A&O, Freshfields and Slaughters land key roles on biggest-ever all-UK deal

Shell offers £47bn for BG Group

The proposed £47bn acquisition of BG Group by fellow energy major Shell saw a trio of Magic Circle firms land leading roles, as Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Slaughter and May and Allen & Overy (A&O) advising on what constitutes the largest UK-to-UK deal ever.

Slaughters is acting for Shell, supported by Cravath, Swaine & Moore on US corporate law and allied firm De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek on Dutch aspects of the deal. Corporate partners Roland Turnill, Hywel Davies and Rebecca Cousin are leading Slaughters’ team, which Turnill told Legal Business started ‘working in earnest’ on the transaction as far back as Christmas. Finance partner Matthew Tobin is also working on the deal alongside tax specialist Steve Edge, competition partners Bertrand Louveaux and Jordan Ellison and pensions and employment partners Jonathan Fenn and Roland Doughty.

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Heavyweight US trio advises on €15.6bn Alcatel takeover

Three US law firms – Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, Latham & Watkins and Sullivan & Cromwell – leveraged long-term relationships with key corporate clients last month, seeing them land lead roles on Nokia’s bid to take over Alcatel-Lucent.

Skadden is advising longstanding client Nokia on the tie-up that values its French rival at €15.6bn and will create a technology giant worth more than €40bn. The team is led by London-based global transactions co-head Scott Simpson; Paris-based Armand Grumberg, who heads the firm’s European M&A practice; and London corporate partner Michal Berkner.

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Deal watch: Corporate activity in April 2015

GE RESTRUCTURING BRINGS IN RAFT OF ADVISERS

A host of firms picked up work on General Electric (GE)’s restructuring, fielding large cross-border teams as the industrial giant sold $26.5bn of real estate assets and announced it would divest most of GE Capital’s other holdings. Hogan Lovells led for GE on the real estate sale, with buyers The Blackstone Group and Wells Fargo represented by Simpson Thacher & Bartlett and Dechert respectively.

Weil, Gotshal & Manges is advising GE on the wider restructuring, which will return up to $90bn to shareholders, alongside Sullivan & Cromwell and Davis Polk & Wardwell.

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Headlines and hype but less substance despite foreign firms’ push into Asia disputes market

Tony Lin argues that Asia’s small and politicised litigation market won’t deliver on the hopes many international law firms are pinning on it

Asia dispute resolution is happening. At least that’s what one might surmise from recent moves in the market out here in Hong Kong. In the past few months, New York’s Debevoise & Plimpton recruited litigation heavyweight Mark Johnson from Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF), while O’Melveny & Myers hired Denis Brock from King & Wood Mallesons. Several other UK and American law firms have relocated experienced disputes partners to the region.

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Bakers to practise Chinese law through Shanghai joint venture

Baker & McKenzie last month gained permission to practise local law in China through a joint operation with FenXun Partners.

The firm achieved the entry through a first-of-its-kind joint venture with local firm FenXun in the Shanghai free trade zone. Founded in 2009, FenXun, which is focused on providing corporate and finance advice, currently has offices in both Beijing and Shanghai, and has around 20 lawyers, including five partners.

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EY Law agrees new alliance as Asia-Pacific growth continues

Making good on its continued efforts to grow its Asia-Pacific presence, EY Law recently announced an alliance with South Korean firm Apex Legal.

Based in Gangnam in central Seoul, the 55-lawyer practice has become a member of EY’s network in a bid to align the giant’s advisory and legal businesses throughout the region, and as part of a greater agenda to build a 200-strong team of lawyers spanning key commercial centres throughout Asia-Pacific.

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Life During Law – David Ereira

I’m always in the present and think of the now.

You make your own luck. You have to put yourself in harm’s way. You have to be standing by the street when the ambulance goes by or you’re not going to be able to chase it. There’s a degree of intelligent positioning.

I come from a generation who have been very lucky. The role of law firms and lawyers went through a dramatic transformation in the 1980s with the Big Bang, and my generation rode that wave.

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Last orders – Addleshaws gets behind its new leader, but can it regain its form?

National thoroughbred Addleshaw Goddard has consistently struggled to find its form since the credit crunch. Kathryn McCann assesses if new MP John Joyce can galvanise the firm.

‘There is a general sense of optimism in the firm at the moment,’ comments one former Addleshaw Goddard partner of their old shop. ‘But then you have got to realise how bad it was. The reason why people are so upbeat is because the last four or five years have been nothing short of a disaster. It has stopped the rot, but the big challenge is what’s going to happen next.’

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Freshfields veterans Braham and Pugh set to go head-to-head in senior partner elections

Jaishree Kalia follows the contest between the firm’s disputes and corporate partners Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer’s former disputes and corporate heads are expected to be the frontrunners among those campaigning for the senior partner role as the firm kicks off the election process.

The nominations for the firm’s new generation of leadership, which is overseen by its partnership council, were already underway as Legal Business went to press and were expected to close in early April.

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News in brief – April 2015

SLATER & GORDON SPENDS £637M ON QUINDELL’S PROFESSIONAL SERVICES DIVISION

Australian law firm Slater & Gordon signed a £637m deal, plus a sum contingent on client settlements, for Quindell’s professional services division. The firm expects the purchase to boost its share of the £2.5bn UK personal injury market from 5% to 12%.

 

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