Wragge & Co’s projects team has advised on a £500m public-private-partnership (PPP) scheme to upgrade and extend the Scottish motorway network. The scheme will see the construction of 12.4km of new motorway and the upgrading of 16.2km of existing road to motorway standard. The scheme will help alleviate traffic congestion between Glasgow and Edinburgh and drive […]
Here’s news for anyone out there hunting for an intern position. The Park Lane office of Wilmer Hale is packed to the rafters with those on placement. Of its 80-odd lawyers based in London, 30 are on Wilmer’s international arbitration programme. Could London possibly need that many cups of tea? We’ll never know, partly because this […]
Terry O’Regan, head of international trade at Eversheds, has commented ahead of the EU-US trade summit in Brussels on 26 March. O’Regan said: ‘This is a complicated deal where the headlines belie the details, which still need to be resolved.’ He added: ‘However, the economic benefits will be substantial for both parties, particularly in terms […]
Wannabe lawyers work hard to secure their traineeships. What happens when the firm they’ve joined changes beyond recognition? When law firms merge, two assurances are always trotted out. The first is that the merger will enable the combining firms to better service their valued clients. The second is that the two firms’ cultures were very similar […]
Berwin Leighton Paisner has taken eight associates into the partnership across its London, Moscow and Hong Kong offices. It is the smallest promotions round since 2010 when eight were promoted, compared with nine in 2013, 11 in 2012, and 13 in 2011. The bulk of the promotions were in the London corporate team, which took […]
The crisis in Crimea has led to EU economic sanctions listing Russian individuals involved in Russia’s bid to absorb the peninsula. The aim is to force Russia to change course. Germany’s Chancellor Merkel is reported as saying that the EU has listed different individuals to the US because the EU is bound by the requirement […]
Last week’s union with Scottish insurance outfit HBM Sayers was Berrymans Lace Mawer’s (BLM) first merger since 1997 (17 March 2014). Is this the start of a new acquisitive era for the firm? While other insurance firms kicked into expansion mode as soon as the Jackson reforms were announced back in 2010, BLM has taken […]
Osborne Clarke is to open in San Francisco, six months after the firm sent a heavyweight contingent to launch an office in Manhattan. The new base, which will be in San Francisco’s South of Market (SoMa) neighbourhood, is aimed at helping the firm build closer ties with its technology client base. The SoMa region is […]
Alfred Hitchcock would be proud of this mystery. Two months ago Shell legal director Peter Rees QC abruptly left the oil giant , just three years after joining the company and barely weeks after outlining his extensive plans for reshaping the company’s in-house team. In November, in an extensive interview with The Lawyer, Rees was […]
The London office of US firm WilmerHale is now dominated by interns, with 30 out of its 80 lawyers on a placement programme. London head Steven Finizio reveals the benefits. For anyone who has shuffled paper clips for shrapnel, an activity otherwise known as being an intern, you’re unlikely to recognise the following scenario. In […]
China’s top-tier firms Jun He and Zhong Lun are in discussions about a possible merger, in a move that would create the largest firm by revenue in China. Insiders said the firms had recently signed a confidentiality agreement about the merger, with talks reaching the due diligence stage. Senior partners at both firms have been […]
German firms Gleiss Lutz and Hengeler Mueller have had offices raided by state prosecutors investigating allegations of false testimony in lawsuits brought against their client Deutsche Bank. Gleiss’s Munich offices and Hengeler’s Frankfurt offices were both raided last week. The news follows a €925m (£775m) settlement at the end of February between Deutsche Bank and […]