Shine Lawyers acquires boutique class action firm

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National personal injury firm Shine Lawyers has acquired a boutique class actions firm that it says makes it the “second largest player” by number of cases in Australia.

ACA Lawyers has been acquired by Shine, effective 1 October 2018, marking the first such acquisition by the latter since 2015, according to Shine Corporate managing director Simon Morrison.

“ACA Lawyers is a Sydney-based firm with several shareholder class actions in progress. All actions are funded by litigation funders,” Mr Morrison explained.

“The ACA Lawyers team, lead by Craig Allsopp, will be located with Shine’s existing Sydney class actions team.”

Mr Allsopp – who is a principal of ACA – added that joining Shine provides a “great opportunity” to leverage the skillsets of ACA’s class action teams.

“It is the next step for us in continuing to develop an industry-leading class actions practice,” he posited.

“Our specialist shareholder class actions expertise, combined with Shine’s depth of resources and knowledge, will lead to better outcomes for our clients now and into the future.”

Speaking further about the acquisition, Shine national special counsel for class actions Jan Saddler said that Mr Allsopp and his ACA team “perfectly complement” the Shine class actions practice and will “enhance and strengthen our already high-performing team”.

“We now have one of the broadest class actions practices in Australia, including many high-profile shareholder, product liability, financial services and environmental actions,” she said.

“This new acquisition places Shine as the second largest player by number of cases in Australia.”

flag of japan

Ex-regulator launches Japanese antitrust boutique

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Tsuyoshi Ikeda, a former investigator for Japan Fair Trade Commission (JFTC), has left Japanese Big Four law firm Mori Hamada & Matsumoto to start an antitrust and consumer protection boutique called Ikeda & Someya.

During his time at the JFTC, Ikeda participated in around 20 dawn raids, prepared the implementation of the leniency system and investigated a case involving standard-essential patents.

At Mori Hamada, where Ikeda was a counsel, he worked on cartel, merger review, and other types of antitrust/competition cases. Earlier, he was an associate attorney at Oh-Ebashi LPC & Partners.

china

Sidley, Debevoise star in China Re’s $950 mln acquisition of Chaucer

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Sidley Austin has advised China Reinsurance Group (China Re) on its $950 million acquisition of Chaucer Insurance, a unit of Hanover Insurance Group that underwrites risks at insurance market Lloyd’s, with Debevoise & Plimpton advising the seller.

According to Reuters, China Reinsurance will fund the deal to buy Chaucer with $865 million in cash and $85 million in dividends from the unit. In a statement, Hanover said that sale of Chaucer would reduce its catastrophe and tail risk exposure and improve long-term operating return-on-equity potential.

The Sidley team was led by London-based partner Martin Membery and Beijing-based partner Henry Ding.

The Debevoise team was led by London-based partner Jeremy Hill.  The transaction is expected to close late this year or in the first quarter of next year, subject to the approvals from the general meeting of China Re and domestic and foreign regulators.

Sports Law – French Football

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Sports Law (football / tort)

On 5 July 2018, the French Cour de cassation (civ. 2), ruled that violence against a referee made within the sports facilities by a player constitutes an infringement of the rules of the game linked to the sportive activity, even if such an assault is committed after the football match (from which the said player has previously been excluded).

By Ludovic TIMBAL DUCLAUX DE MARTIN ludovic@timbalduclauxdemartin-avocat.fr

INDIA

India’s HSA absorbs four-lawyer Bengaluru boutique

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Indian law firm HSA Advocates has taken over four-lawyer Bengaluru-based firm Atman Law Partners, which is led by partner Chinmay Mirji. Atman’s practice areas include corporate, litigation and real estate.

Mirji, who will become a partner at HSA, specialises in negotiations and transaction advisory roles, and incorporate, M&A and investment transactions.

HSA has offices in New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Bengaluru. The Bengaluru office was opened in 2016.

Singapore

Pinsent Masons lands energy partner in Singapore from HSF

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Pinsent Masons has expanded its energy resources and infrastructure practice with the appointment of Brian Scott as corporate partner in Singapore from Herbert Smith Freehills.

Scott, who focuses on oil and gas, spent 14 years with Herbert Smith Freehills, including seven years at the firm’s associated firm in Indonesia, Hiswara Bunjamin Tandjung. He will be relocating to Perth in 2019, but still covering the Asia-Pacific region.

Scott’s arrival takes the total number of partners at Pinsent Masons’ Singapore office to 13. Its joint law venture firm in Singapore, Pinsent Masons MPillay, has an additional three partners.

Addleshaws Scots private client team breaks away to join local firm

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Ten-strong team leaves Edinburgh firm Morton Fraser

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Addleshaw Goddard has cut ties with its 10-strong Edinburgh private client team, with the two-partner-led team leaving to join Scots firm Morton Fraser.

Addleshaws private capital head Gregor Mitchell leads the exit, and is joined by legal director Euan Fleming, alongside a team of support staff, including solicitors, consultants, paralegals and executive assistants.

CMS makes legal services and tech push with innovation team launch

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New group to help join up the legal services and tech offerings of legacy firms.

CMS has launched a new team responsible for joining up and advancing the firm’s legal services and technology offerings, in a drive to consolidate the ambitions of the three legacy firms which merged last year.

The team, called CMS by design, is led by CMS executive partner Paul Stevens, and also consists of the firm’s head of legal service design and delivery John Craske, head of tech innovation Jane Challoner, IT head Razvan Cretu, head of digital and data Elle Todd and client management head Jo Witham. They will report on progress to both senior partner Penelope Warne and managing partner Stephen Millar.

Global law firms in Myanmar get a reality check

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Since 2013, more than a dozen international and regional law firms have opened offices in Yangon, Myanmar’s largest city. But now, as the country faces international condemnation over the Rohingya crisis and the jailing of journalists, momentum is moving in the other direction.

Myanmar has not lived up to the expectations of Big Law.

Shearman hires Allen & Overy partner for São Paulo office

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A New York-based capital markets partner has left Allen & Overy LLP for Shearman & Sterling LLP’s São Paulo office as demand for Brazilian transactional work heats up.

Shearman hires Allen & Overy partner for São Paulo office David Flechner

Shearman announced the hire of David Flechner, 40, yesterday, taking the São Paulo office’s total partner count to two. He has almost 15 years’ experience advising issuers and underwriters on capital markets deals, as well as in financing and corporate governance matters. Flechner focuses predominantly on Brazil, but has also been involved in deals in Argentina and Uruguay.