Friederike Heine

November 16, 2011 | International Edition

Hogan Lovells' corporate practice is aiming to increase board-level contacts at companies in a bid to strengthen its ties with FTSE 100 clients. The firm, which has been attempting to develop its City corporate practice for some time, is hoping that improving links at board level, rather than focusing purely on in-house legal teams, will help expand relationships from other practice areas into corporate as well as target new clients.

By Friederike Heine

2 minute read

November 16, 2011 | International Edition

Hewlett Packard (HP) has put together a new global legal panel, with US law firms featuring heavily among those selected to advise the company over the next three years. Baker & McKenzie, Gibson Dunn & Crutcher, Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton and Cravath Swaine & Moore are among the firms to have been appointed to the roster alongside magic circle representative Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer. The firms will provide international advice to the technology giant, which has operations in 170 jurisdictions.

By Friederike Heine

2 minute read

November 16, 2011 | International Edition

Outsourcing boutique 
radiant.law has scooped up a lead role on a £1.4bn outsourcing project for financial services group Friends Life to the UK subsidiary of India's Tata Consultancy Services, Diligenta. The boutique, which was created early this year by a group of breakaway partners from Barlow Lyde & Gilbert, Latham & Watkins and Morrison & Foerster (MoFo), advised Diligenta on the mandate.

By Friederike Heine

2 minute read

November 16, 2011 | International Edition

Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) has strengthened its finance practice with the hire of Simon Small from Ashurst, 
who will join the firm towards the end of this year. Small, who joined Ashurst from Linklaters in 2006, will be part of BLP's banking & capital markets group. He has experience in capital markets transactions across a range of asset classes including residential mortgages, trade receivables, auto loans, credit cards, commercial real estate and project bonds. He also advises on corporate trusts. His departure takes the number of partners to leave Ashurst since May 2010 to 26. At Linklaters, Small was a partner for 11 years and was one of the partners to found the magic circle firm's securitisation business.

By Friederike Heine

2 minute read

November 16, 2011 | International Edition

Fewer than half of general counsel are taking steps to drive down legal spend, despite the fact 80% acknowledge the importance of being more cost-effective, according to new research. Nabarro's second annual report on attitudes among general counsel found that only 45% of respondents were actively addressing the cost effectiveness of both external legal spend and the legal function as a whole.

By Friederike Heine

4 minute read

November 16, 2011 | International Edition

Greenberg Traurig Maher (GTM) has seen two of the three partners in its Birmingham office leave the firm, with energy & infrastructure partners Francis Patalong and Paul Kirkby both departing earlier this month. The pair, whose new destinations are unclear, joined GTM in 2010 from DLA Piper to launch the Birmingham office alongside fellow energy & infrastructure partner Andrew Herring and DLA's then UK energy chief Neil Upton.

By Friederike Heine

2 minute read

November 16, 2011 | International Edition

Baker & McKenzie has appointed London partner Bernard Sharp as the new chair of its global banking & finance practice following the law firm's annual partners' meeting in Beijing last month. Sharp takes over from Hong Kong-based banking partner Andrew Lockhart, who will return to full-time fee earning after three years in the role.

By Friederike Heine

2 minute read

November 16, 2011 | International Edition

Ex-Cadbury GC 
Hank Udow tells Friederike Heine how his legal team coped with Kraft's takeover

By Friederike Heine

6 minute read

November 15, 2011 | International Edition

Shoosmiths has been named as the UK's most diverse law firm according to this year's Black Solicitors Network (BSN) Diversity League Table. The ranking combines law firm demographics across four different strands of diversity - disability, ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation - with policy and practice information at the firms also being taken into consideration. In total, 44 law firms in the UK took part in the report.

By Friederike Heine

3 minute read

November 14, 2011 | International Edition

Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) has strengthened its finance practice with the hire of Simon Small from Ashurst, who joins the firm today (14 November). Small, who joined Ashurst from Linklaters in 2006, will be part of BLP's banking & capital markets group.

By Friederike Heine

2 minute read