Mark Goddard

June 03, 2009 | International Edition

Osborne Clarke has announced its 2009 promotions round, with all of the new partner in the firm's Cologne office. Cologne-based Oliver Esch, Thomas Schnabel and Thomas Funke have been made up in the commercial, construction and competition practices respectively from 1 May.

By Mark Goddard

2 minute read

June 03, 2009 | International Edition

The London Development Agency (LDA) has completed a major review of its roster of external legal advisers, chopping its panel down from 18 firms to 8. The organisation selected Ashfords, Burges Salmon, DLA Piper, Eversheds, Herbert Smith, Lovells, Shepherd and Wedderburn and Stephenson Harwood from a total of around 200 applicants.

By Mark Goddard

2 minute read

June 03, 2009 | International Edition

Shearman & Sterling has won a lead role on the acquisition of General Motors' Hummer brand by a Chinese industrial manufacturer. Shearman advised China's Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery (Tengzhong) on its purchase, in a deal reportedly worth up to $250m (£151m).

By Mark Goddard

2 minute read

June 03, 2009 | International Edition

Deutsche Bank has rolled out a new automated tendering programme for legal work to support its drive to secure more value from external advisers. The new approval system - dubbed 'Click For Legal' - requires a minimum of three bids from different panel firms for specific pieces of legal work.

By Mark Goddard

2 minute read

June 03, 2009 | International Edition

Greenberg Traurig is facing a malpractice investigation by the Heller Ehrman estate, according to court filings and a lawyer representing Heller's creditors committee, writes The Recorder. At issue is Greenberg's apparent failure to discover that Heller's biggest creditor, Bank of America (BoA), had terminated its security interest in the firm. Lawyers familiar with the matter say that Heller, which retained Greenberg last summer, would have had much better leverage with its banks and other creditors if it had known BoA was not a secured creditor and may have even been able to avoid bankruptcy.

By Mark Goddard

3 minute read

June 03, 2009 | International Edition

NCTM has added a Brussels office as the fast-growing Italian independent completes its third merger in the past two months. The firm has opened its second office outside of Italy with a tie-up with Brussels-based boutique O'Connor and Company. The office will be headed up by the boutique's founding partner Bernard O'Connor, who joins NCTM's equity partnership.

By Mark Goddard

2 minute read

June 02, 2009 | International Edition

Lovells senior partner John Young has come out in support of UK law firms' success at exporting English law after recent claims by the former Chief Justice Lord Woolf that the credit crunch had damaged Anglo Saxon firms. In an interview with the Financial Times last week Woolf commented: "I think [people] are talking about a general sense of malaise with western standards. That goes into the common law legal system, because it's very much part of what we have been promoting in China, Japan and Russia."

By Mark Goddard

2 minute read

June 02, 2009 | International Edition

Shearman & Sterling and Bredin Prat have taken lead roles on French dairy and water company Danone's €3bn (£2.6bn) rights issue. The company, whose flagship products include Evian, Activia and Actimel, launched a public offering in France and Switzerland yesterday (1 June) accompanied by an international private placement in a bid to reduce its debt.

By Mark Goddard

2 minute read

June 02, 2009 | International Edition

Lovells has appointed Michael Stancombe as joint head of real estate alongside Bob Kidby, as Kidby prepares to retire from the firm to join property developer Welbeck Land. Kidby, who has headed Lovells' real estate practice since 1995 and is a longstanding adviser to Welbeck, took up a non-executive director role at the company last week. He will begin working in an executive capacity for the development company when he retires from Lovells in April 2010.

By Mark Goddard

2 minute read

June 02, 2009 | International Edition

Pinsent Masons and Salans have launched a strategic alliance, with Pinsents set to pull out of its international network, PMLG, as a result. The alliance, which went live yesterday (1 June) and was agreed last week, will see the firms conducting joint pitches for cross-border work and committing to joint training and secondments, in a bid to access new clients and boost their international scope.

By Mark Goddard

2 minute read