Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) has hired two corporate partners from Ashurst’s Australia and Japanese offices. Damien Roberts will be based in HSF’s Tokyo office, while Ian Williams will reside in Brisbane. Both will begin their roles at their new firm in early 2015. Roberts has been based in Tokyo since July 2011, specialising in M&A […]
Ashurst’s Australia managing partner John Carrington retires today (31 October), after six years as head of legacy Blake Dawson. Following his retirement, Ashurst is set to scrap its Australia managing partner position, with the responsibilities being shared among a number of partners in the jurisdiction. Ashurst’s managing partner James Collis said: “Given John’s decision earlier […]
For Charles Russell and Speechly Bircham it’s the end of an era. As of tomorrow, they’ll have formally merged into a firm with a turnover of £130.2m – putting it into 26th place in the UK200. In many ways the tie-up seems too good to be true. The newly-weds have roughly similar revenues, practice specialisms, […]
South East firm Matthew Arnold & Baldwin has topped an annual diversity league table, beating a host of City and international firms to the title of most diverse firm. The Black Solicitors Network’s (BSN) annual Diversity League Table showed that in 2014 just 1 in 200 law firm partners are black, compared to just over […]
The Lawyer Management Awards dominated the stories in our top 10 list this week. The publication of The Lawyer Management Awards Book of the Night pulled in the readers last week, with no fewer than five of our top 10 stories being part of the write-up of our celebration of operational excellence. Categories which were […]
Charles Russell’s merger with Speechly Bircham will bring together not just two blue-blood private client firms, but over 500 lawyers. Of those, some 170 are partners: for them, the two firms’ revenue, profitability and various synergies will have been key issues when voting for the combination back in July. But what of the 300 or so other […]
People are propped up by formaldehyde, says B, a little harsh, I feel, but it is true that the room is full of people who may not last the year, never mind the decade. This is the place to bring your parents, if you have any and someone else’s if you don’t. If you’re middle-aged […]
Tomorrow, on 1 November, the global legal market will usher in its newest member – the newly-merged Charles Russell Speechlys. Partners at the two firms voted pretty much unanimously for the tie-up back in July 2014, announcing with some fanfare that the merger would go live on 1 November (16 July 2014). But now that […]
A business associated with Malaysian law firm network Zicolaw is seeking to raise $14.4m on the Singapore Stock Exchange with the aim of funding expansion across the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) region. Zico Holdings, which is a multi-disciplinary practice with three divisions covering advisory and transactional services, management and support services, and licensing […]
Independent department store chain Fenwick has appointed former Eversheds partner Cornelius Medvei into an advisory general counsel role. This is understood to be the first general counsel position at Fenwick. The retailer has a company secretary who handles the day-to-day legal work. The position is thought to be equivalent to a non-executive board position and […]
Conyers Dill & Pearman has advised Foster Wheeler on the completion of its acquisition of MDM Engineering Group. The acquisition was made by way of merger through an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of Foster Wheeler, resulting in MDM Engineering becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of Foster Wheeler as part of an all-cash transaction valued at […]