Anna Reynolds

May 16, 2013 | International Edition

DLA Piper and Davenport Lyons have played roles on the sale of Ella's Kitchen to US-based food company Hain Celestial Group. The organic baby food company will join Hain Celestial's Earth's Best brand as part of a new infant, toddler and kids division, which will be headed by Ella's Kitchen founder Paul Lindley. Hain Celestial – which also owns the Linda McCartney foods brand – was advised by DLA Piper, with partner Bob Bishop leading and senior associates Tim Baumgartner, Kashif Siddiqui and Nick Hinton also taking a role.

By Anna Reynolds

2 minute read

May 16, 2013 | International Edition

Ashurst has picked up a lead role advising on the potential £4bn sale of a portfolio of UK property loans by Germany's Commerzbank. The bank is in discussions to sell its Eurohypo UK operation to US bank Wells Fargo and private equity group Lone Star, with the loan portfolio valued at between £3bn and £5bn. According to reports in the Financial Times the potential acquirers would divide the portfolio between them, with Lone Star to take on the distressed loans and Wells Fargo the performing deals. Should it go ahead, the deal would reportedly be one of the largest disposals of real estate debt by a European bank since the start of the financial crisis.

By Anna Reynolds

2 minute read

May 16, 2013 | International Edition

Brick Court Chambers has secured its first major international mediation capacity through an alliance with leading New Zealand mediator Geoff Sharp. Sharp is one of three new door tenancies secured by the London set, alongside Scotland-based John Sturrock QC and Fidelma Macken in the Republic of Ireland. He will remain a member of Clifton Chambers in Wellington, and is admitted to practise as a barrister in New Zealand, as well as being an accredited mediator in Australia.

By Anna Reynolds

2 minute read

May 16, 2013 | International Edition

As the number of firms announcing redundancy consultations this week continued to rise – with news of widespread cuts at Berwin Leighton Paisner – new research from Legal Week has found a surprising degree of business confidence among partners in UK law firms. Results of the latest Big Question survey how that more than 90% of partners expect to see revenues climb at their own firm over the next 12 months, with more than 80% expecting the same to be true across the UK's 50 largest law firms by revenue as a whole. The research found more than half of respondents (53%) expect to see revenue at their own firm climb by more than 5% over the coming year, with a further 41% predicting more modest increases of between 0% and 5%. Meanwhile, only 6% of partners expect to see their firm's revenues fall.

By Anna Reynolds

5 minute read

May 16, 2013 | International Edition

Slaughter and May, Linklaters and Allen & Overy (A&O) are among a host of firms to have landed roles on travel agent Thomas Cook's £1.6bn capital refinancing plan. The refinancing, which includes a £425m share placing and rights issue, £441m of new bonds issues and £691m of new lending facilities, is intended to reduce the travel company's £800m debt pile while strengthening its capital base.

By Anna Reynolds

2 minute read

May 16, 2013 | International Edition

Olswang and Farrer & Co have both confirmed the results of redundancy consultations which began earlier this year, with the pair managing to save some jobs. Farrer & Co has made nine people redundant after kicking off a redundancy consultation in January putting 12 staff at risk. The consultation affected one fee earner role, two professional support lawyers, three secretaries and six business services staff. Alternative employment has been found for the remaining three roles affected. The firm would not say which roles were lost.

By Anna Reynolds

2 minute read

May 15, 2013 | International Edition

Travers Smith has made up three lawyers to its partnership, down on last year's round when eight lawyers were promoted. The promotions - which are effective as of 1 July due to Travers' financial year running from 1 July to 30 June - include litigator Jan-Jaap Baer, investment funds lawyer Jeremy Elmore and banking and corporate recovery lawyer Danny Peel.

By Anna Reynolds

2 minute read

May 14, 2013 | International Edition

The Bar Council has appointed Stephen Crowne as its new chief executive, filling the position which has been vacant for two years. Crowne, who will take up the post on 3 June, has been the senior director of global education at networking equipment company Cisco for the last two years. Prior to this he was chief executive of the British Educational Technology & Communications Agency (BECTA) - the government agency for promoting technology in learning - for five years.

By Anna Reynolds

2 minute read

May 14, 2013 | International Edition

Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) has announced a redundancy programme putting around 100 UK lawyer and secretarial jobs at risk, with further cuts anticipated across its business services divisions. The redundancy consultation, announced today (14 May), is expected to affect around 58 legal staff and 44 secretarial staff. No numbers are yet available for business services, however the target will be a reduction in total salary costs of 15%.

By Anna Reynolds

2 minute read

May 10, 2013 | International Edition

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has announced details of its 2013 associate salaries - holding rates at 2012 levels as the magic circle firm becomes the third to reveal junior lawyer pay this year. Despite the rates remaining broadly the same as last year, junior lawyers at Freshfields will still be able to take home the same or more than their magic circle peers. Trainee salaries remain at £39,000 for first year recruits and £44,000 for those in their second year, marking the fifth year they have stuck at this rate. Meanwhile, the foundation stage in the magic circle firm's 'milestone' pay bands - which were introduced last year and replace the previous system of pay based on number of years of post-qualification experience (PQE) - remains in the range of £65,000 to £72,500. This band is largely equivalent to newly-qualified (NQ) and one year PQE lawyers.

By Anna Reynolds

3 minute read