The long arm of US litigation is reaching over the Atlantic October 27, 2009 A COURT case launched in New York this month by shareholders from England, France and the Netherlands against French media company Vivendi, alleging fraud, has struck fear into European executives worried that they too might find themselves on the receiving end of US litigation. It is rare for the American courts to allow foreign shareholders [...]
Be aware of the law if you are setting up on your own October 27, 2009 WHETHER or not the recession has come to an end is still up for debate but it is clear that, for some, the phoenix is already rising from the ashes. The latest stats indicate that the number of new applications for FSA authorisations in London over the last quarter equalled the number of cancellations, so [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING October 6, 2009 FINANCIAL TIMESDUBAI WORLD DEBT DECISION NEARSCrunch time is approaching for Dubai World as the government is nearing a decision on how much money it can apportion to deal with the holding company’s estimated $22bn debt pile, most of which is held by one of its subsidiaries, the developer Nakheel. The Dubai Financial Support Fund is [...]
BROWN FIGHTS FOR HIS POLITICAL LIFE … September 27, 2009 GORDON Brown yesterday pledged to impose the most draconian curbs on bank bonuses of any country in the world, as he launched a last-ditch fightback to save himself from humiliation at next year’s general election. The Prime Minister, who spoke at the Labour Party conference in Brighton yesterday, was under intense pressure to rally the [...]
Slaughters and friends feel the heat September 15, 2009 CITY solicitors are hooked on league tables, and the latest one feeding their addiction is a new ranking that details which law firms are bagging FTSE 100 instructions. Movement at the top has got tongues wagging, as the historically dominant Slaughter and May has seen its position challenged for the first time in years, triggering [...]
Years of hard work yield success for London’s first couple of wine September 13, 2009 WHEN wine-lover Xavier Rolet, the new CEO of the London Stock Exchange, first saw the house known as La Verriere in southwest France in 1992, he knew he liked it. What he didn’t know was that the 100 acres of old, neglected vineyards on the mountainous property would become the site of a full-blown, deeply [...]
Private equity eyes up City law firms September 1, 2009 THE BELEAGUERED legal profession, says Jeremy Hand, managing partner of private equity firm Lyceum Capital, is facing “a fire-storm whipped up by the recession, smarter customers, technology, outsourcing and legislation”. If that wasn’t trouble enough, it’s also being forcibly opened up to competition that could arise from the so-called Tesco Law – the shorthand for [...]
THINK HARD BEFORE YOU GO INTO LAW August 18, 2009 SPEAKER’S CORNERDES HUDSONCHIEF EXECUTIVE, THE LAW SOCIETY NOBODY who reads the legal press can fail to have noticed recently that the legal profession is feeling the pain of the recession. Solicitors are facing tough times and there are fewer places for newly-qualified solicitors than there have been for years. Becoming a solicitor is still a [...]
The cut-throat world of New York’s super-rich August 12, 2009 HEDGE FUND WIVESBY TATIANA BONCOMPAGNIHarper Collins, £6.99 IT may sound a little out of date – after all, we’re so over hedgies and their failed fortunes. Except the New York hedge fund world, including its cut-throat circle of wives, still holds more interest than you’d think. This is not the first tale of high finance [...]
Big Brother in the Square Mile raises legal issues August 11, 2009 THERE is nothing so British as fear of Big Brother. And perhaps, not without reason – the UK has 20 per cent of the world’s CCTV cameras. But the latest fear is being spied on at work. City firms have begun to import state-of-the-art tactics to keep a close eye on employees, and it is [...]