Andersen has added Ignacio Ruiz as a partner in its tax department. He has more than 15 years of tax advisory experience and specialises in tax risks in domestic and international M&A. The tax team at Andersen Iberia has over 100 professionals, 24 of them partners.
Norton Rose Fulbright is expanding its banking and finance team in Italy. A five-lawyer Italian finance team is joining from Orrick, which is seeing lateral exits.
Osborne Clarke added Guillermo Rodrigo as partner in its Madrid real estate practice. Paloma Alcón joins as counsel, and Lucía García Ovies and Jaime Armijo as associates. The team will coordinate with the Barcelona practice led by Julián Matos.
Skadden has hired an antitrust partner from Freshfields in Brussels. Merit Olthoff has been at Freshfields since 2012 and made partner in 2022. She is set to join Skadden, reuniting with a former Freshfields co-global managing partner and antitrust specialist.
Delsol welcomes Raphaël Berger as partner and Stéphanie Berger-Beche as counsel in its real estate-construction department. They arrive with a team of eight people. Both founded their own real estate firm in 2012 before joining Delsol.
Employment lawyer Michael Kalbfus (44) moves from Pinsent Masons to Simmons & Simmons in mid-October. He is to build an employment law practice at the firm's Munich office. He specialises in employment law advice on technology topics.
Pellicaan Advocaten appointed Elif Barioglu and Xander Alders as partners. VanLoman is expanding to Brainport Eindhoven, with Jeroen Geers joining as partner to lead the new office. Arjan Kleinhout returns to De Brauw as Of Counsel on 15 October 2026.
Squire Patton Boggs appointed partners Rachel Kerr and James Eddowes to its Real Estate Practice Group in Birmingham. Both join from Gowling WLG. Tom Durrant is Birmingham office managing partner and Matthew Dalzell is European head of the Real Estate Practice Group.
Portuguese firm Paxlegal announced four hires at its Braga office: Nuno da Silva Vieira, Rui Ferreira Antunes and Ana Peixoto as equity partners, and Isa Meireles as senior associate. Da Silva Vieira becomes co-Managing Partner alongside Bárbara Pestana. The firm now has six partners, one Of Counsel, four senior associates, four associates and two consultants.
Paxlegal
Nuno da Silva Vieira
Rui Ferreira Antunes
Ana Peixoto
Isa Meireles
Bárbara Pestana
António Patrício
Braga
Banking & Finance, Capital Markets, Disputes, Regulatory
Peruvian firm AMC Lawyers announced three new counsel: Milko Ortega Polar (Public Law and Infrastructure), James Raphael Morales Campos (Public Law and Regulatory) and Jack Melchor Rojas Alcarraz, who will lead a new Criminal Law practice. Jhon Malca Saavedra, senior partner, commented on the hires.
Two partners have left Reed Smith's London office this week. Three senior lawyers are also expected to depart from Latham in New York. No names, destinations or practice areas are given.
Ignacio Ruiz joins Andersen as partner in the Tax department to strengthen M&A tax advice. He is accompanied by Andrea Gonzalo (Senior Associate) and Miguel Ponce (Consultant). He has over 15 years of experience.
Ontier has added Emil Ruppert as partner in its Peru office, in the Corporate, M&A and Mining area. He comes from Rubio Leguía Normand, where he was a partner. He has nearly 40 years of experience.
Ecija launched a tax innovation practice within its legal innovation area. It hired María del Carmen González de Luis from PwC Tax & Legal, who has over 12 years of experience. The firm is led by Alejandro Touriño.
Pinsent Masons appointed James Quirke as a partner to lead its corporate tax team in Dublin. He joins from McCann FitzGerald, where he became a partner in 2024. He is a solicitor, chartered accountant and chartered tax advisor.
Osborne Clarke has added Guillermo Rodrigo and Ana Castedo as partners. They have more than 25 years of experience and join to strengthen the real estate and industrial and intellectual property practices in Spain.
HSF Kramer hired a six-lawyer real estate team from K&L Gates. The firm is accelerating plans to build a full-service Italian office capable of taking on the country's biggest domestic and international firms.
Pinsent Masons has lost two more South African partners. Its Johannesburg office has lost more than 25% of its legal team in the past year. International firms are grappling with fee pressures and foreign exchange volatility in South Africa.
