City comp scheme to create first panel

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The Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS), the UK’s statutory compensation scheme for customers of authorised financial services firms, is currently undergoing a tender process to create its first-ever legal panel.

The FSCS, which is funded by levies authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and the Financial Conduct Authority, handles the majority of claims in-house, but has in the past turned to James Roome’s restructuring team, now at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, and litigators at Herbert Smith Freehills and Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan.

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US expansion: Clifford Chance boosts Washington office with Bingham structured finance team

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Clifford Chance has recruited a five-strong team from beleaguered US firm Bingham McCutchen to its Washington DC office, led by partners Robert Gross and William Cejudo, in a bid to enhance its US structured finance and real estate finance offering.

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Constructing continents – the clients and advisers targeting Africa’s booming infra market

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In August this year, President Obama hosted the largest US-Africa leaders’ summit ever, with the heads of nearly every African nation gathering in Washington DC. As well as working on governance and leadership issues, Obama talked to a business forum hosted in the Mandarin Oriental, with 90 US firms and over 100 major African companies attending, in an attempt to broker deals and build relationships across the Atlantic.

The summit came after 18 months that have seen increasing numbers of US institutions committing money to the continent and stoking opportunities for law firms. But the US is late to the game with Asian, Middle Eastern and European players having an established presence while local developers have become increasingly prominent. Continue reading “Constructing continents – the clients and advisers targeting Africa’s booming infra market”

Deal watch: Corporate activity in October 2014

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MAGIC CIRCLE DUO TAKE KEY ROLES ON MULTIBILLION TRAIN LEASE COMPANY SALE

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer acted for the sellers, a consortium of asset management firms, in the sale of Porterbrook Rail Finance, one of the three major train leasing companies in the UK. Linklaters advised the buyers, which included Hastings Funds Management and Allianz Capital Partners.

 

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Banking Litigation Insight: ‘The worst case scenario is £200m – litigation is containable’

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An unprecedented wave of global enforcement has pushed risks facing banks to once unthinkable proportions. In the follow-up to our banking litigation Insight with Stephenson Harwood, bank counsel discuss managing the biggest risks in global business. Alex Novarese reports.

‘A head of litigation at a bank was saying to me the other day: “I don’t really care about [civil litigation]. If a counterparty has a claim, even a big claim, you instruct your litigators – it’s expensive and you try to control the cost but it’s just a bit of litigation. Worst-case scenario is we may have to write a cheque for £200m but we know the limits of the problem. We don’t really care. It’s containable. It’s predictable.” You would have never heard someone saying something like that ten years ago. But all these issues about reputation, regulation and unquantifiable fines – it’s such a mess. You know you have got to do something about it but you don’t know where it will go.’

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‘It was necessary to be present in the financial capital of Europe’: Spain’s Pérez-Llorca set to launch London office

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Spanish firm Pérez-Llorca has made a key investment into the City and is set to launch a London office at the end of this year, after choosing what it described as ‘Europe’s finance capital’ in a bid to grow its financial practice.

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Offshore: Putting funds back on the map

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With transactional work picking up globally, offshore funds are back in vogue. We assess the most active offshore firms and the key recent developments

The renewed sense of optimism emanating from the world’s major financial centres has clearly made its way offshore. While the global financial crisis put successful launches of offshore private equity, real estate and listed funds on hold, the mood has clearly changed. New funds and start-ups are upbeat again and the fund practices of offshore law firms are enjoying healthy flows of work.

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‘Huge experience of growing a business’: DLA Piper’s Knowles lands chairman role at investment banking firm Zeus Capital

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Sir Nigel Knowles, who is set to step down as co-CEO and managing partner at DLA Piper later this year, has been appointed chairman of UK investment banking boutique Zeus Capital.

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