Issues

Cat Griffiths index

Losing the magic touch in finance

Have the magic circle firms squandered their lead in acquisition finance? They still have the broadest banking practices of any firms with a London presence, ranging from asset finance to restructuring, and they still dominate on investment grade lending. But the financial crisis has changed the dynamics of leveraged finance, the practice area that defined […]

Cat Griffiths index

Losing the magic touch in finance

Have the magic circle firms squandered their lead in acquisition finance? They still have the broadest banking practices of any firms with a London presence, ranging from asset finance to restructuring, and they still dominate on investment grade lending. But the financial crisis has changed the dynamics of leveraged finance, the practice area that defined […]

Royal Courts of Justice
1

Stephenson Harwood beats Weightmans in Nigerian oil battle

Stephenson Harwood has triumphed against Weightmans in batting a $152m fight between two Nigerian energy giants over an arbitration award out of the British legal system. The judgment handed down on Friday (14 March) in the High Court ruled that the English court system was not the right place to determine the 10-year battle between Nigerian […]

lausanne switzerland

PLMJ sets up Swiss presence to target HNWI work

Portuguese firm PLMJ has set up a Swiss desk and opened an office in Lausanne in response to increasing amounts of work involving private clients with assets in Switzerland. The initiative is led by partner Nuno Cunha Barnabé, who was recently admitted to practise in the canton of Vaud and is now spending several days a […]

Royal Courts of Justice
1

Stephenson Harwood beats Weightmans in Nigerian oil battle

Stephenson Harwood has triumphed against Weightmans in batting a $152m fight between two Nigerian energy giants over an arbitration award out of the British legal system. The judgment handed down on Friday (14 March) in the High Court ruled that the English court system was not the right place to determine the 10-year battle between Nigerian […]

Paulsson

See you later, arbitrator

Top disputes partners are quitting all over the place for the quieter boutique life Conflict is the wheel on the arbitration bus that goes round and round. But it’s also the problem driving heavy-hitting arbitration partners out of high-ranking firms and into boutiques. Last month it emerged that Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer’s London arbitration head Constantine […]

Motorway
1

Follow the yellow-brick M1

BLP joins Northern trek, with plans to open a Manchester outsourcing hub There’s a race to the North going on, with the latest entrant taking its place on the starting line last week. This time it’s Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP), which unveiled plans to launch what it described as a four-pronged process-mapping and outsourcing programme […]

Russia Roundtable

Russia: Mind the bear traps

The surge of oligarchs heading to London for their court battles is slacking off. But Russia still holds potential for those advisers ready to tread carefully They wouldn’t agree in Kiev, but there’s nothing like the sight of a Russian coming through the door to cheer the heart of an English litigation lawyer. Oligarchs are […]

Procter

Moves: 17 March 2014

Move of the week Herbert Smith Freehills has added Deutsche Bank’s compliance, government and regulatory affairs chief Andrew Procter to its financial services regulatory practice. Procter will join the firm’s London office in June, stepping away from an in-house career that previously saw him head up the enforcement division of the UK Financial Services Authority. […]

Scottish Power

Scottish Power head of legal: Power steering

Scottish Power’s Glaswegian head of legal Marion Venman is driving an international agenda of integration, with language lessons at its core  When Scottish Power head of legal Marion Venman joined the company in 2001 she might have expected to learn about power plants, but she did not think she would need the Spanish vocabulary to […]

Warsaw
1

Poland: Golden goals

Local and international firms are scrapping for work in Europe’s ‘golden boy’. But the market is not without its risks, including from neighbour Ukraine Poland had a good financial crisis. But then the country that has spent much of its history being pushed from pillar to post by Germany and Russia has had a good […]

Paulsson

See you later, arbitrator

Top disputes partners are quitting all over the place for the quieter boutique life Conflict is the wheel on the arbitration bus that goes round and round. But it’s also the problem driving heavy-hitting arbitration partners out of high-ranking firms and into boutiques. Last month it emerged that Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer’s London arbitration head Constantine […]