Dechert Islamic finance head

    Ashurst has bolstered its securities team with the hire of Dechert's Islamic finance head Abradat Kamalpour. Kamalpour, who has been a partner at Dechert since 2006, will joins Ashurst's London office. Before joining Dechert, he was an associate at Norton Rose.Ashurst Dubai managing partner Nick Bryans said that Kamalpour had joined the top 10 firm to help to build up its Islamic finance practice.

    1 minute read

  • August 8, 2008 |

    Links targets Asia growth with partner switch

    Linklaters is set to boost its Asian projects group with the relocation of an energy and infrastructure partner. Richard Ginks - who has been at the magic circle firm since 1996 and became a partner in 2007 - will move to the firm's Singapore arm on 1 September.

    1 minute read