Four firms have played lead roles in a $1.47bn (£900m) transaction between two Russian online giants which brought to an end years of complex litigation. Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson, Hogan Lovells and Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom were all instructed on the sale by United Capital […]
Cherie Blair QC is to leave Matrix Chambers for legal consultancy firm Omnia Strategy 14 years after co-founding the set. Blair has left the chambers in order to take up a full-time role at Omnia, which she currently chairs. The move comes months after Omnia launched an office in Washington DC. Omnia was founded by […]
Knowledge management in law firms has changed beyond recognition over the last few years. As a recent special report in The Lawyer highlighted, the KM conversation has moved from internal document creation and management to creating value for the client. As part of that evolution pretty much everything is changing. The qualifications and skills of the […]
Ashurst’s Michael Lancaster will be the first finance partner to be based in the firm’s Glasgow office as part of a plan to expand its low cost support base in Scotland. Lancaster will relocate from Ashurst’s Paris office in November to be the firm’s first finance partner based in Scotland. Lancaster specialises in general banking and […]
Stephenson Harwood has advised transport company Govia on a phase one merger clearance from the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) for the Thameslink, Southern and Great Northern (TSGN) rail franchise. Stephenson Harwood is advising Govia in its bid to form a railway franchise joining Thameslink, Southern and Great Northern railways, which was approved and launched […]
Acquisition-hungry Australian legal giant Slater & Gordon has rolled into Cardiff and pinpointed personal injury and trade union firm Leo Abse & Cohen as its next merger target. News of the proposed tie-up comes just weeks after the firm sealed a deal with East Midlands firm Flint Bishop to take on its Injured Patient Claims […]
The revelation by Tesco that it had overstated its trading profits by £250m wiped £2bn off its market value in one day. That was an understandable market reaction. However, the fact that it had appointed Deloitte and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer to investigate the matter and had suspended key executives should have been seen in a […]
Every in-house lawyer likes a challenge but pay-day loans company Wonga’s public lambasting over arrears notices sent to customers from phoney law firms is unlikely to be general counsel Lucy Vernall’s top memory from her three years in the role. Having left Wonga in the summer, Vernall is now bound for the GC role at […]
Slater & Gordon is in the final stages of a deal to acquire Cardiff-based trade union firm Leo Abse & Cohen, The Lawyer can reveal. The deal comes hot on the heels of Slater & Gordon’s tie-up with Flint Bishop’s Derby-based Injured Patient Claims arm earlier this month (8 September 2014). Sources suggest the Cardiff […]
Addleshaw Goddard has appointed litigation partner and Berezovsky star Mark Hastings as the firm’s new head of fraud, regulatory and corporate crime. The appointment comes in the wake of the departure of Ian Hargreaves who recently joined King & Wood Mallesons SJ Berwin (24 September 2014). Hastings has taken over the 15-partner practice, which is […]
Yorkshire firms Gordons and Walker Morris have recruited new department heads from national firms Irwin Mitchell and Pinsent Masons respectively. Leeds firm Walker Morris turned to Pinsents for the hire of partner Rupert Bent as head of intellectual property (IP). Bent was formerly head of IP litigation for the regions at Pinsents, with a practice […]
Manchester-based Express Solicitors reported a 21 per cent increase in fee income over the last 12 months, with end of year figures increasing from £7.2m in 2012/13 to a record £8.7m in 2013/14. The personal injury firm, which was granted an ABS licence in April 2014, merged with local firm Lavin Copitch Solicitors last year. […]