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International Edition

Lehman lawyers paid as hopes rise of UK deal

Hopes are rising that some jobs in Lehman Brothers' 50-strong in-house legal team can be saved as some legal staff were today told that they would be paid until the end of the month. The move contradicts earlier expectations that the entire UK legal team would lose their jobs in the wake of the bank's shock insolvency and comes as Barclays today (17 September) sealed a £1bn deal to acquire a sizeable chunk of Lehman's investment bank and capital markets business on Wall Street.The Barclays deal has raised expectations that the bank would be interested in taking on some of Lehman's UK business, including its legal team. As revealed on Tuesday (16 September) by legalweek.com, Clifford Chance is advising Barclays on the deal.
2 minute read

International Edition

CC advises Barclays on $1.75bn Lehman assets purchase

Clifford Chance (CC) has advised longstanding client Barclays on its purchase of a $1.75bn (£1bn) chunk of collapsed investment bank Lehman Brothers. CC, which had been advising Barclays on its abandoned bid to acquire Lehman outright, fielded a team lead by corporate partner Guy Norman, with corporate partner Patrick Sarch, regulatory partner Chris Bates, restructuring partner Nick Frome and capital markets partner Ed Bradley assisting.Barclays has agreed to purchase a chunk of core assets from Lehman Brothers, including the fixed income, research departments, equities sales, and investment banking and trading operations in North America.
2 minute read

International Edition

MTV emerging markets legal head steps down

MTV is looking for a new legal chief for its emerging markets division following the departure of the group's business and legal affairs head Robert Cummins. Cummins had been with the entertainment giant for almost two years after joining from technology company Sapient in October 2006.Roger James, MTV's head of legal for international and the UK, has now kicked off the search for a replacement to head the 12-strong team, which has lawyers based in the UK, Poland, Hungary and South Africa.
2 minute read

International Edition

Former Resolution GC joins resources group

Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation (ENRC) has appointed a new general counsel and company secretary with the hire of former Resolution legal chief Randal Barker. Barker joins the resources group from buy-out house Resolution, which he left after the company's tie-up with Pearl Assurance, a deal which was completed in May of this year.Prior to that, Barker worked at General Electric (GE), where he was European general counsel for two years, and Lovells, where he was a senior associate.
1 minute read

International Edition

BAE names first-ever India chief counsel

Defence and aerospace giant BAE Systems has appointed Mike Elston as its first-ever chief counsel for India. Elston will officially take up the Delhi-based post on 1 November, leaving his current position of chief counsel of BAE's land systems division.As part of the new role Elston will be responsible for providing legal advice in relation to the company's business in India and will report to president of BAE Systems India, Julian Scopes, and group general counsel Philip Bramwell.
2 minute read

International Edition

Risky businesses

As the credit crunch exerts pressure on companies around the globe, the outlook facing general counsel gathering for this year's Corporate Counsel Forum Europe has changed dramatically since 2007.On the one hand chief legal officers, especially those in the financial services sector, face an environment of mounting regulatory, market and litigation risk. On the other, they have never been under more pressure to contain costs as companies struggle to conserve cash.With this in mind, this month's Legal Week Corporate Counsel Forum provides a timely opportunity for general counsel to discuss the implications of the downturn and how to balance these competing priorities.
6 minute read

International Edition

Apple to settle backdating case for $14m

Apple and several of its officers and directors, including chief executive Steve Jobs, have agreed to settle a stock options backdating case for $14m (£8m), plus legal fees and costs, reports The National Law Journal. According to court filings this month, Apple also agreed to pay $7.3m (£4.1m) in legal fees and $300,000 (£171,000) to plaintiffs in the federal actions, as well as $1.2m (£683,000) in legal fees and $50,000 (£28,500) in expenses to plaintiffs.
3 minute read

International Edition

Ashurst lands Emap corporate role

Ashurst has scored the main corporate advisory role for Emap after the publishing company reviewed its legal panel in the wake of its takeover last year. The company has added Ashurst, CMS Cameron McKenna and employment boutique Dawsons to the roster of firms it uses for legal work, with the trio joining existing panel firms DLA Piper, Farrer & Co and US firm Epstein Becker & Green.The review was conducted by Emap group legal director Nilema Bhakta-Jones, who joined earlier this year to replace general counsel Nick Folland, who left in 2007 to join Kingfisher. Ashurst has been appointed as main corporate adviser, focusing on high-value and complex matters, with Farrers appointed to advise on mid-market work, including corporate acquisitions and disposals up to £5m and litigation matters.
2 minute read

International Edition

The single solution

On a crisp sunny day in late March, fee earners from 39 law firms gathered at the corporate headquarters of pharmaceuticals giant Pfizer, a nondescript office building a couple of blocks east of Grand Central Station in New York. The collective mood was cheerful. After all, each of the firms still had a piece of Pfizer's US litigation work. Two years earlier, the company had dumped 80% of its hundreds of outside counsel in a convergence project called P3 - the Pfizer Partnering Programme. Now, representatives from the survivors had been convened to receive an update.There was nothing surprising in what the first speaker, Sandra Phillips, head of the company's product litigation group, had to say. But the second speaker had some unexpected news to deliver. Margaret Madden (pictured right), head of Pfizer's employment law group, explained how her staff had slashed its roster of 50 outside law firms in the first phase of P3 to 10. A quick look around the room, however, revealed that just one of those employment firms was present. What happened to the other nine?
17 minute read

International Edition

UBS managing director heads back to Herbies

Herbert Smith's Hong Kong office has has been boosted by the arrival of a new partner as litigator Gavin Lewis rejoins the firm from UBS. Lewis joined the London arm of Herbert Smith in 1996, before being sent to Hong Kong in 1998 where he has been based ever since.He has been at UBS for just over two years as a managing director, leading litigation and regulatory enquiries in the Asia-Pacific region.
2 minute read

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