Allen & Overy (A&O) and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom led as Moody’s agreed a €3bn (£2.6bn) deal to buy Dutch data group Bureau van Dijk from Swedish private equity company EQT. Skadden advised Moody’s, alongside Dutch adviser Stibbe, while A&O acted for EQT. Latham & Watkins advised the banks, while Baker McKenzie acted for van Dijk’s managers. Simmons & Simmons is also playing a role, providing employment and pensions advice to Moody’s.
Magic Circle firm seeks local joint venture as OC opens fledgling practice
Linklaters and Osborne Clarke (OC) are the latest Legal Business 100 firms to make moves in Shanghai, with the Magic Circle firm finally putting its plans in play to practise local law.
Continue reading “Linklaters and Osborne Clarke latest to make moves in Shanghai”
After losing three partners in Singapore last year, Ashurst has launched a formal alliance with local law firm ADTLaw following approval from regulators.
Last month Ashurst said it will now operate under the name Ashurst ADTLaw, advising on arbitration and civil litigation, corporate, and banking and finance, including derivatives and structured products.
Continue reading “A new venture: Ashurst replenishes Singapore offering with alliance”
Tom Baker reports on a busy period despite case volume falling in 2016
Despite growing investor-state arbitration caseloads over the last five years, City international arbitration partners are uneasy about the impact of Brexit and anti-globalisation sentiment on their business.
While there is a body of writing on how to run an in-house legal team, much of it is dominated by US authors. Aiming to fill the void, Bjarne Tellmann, the outspoken general counsel (GC) of FTSE 100 publishing empire Pearson, has just published Building an Outstanding Legal Team. Tellmann discusses the book with Tom Baker.
LB: What’s the general theme of your book?
Victoria Young and Georgiana Tudor assess the Magic Circle firm’s deal finance practice
‘Clifford Chance (CC)’s decline has been significant,’ one leading leveraged finance partner opines. ‘Ten years ago I would have pegged them as in the leading three or four in this space, but they are gently scaling down.’
Kathryn McCann assesses the regulator’s controversial new route to qualification
In April, the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) announced that its planned Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE), also known as ‘the super-exam’, would be in place by 2020 following two formal consultations. This is despite garnering considerable, but not unexpected, criticism from the profession and education providers alike.
Our quality of life survey, published this month, found all of the UK’s top ten law firms have policies around flexible working. Many of the partners interviewed said their firms also allowed teams to develop their own strategy of flexible working, with partners asked to use their own discretion as to whether members of their team needed time off.
Continue reading “‘Some firms do it very well’: Top City outfits embrace flexible working”
The new system, called Pathways, will assess performance in quick sessions with partners, as opposed to lengthy annual reviews.
Continue reading “Hogan Lovells pilots radical associate assessment programme”
While pitching to general counsel (GCs) is hardly a foreign concept for private practitioners, an elite group of GCs for fast-growth companies has invited a pre-selected list of law firms to bid to host its events.
