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International Edition

MoFo's London arm sees off £1.4m High Court negligence claim

Morrison & Foerster's (MoFo's) UK arm has successfully countered a £1.4m professional negligence claim brought against the firm by energy investment company Petrochemical Resources. The claim was dismissed earlier this month by Exchange Chambers' Mark Cawson QC, who sat as a deputy judge of the Chancery Division, after the hearing ended in late June.
3 minute read

International Edition

Cadwalader hires two-partner finance team from Mayer Brown

Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft's London office has hired a top-ranked structured finance team from Mayer Brown, including former finance and banking practice head Bruce Bloomingdale. Bloomingdale, a US-qualified lawyer who splits his time between London and New York, advises financial institutions and corporates on a wide range of transactions, including cross-border securitisations, leveraged finance and asset-backed lending.
2 minute read

International Edition

Slaughters and Freshfields lead on landmark Lloyds disposal

Magic circle duo Slaughter and May and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer have taken advisory roles on the government's disposal of a 6% stake in Lloyds Banking Group, raising £61m for the Treasury. UK Financial Investments (UKFI), the company set up to manage the Treasury's shareholding in Lloyds, yesterday (16 September) announced its intention to sell a stake worth around £3.3bn by way of a share placement.
2 minute read

International Edition

Capita to enter UK legal services market with Optima takeover

Outsourcing company Capita is poised to move into the UK legal services market with the acquisition of Optima Legal, following a conditional agreement between the two parties. The business process outsourcing (BPO) giant today (16 September) announced plans to acquire Optima, a provider of high-volume services for property, debt recovery and litigation works, as well as its subsidiary Cost Advocates, which provides legal costs drafting and negotiation services.
2 minute read

International Edition

The home guard – the missing identity of global law firms

If year-on-year fee increases and a buoyant M&A market imbued a certain stasis, five years of economic woes have certainly driven change through the conservative legal profession. The comparative proliferation of global giants of the ilk of Hogan Lovells, Norton Rose Fulbright and, more recently, King & Wood Mallesons SJ Berwin (KWM) serve as fine examples of the diverging market, with an increasingly international client base driving the case for cross-border mergers.
3 minute read

International Edition

RPC advises AstraZeneca on Cambridge HQ relocation

RPC is advising pharma giant AstraZeneca on the development of and move to new purpose-built headquarters in Cambridge. The firm is acting as sole adviser on the project, which covers all acquisition, construction and planning-related issues for the new £330m base. RPC's team is being led by real estate head Martin Barrett, with the construction aspects handled by partner Stephen Malley.
2 minute read

International Edition

Firms set sail on Chinese bank's $1.5bn boat purchase

Norton Rose Fulbright and Watson Farley & Williams have taken roles on the first stage of a $1.5bn (£962m) deal that has seen French oil and gas group Bourbon sell nine boats to the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC). The first phase of the sale, worth $144m (£92m), comes after a deal was drawn up by Bourbon and ICBC Financial Leasing earlier this year, which will see 51 vessels sold to the Chinese company by mid-2014.
2 minute read

International Edition

UK top 100 firms enjoy best quarter for growth in five years

The UK's top 100 law firms have experienced a sharp improvement in their fortunes in the first quarter of the financial year, with fee income up 10.1% year-on-year. The figure, contained within Deloitte's quarterly law firm survey, marks the first time that the top 100 firms have achieved double-digit growth in five years, and is up from 3.8% in Q1 last year and just 2.6% for the final quarter of 2012-13...
2 minute read

International Edition

Government announces plans to launch planning court in 'radical' shake-up of UK justice system

The Ministry of Justice is considering the establishment of a specialist planning court to speed up the review process for large-scale infrastructure projects, as part of a "radical" set of proposals to reform public law and speed up the economic recovery. An eight-week consultation on a raft of proposed changes to the judicial review system was announced by Justice Secretary Chris Grayling (pictured) last week, including a separate 'planning chamber' staffed by expert judges; a tighter timeframe for applications; only allowing people with a direct interest in cases to apply for judicial review; and changing the rules around who has to pay legal costs so applicants foot part of the bill.
3 minute read

International Edition

HSF aims to boost female partner numbers with diversity initiative

Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) is set to roll out a firmwide diversity initiative aimed at boosting the number of female lawyers making partner at the firm. Over the past year, the firm has been working with Wanda Wallace, the CEO of US consultancy Leadership Forum, to develop five key programmes that will be rolled out across its international offices this month. Global M&A head Stephen Wilkinson and competition partner Susan Black have been taking lead roles in the initiative. Wallace has previously developed similar programmes for major bluechips including BP, Credit Suisse and Vodafone, but this is her first project with a law firm.
2 minute read

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