NEXT
Sign in to follow

International Edition

BUPA adds Travers and Mills & Reeve to new M&A panel

BUPA is poised to complete a review of its M&A advisers with Travers Smith and Mills & Reeve set to win new instructions from the healthcare company.BUPA, which started reviewing its advisers across most of its main practice areas including litigation and NHS procurement last February, is still to finalise the M&A panel; however, Travers and Wragge & Co have already been selected to handle work valued between £30m and £250m. The organisation has also chosen Ansons, Pitmans and Mills & Reeve to handle work valued at less than £10m. It is still looking to select a third adviser for deals valued between £30m-£250m as well as advisory firms for high-end work in excess of £250m, for which it currently uses Slaughter and May.
2 minute read

International Edition

Public service

"It has been an extremely hectic past year," reflects the Financial Services Authority's (FSA's) general counsel (GC) Andrew Whittaker as he pours himself a glass of water in the meeting room at the FSA's huge Canary Wharf HQ, home to its 2,000 London-based staff. "During September and October we had an enormous number of issues to deal with."The 52-year-old Oxford graduate cites the ban on 'short-selling', which he was heavily involved in implementing, as a key challenge from that period. "It was very much a rapid response to market conditions - a sign that the regulator was able to take firm and effective action at very short notice, which was undoubtedly a shock to lots of people," he recalls.
6 minute read

International Edition

Ex-Tyco EMEA GC Faure takes Ernst & Young role

Tyco's former Europe, Middle East and Asia (EMEA) general counsel Trevor Faure has been named as the new global legal chief of Ernst & Young. Faure departed Tyco earlier this month (21 January), along with deputy EMEA general counsel Enrique Anzar. He will take up his new post at the beginning of next month, working form Ernst & Young's global headquarters in London.Commenting on his new position, Faure (pictured) said: "After a number of highly productive and rewarding years at Tyco I am delighted to be joining Ernst & Young.
2 minute read

International Edition

Jobs under threat at major banks as cuts continue

Turmoil in the financial sector is continuing to spread to in-house lawyers with a growing number of banks poised to make legal redundancies. JPMorgan has laid off several lawyers in London, while those working at Bank of America and Merrill Lynch were this week expecting to learn their fate. JPMorgan refused to comment on the losses but it is understood more than 10 London lawyers have been affected, from teams including structured products and derivatives.
2 minute read

International Edition

The shock of the new

Good lawyers and good consultants do pretty much the same thing: we come up with creative solutions to problems," says Jeremy Barton, who has recently been appointed general counsel at leading global management adviser Boston Consulting Group (BCG)."This probably explains why I find them such a rewarding group to work with," he adds, leaning back in his chair at BCG's plush offices in Mayfair, central London. "You can really meet with them intellectually - they understand you, they challenge you."It may also explain why so many of BCG's 3,900 consultants, including the firm's regional chairs of Europe and the Americas, are legally trained, many arriving via stints at law firms.So how does Barton, 45, whose appointment at BCG was preceded by 10 years working in-house at Arthur Andersen and Ernst & Young, see himself - lawyer or consultant?
6 minute read

International Edition

Brazilian mining GC makes private practice move

The general counsel of Brazilian mining company Vale has moved back to private practice, joining Latin-American law firm Veirano. Pedro Aguiar de Freitas will take up his new position at the beginning of February after spending six years in-house at Vale. He has also worked as general counsel of Brasil Telecom and as senior counsel at the International Finance Corporation.The move marks de Freitas's return to the firm where he started his career more than 20 years ago, which was then the Rio de Janeiro office of Baker & McKenzie.
2 minute read

International Edition

Beachcroft lands Orange role after panel review

Orange UK has completed a review of its legal advisers, with Beachcroft among the firms to win a place on the telecoms company's newly-expanded roster. The review, Orange's first in three years, sees the company increase its number of advisers to 13. Other new firms added to the panel include regional firm Ward Hadaway and Northern Ireland's Worthingtons.
2 minute read

International Edition

Barclays names new chief of staff in top-level re-jig

Barclays has restructured its in-house legal function with appointment of Sue Brooks to the new position of chief of staff. Brooks, who was formerly chief operating officer (COO) at Barclaycard Technology, will support general counsel Mark Harding in her new role.The role combines the position of chief of staff and COO work and comes after the departure of Barclays COO Paul Idzik, who left the bank in May 2008.
2 minute read

International Edition

Firms face dearth of work as clients cut spending

The UK's top companies are set to cut back on the amount of legal work sent to external advisers and retain work in-house, according to Legal Week research. Legal Week Intelligence's (LWI's) 2008 Client Satisfaction Survey has found that more than a fifth of companies (23%) are planning to scale back the amount of work they send to private practice firms over the next year, with that figure increasing to 28% within the FTSE 100. The report, which is based on data from 317 companies, including 54% of the FTSE 100, found that the proportion of legal work outsourced by FTSE companies has fallen in recent years - dropping from 51% to 42% over the last five years.At the same time, in-house departments have grown year-on-year since the first satisfaction survey in 2004. Some 38% of respondents said their legal teams expanded over the last 12 months, with half of the FTSE 100 boosting capacity.
3 minute read

International Edition

Lyceum asks law firms £50m investment question

Lyceum Capital is posing law firms the £50m question, as the market gears up for the next stage of the Legal Services Act (LSA). The private equity house - the first financier to openly target legal service investments - has been informally asking firms, understood to include some within the UK top 20, what they would do with an investment of this size. The most popular responses include using the money to invest in IT and systems and putting it towards acquisitions and international expansion.
2 minute read

More from ALM

More from ALM

Legal Speak is a weekly podcast that makes sense of what’s happening in the legal industry.

Resources