Linklaters picks merger targets in Shanghai as Asia exits stack up

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Linklaters has selected Shanghai Capital Law & Partners and Shanghai Kai-Rong Law Firm as targets as management works to establish a Chinese law offering. The plans come as the firm’s Asia practice has been rocked by a series of senior exits.

Linklaters wants to become the first Magic Circle firm to practise Chinese law through new Shanghai free-trade zone rules after decades of protectionism in the communist country.

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‘An environment conducive to M&A’: global elite anticipate busy year after record 2015

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Skadden heads US M&A tables while Freshfields leads in Europe

Deal lawyers are unsurprisingly predicting another busy year in M&A as Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer emerged as the top corporate deal shops in the US and Europe respectively in 2015, according to Dealogic.

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Linklaters doubles up on IPOs as UK capital markets move swiftly into gear for 2016

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Linklaters has got the year off to a flying start for equity capital markets work, leading on the announced initial public offerings (IPOs) of CMC Markets and Countryside Properties, while also advising the underwriters as Clydesdale Bank plans to float.

The Magic Circle firm is providing English and US legal advice to online spread-betting company CMC Markets on its planned flotation on the London Stock Exchange in what will be the year’s first IPO.

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Deal watch: Corporate activity in December/January 2015/16

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FRESHFIELDS AND STEPHENSON HARWOOD CHECK IN FOR PRIORY SALE

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Stephenson Harwood led on the sale of the Priory rehab clinic. Freshfields advised US private equity group Advent International on the sale of the Priory Group, which operates more than 300 facilities, to Acadia Healthcare for £1.3bn in January. Acadia was advised by Stephenson Harwood.

 

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‘This is not ad hoc’: WFW leadership duo aims to drive City specialist ahead of the pack

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Victoria Young talks to Chris Lowe and Lothar Wegener about their ambitions for the firm

‘It’s not about: “Here’s an opportunistic piece – let’s grab that.” It’s about a continuous cycle of investment, not something which just happens.’
Chris Lowe, Watson Farley & Williams

 

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The finance view: Bumpy markets, rising debt funds – direct lending to flourish in 2016 but it won’t be year of the junk bond

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Victoria Young canvasses veteran lawyers on the outlook for bespoke financing in 2016.

It’s been flavour of the month for a lot of months now, but among leveraged finance advisers the conviction remains that 2016 will be another breakthrough year for alternative credit funds. Partners speaking to Legal Business say market conditions are ripe for such lenders, even as turbulence affects some larger sources of capital.

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Life During Law: Monty Raphael QC

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My parents were immigrants from Eastern Europe. My father came after being conscripted against his will in the Tsarist army and took a tortuous route via Germany and Paris. My mother came from Russian-occupied Poland. We lived in Stepney and my father waited for people to die and sold their clothes in Petticoat Lane market.

Before pop stars all we had were film stars. But there were glamorous lawyers like Hartley Shawcross, whose face was always in the newspapers as he was a prosecutor in the Nuremberg war trials. I’d never met a lawyer. It was a fantasy.

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Freshfields closes German IT support as Manchester hub grows to 70

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Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer is stripping back its global support network in favour of its new Manchester back-office centre as it closes its IT support function in Germany.

The news comes as figures finally emerge from the firm around how many staff currently reside at the firm’s new support and legal outpost in Manchester. The new hub, called the Global Centre, houses between 70 and 75 staff members at its temporary Arndale Centre location, and is expected to grow rapidly to 300 employees by mid-2016 – more than a threefold headcount increase over the next seven months.

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Clifford Chance avoids nearshoring with plans for low-cost hub in Canary Wharf

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400 support staff to be housed five minutes away from HQ

While peers have chosen low-cost hubs farther afield in the UK, Clifford Chance (CC) is moving its back-office staff from its Canary Wharf headquarters to a new location five minutes’ walk away.

The firm will transfer 400 operational staff to an open-plan office in a building occupied by State Street Bank & Trust at Churchill Place in a bid to cut back on costs.

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The panel that refreshes: Ashurst, RPC and Devereux take spots on Coke’s national roster

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Ashurst and RPC are among a quartet of firms that have won places on Coca-Cola Enterprises (CCE)’s UK legal panel, with the drinks company also selecting Devereux Chambers as its preferred barristers’ set ahead of a review of its internal legal function.

CCE vice president for legal, Paul van Reesch, said after conducting a ‘deep review’ of its external counsel, Ashurst, RPC, Lewis Silkin and Shoosmiths have been allocated spots, following a competitive tender process between an estimated 35 law firms.

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