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Blog Posts by Editor, The European Lawyer: September 14th, 2010 There will no doubt be a lot of coverage about the ruling on the Akzo Nobel appeal. The much-followed case has become something of a cause célèbre, with in-house lawyers, professional organisations and even law firms (including one that sent out an embargoed statement on the case commenting on both potential outcomes) getting in on … More August 4th, 2010 In May, The European Lawyer wrote a blog on Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe’s decision to stop reporting its average profits per equity partner figure to the press. We said at the time: “Historically few [European law firms] have dished out profit figures because of the discrepancy between what top partners earn and what junior partners … More Europe still struggling with deal flow July 9th, 2010The news that just two independent law firms – Uria Menendez and Homburger – made it into Thomson Reuters’s H1 European M&A tables is not, on the face of it, disastrous for independent law firms. At least the bigger ones. The real concern is that, in markets that have seen a huge upturn (such as … More June 29th, 2010 The creation of US-UK giants Hogan Lovells and SNR Denton may have been the biggest mergers of the year so far but, within the slightly more modest European markets, consolidation is also starting to pick up. The news that Gleiss Lutz had bagged respected Hamburg boutique Rittstieg has been the pick of the 2010 European mergers. … More June 14th, 2010 Milan: Italy's financial centre The news that Simmons & Simmons is pulling out of Padua – after the local team moved to Gianni Origoni Grippo & Partners – all but effectively ends the presence of international firms outside of the core Italian hubs. Simmons’ Padua office is the latest in a line of closures across Italy’s … More UK “chasing pack” running out of legs? May 27th, 2010First Lovells and now Denton Wilde Sapte. Two of the former “chasing pack” London law firms that were, a decade ago, attempting to challenge the magic circle for premium instruction have joined forces with two sprawling US national firms (Hogan & Hartson and Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal respectively). Lovells spread its international network to France … More May 26th, 2010 If French is the language of love then English is the language of business. This mantra was underscored by the pioneering pilot project to allow German courts to hear commercial litigation cases in the English language (http://www.europeanlawyer.co.uk/page_77.html). Traditionalists in Germany (not to mention countries such as France and Italy) may curl in horror at the thought … More Orrick quits the equity benchmark May 14th, 2010Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe has never been a shrinking violet when it comes to publicity and this past week has proven no different. First was the news that its proposed merger with UK firm SJ Berwin had, like so many of Orrick’s previous dalliances, failed. Then was the bold announcement that Orrick would no longer … More Getting lifeblood from Estonia May 13th, 2010It is easy to underestimate Estonia. The country’s population of just 1.34 million is dwarfed by most major European cities and its location, nestled between Finland, Latvia and Russia, also makes the jurisdiction peripheral, at least geographically. In reality, and economically, Estonia has certainly punched above its weight however. The country enjoyed double-digit growth in the … More May 12th, 2010 The news that Linklaters asked six lawyers from its Lisbon office to leave the firm seems to have taken some observers by surprise. For others, however, it will reflect one of the prime problems that has been looming as a dark cloud over Portugal for some time; the country’s law firms could well be overstaffed. Granted, … More |
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