Leeds-based Simpson Millar has been acquired by AIM listed financial services group Fairpoint Group after shelving discussions with Slater & Gordon in January. Fairpoint Group said it would pay £9m up-front to acquire the consumer firm with a further £6m in cash shares being handed over when the deal completes in June 2014. Fairpoint will […]
The mid-market is not just undergoing consolidation in the UK. Outside the Wall Street elite, merger talks between national firms are becoming common currency. Just look at the merry-go-round with Dentons, Squire Sanders, Patton Boggs and McKenna Long & Aldridge. Dentons merger with McKenna called off Dentons weighs in on Patton Boggs, Squire Sanders tie-up […]
The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) could rack up legal bills of more than £18.5m defending claims totalling £300m from the Tchenguiz brothers, Robert and Vincent. The case was launched following the arrest of the brothers in a botched investigation in March 2011. The agency, which has instructed Slaughter and May partner Jonathan Cotton to defend the […]
Brick Court Chambers is considering whether to restructure its clerking team following the surprise resignation of joint senior clerk Deborah Anderson. Anderson resigned from chambers on Monday, 14 years after joining the high-powered set from Littleton Chambers. She is due to leave the set in July although her destination is yet unknown. The move could […]
Allen & Overy, Ropes & Gray and Latham & Watkins have scored instructions on Altice’s acquisition of France’s second-biggest telecom operator SFR. Having been engaged in a month-long bidding war with rival Bouygues, cable and mobile services provider Altice finally received the nod from Vivendi to acquire SFR, marking the biggest leveraged finance deal since […]
The Dutch legal market has gained yet another boutique with the launch of Biesheuvel Jansen Advocaten by a team of four senior associates from Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Linklaters and Stibbe. The firm was launched last week (31 March) by former Freshfields lawyer Quirijn Biesheuvel, ex-Linklaters lawyer Jaap Kuster, and Inge Timmerman and Rutger Jansen who both previously […]
There are hires, and there are hires. The latter, also known as a ‘big hire’, is the group into which the poaching of Goldman Sachs restructuring star Andrew Wilkinson by Weil Gotshal & Manges squarely falls. Wilkinson, the man who launched spectacularly Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft’s London office in 1997, will join Weil at the […]
The Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) independent directors have appointed Clifford Chance litigator Simon Davis to conduct an inquiry into its botched announcement of an investigation into the insurance industry. In its terms of reference the body said it wanted Davis to come up with the final report “as quickly as is reasonably possible” following the furore […]
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has appointed Nigel Rawding to head up its arbitration practice in the City. Rawding will replace Costantine Partasides who has exited the magic circle firm to launch an independent arbitration boutique, named Three Crowns (17 February 2014). Rawding was based in Freshfields’ New York office before relocating to London in April 2007 […]
Fancy being a partner? You might just need to hop on a plane and head for Asia. As we report in this week’s Asia-focused Behind the Law, many of the world’s largest firms are beefing up in the region not just through laterals but also through the increased use of internal talent. The trend coincides […]
Guardian Care Homes has agreed to settle its multi-million pound Libor battle against Barclays Bank over the misselling of financial instruments. After switching firms from Cooke Young & Keidan (CYK) to the Wilkes Partnership in December through concerns over costs (6 December 2013), then to Hausfeld & Co in February, the company has agreed to […]
Eversheds construction expert Michael Conroy-Harris has commented regarding the extra pressure put on UK construction by the demand for homes. Conroy-Harris said: ‘The highlighted imbalance between supply and demand for homes indicates an imminent sea change in the market. After the lengthy barren period in the construction industry that followed financial crisis, the last thing we […]