The January cold snap might not have hit home quite yet but radiators are certainly cranked up to the max and the energy market is following suit. Dentons kicked off the activity in January with a major shale gas deal when energy giant Total became the first major oil company to invest in the shale […]
French boutique Lacourte Raquin Tatar has bolstered its team with two new partners, including the Royal Bank of Scotland’s (RBS) head of legal for France. Cédric Bonnet, who left Gide Loyrette Nouel in 2005 to take responsibility for RBS’s French operations, has become a partner in the banking and finance team at Lacourte Raquin. The […]
All the latest partner hires and other appointments within firms and offices in the Asia Pacific region. Australia Melbourne-based Hall & Wilcox has launched its Sydney base by acquiring the core of Duncan Cotterill’s Sydney practice. The practice is primarily an employment practice and includes partners Ken Brotherson, Aaron Dearden and Kerryn Tredwell, as well […]
Francois Barker, head of pensions at Eversheds, has said that that the delayed implementation of imposing a cap on defined-contribution (DC) default fund charges will ‘hopefully give the government time to consider the detail and get it right’. In October 2013, the UK Department for Work & Pensions (DWP) published a consultation paper setting out proposals […]
The proportion of women on FTSE 100 boards has reached 20 per cent for the first time. Eversheds believes this reflects increasing awareness of diversity in the boardroom. John Heaps, chairman of Eversheds, said: ‘The significant progress this represents reflects the increasing awareness of the critical role of women in the boardroom and is a […]
Mayer Brown is advising on the $1.2bn restructuring and $133m sale of ATP Oil & Gas UK to Alpha Petroleum, the UK subsidiary of private equity house Petroleum Equity. The firm has been advising the bankrupt US outfit ATP Corporation on Chapter 11 proceedings in the US since 2012. Mayer Brown won the ATP UK […]
Cost-cutting continues to be a prominent theme across the profession, with many firms looking to reduce debt by trimming overheads. Legal process outsourcing has been a popular model in recent years, but now another model is starting to threaten the dominance of the LPO provider – low-cost litigation centres. The opening of a Support Services […]
DLA Piper’s Africa group has expanded in northern, southern and eastern Africa with the addition of three new member firms: Algerian firm BL & Associés, Burundi’s Rubeya & Co Advocates and Namibian firm Ellis Shilengudwa. BL & Associés is run by Algerian-based partner Fatima Zohar Bouchemla and Paris-based partner Mohamed Lanouar and has offices in […]
The Criminal Bar Association (CBA) has lost its bid to bring a judicial review of the new rating system for criminal barristers being introduced by the Legal Service Board (LSB) at the High Court. Baker & McKenzie partner Joanna Ludlam instructed Blackstone Chambers’ Dinah Rose QC and Tom de la Mare QC to lead the […]
Many people are using a variety of terms to describe various connected health products and services. This has become especially apparent over the last three years, particularly when advising clients such as the European Connected Health Alliance on legal issues surrounding connected health. Recognising the challenges this can pose, our healthcare experts have produced a white paper […]
DLA Piper has represented EagleView Technology (EVT), a provider of geo-referenced aerial image capture and visual-centric data analytics and solutions, in the negotiation of the agreement by which EVT will be acquired by Verisk Analytics for $650m (£395m). The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including the receipt of necessary regulatory approvals. The acquisition […]
By Rhory Robertson Before the Christmas break, Twitter indicated how it intends to tackle two of its main challenges in 2014, namely: trolls and the spread of false information. This article provides a brief summary of these strategies (one of which was disclosed by a leak) and comments on their effectiveness. Internet trolls, surviving mainly […]