Sofia Lind

July 21, 2010 | International Edition

Taylor Wessing partners will be asked to spend 50% of their recorded hours on business development (BD) activities as part of a bid to boost the firm's profile in a number of sectors. Under the new programme, partners at the firm will be required to devote half their hours to 'investment time', and the remaining half of their time on chargeable hours.

By Sofia Lind

2 minute read

July 21, 2010 | International Edition

Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) and Allen & Overy (A&O) have taken the top roles on a £1bn sale and leaseback agreement for Tesco. The deal, valued at £958m in total, saw BLP advise regular client Tesco on the transaction, which covers 41 of the supermarket's UK stores.

By Sofia Lind

2 minute read

July 21, 2010 | International Edition

Magic circle firms Slaughter and May and Linklaters have acted on a £1bn energy M&A deal in Northern Ireland. The transaction, which was announced on 7 July, saw Government-owned electricity utility company ESB buy Northern Ireland Electricity (NIE), the Northern Irish electricity transmission and distribution business of the Viridian Group, as well as its associated electrical contracting businesses.

By Sofia Lind

2 minute read

July 15, 2010 | International Edition

Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) has advised Barclays on its sponsorship of the London Cycle Hire Scheme, which will see the development of new cycle superhighways for the capital. The banking giant is contributing £25m over a five-year period towards the scheme, which is set to launch at the end of this month (30 July). Supported by London Mayor Boris Johnson, the scheme will make bicycles available to the public for short journeys in and around central London.

By Sofia Lind

2 minute read

July 14, 2010 | International Edition

Bird & Bird has emerged as the fastest-growing UK top 50 law firm over the last five years, with turnover leaping by more than 150% since 2004-05. After posting rising revenues for each of the last five financial years, Bird & Bird's 2009-10 revenues of £201.8m mark a 151% growth on the law firm's 2004-05 performance, when turnover stood at just £80.4m.

By Sofia Lind

4 minute read

July 14, 2010 | International Edition

Clifford Chance (CC) has improved its trainee retention rates with 79% of September qualifiers due to remain with the magic circle firm. The offer rate at the firm stood at 82%, as CC offered 60 jobs to 73 qualifiers, from which 58 have accepted a role with the firm. The numbers mark an improvement of almost 10% on the rates at the City giant in March this year and in September 2009, when the retention rate stood at 70% on both occasions.

By Sofia Lind

2 minute read

July 14, 2010 | International Edition

In revenue terms, Allen & Overy (A&O) was the strongest performing of the magic circle firms this year, seeing revenue dip just 3.8% over the period compared to an average decline of 7.2% across the group. The magic circle firm saw profits per equity partner (PEP) increase 10% to £1.1bn, boosted in part by a 3.2% decrease in equity partner numbers, which have fallen from 370 to 358 over the last financial year in the wake of a major restructuring exercise.

By Sofia Lind

2 minute read

July 13, 2010 | International Edition

Clifford Chance (CC) is relocating two high-profile corporate partners within its international network of offices. City partner Guy Norman is taking on a brief to develop the magic circle firm's Middle East corporate practice from October after the current head, Dubai-based partner Simon Clinton, moves to Singapore at the start of 2011. Clinton, who has headed the Middle East corporate practice since relocating there from London in 2006, will continue to lead the firm's global sovereign wealth sector group from Singapore.

By Sofia Lind

2 minute read

July 13, 2010 | International Edition

Simmons & Simmons has appointed a new Middle East finance head as City partner Philip Abbott returns to London after his secondment to the region. The Middle East financial markets group will now be overseen by Qatar partner Samer Eido, who has been at Simmons since 2005 and is based in the Doha office. Eido's practice is focused on general banking law, corporate lending, trade finance, real estate finance, debt restructuring and refinancing with a focus on conventional and Islamic structured finance. He also advises on capital markets.

By Sofia Lind

2 minute read

July 09, 2010 | International Edition

Allen & Overy (A&O) has awarded all associates and staff an extra holiday day while also announcing this year's associate bonus levels.

By Sofia Lind

2 minute read