The refrain “alliances between law firms don’t work”, has echoed around Europe’s legal market for a number… read more
Law firm alliances operating today differ from their earlier manifestations in the 1990s and early 2000s in many respects, the most significant being that they are no longer set up merely as forerunners to an inevitable merger. Our cover story this month outlines how and why next-generation alliances are currently exhibiting renewed confidence in their strategy, and boldly offering an alternative to either multinational global practice or the single-jurisdiction independent approach. … read more
In addition to having in their armoury the simplified mutual legal assistance and extradition procedures between many jurisdictions, in a recent case the US Department of Justice (DoJ) and the UK’s Office of Fair Trading (OFT) have demonstrated their joint determination to tackle cartels by adding a new and imaginative dimension to cross-jurisdictional co-operation and enforcement. … read more
When the Council Regulation on the Statute for a European Company of the EU was adopted in October 2001, many believed it would usher in a new wave of harmonised company structures throughout the continent. … read more
Making hay while the sun sears
The Middle East is a huge geographical area encompassing a diverse group of jurisdictions some of which – Iran, for example – remain completely closed to Western lawyers and the deals that attract them. However, to most European legal practitioners the term refers fairly narrowly to a few countries on the Arabian peninsula: the United Arab Emirates – particularly the cities of Dubai and Abu Dhabi – Oman, Bahrain, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. … read more
Europe embraces Islamic finance
The market for Islamic finance has been increasing across the world – and especially in Europe – following recent breakthrough projects, according to Olivier Agha, the DLA partner heading the firm’s specialist department. … read more
Competitiveness’ has become the new mantra in capital markets regulation. Worldwide, industry groups are warning regulators that, unless they relax rules and ease up on enforcement, their country’s capital markets will be imperilled. … read more
Two new lawyers have boosted Lydian’s corporate team: former Berwin Leighton Paisner partner Carl Dotremont specialises in multinational financial transactions, private equity and M&A; while Lievin De Wulf, until recently a director at Deloitte and previously with Loeff Claeys Verbeke (now Allen & Overy Belgium) and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, is a tax expert.… read more
Chadbourne & Parke represented Golden Telecom Inc – a leading facilities provider of integrated telecommunications and internet services in major cities throughout Russia and the CIS – in its $4.2bn acquisition by Vimpel-Communications. Working for Chadbourne on the deal were Moscow partners Laura Brank and Konstantin Konstantinov, and New York partner William Greason. As a result of the merger Golden Telecom is now an indirect subsidiary of VimpelCom. Skadden Arps represented the special committee of Golden Telecom’s board of directors and Akin Gump acted for the VimpelCom companies.… read more
Something rather interesting is happening in the Paris recruitment market. Since New Year there have been a spate of partner hires in the French capital, all by US firms. No big surprise there. What is noteworthy, however, is that almost all of them have been of well-established French lawyers already at other UK and US firms – very few from French firms. … read more
When a senior delegation from the Jiaxing Association of Fasteners distributed hand-painted fans and wallets to journalists at the end of a press conference arranged in February, it was the only reminder that this was something they were not used to. … read more
The UK’s Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) recently confirmed that the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 (TUPE) can apply to transfers outside the UK (and even outside the EU), in what appears to be the first decision in Britain specifically on this issue. … read more
Though many might disagree with it, the reasoning behind the European Court of First Instance’s decision in Akzo Nobel – in which the court refused to extend legal professional privilege to communications with in-house lawyers in relation to competition investigations – is not surprising. It follows the decision of the European Court of Justice in AMS Europe [1982] that privilege extended to the work-product of “independent lawyers who are not bound to the client by a relationship of employment”. Nonetheless, in light of the various positions within individual European jurisdictions and around the world in relation to in-house legal professional privilege, the issue is a long way from being resolved. … read more
US court whips off plaintiff lawyers’ securities blanket
In the closely-watched case of Stoneridge v Scientific-Atlanta, the US Supreme Court rejected an attempt to create a new – and extremely broad – category of liability in securities class actions. And, in doing so, the judges have recognised the threat that America’s class action litigation system poses to the competitiveness of the country’s capital markets.… read more
National security versus business
With the passage by the US congress of the Foreign Investment and National Security Act (FINSA) last year, it now falls to the executive branch of the government to implement the reforms enacted in the wake of the Dubai Ports World controversy. … read more
Beiten Burkhardt’s acquisition of CMS’s entire Moscow 14-head real estate team early in the year must have been a major relief for the firm, which equally dramatically lost its own previous Moscow real estate team to Salans last December. BB is now the largest independent German law firm in Russia, with almost 60 lawyers. … read more
Financial models get mauled in the Boxclever ring
Current proceedings against Terra Firma could well have a lasting impact on private equity transactions far beyond the UK if the firm is found liable for preparing deceitful financial models on which the 2002 refinancing of television rental business Boxclever was based.… read more
Too many lawyers expect the sun always to shine. After all, things have generally been good over the last few years: you were able to move onwards and upwards in your career when ready, employment agencies were clamouring for your custom and the telephone rarely stopped ringing with juicy job offers. … read more
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