Browne Jacobson’s managing partner Iain Blatherwick has been unanimously re-appointed to the role in a vote by the firm’s 96 partners. Blatherwick said the firm was determined to keep growing, following significant expansion in his first two terms in the role. “Over the next few years we want to keep growing by looking at where […]
Middle East firm Al Tamimi & Company has agreed an association with an Egyptian firm in a bid to take advantage of the country’s improving outlook despite continuing political unrest. Al Tamimi partner Mohamed Khodeir is teaming up with Egyptian firm Nour & Taha to lead the new arrangement, rebadged as Khodeir Nour & Taha […]
The amount that Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer expects to pay to fund current partners’ pensions fell in the 2013/14 financial year, despite the firm’s total future commitment to retired partners continuing to hover around the £1bn mark. The magic circle firm operates a retirement scheme that historically paid retired equity partners a share of profits every […]
The High Court has found in favour of a Clyde & Co client who claimed that a typo in a Companies House document forced his business into administration. Clyde & Co partner Neil Jameson instructed 7KBW’s Clive Freedman QC and Selborne Chambers’ Neil Mendoza for the claimant, Philip Davison Sebry, who was the managing director […]
Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) has been appointed as the main adviser for High Speed Two (HS2), the developer of Britain’s new north-south high speed train line. HSF UK and EMEA infrastructure head Patrick Mitchell is leading the firm’s team, alongside partner Nicholas Downing, Adrian Clough and Julia Pyke. The firm will advise HS2 on the […]
Last year The Lawyer significantly upped its focus on in-house legal teams, shining a light on the symbiosis between law and commercial strategy. As a result, this year’s Hot 100 list includes no less than 45 in-house lawyers, from all walks of business. It includes Cambridge University Press general counsel William Bowes, Pets At Home […]
Virgin Media’s in-house team has successfully fought off the latest in a string of nine patent infringement claims brought by US technology company Rovi, with the claim withdrawn before hitting the courts. The claim was brought against Virgin Media over a system for recommending television content to viewers based on their past interactions with the […]
Bird & Bird has been hit by a new professional negligence claimto the tune of €130m, in the latest development in a corruption trial against one of the firm’s former clients. The claimants allege that Bird & Bird lawyers acted negligently and potentially criminally in enabling embezzlement by former client Heinrich Maria Schulte, the ex-chief […]
11 Stone Buildings has announced that Marcia Shekerdemian has been appointed Queen’s Counsel, effective from 16 February 2015. Shekerdemian is a leading practitioner in insolvency, commercial litigation (including civil fraud and banking) as well as company and partnership. She is recommended in Chambers UK and Legal 500 for commercial dispute resolution, company and insolvency.
Walker Morris has advised private equity investor Endless and the borrower group on the £40m refinancing with PNC of automotive parts and garage equipment supplier Andrew Page Group, in order for it to accelerate its growth plans. The business said the deal came on the back of a successful 2014 when the now £200m-turnover group […]
Lindblom J handed down the judgment in the Horsham District Council v Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government case that: “It is not a general principle in planning law that an acceptable proposal for development should be turned away because a better one might be put forward instead. This case shows why that […]
Amid a global wave of consolidation in the telecoms sector four firms have emerged as advisers on the latest big deal – Hong Kong-based Fortune 500 giant Hutchison Whampoa’s proposed £10.25bn acquisition of O2. It is understood that Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) has scooped the mandate for the UK’s second-largest mobile unit O2, while Hutchison […]