Nigel Savage – the visionary, combative and at times controversial president of the University of Law – is to retire from his post this spring after 18 years in the top slot, the institution announced today. The move comes just a few months after the 63-year-old Savage was kicked upstairs at the university, taking over […]
Royal Dutch Shell has handed interim responsibility of its legal function to its human resources and corporate officer Hugh Mitchell. The role of legal director was left vacant on 10 January when Peter Rees QC left the oil giant without warning, just three years after joining the company (10 January 2014). Mitchell is leading the […]
Stephenson Harwood is adding to its Africa expertise by starting a programme of sending associates on secondment to independent firms on the continent. Litigation associate Charlotte Welsh became the first Stephenson Harwood lawyer to go on secondment to Africa, spending six weeks at Kenyan firm JMiles & Co. Whilst in Nairobi Welsh worked on matters ranging […]
All the latest partner hires and other appointments within Continental European firms and offices. Benelux Austrian firm Schoenherr is moving to staff its Brussels office full-time, after 20 years with a representative presence in Belgium (30 January 2014). Vienna-based partner Volker Weiss is relocating to Brussels to head up the operation and will lead a […]
Willkie Farr & Gallagher Paris restructuring partner Maurice Lantourne has left to set up a boutique after six years with the US firm. Lantourne is re-establishing Lantourne & Associés with fellow restructuring specialists Flavie Hannoun and Kristell Cattani. Hannoun was most recently special counsel at Willkie Farr, while Cattani worked there as an associate until […]
Guardian Care Homes has changed its advisor in its mammoth Libor battle with Barclays for the second time in three months, handing the case to Hausfeld & Co partners Anthony Maton and Lianne Craig. The company is switching advisors just two months after taking the mandate away from Cooke, Young & Keidan to give it […]
Dechert is targeting growth in Asia following what chief executive officer Daniel O’Donnell described as “a year of consolidation” in 2013. O’Donnell’s comments came as Dechert posted a firm-wide revenue of $777.2m for the 2013 financial year, a rise of 6.6 per cent on 2012. Average profit per equity partner rose by 2.4 per cent […]
Stamp duty land tax (SDLT) is to be replaced in Scotland by a new tax known as the Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (LBTT). LBTT is being introduced under the Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (Scotland) Act 2013, and will come into effect on 1 April 2015, irrespective of the results of the independence referendum. […]
The Australian Securities & Investments Commission’s (ASIC’s) recent announcement that a technology systems upgrade will enable it to watch and tag trades by individual investors is a timely reminder that companies and persons in possession of ‘inside information’ need to be aware of the law governing its use and disclosure. This client update briefly describes the general […]
True or false? There’s a lawyer out there who gets to drive around the office in an ice cream van, try every lolly on the supermarket shelves and take home four litres of ice cream every week. Before you accuse us of having an overactive, rather hungry, imagination, read this. It’s all true, R&R’S GC […]
Question: what do the following have in common — Cumberland sausage, Melton Mowbray pork pie, Arbroath smokies, Cornish clotted cream, Jersey royal potatoes, Rutland bitter, Blue Stilton cheese, Yorkshire forced rhubarb? Answer: they all benefit from protected food name status. (The clue was in the title of the article.) This year has seen the addition of […]
The issue before the Court of Appeal in IPCom GmbH & Co Ltd v HTC Europe Ltd and others was the approach to be taken by national courts in patent proceedings where the validity of the same patent was also being considered at the European Patent Office. EPO decisions take precedence over national decisions where the two […]