Allen & Overy (A&O) and Shearman & Sterling are set to go ahead with their transatlantic merger, after partners at both firms voted overwhelmingly in favour of the union, with support from more than 99% of votes cast at each firm.
Longstanding Weil Gotshal & Manges London managing partner Mike Francies is set to step down after more than 20 years in the role. Francies, who joined Weil from Clifford Chance in 1998 and started leading the office two years later, will retire at the end of 2024. Public M&A partner David Avery-Gee and private equity …
Allen & Overy and Shearman & Sterling today (18 September) announced that their respective partnerships will start voting on their proposed merger on 28 September, with the voting window to close on 13 October and results announced soon after. For the merger to be voted through, 75% of the partnerships will have to vote in …
Continue reading “A&O Shearman merger vote to kick off this month as pensions issues overcome”
Amid a recent spate of senior deal lawyer appointments, McDermott has brought former Kirkland & Ellis partner Usman Khan into its transactions practice. Khan specialises in real estate finance, and has experience acting for clients including banking institutions, private equity sponsors, credit funds, and sovereign wealth funds. Mayer Brown has also grown its London banking …
The broader life sciences sector saw a spate of deal activity in recent weeks, with two acquisitions over the billion-dollar mark and several more in the hundreds of millions. The highest-value transaction came on 28 August, when US-based life sciences company Danaher announced its agreement to purchase Cambridge-based protein research tools supplier Abcam in a …
‘There are more than 40 US law firms that are more profitable than the Magic Circle. The Magic Circle firms are, in US profit terms, very much middle-of-the-road players.’ Maurice Allen, founder of consultancy LTN & Partners, who has been a partner at Clifford Chance (CC), White & Case, Weil, Freshfields and Ropes & Gray, …
Continue reading “Magic Circle in the US: Running to stand still”
‘I came into law by accident,’ admits Sebastian Goldsmith, general counsel (GC) of occupational health service provider Medigold Health. ‘I guess it was a second choice. I did Spanish and Portuguese at university, and I was going to work for an investment bank, as I did an internship with HSBC during my year abroad in …
Continue reading “The Client Profile: Sebastian Goldsmith, Medigold Health”
According to Dealogic, 2023 saw the lowest Q1 global deal volume and value since 2012, with just 9,400 deals worth almost $591bn. But the infrastructure, energy, and projects sector has remained resilient. Dealogic reports 1,953 utility and energy deals worth over $253m in 2022 – a drop in value of just over 16% on 2021, …
Kirkland & Ellis was at the centre of not one but two of the biggest stories in the London lateral hiring market last week . First, the news broke that former Linklaters private equity star Roger Johnson was set to leave. Then, the firm announced its hire of Paul Weiss London managing partner Alvaro Membrillera. Membrillera’s …
Litigation specialist firm Stewarts today posted financial results that saw revenue fall by 25% to £85.1m. Net profit and PEP both fell by 56%, with profit down to £25.6m and PEP down to £1.2m, its lowest figure since 2019. The firm also reported its equity spread, which shows that its highest earner took home £1.7m, …
Continue reading “Revenue and PEP plummet at Stewarts as ‘non-linear growth’ continues”
