Linklaters and Osborne Clarke are thought to be advising on a potential merger between Carphone Warehouse and electrical retail chain Dixons. Dixons has instructed its longstanding adviser Linklaters to advise on the deal. Corporate partner Aedamar Comiskey is leading on the transaction, assisted by corporate managing associate Dominic Kendal-Ward. It is understood that Carphone Warehouse […]
Japanese big-four firm Nishimura & Ashahi has opened a second China office in Shanghai. Nishimura & Ashahi’s Shanghai opening comes two months after the firm received a licence by the Ministry of Justice in December 2013. The firm established its first China office in Beijing in April 2010 to support Japanese companies investing in China. […]
The Master of the Rolls Lord Dyson has recommended raising the cost budgeting limit from £2m to £10m for Commercial Court cases. Debate is heating up over civil litigation costs with the issue of cost budgeting levels for high-value commercial cases being pushed to the centre stage. The year-long review of civil litigation costs by Lord […]
Nabarro partners are to vote in March on a cash call to its fixed-share partners in order to meet new tax rules for LLPs handed down by the HMRC. The firm is planning to ask its fixed-share partners (FSPs) to contribute more than 25 per cent of their salary in order to avoid being classed […]
It’s taken its time, but late last Friday HMRC unveiled its updated guidance on the tax treatment of salaried LLP members. The big news, in what is shaping up to be one of the biggest structural overhauls of the UK legal market in years, is that firms looking to avoid paying out to cover new […]
Teaming up to bring litigation can be a struggle, as shown by the latest stage in the fight between RBS and the shareholders bringing a case against it. In-fighting has broken out between the four groups of litigants that are seeking recovery of the losses incurred after investing in a rights issue in 2008 they […]
Three partners from Covington & Burling, Jones Day and Shearman & Sterling are to join Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer’s London arbitration chief Constantine Partasides QC and ex-partner Jan Paulsson to launch an arbitration boutique. Covington & Burling London partner Gaetan Verhoosel, Shearman & Sterling Todd Wetmore from Paris and Jones Day’s Luke Sobota, currently based in […]
Bird & Bird’s CEO David Kerr on why the low risk, cost-effective and practical cooperative agreement approach is the best way forward in Asia. Bird & Bird (2Birds) has just become the latest UK firm to make a move on South Korea, an increasingly important country for outbound investment and a legal services market that […]
Iberian firm Cuatrecasas Gonçalves Pereira has reported a slight rise in revenue for a third successive year, in a performance that is in contrast to the fortunes of its rivals. At its annual general meeting yesterday (25 February), the firm announced that turnover in 2013 hit €248m, a rise of 1 per cent from €245.6m […]
HMRC has given the green light to a wave of capital calls at LLPs across the UK, but its much-anticipated updated guidance on the tax treatment of salaried members is still likely to give firms several finance-related headaches. Legal market tax specialists broadly welcomed Friday’s new guidance on HMRC’s rules, which were first unveiled last […]
Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) has overturned a precedent at the Court of Appeal which will see collapsed company Game forced to hand over £3m in unpaid rent when it went into administration. Six of the UK’s largest landlord entities including Capital Shopping Centres triumphed at the appeal after turning to a South Square team comprising Antony […]
The Bank of England (BoE) has created two new legal jobs due to an influx in work from its financial services regulatory body Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA). The head of BoE’s insurance division Jonathan Grant, who led on the integration of the PRA after it was created by the 2012 Financial Services Act, is now head […]