Richelieu Avocats welcomed Camille Tohier-Desclaux as associée in its business litigation department. She handles banking law, civil liability and business criminal law, assisting companies and banks in civil, commercial and criminal disputes. She previously worked at L & associés avocats and TGLD, then founded and led her own firm CTD until 2026.
CMC Avocats welcomes Frédéric Biais to its business law teams. He has been a member of the Bordeaux bar since 1984 and works on development and restructuring operations and high-stakes matters, in advisory and litigation, for companies and executives. He will continue to support his own clients alongside CMC Avocats' teams.
Delsol Avocats is reinforcing its Real Estate – Construction department with a new team led by Raphaël Berger (partner, co-head of the department) and Stéphanie Berger-Beche (counsel), accompanied by a team of 8 people. The team will be based in Lyon and Paris. The two previously ran Berger Avocats & Associés, which they created in 2020.
Squair is strengthening its corporate M&A team in Paris with the arrival of Romain Ferrando as partner. He was previously a partner at boutique firm Altiore Avocats, and earlier worked at firms including Ayache Salama and Lerins. His work covers company sales, fundraisings, management packages and intra-group reorganisations.
Joffe & Associés promotes Amanda Dubarry to counsel in its tech-digital-data team, led by Emilie de Vaucresson. She advises on GDPR compliance, IT contracts, outsourced DPO work, data breaches, AI projects and EU digital regulation. Paris bar member since 2017, she joined the firm in 2022.
RCD named David Pintos as new partner in innovation and entrepreneurship. His appointment joins the promotion of four other professionals. The firm is reinforcing its innovation and entrepreneurship, administrative and urban planning law, and labour law areas.
Pentecoste & Associés announced the appointment of Clara Heullant-Donat as partner. She advises on complex public contracts, concessions, public-private partnerships, renewable energy projects, project financing and public-law matters, and has a litigation practice before administrative and judicial courts. The partners said the appointment reflects a wish to favour internal growth.
Isabella Redl (28) is admitted as Rechtsanwältin in CMS Austria's IP practice group effective 13 October, per a press release from the Vienna office. She has been an associate at CMS Austria since 2023, focusing on consumer products and TMC sectors, including trademark and unfair competition law.
Kirkland & Ellis announced the appointment of François Capoul and Benjamin Bignier as partners in its Paris office. Capoul joins the corporate practice and works in M&A and private equity. Bignier advises fund sponsors on fund structuring and formation, GP-led restructurings and liquidity transactions.
Signature Litigation's Paris office announced the promotion of Amany Chamieh to partner. She joined in January 2025 as counsel from Darrois and specialises in international arbitration, including disputes involving the Middle East and North Africa. The firm now has nine partners in Paris and 30 in total.
Goodwin in Paris named Aurélien Diday associé in its M&A/Private Equity team. He advises investment funds, management teams and companies on LBOs, management packages and cross-border transactions. He joined Goodwin in 2016 as an associate after King & Wood Mallesons, and is described as becoming counsel in 2024.
Racine Avocats in Nantes promoted Pierre Barboteau to associé in its real estate department. He specialises in public law, planning law, public construction, land law and environmental law. He joined Racine in 2021 as counsel and previously worked at Seban Avocats and Cornet Vincent Segurel.
BonelliErede relocated its Milan operations to a new 15,000 sqm headquarters at Via Fatebenefratelli 1. All Milan-based lawyers and business services staff are now in one building, replacing sites on Via Barozzi, Via Andegari and Via Marostica. The office will also be the hub for the firm's EMEA offices.
Esteban Ceca Magán, managing partner of Ceca Magán Abogados, maintains a commitment to growing under its own brand. He is preparing new openings in Spain and points to a future integration in Portugal. He says the next three years will be tremendous for mergers.
Law.com interviewed the London leader, named in the title as Denise Gibson, about A&O Shearman's new London office and what it means for the firm. The title quotes Gibson as calling the merger 'ancient history'.
London-headquartered Stephenson Harwood's chief executive is stepping down. The firm is exploring a merger with Europe-based Taylor Wessing. Law.com International Edition reports this.
Legal Business reports Freshfields is cracking down on partner performance and compensation, and the US now faces the same scrutiny as elsewhere. Two Freshfields partners discussed the firm's US investment over dinner in London last year. One calculated how much the stateside expansion was costing him personally.
Legal Cheek says its latest exclusive data shows the highest-paying firm offers newly qualified solicitors £181,000. It says firms publicise trainee and NQ salaries, but pay higher up the associate ranks is less clear. It asks readers to share firm, department, PQE level and salary (base plus bonus) in the comments.
