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International Edition

Wragges recruits for Munich IP practice launch

Wragge & Co is set to open a new intellectual property (IP) office in Munich later this year, with the hire of two new recruits to head up the practice. The new office will be led by ex-Meissner Bolt partner Michael Schneider, who will join the firm's partnership on 1 September, and Alexander Bayer, who is set to join from Jones Day in Germany as a director. An opening date for the new office is yet to be finalised.
2 minute read

International Edition

BP turns to top City firms for help in resolving Russian TNK dispute

A raft of international law firms have lined up to advise in the high-profile TNK-BP dispute, as some advisers fear straining UK/Russian relations could impact on the country's legal sector.City players Linklaters, Lovells, Herbert Smith and SJ Berwin have joined the likes of New York leader Cravath Swaine & Moore and Russia's Egorov Puginsky Afanasiev & Partners in the proceedings, which took a dramatic twist last week when TNK-BP chief executive Robert Dudley left Russia to try and run the business from outside the country. BP has turned to Linklaters and Egorov for advice with Link-laters' London litigation and arbitration partner Michael Bennett advising on the £181m tax case BP has brought against the four Russian oligarchs making up the Alfa-Access-Renova (AAR) consortium that owns the other half of the joint venture. The case looks set to go to arbitration in Sweden.
3 minute read

International Edition

Camerons boosts Kiev with launch of IP group

CMS Cameron McKenna has launched an intellectual property (IP) practice in its Kiev office, hiring Oleksandr Molotai to oversee the expansion. Molotai joined the firm earlier this month (1 July) from Ukrainian drink producer Khortytsya, where he was head of IP. In this role he was in charge of the company's IP registration and enforcement work in the CIS and Western Europe.
1 minute read

International Edition

DLA Piper and Camerons to appeal against fines for Bulgaria competition rule breaks

DLA Piper and CMS Cameron McKenna have been hit with fines in Bulgaria following a hearing by the country's competition commission last week (22 July)The commission ruled on Monday (28 July) that the firms are in breach of the country's competition rules.
2 minute read

International Edition

German court ruling opens door to introduction of success fees

Law firms in Germany are a step closer to being able to charge success fees after a ruling earlier this month that the fee arrangements should be allowed under some circumstances
2 minute read

International Edition

Bird & Bird completes Helsinki deal debut

Bird & Bird has completed its first joint Nordic M&A deal since opening an office in Helsinki in May. Led by Helsinki managing partner Jori Taipale and fellow corporate partner Andreas Boerjeson in Stockholm, the firm advised Finnish company Empower Oy on the acquisition of Comeva AB, a Swedish telecoms and electricity installation and maintenance service provider, for an undisclosed sum.
1 minute read

International Edition

Germany: In good company

Last month the German Parliament passed an Act to modernise the law governing private limited companies - meaning comprehensive changes to the country's limited liability company law
8 minute read

International Edition

Germany: The insolvency influx

When UK Conservative Party leader David Cameron stood in front of the Confederation of British Industry on 15 July and proclaimed that "we cannot - and should not - save all companies that fail" as a result of the credit crisis, he promised to investigate replicating the better parts of the US Chapter 11 system of liquidation.
5 minute read

International Edition

Germany: Shoot to thrill

At the start of last year, both the German and the UK governments set up new schemes aiming to support their domestic film industries. Although the two schemes have some similarities, they have initially produced markedly different effects, with Germany undergoing something of a boom while the UK experienced a relatively sluggish 2007. Nonetheless, it is still early days and it remains to be seen if the schemes can achieve their long term goals.Both the German Federal Film Fund (Deutscher Filmfoerderfonds - DFFF) and the UK film tax credit (FTC) were meant to replace tax-driven models that were perceived as being more of a boost to intermediaries and investors than to producers and the domestic film industries. The new regimes aim to place the benefit of government subsidies squarely with producers and the wider national film industry and bolster domestic production by largely excluding money spent overseas from being eligible for the subsidy.
8 minute read

International Edition

Germany: Root and branch reform

On 26 June, the German Parliament passed the Companies Law Reform Act (MoMiG). While it still needs the approval of the council of states (Bundesrat), the Act is expected to come into force by November. The reform is far-reaching and primarily affects the two most significant corporate forms in Germany, the private limited liability company (GmbH) and the limited partnership, where a GmbH is the general partner (GmbH & Co. KG), although it also has some effect on stock corporations (AG). The public focus has been on the possibility of using a so-called 'entrepreneur's company' (Unternehmergesellschaft), a special GmbH, which will not require equity contributions but will require retained earnings until a certain equity level has been reached. Also, it will be possible to rely on shareholder lists filed with the commercial register.
6 minute read

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