Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF), Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) and Mayer Brown led as the owners of London’s tallest tower, known as the Cheesegrater, agreed to its sale for £1.1bn. HSF and Mayer Brown advised joint owners British Land and Oxford Properties Group, while BLP assisted buyer CC Land Holdings.
Continue reading “Deal watch: Corporate activity in April 2017”
My dad was a cab driver and my mum a factory worker. She was also a photographer’s assistant and met my dad at a wedding. After that she vowed to never drink again because she met my dad.
I went to a local state school in Wembley. I got into Oxford. There weren’t many people who went to university from that school. It was a very varied background; English wasn’t the first language for probably half of the kids at home. But it was a good school and I had teachers that cared.
Continue reading “Life during law: Ray Berg, Osborne Clarke”
The event was preceded by a reception to mark the launch of our fifth annual GC Powerlist which, under the unifying title The Clients of Tomorrow, looked at both the outstanding rising star in-house counsel and high-growth companies with the prospects of becoming the global giants of tomorrow. At the gathering, which included key representatives from FTSE 100 companies such as Virgin Atlantic, Telefónica and RSA, Legal Business editor-in-chief Alex Novarese said this year’s report was the most challenging yet to research but also probably the most interesting.
Continue reading “Standing tall – The Legal Business Awards 2017”
Linklaters has launched a pair of artificial intelligence (AI) products in the latest innovation push for the Magic Circle firm, including a tool to navigate ring-fencing reforms for core banking clients.
Both Lloyds Banking Group and The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) have used the firm’s LinkRFI software, which is used to classify thousands of customer names in a fraction of the time it would take a human to complete. The classifications are needed to help ensure separation between banks’ retail and investment arms, to comply with ring-fencing reforms introduced by the Bank of England.
DLA Piper’s finance partners are being encouraged to participate in cross-office and cross-practice collaboration within a new framework called Project Connect, led by Martin Bartlam, who takes over as the firm’s international finance head on 1 May.
Collaboration, which will be measured through statistics as well as the behaviours of individual partners, will be part of the firm’s existing remuneration structure, not isolated in the sense of a bonus pot. Partners outside the finance and projects practice are not part of the programme.
Continue reading “New DLA finance head to push collaboration pay incentives”
Lawyers involved to face professional complaint
A $210m claim against Burness Paull will go to a full Scottish civil trial after Edinburgh’s Court of Session found last month that legacy firm Paull & Williamsons had acted in breach of conflict of interest rules. While the court found that the firm did not act fraudulently, the case is now likely to move to a full hearing in early 2018.
Continue reading “Burness Paull faces full trial after legacy firm conflict breach”
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.
