Akin Gump StraussHauer &Feld llp
The London office of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP is the center for the firm's international practice, comprising lawyers managing complex corporate, energy, project finance and development, investment funds, Russia/CIS and emerging markets transactions for buyers and sellers, financial institutions and private-equity investors across a wide range of industries and jurisdictions.
Akin Gump's highly regarded investment funds practice advises on all aspects of fund management and regulation under both English and U.S. law. The team is experienced with all types of alternative investment products, including hedge funds, private equity and buyout funds, distressed debt funds, real estate opportunity funds, fund of funds and emerging market funds.
The firm's sophisticated and diverse energy practice has represented virtually every major segment of the energy industry, including many of the largest energy providers on upstream, midstream and downstream oil and gas projects; refinery upgrades; mergers and acquisitions; joint ventures; privatizations; IPOs; and complex cross-border transactions.
Akin Gump's full-service projects practice is among the world's largest, counseling clients on large and complex infrastructure undertakings, including multibillion-dollar projects in the areas of energy and power, pipelines, ports, shipping, highways and airports, water and wastewater, large-scale construction and telecommunications development.
Akin Gump's Russia/CIS team in London has advised Russian companies in structuring several groundbreaking Western capital markets transactions, including the first full listings by Russian companies on both the London and New York Stock Exchanges.
Chadbourne & Parke LLP
The London practice of Chadbourne & Parke, a Multinational Partnership (MNP), supports clients in a wide range of project finance, corporate, corporate finance, insolvency and financial restructuring, securities, commercial law and regulatory issues, insurance and litigation matters, including multi-jurisdictional products liability litigation and related legislative issues. Lawyers work on matters throughout Eastern and Western Europe, as well as in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), the Middle East, Turkey, India, Asia, Africa and Latin America. The practice advises on both U.S. and English law.
Chadbourne is a leader in the power, oil and gas, and infrastructure sectors, representing project developers, commercial banks, multilaterals and underwriters in a wide variety of financings and other transactions including mergers and acquisitions, privatizations, workouts and restructurings.
The firm represents purchasers and sellers, as well as commercial and investment banks, in connection with mergers, acquisitions and divestitures, both public and private, negotiated and hostile. The firm also represents issuers, underwriters and selling stockholders in connection with public and private securities offerings.
The London practice's insurance and reinsurance lawyers have a strong track record in handling high value and high profile insurance and reinsurance litigation and arbitration proceedings. The firm is a market leader in the fields of financial institutions and commercial crime insurance. Its specialist reinsurance lawyers handle a wide range of disputes, with technical expertise in relation to due diligence audits, commutations and right of inspection reviews.
The firm offers clients practical, effective legal strategies, whether through trial, negotiated settlement, alternative dispute resolution, arbitration or mediation. Chadbourne's UK lawyers handle a wide variety of business disputes, frequently with an international element, including joint venture disputes, business torts, insurance disputes and general commercial litigation.
In January Jon Nash, Sohail Barkatali and Agnieszka Klich joined the Firm's London office as partners and members of the project finance practice. The three came to Chadbourne from Berwin Leighton Paisner in London, where they had been partners working together on transactions in the finance department.
For more information on Chadbourne & Parke's London office, contact Claude Serfilippi, [email protected].
Eversheds LLP
International law firm Eversheds is one of the largest full service law firms in the world with over 4,000 people including more than 400 partners and over 2,100 legal advisers. Its London office, has over 600 staff and forms part of the 34 strong international office network, which enables the firm to deliver a seamless service to clients wherever they need it. The firm has six main practice areas: commercial, corporate, human resources, legal systems, litigation and dispute management and real estate and in the most recent issue of the Legal 500 directory was ranked in 55 categories for the London office alone. Amongst the particular specialties of the London office are advice on investment management, private equity, infrastructure projects and central government.
The client portfolio includes major corporations, banks and financial institutions, intermediaries and public sector bodies across nine industry sectors: central government; education; energy; financial institutions; food; healthcare; local government; retail and telecoms. As an example of the market-leading quality of the client base, Eversheds acts for 30 of the 37 British-based Fortune 500 companies. Eversheds has a strong service ethos at the heart of everything it does, building meaningful and accountable client relationships and delivering value at every stage of a transaction or project. Entrepreneurial and client centered, Eversheds is externally recognized by clients and the media as being innovative, unstuffy, straightforward, transparent, and dynamic.
For more information on the services offered by Eversheds, contact Paul Smith, [email protected].
Fragomen LLP
Established in 1951, Fragomen is the world's leading provider of corporate immigration services and solutions. Fragomen has over 180 attorneys and 1,300 professional staff located in more than 30 offices in the Americas, Asia Pacific, and Europe. The firm works in partnership with our clients to facilitate the immigration related aspects of hiring and transfer of employees worldwide.
In 1991, the firm actively embarked on establishing capability in the field of immigration law outside the United States.Today the international practice provides high-level corporate immigration services to clients on a global, regional, or country-by-country basis, providing immigration support to almost every country throughout the world.
In the United Kingdom, Fragomen LLP is a single-focus business, specialising in all aspects of UK immigration and nationality law. Through dedication to technical excellence combined with a focused and commercial approach, it has grown to become the largest immigration business in the UK since opening in London in August 2003.
