Shearman & Sterling has led for Nokia on its €1.7bn buyout of Siemens’ stake in Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) in a deal that has seen Slaughter and May step in for the German engineering giant. Announced on 1 July, Shearman fielded a multi-disciplinary team across London and New York led by City M&A partner Jeremy …
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SJ Berwin has scored a significant victory in the important tech area of intellectual property rights in cloud data storage, successfully representing broadcaster Sky on its successful trade mark infringement claim against US software giant Microsoft. In a dispute dating back to 2011, the High Court ruled last week that the IT giant’s ‘SkyDrive’ cloud …
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After a turbulent year that saw it unsuccessfully attempt merger discussions with both Laurence Graham and Osborne Clarke, Field Fisher Waterhouse has unveiled a disappointing set of financial results, with revenues and PEP both down. The firm posted a 2.5% drop in revenues to £95m, compared to £97.6m in 2012, while profit per equity partner …
Continue reading “Financials update – Field Fisher Waterhouse pays the cost of merger mania”
The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) last week published a draft Code of Practice setting out their approach to the use of Deferred Prosecution Agreements (DPAs) in a move that lawyers warn will open the floodgates to unduly lenient case settlement. DPAs are to be introduced by the Crime and Courts Act 2013, expected to come …
Continue reading “Deferred Prosecution Agreements: Form over substance?”
Hogan Lovells’ senior management has begun discussions over whether to retain the firm’s dual US-UK chief executive (CEO) structure or continue with a single head if UK CEO David Harris steps down as expected next year. Harris (pictured) and US counterpart Warren Gorrell have opened the discussion on succession plans with the transatlantic firm’s board, …
‘It’s an extraordinary thing – hundreds of lawyers should have entered into damages-based agreements (DBAs) by now.’ So says Leslie Perrin, former managing partner and senior partner of Osborne Clarke, who is now chairman of litigation funding group Calunius Capital, with around £40m of capital to invest in disputes. Instead, DBAs, which came into force …
BT has begun an extensive legal process outsourcing (LPO) tender for its work in India and the US and is expecting to introduce a new provider for UK work as the telecoms giant moves to outsource over 30% of its UK global services legal work. The move comes as the FTSE 100 company’s alternative business …
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DLA completes withdrawal as CMS adds RPC head Mills & Reeve and CMS Cameron McKenna boosted their offerings at opposite ends of the insurance spectrum in June, taking staff from the Birmingham office of DLA Piper and the City office of RPC respectively. Top-50 UK firm Mills & Reeve acquired a nine-strong defendant insurance practice from …
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96 London support staff put on notice of potential redundancy. Taylor Wessing is to make 26 of its City secretaries redundant with all 96 secretaries in London put on notice pending a consultation. The firm but expects the process to last for at least 30 days. A statement released by UK managing partner Tim Eyles …
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It’s been three years since the trailblazing transatlantic pairing of Hogan & Hartson and Lovells. Legal Business assesses if the much-touted marriage is living up to expectations Rarely for a June evening in London, the sun was shining on the rooftop bar as the Legal Business journalist by chance ran into a senior partner at …
