Legal Week

June 18, 2009 | International Edition

Japanese banking giant Nomura has completed an overhaul of its in-house legal team following last year's takeover of Lehman Brothers' European and Middle Eastern equities and investment banking businesses. The combined legal department is to be overseen by European general counsel Mark Chapman and Piers Le Marchant, who was previously managing director of legal at Lehman.

By Legal Week

2 minute read

June 18, 2009 | International Edition

BT Global Services general counsel and commercial director Tim Cowen is stepping down after 18 years at the company. Cowen, a former regulatory lawyer at Lovells, joined BT Ignite as head of legal in 1991. Ten years later he became general counsel of successor organisation BT Global Services and subsequently took on the role of commercial director.

By Legal Week

2 minute read

June 18, 2009 | International Edition

Pinsent Masons has announced a package of cost-cutting measures in an effort to avoid widespread job cuts, while national rival Wragge & Co has launched a redundancy consultation that could claim up to 85 positions on the back of a poor financial year. Pinsents, which has yet to make any redundancies, confirmed last week (11 June) that a number of jobs are under threat despite a cost-cutting scheme that includes sabbaticals and part-time working.

By Legal Week

3 minute read

June 18, 2009 | International Edition

Despite international firms continuing their march from marketing guff to reality, it seems firms still can't kick the habit of appointing home-grown stars to manage foreign offices across great distances. This strategy is particularly obvious at US firms, which still sometimes opt to have US lawyers either partially or totally based at home running their European outposts. In competitive markets it often fails to deliver as it irritates lawyers in the local office, rivals notice the incoming star is hardly ever there and clients feel short-changed. And the foreign appointee, no matter how good they are, usually struggles to make an impact, spending one-third of their time on the red eye and another third outside the country.

By Legal Week

3 minute read

June 18, 2009 | Legal Week

Despite international firms continuing their march from marketing guff to reality, it seems firms still can't kick the habit of appointing home-grown stars to manage foreign offices across great distances. This strategy is particularly obvious at US firms, which still sometimes opt to have US lawyers either partially or totally based at home running their European outposts. In competitive markets it often fails to deliver as it irritates lawyers in the local office, rivals notice the incoming star is hardly ever there and clients feel short-changed. And the foreign appointee, no matter how good they are, usually struggles to make an impact, spending one-third of their time on the red eye and another third outside the country.

By Legal Week

12 minute read

June 18, 2009 | International Edition

Lovells has entered into a formal tie-up in India, with the top 10 City firm linking up with local player Phoenix Legal. The UK law firm is thought to have been working with Phoenix for around six months, making it the latest in a growing list of firms targeting Indian firms in preparation for the market opening up.

By Legal Week

2 minute read

June 18, 2009 | International Edition

Magic circle firm suffers raft of walkouts as Kirsch heads to Gibson Dunn and doubts linger over litigation future CC's Kirsch departure heads up month of heavy partner losses in firm's NY arm News that Clifford Chance's (CC's) former global litigation chief Mark Kirsch is to join the New York office of Gibson Dunn & Crutcher alongside fellow securities litigation partner Joel Cohen and counsel Christopher Joralemon capped a month of heavy partner losses from the magic circle law firm's New York office.

By Legal Week

4 minute read

June 18, 2009 | International Edition

Work has started after the German Federal Cabinet passed its draft of the Bad Bank Act. The intention is to relieve the banks from toxic assets in nine steps, but the next monster is already lurking: the consolidation bank.

By Legal Week

8 minute read

June 18, 2009 | International Edition

E-discovery (as it is referred to in the US) or, more accurately, e-disclosure (as it is referred to here, post the Woolf reforms), has received a very negative press, mainly due to the huge costs associated with it. But, when all is said and done, is it really that bad?

By Legal Week

9 minute read

June 18, 2009 | International Edition

Slaughter and May is stepping up its management of associate performance, with the intention of monitoring performance after each piece of work. The reviews, which will be carried out in addition to traditional annual appraisals, were initially rolled out last year and have so far seen the biggest uptake in transactional departments. However, management is now encouraging partners to roll the measure out across all practice groups.

By Legal Week

2 minute read