Real estate round up: Hogan Lovells, BLP and Nabarro show credentials while Mishcons makes key hire

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Property Berwin Leighton PaisnerCMS UKHogan Lovells

Unsurprisingly, what little major real estate work that is around has found its way to the usual trio of law firms – Berwin Leighton Paisner, Hogan Lovells and Nabarro. And while the usual suspects continued to do what they do best, 2012 Legal Business real estate team of the year, Mishcon de Reya, has strengthened its team with a key lateral hire.

Hogan Lovells is representing fellow international firm CMS Cameron McKenna over plans to move its entire London operation to the newly developed Cannon Place site above Cannon Street station, where it has agreed to take a 25-year lease, when it vacates its existing premises at Mitre House in 2015. The scheme is a joint venture between international real estate firm Hines and Network Rail.

Vision of the future? Former eBay dispute resolution team heads to Europe

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Disputes

An online dispute resolution (ODR) technology business spun out of eBay is setting up in the UK after receiving a $5m investment from venture capitalists.

Silicon Valley-based Modria, which provides technical solutions for the resolution of around 60 million disputes a year, will be launching its European arm following investment led by early-stage IT venture capital firm Foundry Group.

Asia round-up: Bakers ushers in new Singapore head as MoFo and Taylor Wessing plot regional growth

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Asia Baker McKenzieTaylor Wessing

Aside from the big Asia Pacific news this week of SJ Berwin’s tie-up with King & Wood Mallesons, other major players are expanding in the region or re-freshing their leadership teams.

Baker & McKenzie Wong & Leow, the Singapore arm of Bakers, has appointed a new managing partner. Andy Leck is to replace Edmund Leow, who has been appointed as a Judicial Commissioner in the Supreme Court of Singapore. Leow will leave the global law firm on 31 August to take on his new role.

Good girl gets mad: Rihanna wins t-shirt tiff against Topshop

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Competition Mishcon de ReyaReed Smith

In a case where the profile of the parties far outshone the legal substance and had many media outlets overexcited, global popstar Rihanna yesterday ( 31 July) won a High Court battle against high street retailer Topshop over the unauthorised use of her ‘brand’. The £5m case has resulted in untold lovely column inches and hopefully hefty fees for the two firms involved, Reed Smith and Mishcon de Reya.

Suing parent company Arcadia Group, the Barbadian songstress, whose real name is Robin Fenty, filed the claim after Topshop sold t-shirts with her face printed on without permission.

Retention round up: UK firms score top marks on trainee job offers

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Associates

Despite the wave of redundancies and poor financials of late, firms are still posting high retention rates of junior lawyers who can almost all breathe a sigh of relief this coming September. However, not every firm has been as generous this year as they were last summer – a sign that supply is still outstripping demand in many areas.

The latest is Magic Circle firm Linklaters which yesterday (31 July) announced a retention figure of 87%, equating to 47 offers (of which all were accepted) out of 54 trainees. This figure is up considerably on last summer, where the rate fell to 79%.

Bar round-up: Essex Court and Outer Temple Chambers boost their ranks

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The Bar Essex Court ChambersOuter Temple Chambers

It’s been a good summer so far for Essex Court Chambers and Outer Temple Chambers, with Daniel Oudkerk QC recently moving from 11 King’s Bench Walk to Essex Court, while David Russell QC and Robin Barclay have joined Outer Temple.

Oudkerk QC took silk in 2010 and focuses on employment disputes and commercial work, having acted for the successful claimants in the landmark conspiracy and team poaching litigation Tullett Prebon v BGC, as well as for the Swiss IDB ContiCap in an Unfair Competition Act claim.

Deal watch: Student Loans Company invites law firm tenders for £40bn debt portfolio sale

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Finance DLA Piper

The Government’s plan to take the Student Loans Company debt off its balance sheet has moved up a gear as firms have formally been invited to tender for the role as legal advisor in the sale of the company’s £40bn loan portfolio.

Announced last Friday (26 July), the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills (BIS) has invited tenders for legal advice on the monetisation of the SLC’s loans portfolio, which at the end of the 2012/13 financial year was valued at approximately £45bn. The precise structure of the monetisation is still being considered but it is likely to be either through a sale to the private sector or a securitisation. Invited firms have until 23 August to submit their bids.

Deal watch: Latham and Wachtell lead on largest public deal of the year

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Corporate

In what remains a gloomy cross-border deal market, US leaders Latham & Watkins and Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz have secured lead roles on the largest public merger of the year so far – the tie-up of Omnicom and Publicis Groupe. The Franco-US union creates a company with a combined market capitalisation of €26.5bn, forging the largest advertising group in the world. The combined company, which will be listed in New York and Paris, will have more than 130,000 staff.

The deal is likely to attract the attention of antitrust regulators in the US and Europe, uniting the second and third largest advertising groups in the world to overtake the UK-based WPP.

What’s in a name? SJ Berwin and King & Wood Mallesons seal union

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Legal mergers King & Wood Mallesons

Forming a ground-breaking union between a leading City firm and an Asia powerhouse, King & Wood Mallesons (KWM) partners confirmed this morning (31 July) that the Hong Kong-headquartered firm would merge with the UK’s SJ Berwin.

KWM partners in Australia and China voted simultaneously in favour of the merger at 1pm Hong Kong time and 3pm Sydney time in person, while SJ Berwin partners have voted electronically over the last five days. The merger will go live on 1 November, creating a firm with combined revenues over $1bn and 2,223 lawyers, including 553 partners.

KWM operates three separate partnerships in China, Hong Kong and Australia and although the Chinese partnership was given a longer time to consider the deal, all votes were in by today’s deadline.

Do you need to think about tougher tax rules for your partnership? Er, probably

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Financial management

Does abuse of tax rules for partnership require a major clampdown by the taxman? That’s the £300m question and the reason that the majority of large law firm partnerships in the UK are now facing an overhaul of the tax treatment of partners and retained earnings.

Tax specialists and legal finance directors are currently sizing up proposals from HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) to change the treatment of members and retained earnings in limited liability partnerships (LLPs).