DLA Piper and Fasken Martineau have advised Nigerian oil company Oando Energy Resources on its $1.65bn (£980m) acquisition of ConocoPhillips’ Nigerian upstream oil and gas business. The pair worked alongside Nigerian firm Olajide & Oyewole on the deal, instructed by Oando chief legal officer Ngozi Okonkwo. ConocoPhillips is understood to have managed the transaction in-house. […]
Russia has been ordered to pay €1.9bn (£1.5bn) in compensation to shareholders of Yukos by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), the largest ever award for pecuniary loss. It is the second colossal Yukos-related bill for Russia in under a week following a Hague tribunal’s decision to award a record $50bn in damages and […]
The Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan has appointed Jeff Davis as its general counsel, corporate secretary and senior vice-president of corporate affairs. Davis is thought to be replacing Melissa Kennedy, who held the role since July 2009. In his new position, Davis will oversee Teachers’ legal team, as well as its compliance, corporate communications, government and […]
Pin a white rose to your chest and belt out that good old anthem On Ilkla Moor Baht ’at. It’s Yorkshire Day. Sadly, as our feature last week pointed out, Yorkshire – or at any rate its financial centre of Leeds – has struggled a little in terms of the legal market in the last […]
Scotland’s Burness Paull has bolstered its corporate finance practice with the addition of MacRoberts partner Robert Burns. Burns, who has been with MacRoberts since beginning his training in 1995, has worked on a range of public and private transactions throughout his career, including acting for BCW Group in the £29m private equity-backed MBO of its […]
Osborne Clarke is set to extend its presence into Hong Kong, with the hire of a prominent team from Bird & Bird. Marcus Vass, who heads up Bird & Bird’s communications, media and technology group in Asia, has been lined up to join Osborne Clarke alongside corporate partner John Koh and a number of associates. […]
The down-to-earth approach of Addleshaw Goddard’s new managing partner John Joyce may be just what his firm needs. When Joyce took up the reins as managing partner at Addleshaw Goddard the firm appeared to be juddering from one negative story to the next, be that embarrassing internal accounting errors or a sense of a mounting […]
Blake Morgan has launched a spin off of its personal injury and clinical negligence lawyers into a new brand BL Claims Solicitors. BL Claims Solicitors will remain part of the Blake Morgan group, which was formed following the merger of Blake Lapthorn and Morgan Cole at the beginning of July (20 March 2014). The subsidiary […]
A slight rise in business confidence and commercial activity in Australia looks set to thaw out pay freezes and potentially help stem the flow of partner exits that were the mark of the 2013/14 financial year. A study from Australian legal recruiter Mahlab has found that while salary and bonus freezes imposed during the last […]
Nicky Richmond loves the starter and main at Cecconi’s, but misses dessert. I was once summoned to Cecconi’s by a client, who uses this as an alternative office. He has his own table. Obviously. It reminds me of a story told by C about his father, sitting in a steakhouse in Buffalo, NY. He noticed […]
If you work in business development there is really only one story this week. Yes, as we reported yesterday, marketing heads at some of London’s top 60 law firms are being paid as much as £477,000. The story immediately unleashed a torrent of comments on thelawyer.com, with much of the debate focusing on the age-old […]
Clifford Chance managing partner Matthew Layton has appointed a new-look executive leadership group to replace its management committee following a dramatic overhaul earlier this month. The firm rewrote its constitution after a vote last week to replace its practice group and regional heads by appointment rather than via elections. Clifford Chance also voted to establish a […]