Arbitration today is full of routine corruption and rogue elements disrupting the process, argued Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan’s Stephen Jagusch QC (pictured) at Legal Business‘s International Arbitration Summit in November.
The second annual arbitration event held at The Brewery saw a panel comprising a quartet of silks, including Jagusch, Boies, Schiller & Flexner’s Wendy Miles QC, Fountain Court Chambers’ Brian Doctor QC and 20 Essex Street’s Duncan Matthews QC.
Slaughter and May and Addleshaw Goddard are targeting the fintech market, following in Simmons & Simmons’ footsteps to develop funds that back free legal advice to fintech clients.
In May Simmons launched a £100,000 fund to cover free advice for up to four fintech start-ups. In November Slaughters upped the ante, putting £300,000 forward for its initiative. Meanwhile, Addleshaws has also announced it will provide up to £500,000 worth of legal mentorship and advisory programmes for up to 16 selected start-ups over the next 12 months.
Continue reading “Slaughters and Addleshaws follow Simmons in developing fintech funds”
Long-running dispute reaches Court of Session
One of Scotland’s leading independent firms, Burness Paull, is defending a $210m claim relating to legacy business Paull & Williamsons, Legal Business has learned, with a procedural hearing understood to have taken place in the Court of Session – Scotland’s supreme civil court – in November.
Continue reading “Burness Paull defends multimillion-dollar claim relating to legacy business”
Merger will create a $1bn firm with over 1,000 lawyers
In what is the largest announced US law firm merger of 2016, Washington DC’s Arnold & Porter and New York’s Kaye Scholer confirmed last month they are to merge, creating a firm with $1bn in revenue.
Continue reading “United states: Kaye Scholer/Arnold & Porter union sees reshuffle in City practice”
In November the long-running Excalibur litigation came to a head as London’s Court of Appeal (CoA) found the third-party funders who bankrolled the case liable for the successful defendants’ £20m indemnity costs.
The dispute stems from the original litigation in 2013, a $1.6bn energy battle brought by Excalibur Ventures against Gulf Keystone Petroleum and Texas Keystone where it was alleged it was entitled to a 30% share in the rights of four oil fields in Kurdistan.
Continue reading “Excalibur judgment leaves dispute funders with £20m bill”
First-time instruction for Kirkland in €2.4bn purchase
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has advised on two of the largest European real estate transactions of 2016 as The Blackstone Group purchased a property portfolio from German real estate group IVG Immobilien for €3.3bn while Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC picked up warehouse company P3 Logistic Parks from TPG Real Estate for €2.4bn.
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and CMS Cameron McKenna reprised their advisory roles as the Ministry of Defence (MoD) made a £1.1bn extension to the largest accommodation private finance initiative project it has undertaken.
In November the MoD amended its long-running Project Allenby/Connaught contract to include an army basing programme, which will provide new accommodation and improve facilities for soldiers. Negotiations have ensured the original transaction, which had a value of £8bn and was signed in 2006, will continue without disruption.
Continue reading “UK projects teams earn their stripes as MoD makes key changes to army deal”
Firm completes Beijing merger, plans Shanghai return in 2017
Fieldfisher re-established its China practice in November by merging with 12-partner Beijing firm JS Partners in a combination that operates under a Swiss Verein structure.
Continue reading “‘We learnt a few lessons’: Fieldfisher tries again in China”
Dentons has scaled up its Central American ambitions with plans to combine with regional firm Muñoz Global.
The combination, if approved by both partnerships, will give Dentons a presence in Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Panama in early 2017. The global firm will merge with 53-lawyer Muñoz Global, a firm newly-created by Arias & Muñoz founders José Antonio Muñoz and Pedro Muñoz, who have split away from their former firm which will contrive to operate as Arias in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.
Continue reading “Dentons cracks Central America as key local player Muñoz Global joins network”
Madeleine Farman reports on recent remuneration changes among the City elite
With the growing threat of losing star partners to aggressively-expanding US firms, the Magic Circle’s traditional remuneration models have come increasingly under pressure. Last month Linklaters voted through changes to its remuneration model, while at press time Clifford Chance (CC) was due to complete a review of where partners should sit on its lockstep in a bid to retain key contributors and manage under-performers, 18 months after voting through the last set of changes.
