Mishcon boosts fledgling cyber security consultancy service

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Mishcon boosts fledgling cyber security consultancy service

Mishcon de Reya has brought in Mike Owen from PwC as the fourth member of its expanding cyber security consultancy service, advising clients on cyber intelligence, risk consultancy and reputation management.

In a month of global cyber attacks, the new cyber security adviser, who previously worked at BAE Systems and Sage Pay, joined Mishcon’s non-lawyer analysts Emeric Bernard-Jones and Laura Hawkins, and head Joe Hancock.

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Ashurst loses second Paris team this year as four partners quit for Gibson Dunn

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Ashurst loses second Paris team this year as four partners quit for Gibson Dunn

In a second blow to Ashurst’s Paris office this year, the firm last month lost a four-partner team to Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, led by litigation and restructuring partner Jean-Pierre Farges.

Tasked with launching a new French litigation and finance practice at the US firm in Paris, Farges is joined by fellow disputes partners Pierre-Emmanuel Fender and Eric Bouffard, corporate partner Bertrand Delaunay and finance counsel Amanda Bevan, who will be made up to partner in the move.

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Addleshaws, Ashurst, DLA and Eversheds Sutherland chosen for DfT’s first rail panel

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Addleshaws, Ashurst, DLA and Eversheds Sutherland chosen for DfT’s first rail panel

Addleshaw Goddard, Ashurst, DLA Piper and Eversheds Sutherland were selected last month to tier one of the Department for Transport (DfT)’s first £50m rail panel.

As part of the panel appointment, which lasts until 2020, the four firms will act on rail franchise competitions, major rolling stock procurements and infrastructure projects.

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High-stakes: White-collar crime teams ready as SFO hits Barclays with landmark prosecution

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High-stakes: White-collar crime teams ready as SFO hits Barclays with landmark prosecution

White collar specialists scramble in landmark prosecution

White-collar crime specialists have scrambled across the City as the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) last month charged Barclays and four former executives with conspiracy to commit fraud, false representation and unlawful financial assistance in arranging a £7.3bn Qatar funding deal at the height of the 2008 financial crisis.

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‘Should be the end of the proposal’: Queen’s Speech reprieve for SFO as abolition move recedes

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‘Should be the end of the proposal’: Queen’s Speech reprieve for SFO as abolition move recedes

Theresa May’s Conservative manifesto pledge to subsume the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) into the National Crime Agency (NCA) was absent from June’s Queen’s Speech, with lawyers welcoming the prospect of the merger being shelved.

The speech, outlining the next two years’ statutory agenda, instead introduced a UK repeal and a customs bill and related European legislation to replace the EU’s customs regime, the world’s largest by economic output.

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Cleary, CC and Covington lead as EC fines Google €2.4bn for online shopping abuse of dominance

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Cleary, CC and Covington lead as EC fines Google €2.4bn for online shopping abuse of dominance

Google illegally favoured own online shopping comparison service, demoting rivals

On 27 June, the European Commission (EC) fined Google a record €2.4bn for abuse of dominance in online shopping comparison search, paving the way for a raft of damages claims.

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‘Cavalier’: former Clyde & Co litigator struck off roll after string of misleading failures

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‘Cavalier’: former Clyde & Co litigator struck off roll after string of misleading failures

The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT) has struck off former Clyde & Co senior associate Rajpal Ahluwalia from the roll and ordered him to pay over £41,000 in costs after a series of failures starting in 2013, when he omitted to file a client’s defence.

The June judgment followed a 9-11 May hearing, at which Ahluwalia admitted failing to ensure that a client’s defence in 2013 was filed in good time, resulting in default judgment and £500,000 damages and costs.

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S&C and Wachtell lead on Amazon’s $13.7bn Whole Foods buyout

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S&C and Wachtell lead on Amazon’s $13.7bn Whole Foods buyout

Amazon moves into food sector with swoop on 460 shops

Sullivan & Cromwell and Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz led a host of elite US law firms advising Amazon on its $13.7bn purchase of Whole Foods Market, marking the online retailer’s first expansion into the bricks-and-mortar food industry.

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‘Hugely complicated’: Watson Farley, White & Case, A&O line up on $14bn shipping deal

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‘Hugely complicated’: Watson Farley, White & Case, A&O line up on $14bn shipping deal

Watson Farley & Williams has advised a group of 27 international and local banks acting as financiers on a $14bn merger between shipping giants Hapag-Lloyd and United Arab Shipping Company (UASC).

The tie-up will create one of the five largest container shipping lines in the world, with 230 vessels and a combined turnover of around $12bn.

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Linklaters advises L’Oréal on €1bn Body Shop sale

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Linklaters advises L’Oréal on €1bn Body Shop sale

Linklaters, Davis Polk & Wardwell and Baker McKenzie led as L’Oréal looked to sell The Body Shop for €1bn to Brazilian cosmetic company Natura.

Natura was in exclusive negotiations with L’Oréal, which put The Body Shop up for sale in February after buying the business in 2006 for £652m.

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