New Online Version of The European Lawyer Now Available
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Few partners we interviewed for this month’s cover story denied the vital role that good management plays in the success of a modern law firm, not to mention its potential impact, whether positive or negative, on the bottom line. Indeed, the level of interest in law firm leadership is demonstrated by the fact that the most well received of our past cover stories include those that analyse the reasons behind splits and collapses and that examine the catastrophic consequences of failing to manage one’s firm out of the inevitable partnership disagreements that arise.… read more
It is still a standing joke in Brussels that the UK is not really part of the EU. Besides its opt-ins, opt-outs and red lines, it does not really share the same ethos or passion as the continental members of the club. Its views are always more Anglo-Saxon and its first allegiance is towards the other side of the Atlantic and to free market principles rather than the European social model. … read more
Benjamin Greene Lake holds an unenviable but most likely unique place in the history of the Law Society of England and Wales. While one or two solicitors have been convicted of murder – with one being hanged for the offence – Lake is, I think and hope, the only former president of the society to be imprisoned for fraud. … read more
Whatever the circumstances, the disappearance in England of Shannon Matthews for 24 days highlighted the trauma caused by a missing child. Elsewhere, in March this year Cara Mendoza’s children were taken illegally by their father from Rotherham (UK) to California, while hundreds of Asian girls are living in forced marriages after disappearing from schools across Britain, particularly in my European Parliament constituency in Yorkshire.… read more
At the UN climate change conference in Bali at the end of last year, the UK environment secretary Hilary Benn launched a groundbreaking scheme to boost sustainable development and carbon market investment in Africa – a continent that has so far missed out on the global drive towards clean development.… read more
T he study of law firm management ought to be a growth industry in Europe. But according to our research, many veteran lawyers are far from convinced of the need to send themselves to management training school, while many also refuse to accept the idea of even having a full-time managing partner. This is in stark contrast to practice at Anglo-Saxon firms, where select partners give 100 per cent of their time to management and embrace executive education. … read more
It will not be the law firms who decide which legal business model succeeds or fails in the future, but the increasingly powerful general counsel of major clients. … read more
Anglo-Saxon legal practices have been quick to respond to potential market opportunities and firmly establish themselves in emerging markets such as Russia, China, the Middle East and now India. And Western law firms have been vocal about their hopes for such markets cushioning the impact of the slowing in their home economies. But is there room for European independent firms to capitalise on the opportunities as well, or have they left it too late? And if not, how can an independent firm credibly operate in these markets with only a small office presence or none at all? … read more
Paris is currently playing a waiting game – while the US economic crisis deepens, financing transactions has become more difficult and companies are verging on caution. But as with all downturns, other opportunities are lurking in the market, and France has not yet caught the full chill from over the Atlantic.… read more
Growth in the face of paralysis
Ukraine’s road to democracy is littered with tripwire. Since the Orange Revolution of 2004 the country has seen four changes of government and two elections. It is currently caught in a tumultuous political soap opera starring pro-Western rivals President Viktor Yushchenko and Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, along with the Moscow-leaning opposition leader Viktor Yanukovich, as all three constantly jostle to gain ascendency and impose their agendas on the nation’s future.… read more
Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are not every international law firm’s pint of beer. Eschewed by the UK’s magic circle as too small a region for their target of big-ticket M&A and capital markets work, the Baltics have – despite eye-catching GDP growth in recent years – remained the stamping ground of either local practices or Finnish and Swedish regional players such as the Borenius Group, RoschierRaidla and Glimstedt. … read more
As recently as a year ago Ireland was still being hailed as a ‘Celtic tiger’ economy. With a booming private and public construction sector and a low-tax base for business, lawyers were making hay. However, as with the rest of Europe, the good times have turned, especially for those closest to the US. But even the larger firms in Dublin tend not to be based solely on corporate finance activity, and so they are better able to mop up the decline in deals across other departments. Nevertheless, there is no doubt that the transactions are drying up. … read more
Gide passes magic circle… read more
Sorfert Algeria – a joint venture between Orascom Construction Industries (OCI) and Algerian state-owned oil and gas firm Sonatrach – has secured a €1.1 billion financing deal for constructing a nitrogen-based fertilizer plant in Algeria. The lead agent and arranger, Banque Extérieure d’Algérie, was advised by Paris-based law firm Reinhart Marville Torre, while Sofert was advised by a team from US-based White & Case led by partner Paule Biensan.… read more
Lobby wars… read more
Austria… read more
Olswang’s new media team… read more
Banking regulation falls into a vacuum
The global credit crisis would pose a severe challenge even in a world with clear rules and deep financial and monetary resources. But this almost unprecedented problem has coincided with major regulatory and supervisory reforms in both the EU and, albeit to a lesser extent, in the US. … read more
'Twin peaks' in the Netherlands
The US Treasury Department’s recent publication of a blueprint for a modernised US financial regulatory structure has drawn a great deal of attention to the regulatory approaches adopted by Australia and the Netherlands. Although there are differences, both countries have implemented an objective-based model, whereby separate supervisors are responsible for prudential supervision and business conduct supervision. This is often referred to as the ‘twin peaks’ system and the Treasury Department blueprint also proposes adopting an objective-based approach to regulation.… read more
Historically, corporate fraud has not registered as an important issue in the German business environment.… read more
Most French companies become involved in the wider European market through their business development strategies, but some can be dragged in to meet the needs of their business partners, clients or customers. Stepping into the European arena can be a great opportunity to expand and increase a business’s turnover, but it can also spawn unforeseen problems. … read more
Pharma industry off-kilter with parallel trade advice
The distribution practices employed by dominant pharmaceutical companies to fight parallel trade have been questioned by an advisor to Europe’s highest court, the European Court of Justice (ECJ). … read more
ECLA elects members… read more
Transferring business in Romania
In recent years the Romanian M&A market has seen an increasing number of transactions conceived and implemented as a ‘transfer of business’. A transfer of business is defined as the total or partial transfer of assets associated with merger or spin-off procedures, the direct sale of assets, or in-kind contributions to the share capital of a company. This feature will focus on the direct sale of assets. … read more
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