Europe

Foreign Law Firms Gain in Italy

Latham & Watkins’ recent Italian hires could be an indication that foreign law firms are finally succeeding in the difficult legal market. The law firm hired five partners from Italian firm Bonelli Erede Pappalardo at the same time that U.K. law firm Linklaters has been snagging Italian lawyers in an…

Dec 4, 2007 1:11 PM CST

Skadden Who? BigLaw Little-Known Among U.K. Law Students

Mention “Skadden” to students at prestigious U.S. law schools, and most if not all will recognize a reference to what many would consider one of the nation’s most successful corporate law firms. But among their British counterparts, a surprising number will draw a blank. Although many American law students would…

Dec 3, 2007 6:12 PM CST

U.S. to Judge: We Can Kidnap Suspects

Extradition is only one way for the U.S. government to get suspected criminals in foreign countries back to American soil for trial. Another legitimate option is to kidnap them, a lawyer representing the United States reportedly told an appellate judge in a United Kingdom case, causing an uproar there once…

Dec 3, 2007 5:15 PM CST

Tests Reveal Lawyer’s Fellow Air Travelers Free of TB

Tests reveal no one was sickened with tuberculosis while flying alongside an Atlanta trial lawyer in May. About 250 passengers from the Atlanta-to-Paris Air France flight were tested, the Associated Press is reporting, citing data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Canadian health officials reportedly made similar findings…

Nov 29, 2007 12:03 AM CST

M&A Lawyer Trades Legal Briefs for Boxing Gloves (Photo)

Updated: The lawyer-entrepreneur is a fairly regular story. TheStreet.com published anecdotes about several this week. But this one from London knocks the rest out cold. Indeed, about three years ago, Australian native Laura Saperstein was a sought-after mergers and acquisitions lawyer, earning some $155,000 a year (U.S. dollars). But as…

Nov 27, 2007 9:00 PM CST

Latham & Watkins Opens Rome Office

Latham & Watkins has hired five partners from Italian firm Bonelli Erede Pappalardo. One of them will stay in Rome in the law firm’s first office there. The other four will join Latham’s Milan office, opened in early 2007 along with an office in Barcelona, Legal Week reports. The law…

Nov 27, 2007 1:57 PM CST

Chinese Company Wins Rare Overseas Trademark Ruling

In an unusual example of Chinese company resorting to litigation to enforce its intellectual property abroad, a Beijing curd maker has won a trademark infringement suit against a German company. The win came Nov. 14 when a Munich court ordered the German supermarket Okai to stop using Wangzhihe’s trademark, reports…

Nov 26, 2007 7:19 PM CST

U.K. Companies Cutting Number of Outside Law Firms

The U.K.’s largest companies are winnowing the number of law firms on panels cleared for legal work. The average number of firms on a panel is below five, compared to seven last year, according to a survey by Legal Week. Three-quarters of the companies surveyed said they reviewed the firms…

Nov 26, 2007 1:39 PM CST

U.K. Breach Puts 25M at Risk of ID Theft

Updated: A major police investigation reportedly has been launched in Britain after the government’s entire database concerning every child in the country for whom benefits have been paid was lost in the mail. Some 25 million individuals are now at risk of identity theft, due to the loss. The database,…

Nov 21, 2007 6:58 PM CST

Louis Vuitton Wins Hummer-Dinger Suit, Ruffed Up by Parody Ruling

Music lost and humor won in two recent rulings in lawsuits filed by Louis Vuitton. The luxury goods maker succeeded in getting a Britney Spears video showing Vuitton-like fabric pulled from the Internet but lost an infringement suit against “Chewy Vuiton” dog toys. Spears’ “Do Somethin’ ” video features a…

Nov 20, 2007 6:17 PM CST

Lovells Hires Eight Bengoshi Lawyers for Tokyo Office

U.K. law firm Lovells is expanding its Tokyo office with eight intellectual property lawyers from a Japanese firm. The bengoshi lawyers are from the Kubota Law & Patent Office, Legal Week reports. It calls the hires “a remarkable turnaround for the office, which was saved from closure last summer” after…

Nov 20, 2007 2:09 PM CST

India Says Yes to Foreign Legal Work, But No to Foreign Lawyers

A charm offensive by the British bar has failed to win immediate permission from the Indian government for foreign lawyers to practice in what many consider the world capital of legal outsourcing work. “The Bar Council of India (BCI) has released a joint resolution with the country’s state Bar councils…

Nov 19, 2007 6:50 PM CST

Conviction for Sex With Bike Sparks Freewheeling Debate

Caught in the midst of a sexual act, behind a locked door in his own bedroom with … his bicycle, a 51-year-old Scottish man is now a convicted sex criminal. After being literally caught with his pants down, Robert Stewart of Ayr admitted a sexually aggravated breach of the peace,…

Nov 16, 2007 8:51 PM CST

More Law Firms Seek to Sue Banks

After the subprime mortgage meltdown in the U.S. and a resulting worldwide credit crunch worsens, a traditional law firm taboo against suing banks has been relaxed as related litigation looms. A growing number of well-known law firms in the U.S. and U.K. are now ready to take such cases despite…

Nov 14, 2007 7:52 PM CST

Chadbourne Still a Bridesmaid; London Match Fizzles

A proposed transatlantic marriage of two well-known law firms based in New York City and London has been called off. Despite their seeming compatibility, Chadbourne & Parke and Watson Farley & Williams just couldn’t reach agreement on merger terms after nearly a year of negotiations, both sides confirm. Known for…

Nov 14, 2007 7:36 PM CST