Filter This View

  • February 14, 2007 |

    Deals: M&A 15/02/2007

    Kirkland & Ellis has bagged a lead role advising Bain Capital on its $3.5bn (£1.7bn) acquisition of African retailer Edgars Consolidated Stores - the largest leveraged buy-out on the African continent to date. Kirkland acted for regular client Bain, fielding a City-based team including corporate partners James Learner and Christopher Field, finance partners Stephen Gillespie and Neel Sachdev and tax partner Ian Taplin. Edgars was advised by Johannesburg firm Webber Wentzel Bowens. Legalweek.com (9 February)

    1 minute read

  • February 14, 2007 |

    Management and IT: The right resource

    The holiday season is still a distant prospect but for law firms the New Year means the rapid approach of Easter and the long summer break. Juggling staff levels with client demand and natural peaks and troughs in activity is essential to ensure a firm's workflow does not slip into 'go-slow' in the summer. Yet how can the law, a people-centred business, balance ever-fluctuating resource planning needs with a trading environment which encourages firms to constantly drive down overheads?

    1 minute read

  • February 8, 2007 |

    Ashurst raids Norton Rose for projects partner Inglis

    Ashurst has strengthened its Middle East projects capability with the hire of Norton Rose projects partner John Inglis. Inglis, the London-based head of Norton Rose's Middle East energy project finance group, has resigned from the City firm and is set to join Ashurst as a partner.

    1 minute read

  • February 8, 2007 |

    Law firms braced as five top banks review panels

    UK firms are gearing up for a surge of panel reviews by major financial institutions, with a number of Europe's biggest banks set to review their advisers in the coming months.

    1 minute read

  • February 7, 2007 |

    Editor's Comment:On young shoulders

    Like policemen, managing partners are getting younger. And if not radical, Simon Davies' elevation to one of the top law firm management jobs in the world at the age of 39 is still pretty good going for a City legal institution that makes Ashurst look wacky by comparison.

    1 minute read

  • February 7, 2007 |

    Browne Jacobson hires duo for profile drive

    Browne Jacobson has hired its first-ever professional development lawyers as part of a drive to expand its profile outside the Midlands. Diane Faulks joins from Ashurst, where she was also a professional development lawyer. Hilary McEwan arrives from DLA Piper, where she was an associate in the clinical negligence team. At Browne Jacobson, Faulks and McEwan will oversee market strategy, knowledge management and training.

    1 minute read

  • February 7, 2007 |

    Commentary: Linklaters' weirdly credible buy-out relaunch gets better

    While the hire of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer acquisition finance partner David Ereira raised a few eyebrows, last week's news that Clifford Chance (CC) rising star Ian Bagshaw is to help rebuild Linklaters' buy-out team leaves little doubt that Silk Street is serious about bulking up in private equity.

    1 minute read

  • February 7, 2007 |

    Deals: M&A 08/02/2007

    Slaughter and May has advised Standard Chartered Bank on the sale of its shareholding in Standard Chartered Trustee and Standard Chartered Asset Management to a subsidiary of UBS, for $120m (£61m). Corporate partner Paul Olney led the team, working with Desai & Diwanji in India. Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer corporate partner Philip Richards led the team advising UBS.

    1 minute read

  • February 7, 2007 | International Edition

    Lovells loses US restructuring duo to MoFo

    Lovells is set to lose the bulk of its US restructuring practice after two partners, including its US restructuring head, Gary Lee, handed in their notice. Lee, who leads the firm's US insolvency and restructuring practice and is one of the firm's best-known US partners, and Karen Ostad are both understood to have handed in their notice within the last week.

    1 minute read

  • February 7, 2007 |

    Lovells loses US restructuring duo to MoFo

    Lovells is set to lose the bulk of its US restructuring practice after two partners, including its US restructuring head, Gary Lee, handed in their notice. Lee, who leads the firm's US insolvency and restructuring practice and is one of the firm's best-known US partners, and Karen Ostad are both understood to have handed in their notice within the last week.

    1 minute read