Fragomen's London office comprises 45 lawyers, paralegals, consultants and associates. All have the same qualities: technical excellence, understanding of the corporate needs of our clients, a sense of urgency and pro-active client-focused ethos.
For further information, contact [email protected] or call +44 (0) 20 3077 5000.
Jones Day
Jones Day London provides clients with high-quality, full-service English law capacity in addition to the global reach of Jones Day's well-established practice in 30 offices throughout the world. The office in the City of London, with more than 200 lawyers, is an integral part of the 2,200-lawyer global law firm.
London is an important part of the Firm's significant European network, which now includes more than 400 lawyers in Brussels, Frankfurt, Madrid, Milan, Moscow, Munich and Paris. Comprising primarily English solicitors with extensive UK and international practice experience, together with both U.S. and dual qualified lawyers, the London Office's local experience is enhanced by the Firm's state-of-the-art communication systems, with the result that London lawyers are able to draw on the huge reservoir of know-how and experience in the Firm as a whole.
Principal areas of work include banking and finance, business restructuring, capital markets, litigation, intellectual property, investment funds, M&A, private equity, real estate and tax. The London office also has teams of lawyers experienced in areas such as competition, environmental, employment and pensions law.
For more information on the services offered by Jones Day's London Office contact Russell T. Carmedy, rtcarmedy@ jonesday.com.
King & Spalding LLP
Opening the firm's London office in 2003 demonstrated a commitment to the expansion of King & Spalding's international reach, providing an enhanced ability to serve clients effectively in the leading financial centers and across the world. This office specializes in commercial and financial transactions (with a particular focus on Islamic and acquisition finance, mergers and acquisitions and private equity) and a range of other practice areas, including tax, employment and international arbitration. The firm has recruited (and continues to recruit) highly experienced lawyers with a proven track record in the London market and has combined this with a first class American team originating from King & Spalding's U.S. offices, but now resident in the UK. The London officeadvises on English, EU and U.S. law.
The lawyers also work regularly with leading independent law firms in continental European and other jurisdictions to ensure that, where they are advising on transactions outside England and the U.S., the best local and international advice and service is available wherever required.
For more information about King & Spalding's London office, contact John L. Keffer, [email protected].
Morgan, Lewis & Bockius
Morgan Lewis' London office is renowned for its ability to offer clients integrated English and U.S. legal advice across a broad-range of practice areas. Their lawyers primarily practice the full range of English commercial law, but they also have a number of specialists in U.S. law who are resident in London. The office represents major UK and international companies and financial institutions. The London office specialises in the following practice areas:
Corporate. The firm advises on the establishment, operation and financing of businesses in the UK covering mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures and debt and equity financings in the public and private markets, including listings on the London Stock Exchange. In addition we have a specialist private equity, investment fund formation, pharmaceutical, biotech and outsourcing team.
International Tax. Morgan Lewis provides UK and U.S. planning and structuring advice for companies and individuals involved in cross-border situations.
Litigation. The firm assists clients from around the world in commercial disputes including general commercial litigation, international arbitration, banking litigation, fraud, asset tracing and financial services regulation.
Labor and Employment. The firm focuses on litigation, employment issues in corporate and outsourcing transactions and data privacy issues.
For more information on Morgan Lewis' London office contact Robert Goldspink, rgoldspink@morganlewis. com.
Thompson & Knight LLP
Thompson & Knight's London office supports the Firm's activities worldwide with its broad range of corporate, project finance, finance, and international energy experience. The Firm's U.S. and foreign clients engaged in business in London will not only benefit from access to Thompson & Knight's expertise in such areas as energy, trial, and tax, but the Firm's international depth will provide powerful support for cross-border transactions. For more information on Thompson & Knight's London office, contact Anthony Golding, anthony.golding@ tklaw.com.
Weil, Gotshal & Manges
Weil Gotshal is a leader in the marketplace for sophisticated, international legal services. The firm acts for many of the most successful companies and institutions in the world in their high-stakes matters and transactions. Weil Gotshal has more than 1,100 lawyers in 20 cities throughout the U.S., Europe and Asia.
The firm's practice in London encompasses the full range of services, including acquisition finance, business finance and restructuring, capital markets, litigation/ regulatory, competition, consumer finance, corporate, environmental, mergers & acquisitions, pensions, private equity, real estate, structured finance and tax.
Since much of the work is international in nature, Weil's lawyers are experienced in working closely with their colleagues from other offices, on transactions with complex multi-jurisdictional or multidisciplinary issues, ensuring a coordinated approach to providing effective legal solutions. The Times noted, "Weil, Gotshal & Manges is part of a small New York-magic circle of elite firms which attract the lion's share of the top international transactions."
Private equity is the cornerstone of their practice. In 2006, the London office completed some 40 private equity deals and is now ranked among the UK's market-leading law firms for private equity and four London partners are recognized as leaders in that field. With over 200 private equity experts worldwide, Weil Gotshal believes that the strength and depth of its private equity bench sets the firm apart from its competitors. Chambers Global 2006 commented that the London office was a "firm for whom private equity is a trump card, its 'entrepreneurial stance' is combined with 'good service and high levels of skill on complex issues' to make waves in the market."
For more information on Weil Gotshal's London office contact Mike Francies, [email protected].
Published January 1, 2008.