Insurer to look at Asia once Europe assessment ends
The legal team at American International Group (AIG) EMEA is to carry out wider panel assessments for Europe, Middle East and Africa, following the ongoing review of the insurer’s UK roster, which kicked off last month and is due to complete at the end of March.
Continue reading “AIG rolls out UK panel review process to entire EMEA region”
Madeleine Farman looks at the front runners and non-starters as reporting season kicks off
As the US financial reporting season begins in earnest, Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy leads the pack for turnover growth, while Reed Smith and Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft both suffered a drop in revenues.
HSF’s Schaffer to join Magic Circle firm later this year
After first breaking its duck three years ago in Hong Kong with the hire of Morrison & Foerster’s co-head of China capital markets John Moore, last month Slaughter and May caught the eye by making its first-ever lateral hire in London.
An ambition to improve business services at Travers Smith has seen senior partner Chris Hale re-elected, after completing his first term of four years.
Hale, who in 2013 amended the firm’s partnership deed to restrict his own term in the job, will retire from the senior partner post in 2019 after a further two-year stint. In the past, senior partners had a three-year term, but there was no limit to the number of terms one could complete.
Changes could mean a one-third increase for City offices
With bank debt and real estate costs two of the most common causes of law firm distress, increases in business rates were met with concern by real estate professionals and lawyers in the Square Mile last month.
With long-term managing partner Jonathan Watmough stepping down in December last year, insurance head James Miller has taken over the reins at RPC. Legal Business caught up with him to discuss the priorities for the new leader.
What is your immediate strategy for RPC?
So far it has been business as usual. I’m very lucky to come in on the back of 11.5% turnover growth over five years. Insurance has been one of our core strengths and we will continue to invest there, but my focus now is on the whole firm. Really we try to invest in people: if we felt we were under strength we would hire, but I am quite happy with our strategic balance.
Continue reading “Q&A: RPC’s new managing partner talks strategy, international expansion and tech”
Madeleine Farman on a rare team move between London-based international players
In one of the most significant team hires between major City players for some time, a group of five Paris corporate partners – collectively responsible for a book of business worth £8m – is moving from Ashurst to Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer. Continue reading “Ashurst Paris corporate team chooses Freshfields as Magic Circle firm reinvigorates offering”
Shell’s in-house legal team recently took the lead on the sale of $3.8bn worth of its own North Sea oil and gas assets, with help from panel firm Clifford Chance (CC), as part of a debt reduction push following its takeover of BG Group.
The deal sees British investment firm Chrysaor Holdings pay an initial sum of $3bn plus an additional payment of up to $600m, subject to commodity prices, and $180m for future discoveries. A Shell spokesperson said: ‘This approach to legal delivery, with a Shell team in the lead and backed up by limited external legal support, is typical for us. It allows our in-house business lawyers to work on the most complex, high-value projects, drawing on the expertise of a wide network of internal legal experts, and delivering value to the business at competitive cost and appropriate risk profile.’
Continue reading “‘Sign of things to come’: Shell leads on sale of own North Sea assets”
In the first transatlantic merger to make headlines so far in 2017, Kirkland & Ellis partners David Holdsworth and Paula Riedel have lined up opposite their old firm Linklaters on Reckitt Benckiser (RB)’s $16.7bn takeover of Mead Johnson & Company.
Kirkland fielded a transatlantic team to advise US-based Mead Johnson, the baby formula manufacturer, which had sales of $3.7bn in 2016. Mead and RB confirmed the deal on 10 February, which should complete in the third quarter of 2017.
Norton Rose Fulbright (NRF) has pulled off its second US merger, this time with New York-based Chadbourne & Parke, giving the Global 100 firm much-needed bench strength in Manhattan and project finance for what will be a $2bn-revenue firm.
The move will add considerable east coast capability to NRF, which the firm has lacked since its combination with Texas firm Fulbright & Jaworski in 2013, and is due to go live in the second quarter of 2017. The majority of Chadbourne lawyers will join NRF’s US business, while London partners are expected to join the Norton Rose Fulbright LLP within the Swiss Verein, which comprises the legacy Norton Rose business.
