Peter Rees’s sudden departure from Shell took everyone by surprise. Rees joined the Anglo-Dutch oil giant from Debevoise in January 2011 and during his time reorganised the legal function, bringing a vast amount of litigation in-house. The company has chopped its external global legal spend by 61 per cent in five years. Exclusive: Shell legal […]
Chicago-based law firm Katten Muchin Rosenman has poached a private equity team from Hogan Lovells’ London office, The Lawyer can reveal. London private equity partner Philip Watkins is understood to have already joined the US firm’s London base, while two of his associates are joining next month. The move has been confirmed by both firms. […]
The English court system – a game of two halves? On the one hand barristers are protesting against legal aid cuts, while on the other a Saudi Royal family has taken up three years of court time in their battle to have a case heard in private. Two Saudi princes have taken their fight with […]
Last November we pointed out that Lloyds Banking Group (LBG) had seen more bombshells than an EastEnders Christmas special. If you need reminding why, 2013 alone saw the bank look to outsource teams to legal advisers, merge other in-house functions and make a number of senior legal management moves. Order them a double shot of […]
Two prominent Saudi princes believed to be involved in a London-registered company that allegedly facilitated “money laundering” for Hezbollah are at the centre of a major court battle that is about to hit London’s High Court again. The High Court is gearing up to hear a series of allegations against two Saudi princes who are […]
On 20 December 2013, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) issued a series of comparability determinations for certain swap dealer (SD) and major swap participant (MSP) business conduct requirements included in the Entity-Level Requirements with respect to the law and regulations applicable in Australia, Canada, the European Union (EU), Hong Kong, Japan and Switzerland. The […]
China has only had antitrust rules in place for five years, but increasingly the power of its merger control authority, MOFCOM, is being felt at home and abroad, and investors must potentially be prepared to confront some significant and costly hurdles. China only introduced its Anti-Monopoly Law in August 2008, putting a requirement on investors […]
The draft Finance Bill 2014 proposes a number of changes to the approval process for employee share schemes. The changes include the introduction of an electronic notification process and online annual return filing system and the replacement of the HM Revenue & Customs approval process by a self-certification regime. The consultation period for the bill […]
DLA Piper has represented Arsenal Capital Partners, a New York private equity firm specialising in middle-market healthcare and industrial companies, in its purchase of Certara, a biopharmaceutical service provider that provides data analytics software, consulting and model-based drug development. Certara’s technology-based products provide specialised solutions for the entire span of drug discovery and development. The purchase of Certara will assist […]
DLA Piper has advised the Hain Celestial Group on the acquisition of Tilda. The acquisition will provide Hain Celestial with new markets to expand its other global brands in the UK, the Middle East, North Africa, India and Europe. The DLA Piper team was led by Bob Bishop, head of corporate in the UK. Support […]
The Allen & Overy Corporate Funding Monitor looks at loan, bond and equity issues to non-financial corporates over the past decade to see what impact regulatory pressures, bank deleveraging and the emergence of alternative sources of finance have had on the way companies access funding. The data is taken from Thomson Reuters and excludes funding […]
Conyers Dill & Pearman has announced that Linda Martin has joined the firm as a director in its London office, where she will advise on Cayman Islands law. With more than 20 years of experience in the Cayman Islands, London, New York and Hong Kong, Martin is an accomplished attorney with experience advising on variety […]