Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Morrison Foerster are advising Softbank Group on the proposed £24bn acquisition of ARM Holdings, represented by Davis Polk & Wardwell and Slaughter and May. Freshfields corporate partners Ben Spiers and Stephen Hewes have been advising Japanese telecommunications company Softbank from London, alongside MoFo Tokyo managing partner Ken Siegel and London head of […]
The lawyer exodus at KWM continued on Monday after two more partners announced their departures. 23 March: KWM to cut 15% of partners in restructure 26 May: KWM in bid to “reset” firm
OFFSHORE FIRM OF THE YEAR: HARNEYS Harneys wins its first Offshore Firm of the Year title in 2016 for consistent and impressive growth around the world while retaining a significant presence in its headquarters in the British Virgin Islands (BVI). Judges praised the way Harneys “stays hungry” for growth. In the past two years […]
Ingrid Cope In-house lawyer of the year How can a global brand-owner maximise value from a widely-dispersed consumer and leisure market? That was the question occupying Ingrid Cope, senior legal adviser at Pernod Ricard, the global distiller that owns Absolut, Chivas whisky, Jameson and Perrier-Jouet. A large section of Pernod Ricard’s business is ‘on-trade’, the […]
Scottish firm Brodies completed the first financial year of its current three-year strategy in 2015, with an 11.2 per cent increase in turnover to £57.9m. It was the firm’s fifth consecutive year of revenue and profit growth. Brodies has achieved turnover growth of 57.2 per cent since the full impact of the financial crisis in […]
DEALS Multi billion-dollar transactions have characterised the offshore M&A market in the first half of this year BERMUDA Carlyle Group’s acquisition of Veritas Group Completed 29 January 2016 Global asset management company the Carlyle Group acquired information management systems provider Veritas from Symantec Corp for $7.4bn (£5.7bn). The deal, announced in August 2015, was the […]
Gibson Dunn & Crutcher fought off stiff competition from firms such as White & Case and Dentons to win The Lawyer Awards’ international firm of the year title. Gibson Dunn wins for delivering on a clear strategy of building a broad-based, international disputes and transactional offering in London on a US platform, which City corporate […]
Avon & Bristol Law Centre Pro bono initiative of the year The news that 90 people a month had died after being declared fit for work by the Department for Work and Pensions made headlines last summer. But while campaigners and the opposition called for an overhaul of the welfare system, law students at the Avon […]
Slaughter and May Competition team of the year The award-winning Slaughter and May competition team won an advisory spot last year on a groundbreaking appeal in the electricity and gas sector. The firm advised Northern Powergrid as it lodged an appeal to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) against Ofgem’s decision to modify the […]
Matrix Chambers’ Ben Emmerson QC has been at the centre of several high-profile cases, the most prominent of which was representing the family of ex-Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko in one of the most high-profile court cases in British history. The backdrop to the case is well known. Litvinenko, a former Russian spy who had also […]
Industrial disease specialist Roberts Jackson has gone through a period of massive transformation following a £15m cash injection from private equity firm NorthEdge Capital two years ago. At at time when more firms than ever before are seeking to diversify their strategies to increase profitability, Roberts Jackson’s clear focus on industrial diseases has proven to […]
Over the past decade Clyde & Co has undergone a massive transformation, doubling in size twice. In 2005 the firm’s turnover stood at £125m and it boasted 13 offices. By 2015, revenue at the award-winning firm had soared by 316 per cent to £395m and Clydes operated from 45 offices globally. During the 2014/15 financial […]