Legal Cheek data from more than 40 firms puts the average first-year solicitor apprentice salary at around £28,600. The top figure is £33,000, at Gowling WLG, Weil Gotshal & Manges and White & Case. 24 returning firms raised starting salaries and nine held steady.
Martyn Day, 70, senior partner and co-founder of Leigh Day, announced he will step back from day-to-day running of the firm in late 2027, 40 years after founding it. He will remain involved in certain claims. Five equity partners will lead, with Nigel Mackay as senior partner, Jamie Beagent as managing partner and Clare Campbell as deputy managing partner.
The Solicitors Regulation Authority named Caroline Corby, chair of the Professional Standards Authority since 2021, as its new chair. She replaces Anna Bradley, who is leaving after eight years. Corby begins on 23 November.
Stephenson Harwood has appointed James Linforth as chief executive from the new year. Current chief executive Eifion Morris is stepping down for 'personal reasons'. The firm is in ongoing merger talks with Taylor Wessing, with the two eyeing a combination before 1 May 2027.
Caroline Corby, chair of the Crown Prosecution Service and the Professional Standards Authority, has been named chair of the Solicitors Regulation Authority. She takes the role on 23 November, succeeding Anna Bradley. She will be paid £105,000 a year and is expected to work at least two days a week.
UK listed law firm Gateley appointed Nigel Tranter as chief technology officer. He was previously chief digital officer at Orrick and earlier chief technology officer at Pinsent Masons. He will lead technology strategy, architecture, data, engineering, infrastructure, security and operations.
Paul Weiss and Clifford Chance are due to receive a total of up to £57.1m in legal fees for advising on Apollo Management's takeover of easyJet. The deal was announced in the summer. Apollo bid after easyJet had agreed a deal with Castlelake.
Law.com says that after analysing hundreds of contracts it can reveal which firms make the most revenue from advising the U.K. government. The item names no firms and gives no figures.
Express Solicitors' personal injury department rose from Band 3 to Band 2 in the 2027 Chambers & Partners UK Guide, its highest ranking to date. Clinical negligence kept its ranking. Tanzeela Aslam gained her first individual ranking (Band 3).
Weil announced recognition in the Chambers UK 2027 guide across 14 practice areas, with 26 individual lawyer rankings in London. Areas include Private Equity, M&A, Private Funds, Finance and Restructuring. Antitrust and Private Funds rankings improved, and Environment & Climate Change is a new ranking.
Gibson Dunn's London office achieved its strongest-ever Chambers UK performance, with 18 practice rankings and 44 individual rankings, including 13 Band 1 individuals. Partners Patrick Doris, Sean Tierney, Wim De Vlieger, Graham Haselgrove and James Chandler were ranked for the first time.
Morgan Lewis earned 10 practice rankings in Chambers UK 2027, including a return to the rankings for Investment Funds: Private Equity and an improved Intellectual Property ranking. It also earned 21 individual rankings, including five new recognitions for partners Carter Brod, Philip Cheveley, Paul Feldberg, Theresa Kradjian and Oliver Rochman.
Chambers UK recognized Cooley with rankings of seven practices and 29 individual lawyers. Cooley gained a new Band 1 in Private Equity: Venture Capital Investment and maintained Band 1 in Life Sciences: Transactional and Product Liability: Mainly Defendant. Corporate/M&A: £100-800 million and Data Protection & Information Law moved up.
Slaughter and May received 33 practice area rankings in Chambers UK 2027, including 10 Band 1 rankings. The guide recognises 68 of its lawyers with 85 individual rankings, 12 of them Band 1. The firm reports 38 individual and 12 practice area ranking increases.
Cooley partner James Maton was shortlisted for Partner of the Year. Special counsel Tristan Lockwood was shortlisted as a Rising Star in the Private Practice category. The British Legal Awards 2026 are hosted by Law.com.
Latham & Watkins advises Fraikin's reference shareholders Benefit Street Partners, Värde Partners and Canyon Partners, and other sellers, on the planned sale of the company to Asterion Industrial Partners. Closing is expected in Q1 2027, subject to regulatory approvals. The team is led by corporate partner Simon Lange.
