Search results for

UK firm Simmons & Simmons has effectively taken over its Italian associate firm, Grippo e Associati, based in Milan & Rome. The firms have operated together under the name Grippo, Associati e Simmons & Simmons since May 1993. The former managing partner of Simmons & Simmons, Alasdair Neil, has taken up the role of managing director of the Italian offices and is moving to Milan shortly. He says: "We chose to do this because the arrangement was working so well." The new name of the firm will be Simmons & Simmons Grippo. The move follows Clifford Chance's decision to bring some of its Italian partners into the UK partnership, and Freshfields opening Italian offices. However Neil denies it is a way of rewarding the Italian lawyers. "It is a way of taking things to their logical conclusion and demonstrates that they have fully become a part of Simmons & Simmons." Senior partner of the Italian offices, Eugenio Grippo, explains: "The original office was a joint venture, in which Simmons had a smaller interest than Grippo e Associati. Now the Italian group is part and parcel of Simmons & Simmons." The offices will retain his name as long as he stays with the firm, and also, he says, "to remind our clients that we are an Italian firm although we have become more international". As a result of the merger, three Italian partners become partners in Simmons & Simmons: Bruno Gattai, Filippo Pingue and Stefano Speroni. Grippo is already a partner of the UK firm.

The first International Financial Law Review survey of the mergers and acquisitions market has identified the leading firms advising on deals worth US$1 billion or more. By Richard Forster

US firms are putting less weight on lawyer billings and are using more objective criteria to determine partner compensation, according to a survey report published by consultants Altman Weil Pensa. The firm's previous survey of this sort, in 1993, found that personal fees billed was the most important factor in calculating lawyers' compensation. The new survey has found that business origination has become the most significant determinant.

Big six accounting firm Price Waterhouse launched a Russian law firm in early June. The firm, called, snappily, Price Waterhouse Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) Law Offices, will be primarily staffed by Russians and in due course managed by Russian lawyer partners. "This is a natural extension of Price Waterhouse's presence in the Russian market," says Emory Kesteloot, the tax and legal partner responsible for coordinating the creation of the law firm. "We expect to be among the top Russian law firms. To this end we have appointed two of the most experienced Western legal specialists to lead and develop the practice as resident partners in Moscow." The two are: Professor WE Butler and Maryann Gashi-Butler.

The German government’s discussion paper on the Third Act for the Promotion of Financial Markets will enhance German stock markets, investment funds and venture capital. By Thomas Paul of Oppenhoff & Rädler, Frankfurt am Main

The recent fuss over different levels of disclosure in the US and UK by British Telecom is an example of the problems companies with multiple listings are open to. By Anthony J Herbert of Allen & Overy, London

The Intergovernmental Conference, which had the task of reviewing the Maastricht Treaty, reached an agreement on a draft Treaty at the Amsterdam European Council on June 16 and 17. The draft Treaty is due to be signed in October 1997, at Amsterdam.

On June 16 the Ministry of Justice submitted a Draft Takeover Code introducing a mandatory public tender offer to all shareholders of listed target companies (excluding companies whose shares are traded in the over-the-counter market [Sonstiger Wertpapierhandel]). The Draft Code provides that the mandatory offer will be triggered by the acquisition of shares representing 30% or more of the voting rights in the target, irrespective of whether this acquisition of de facto control occurs through a voluntary public offer, a private purchase of a block of shares or multiple purchases in the market.

Cancelled banking merger

The Federal Telecommunications Commission (Cofetel) published on June 9 a call for bids for fixed or mobile wireless licences, to be awarded by the Ministry of Communications and Transport in a public auction to be held later this year. The licences will be for 20 years, and are stated to be for 30 MHz or 10 MHz within the 1850 to 1990 MHz band, for 50 MHz within the 3.4 to 3.7 GHz band and for 14 MHz within the 440 to 450 and 485 to 495 MHz bands.