Reed Smith launches in Frankfurt with raid on US rivals

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Nearly a year in the offing, Reed Smith has opened its second German office with a bang, hiring a total of seven partners from Mayer Brown; Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe; Willkie Farr & Gallagher; and Jones Day to launch the firm in Frankfurt.

Ten years after first arriving in Germany with an office in Munich, Reed Smith has opened in one of Europe’s largest financial centres with partners in finance, corporate, regulatory, private equity and real estate.

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Deal watch: Corporate activity in May 2015

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SLAUGHTERS AND LINKS ACT ON SANTANDER AND UNICREDIT’S ASSET MANAGEMENT TIE-UP

Slaughter and May, best-friend firm Uría Menéndez and Davis Polk & Wardwell in the US were instructed by Santander as it combined its asset management arm with Linklaters’ client UniCredit’s Pioneer Investments. The deal created one of Europe’s biggest asset managers, with €350bn under management.


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After downsizing Germany Orrick bucks trend with Geneva launch as US firm bolsters arbitration credentials

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Having recently shut two out of four of its German offices as it refocuses its European strategy, Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe is opening a new base in Geneva to build its arbitration presence on the continent with the hire of Vanessa Liborio from Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld.

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Linklaters suffers blow as US firms hire trio of leading partners

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Linklaters lost a trio of heavyweight partners in February with Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy and Kirkland & Ellis cherry-picking from the Magic Circle firm.

Milbank built out its projects practice with the hire of two leading projects partners from Linklaters’ London office, Matthew Hagopian and Manzer Ijaz, who count among their clients Glencore, BP and Eni.

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Latham leads the way with $300m revenue hike as US elite posts robust 2014 results

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Jaishree Kalia assesses the winners and losers as the US reporting season kicks off

The broad-based economic recovery in the US proved a boon to many leading advisers in 2014, with firms enjoying a resurgence in corporate work, and robust levels of disputes and regulatory activity.

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Weil tops City partner promotions at leading Global London firms

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US firms continue to break ground in London and are increasingly investing in moving their City lawyers up the partnership ranks.

Three out of Global London’s top ten US firms made over a fifth of their partner promotions in the City. Weil, Gotshal & Manges led the way with the highest percentage of partner promotions in January, having a total of 33% of its promotions round in the City. The firm recently announced strong partner profits – up 16.5% in 2014 after two disappointing years of falling profits – and stated its restructuring, finance and transactional practices in London were performing well.

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A robust year for M&A shows challenge for City leaders in competing with US rivals

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With no single UK law firm having made a significant impact on the US market, it was no surprise that the Magic Circle surrendered more ground to their US peers in the annual M&A league tables for 2014, given the deal splurge US corporates have been on.

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Linklaters, Allen & Overy (A&O) and Clifford Chance (CC) all slipped down Thomson Reuters’ global adviser rankings for value of deals completed during 2014. Ironically, Slaughter and May, which markets to clients and US law firms for UK advisory spots on US deals, was the only Magic Circle firm to rise up the law firm rankings for global M&A, jumping from 28th to 12th.

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