Sofia Lind

February 04, 2008 | National Law Journal

Cleary Gottlieb and Sullivan & Cromwell are among a clutch of U.S. firms to have claimed advisory roles on a major finance deal that will see sovereign funds totaling $12.5 billion dispensed to U.S. banking giant Citigroup. Investing alongside the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation and the Kuwait Investment Authority were Saudi prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, the New Jersey Division of Investment and Citigroup's former chairman and chief executive, Sandy Weill.

By Sofia Lind

2 minute read

November 13, 2009 | Law.com

Russia is continuing to prove a challenging location for U.K. law firms, as they struggle to occupy lawyers in an M&A market that has seen deal volumes nearly halve over the past year. After Simmons & Simmons last month became the first major international firm to pull out of the Russian market altogether, partners at other firms have admitted that cracking Moscow is proving more difficult than many would have thought.

By Sofia Lind

3 minute read

March 20, 2008 | National Law Journal

Eight of London's top 10 law firms are already using or assessing external funding for litigation and arbitration cases, marking a dramatic move of third-party funding into mainstream practice. All of the top 10 U.K. firms except Linklaters and Slaughter and May are now offering, or considering offering, clients external funding in some cases. The dramatic adoption of the once-controversial technique illustrates the fast-changing attitudes as litigators position themselves for an expected upturn.

By Claire Ruckin and Sofia Lind

4 minute read

October 23, 2009 | Law.com

Ropes & Gray is set for a London launch with the hire of high-profile U.K. finance duo Maurice Allen and Mike Goetz. The two will lead Ropes & Gray's U.K. launch in January, aided by senior U.S.-based partners Newcomb Stillwell and David Chapin. Allen and Goetz come from Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, which they had joined in March last year after seven years at White & Case. The pair resigned from White & Case's London office amid tensions between the firm's central management and its U.K. branch.

By Sofia Lind

2 minute read

February 21, 2008 | National Law Journal

German independent Beiten Burkhardt has boosted its Moscow practice after securing the move of a three-partner team from domestic rival CMS Hasche Sigle. Hasche Sigle Moscow litigation head Svetlana Turbanova and real estate partners Eugen Zentner and Falk Tischendorf -- who were all salaried partners at their former firm -- will be accompanied to Beiten by eleven further lawyers. Turbanova joined Beiten on Monday, with Zentner and Tischendorf set to complete their switch next month.

By Sofia Lind

2 minute read

January 01, 2010 | Corporate Counsel

By Sofia Lind and Elliott Hurwitt, Claire Ruckin

5 minute read

March 14, 2011 | New York Law Journal

By Sofia Lind

2 minute read

September 28, 2010 | Law.com

SJ Berwin real estate head Jon Vivian, one of the U.K.-based firm's most well-respected partners, is leaving for Irwin Mitchell alongside a three-partner team. Some partners in SJ Berwin's real estate department have expressed opposition to a proposed merger with Proskauer Rose.

By Sofia Lind

3 minute read

November 20, 2009 | Law.com

As partners at Lovells and Hogan & Hartson met this week to discuss their planned trans-Atlantic merger in depth, more details emerged concerning the structure of the deal, which would see the two firms integrate governance and remuneration but maintain separate profit pools. The merged Hogan Lovells would bring the two firms' compensation structures into closer alignment, with Lovells implementing a structure similar to Hogan's merit-based model for partner pay.

By Alex Novarese and Sofia Lind

3 minute read

October 21, 2009 | Law.com

The former deputy head of legal at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi has been found guilty of a multimillion-dollar fraud, a U.K. court ruled Tuesday. Former in-house lawyer Kate Johns faces jail for her crimes, with a sentence to be handed down in December. London's Southwark Crown Court ruled that Johns was guilty of having repeatedly conned colleagues into signing off large sums of money for investment. In total, the bank lost 7.4 million pounds ($12.3 million) as a result of the scam.

By Sofia Lind

2 minute read