PLAYBOY CLUB SET TO REOPEN IN LONDON October 19, 2010 EXCITING news for fans of the good life – Playboy, the iconic brand set up by Hugh Hefner, is reopening its private members club in London, over two decades after the original closed its doors at 45 Park Lane back in the Eighties. This time around Hef’s relocating to swanky new premises at Mayfair, and [...]
Mayer Brown transfers secretaries to TMF Group October 4, 2010 INTERNATIONAL law firm Mayer Brown has sold its UK corporate secretarial arm to outsourcing group, TMF. The move will see five secretaries, who work for the law firm’s corporate support unit in the City, transfer over to TMF at the end of the month. At Mayer Brown, the secretaries supported the firm’s corporate department by [...]
Equality Act may cause surge in Tribunal claims September 30, 2010 LAWYERS warned that the Equality Act, which comes into force today, could cause a flood of claims to hit tribunals if businesses fail to comply with the new rules. The Equality Act 2010 was introduced by Labour deputy leader Harriet Harman’s and fulfilled a 2005 manifesto commitment. The Act brings together nine different anti-discrimination laws, [...]
Clash of cultures can scupper law firms’ mergers September 7, 2010 THE Americans are coming. Hammonds has become the latest firm to announce that it is to merge with a US firm, confirming last week that it is to link up with Squire Sanders. It follows the merger of Hogan & Hartson and Lovells earlier in the year, and the announcement that SJ Berwin is talking [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS August 22, 2010 Mayer Brown The law firm has appointed Dominic Griffiths as the new head of its banking and finance group in London. Griffiths joined the firm five years ago and has been instrumental in building its securitisation and leveraged finance groups in London. He takes over from Bruce Bloomingdale, who will now focus on increasing synergies [...]
URS wins battle for Scott Wilson as trumps CH2M with a £223m offer June 30, 2010 ENGINEERING giant URS said yesterday it was offering 290p in cash for each Scott Wilson share, 18 per cent higher than Tuesday’s bid of 245p from Colorado-headquartered CH2M and 38 per cent above its original offer of 210p on Monday. The move, valuing the company at approximately £223m, ends a bidding war for Basingstoke-based Scott [...]
Mayer Brown ends talks with Simmons June 29, 2010 INTERNATIONAL law firm Mayer Brown has walked away from a potential merger with UK based Simmons & Simmons weeks after initial talks began. Simmons management had approached the Chicago based firm a few weeks ago with hopes to sign a deal that could have created a trans-Atlantic business with revenues over £1bn and 2,400 lawyers [...]
Simmons in US tie-up talks June 21, 2010 UK LAW firm Simmons & Simmons and US firm Mayer Brown have been locked in merger talks. It is understood that Simmons’ management emailed partners on 17 June to confirm that “preliminary discussions” about a merger were taking place with Mayer Brown senior figures. The email is also understood to have said that partners would [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS May 31, 2010 Sainsbury’s Finance The supermarket personal finance business yesterday said interim chief executive David Fisher has been appointed as its new permanent chief. Fisher, who has been in the interim role for five months, joined the group in January from Lloyds Banking Group, where he was group HR director for HBOS. He spent a total of [...]
Lords warn on trading rules March 31, 2010 POLITICIANS yesterday raised fears that European Union plans to regulate trading tools used by hedge funds and banks could create new institutions that are “too big to fail”. The European Commission proposes to tighten rules on over-the-counter derivatives by forcing more trades to be conducted through central clearing houses. Clearing houses provide stability because they [...]