Suzi Ring

September 14, 2011 | International Edition

Barlow Lyde & Gilbert insurance partner Victoria Sherratt has opted to leave the firm ahead of its merger with Clyde & Co in favour of a move to Reynolds Porter Chamberlain (RPC). Sherratt will join RPC next month, marking the first Barlows partner departure to be announced since the firm's merger plans with Clydes went public this summer. Sherratt, who has been a partner in the insurance and reinsurance group at Barlows since 2009, specialises in property insurance. Her hire takes the total number of partners in RPC's insurance and reinsurance practice to 29.

By Suzi Ring

2 minute read

September 14, 2011 | International Edition

Barlow Lyde & Gilbert's senior equity partners will face a financial penalty of up to £180,000 if they choose to break the three-year lock-in set out in the firm's merger agreement with Clyde & Co. Barlows' equity partners opting to leave during the next three years will be required to pay between roughly £30,000 at the junior end through to £60,000 at the top for each year of the lock-in they do not serve at the 
newly-merged firm.

By Suzi Ring

2 minute read

September 14, 2011 | International Edition

Slaughter and May is set to tighten its relationships with local firms in Asia, with the firm planning to increase secondments to the region and send lawyers to Korea for the first time. The elite law firm is aiming to increase its lawyer secondments across Asia in general but particularly in Japan – where it works with firms including Anderson Mori & Tomotsune and Nagashima Ohno & Tsunematsu – and South Korea, where despite links with Kim & Chang and Shin & Kim the firm has not carried out secondments to date.

By Suzi Ring

2 minute read

September 14, 2011 | International Edition

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has won a mandate to advise Tesco on the sale of its Japan business as the firm gears up to relocate its latest corporate partner to the region. The firm is advising Tesco on the sell-off of its 129 stores in Japan, a move the retail giant confirmed last month, stating that it "cannot build a sufficiently scalable business" in the region. The Freshfields team handling the sale is understood to be led by Tokyo head James Lawden, although the firm declined to comment.

By Suzi Ring

2 minute read

September 14, 2011 | International Edition

Mayer Brown and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer have won roles on the planned $4.2bn (£2.7bn) merger of former BP chief executive Tony Hayward's investment vehicle Vallares with Turkish oil company Genel Energy International. Mayer Brown's London office is advising Genel, the largest oil producer in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, fielding a team led by global energy co-head Robert Hamill, working with partners including Kate Ball-Dodd 
and Richard Smith (corporate), James Hill 
(tax) and Mark Compton (financial services). Mayer Brown worked alongside Turkish law firm Yazici, where senior partner and Genel GC Murat Yazici took the lead role.

By Suzi Ring

2 minute read

September 14, 2011 | International Edition

LG and Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) are among a number of firms to have taken roles on the £139m sale of Pinsent Masons' City headquarters. BLP advised the purchaser, German fund manager Hannover Leasing, with a team led by commercial real estate partner Graham Lloyd-Brunt and real estate finance partner Jo Solomon.

By Suzi Ring

2 minute read

September 14, 2011 | International Edition

Farrer & Co and Taylor Hampton Solicitors' Mark Lewis have been asked to appear in front of the Parliamentary committee investigating phone-hacking. The Culture, Media and Sport committee chair John Whittingdale on Tuesday (13 September) recalled News International advisers Farrers and Lewis, who has acted for a number of phone-hacking victims, to give evidence.

By Suzi Ring

3 minute read

September 13, 2011 | International Edition

Mishcon de Reya has bulked up its City office with the hire of two partners from Travers Smith and Field Fisher Waterhouse. Travers banking partner Michael Bardell and Field Fisher intellectual property (IP) partner Lewis Cohen have both joined Mishcons' corporate and IP practices respectively in recent weeks.

By Suzi Ring

2 minute read

September 12, 2011 | International Edition

Speechly Bircham is facing a claim worth more than £4m from Betfair founder Mark Davies and his wife Miranda for alleged negligence and/or breach of retainer for advice the firm gave them when they tried to sell their shares in the company.

By Suzi Ring

2 minute read

September 12, 2011 | International Edition

Two senior Pannone partners have resigned from the firm and are set to join their former senior partner Joy Kingsley at JMW Solicitors. Family law partners Catherine Jones and Beth Wilkins both resigned from Pannone's Manchester office last week to join Manchester's JMW. They are expected to start at the firm in October.

By Suzi Ring

2 minute read