Tim Hardy Partner, CMS tim.hardy@cms-cmck.com David Bridge Senior associate, CMS david.bridge@cms-cmck.com When the people of France gave the Statue of Liberty to the US in 1886, they left it to the people of the US to fund the acquisition of a site and build the pedestal. Fundraising proved difficult until the publisher of the New …
Continue reading “CMS: Crowdfunding litigation – power to the people?”
Simon Bushell London chair of litigation, Latham & Watkins simon.bushell@lw.com The world is an increasingly small place: money travels far and fast across seemingly invisible borders converting from cash into assets, back into cash, and then back into yet further assets at the click of a button.
Colin Passmore assesses a key ruling in the increasingly contentious area of legal privilege. In June this year, the Hong Kong Court of Appeal held that the English Court of Appeal decision in Three Rivers (No.5) [2003] does not represent Hong Kong law. This is, of course, the 2003 English Court of Appeal decision well-known …
Continue reading “Legal privilege: the ripples flow on still from Three Rivers”
We are delighted to sponsor the Disputes Yearbook, which now forms a central part of Legal Business’ wide-ranging and insightful disputes coverage. There is no doubt that litigation continues to be a dynamic and rapidly developing sector of the legal market. Although there is a possibility that the improving economic climate will have a negative …
Continue reading “Economic recovery will not lead to decline in the disputes sector”
To celebrate our annual GC Power List report, Legal Business this summer teamed up with DLA Piper and Thomson Reuters to hold an evening reception and debate to explore the topic of teamwork and give senior in-house counsel an informal chance to network. Our discussion panel comprised British American Tobacco’s Western Europe legal head Benoit …
Continue reading “GC Power List Summer Reception – In search of excellence”
To mark our Regional Insight report, we teamed up with Weightmans to assemble a group of senior in-house counsel in the north west. A discussion over added value in legal services typically begins with a discussion of what the term actually means. Right off the bat, Celia Tierney of Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council points out …
Continue reading “North west clients – The delivery business”
As part of our Regional Insight series, we met with senior in-house lawyers and partners from Brodies in Edinburgh to discuss the key issues facing GCs working in Scotland. The most heavily-used phrase among in-house counsel and private practice lawyers alike is ‘trusted adviser’, so it is therefore unsurprising that this became the first major …
FIRST-TIME GC FOR BRITISH LAND Property developer British Land has hired HSBC deputy company secretary and former Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer partner Elaine Williams as its first general counsel. Williams, who was a partner at Freshfields between 2000 and 2011 before joining HSBC in 2011, will become British Land’s first ever general counsel when she starts …
HERBERT SMITH FREEHILLS AND ALLENS ENLISTED FOR WOODSIDE TAKEOVER BID Australian oil company Woodside turned to Herbert Smith Freehills as it rejected a takeover offer by rival Oil Search. Australian firm Allens advised the Papua New Guinea firm that made the £5.3bn offer.
Our recent International Arbitration Summit in London provoked lively discussion and, ahead of a full report on the debate next month, here is a taster of some of the key points SELF-AWARENESS REQUIRED ‘The once preoccupying debate about what issues you can arbitrate has become of ever-diminishing relevance in the modern world. Almost all commercial …
