Deal watch: Corporate activity in February 2015

SKADDEN, FRESHFIELDS AND SLAUGHTERS LAND KEY ROLES ON £4.3BN CAN MAKER TIE-UP

Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom advised Ball Corporation on its £4.3bn acquisition of UK-based Rexam, while Slaughter and May covered EU competition aspects. Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer advised Rexam, which boasts Coca-Cola, Red Bull and Heineken among its clients, on the deal.

 

Continue reading “Deal watch: Corporate activity in February 2015”

The Last Word – The Team Elite

To coincide with the annual launch of our GC Power List, we asked the City’s most experienced private practitioners: what makes an outstanding in-house legal team?

Eyes and ears

‘A good in-house team has the ear of the commercial client, an understanding of its drivers and the strength to speak out when it is going down the wrong path. Teams should ensure they understand the varied approaches to dispute resolution, adopt appropriate methods in different transactional documentation, and consider mediation as a clean and proactive process for disputes at any stage.’
Katie Bradford, head of property litigation, Linklaters

Continue reading “The Last Word – The Team Elite”

Revolving Doors: Management hires for K&L Gates and Eversheds plus a high-profile GC appointment

Last week’s laterals saw a focus on hiring management with K&L Gates bringing in a new finance head in Sydney, Eversheds hiring in London for a head of strategy for Hungary, and, in the US, General Motors (GM) appointing a new general counsel (GC).

Continue reading “Revolving Doors: Management hires for K&L Gates and Eversheds plus a high-profile GC appointment”

‘An opportunity to look at things differently’: AXA UK to review international firms after efficiency drive

The UK legal arm of French insurer AXA is set to look at its relationships with Magic Circle and international firms and how they can work more effectively for the company. It follows a review of the UK specific ‘business-as-usual’ panel which has been cut from seven to two and now comprises Pinsent Masons and DAC Beachcroft.

Continue reading “‘An opportunity to look at things differently’: AXA UK to review international firms after efficiency drive”

Deal watch: Corporate activity in February 2015

FRESHFIELDS, CC AND NRF CALLED IN ON BT’S £12.5BN PURCHASE OF EE

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer advised telecoms giant BT as it opted to acquire Britain’s largest mobile network group EE, over rival O2, for £12.5bn. The joint owners of EE, Deutsche Telekom and Orange, were advised by Clifford Chance and Norton Rose Fulbright respectively.

Continue reading “Deal watch: Corporate activity in February 2015”

The national market – brutally competitive but opportunity abounds

At one point in our Regional Insight report – a major collaboration with our colleagues at The Legal 500 included with this issue of Legal Business – one GC based in the North West discusses a recent pitch in which a City law firm came out best on price against regional rivals. Surprising as it may seem, it is reflective of a dynamic that has seen London advisers focus on handling work from UK regions after realising that simply aspiring to be a City leader is a road to nowhere for many firms.

This shift in focus comes with the acknowledgement that post-Lehman, demand for external law firm services in the UK has become more polarised. The need for high-end transactional and disputes advice still exists but is increasingly now the preserve of the elite firms in those fields in London. At the opposite end, in-house teams are retaining more work and will only outsource work to law firms if it is cost effective.

Continue reading “The national market – brutally competitive but opportunity abounds”

Insight report on cyber security – Anatomy of a breach

With breaches impossible to stop, companies are focusing on managing the huge risks of a major cyber incident. We teamed up with PwC to gauge the client response.

In cyber security circles, it has already become a hoary cliché to claim that there are two types of companies: those that have been breached and those that have yet to discover they have been breached. This rang particularly true this year when JPMorgan revealed that 76 million households and eight million small businesses were exposed to its data breach over the summer.

Continue reading “Insight report on cyber security – Anatomy of a breach”

Partner exits mount: Edwards Wildman loses commercial litigation partner to GlaxoSmithKline

Pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is the latest to dip into the dwindling partnership at Edwards Wildman Palmer’s London office as it has emerged that commercial litigation partner, Antonio Suarez-Martinez, is leaving the firm for the corporate’s legal team.

Continue reading “Partner exits mount: Edwards Wildman loses commercial litigation partner to GlaxoSmithKline”

After major acquisitions, Cofely set to create first legal panel

Cofely, a subsidiary of French energy giant GDF Suez, is to establish its first legal panel in a bid to reduce legal fees and the number of firms it deals with.

In what will be a mass reorganisation of the company’s legal services expenditure, which currently involves business managers in selecting law firms, general counsel Simone Tudor is hoping to reduce the company’s go-to law firms down to just three after a review found that Cofely had instructed 25 law firms so far this year.

Continue reading “After major acquisitions, Cofely set to create first legal panel”