By Elizabeth Peene For many, the Big Bang was not quite the explosion everyone was expecting. What is clear, however, is that those who fail to comply with the Civil Procedure (Amendment No 7) Rules 2013 and court orders do so at their own peril. The Civil Procedure (Amendment No 7) Rules 2013 come into […]
Slaughter and May and Macfarlanes have pinched the top spots for UK M&A for the year to date, thanks to their work on Verizon Communications’ acquisition of Vodafone’s 45 per cent stake in Verizon Wireless for $130.1bn (£84bn). According to Thomson Reuters’ preliminary data for worldwide announced M&A for the first three quarters of 2013, […]
Walker Morris has appointed residential development specialist James Lawson as a director in its real-estate group. Lawson joins from Clarion Solicitors where he was a partner for five years, having established himself as a specialist in residential development. Walker Morris’s real-estate team advises on matters ranging from planning, land acquisition, construction and tax through to […]
Will the merger talks between Manches and Penningtons come to anything? Manches has had a turbulent couple of years, both culturally and financially. Penningtons, meanwhile, knows a thing or two about merger execution; it swallowed up Wedlake Saint and the rump of Lincoln’s Inn firm Dawsons in the same time period. Revealed: Manches and Penningtons […]
It was a long time coming, but Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) has finally unveiled its 2012/13 profit figures. And as widely expected, they reveal a 39 per cent drop in average profit per equity partner (PEP) and a 38 per cent drop in net profit. PEP has tumbled from £660,000 to £401,000 while net has […]
DLA Piper has developed model rules for green property management agreements in collaboration with the real-estate services company Cushman & Wakefield and the German Institute for Sustainable Real Estate (DIFNI). The rules enable contracts (including specifications sheets) for green property management to be designed in a practical manner independently of the type and condition of both building and user […]
By Edward Coates The UK Supreme Court has confirmed the jurisdiction of the senior courts to grant anti-suit injunctions to restrain parties from commencing foreign court proceedings in breach of an arbitration agreement in circumstances where no arbitration is in prospect. Section 44 of the Arbitration Act 1996 (1996 AA) grants the senior courts power […]
By Paulus Merks Tax experts in Switzerland now predict that certain Swiss tax regimes — the cantonal tax regime, the holding regime and, in particular, the auxiliary company regime — will ultimately need to be repealed. A repeal of these regimes will trigger the need for reform of Switzerland’s corporate tax system. Such a reform may […]
Even some financial services industry professionals are confused. The 80-year-old prohibition on general solicitation ended on Monday of this week. This means it is now legal for companies to solicit certain qualified investors and to advertise that they are seeking to raise capital. This change was mandated under Title II of the JOBS Act. The […]
By Linda E S Pfatteicher France’s draft budget law for 2014 was presented to parliament on 25 September 2013 and is now under discussion in the National Assembly and Senate. It proposes reforms to rekindle France’s sluggish economy and fix the record-high deficit and unemployment rate, including a lighter tax burden on businesses, €15bn (£12.6bn) […]
US firms Weil Gotshal & Manges and Jones Day have picked up key roles on the merger between US semiconductor equipment maker Applied Materials and Japanese rival Tokyo Electron. The all-share deal will create an electronics manufacturer with a market capitalisation of $29bn. Weil Gotshal acted for Applied Materials, fielding Silicon Valley M&A partner Keith […]
By Jean-Michel Detry and Dodo Chochitaichvili This year Belgium has already seen significant reforms in its arbitration rules. These innovative changes include the adoption of a new Arbitration Act and the adoption of new Arbitration and Mediation Rules by the Belgian Centre of Arbitration and Mediation (CEPANI). The Arbitration Act dated 24 June 2013 entered into […]