CMS Francis Lefebvre Lyon advised Garibaldi Participations on its reinvestment in the capital of GEMME group, a secondary LBO. A banking pool of Banque Populaire Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and Caisse d'Épargne Rhône-Alpes is involved. The deal amount is confidential.
Freshfields issued a scam warning after lawyers in Germany were impersonated. Scammers pretended to sell vehicles from insolvency proceedings, as well as gold bars and coins.
The merger of Stuttgarter Versicherungsgruppe and SDK-Gruppe, announced in 2024, is complete. Both now operate under the shared umbrella Süddeutsche Versicherung a.G. ("Die Süd").
Norton Rose Fulbright is advising Aegis Logistics on its proposed acquisition of an 89.8 per cent stake in Dubai-headquartered Tristar Holdings, with equity consideration of USD809 million and an enterprise value of USD1.5 billion. Dubai-based partner Anna Tipping led the team. Veritas Legal acted as Indian counsel to Aegis.
Law.com International Edition reports that Hogan Lovells Cadwalader will combine buy and build in a new AI strategy. The leader of the global firm anticipates the new technology will soon transform its approach to pricing.
Schönherr advised Symfonia sp. z o.o., a portfolio company of Accel-KKR, on acquiring dvo Beteiligungs-GmbH and its subsidiary. Müller Partner Rechtsanwälte advised seller Rainer Haude. The transaction closed in October 2026.
White & Case advised BBVA, three Caisse d'Epargne entities and CACIB on the refinancing of CityFast's debt, about €328 million. CityFast is a network operator jointly owned by Vauban Infra Fibre and Quimper Co-Invest. The Paris team was led by partner Amaury de Feydeau, with partner Alexandre Ippolito on tax.
A&O Shearman advised Quaero Capital on the refinancing, of approximately 240 million euros, of its water-sector investment platform, based mainly in Spain and France. Driss Bererhi, partner in Paris, coordinated the team. Partners and associates from the Madrid and Luxembourg offices also took part.
Joffe & Associés advised Cykleo, the cycling subsidiary of Groupe Keolis, on its acquisition of Ecovelo, a designer of bike-sharing solutions. The Joffe & Associés team comprised Virginie Belle, partner, and Alexia Guyot, lawyer.
Per a press release, Hogan Lovells Cadwalader advised Hilton on a long-term management agreement for the planned Tempo by Hilton Munich Airport Arena hotel, with a subsidiary of Munich Airport. The hotel will have 199 rooms, with opening planned for 2029. Team: Marc P.
Freshfields is advising All for One Group SE on its planned delisting and VINCI group's public delisting offer. The offer price is €67.50 in cash per share. The delisting offer volume is approx. €65m, and total volume including the preceding takeover offer is approx. €336m.
Clifford Chance advised GD Towers on its first public bond, €1 billion in two €500 million tranches, issued by DFMG Holding GmbH. Launched and placed 8 October 2026, settled 15 October 2026. Listed on the Luxembourg Euro-MTF market.
The roundup links to stories on states suing OpenAI, a Supreme Court shadow docket ruling on TV ad rates, a judge on Bill Essayli's likely disqualification, and a Ninth Circuit ruling on the "No Vigilantes Act". It also cites a Financial Times item saying the top of the UK legal market is pulling away from the pack.
Axiom Ince CFO Muhammad Ali, 44, denied conspiracy to conceal, destroy or dispose of documents after the indictment was amended to add him to count four. Four other defendants previously denied all charges. The 14-week trial is listed for February 2027.
CMS advised Callstack.io on its acquisition of Margelo GmbH, a Vienna-based software developer. Margelo is valued at more than €20 million. According to a CMS release, it is Callstack's first acquisition since a 2025 growth investment from Viking Global Investors.
Freenet, majority owner of Exaring since 2015, agreed to buy the remaining ~25% from minority shareholders for an initial €76 million, with up to €50 million more tied to performance. Valuation is €300 million. Hengeler Mueller advises Freenet (leads Kai-Steffen Scholz, Dirk Busch).
Freshfields advised Euricom S.p.A. on acquiring all shares in Müller's Mühle GmbH from GoodMills Deutschland GmbH, per a press release. Closing is subject to customary regulatory approvals and expected by end of 2026. The team was led by partner Nicholas Günther and principal associate Henri Conze (Düsseldorf).
According to Financial Times reports cited by JUVE, Freshfields is examining a spin-off of its legal-tech unit 'Freshfields Lab' into a standalone company. An internal email chain, accidentally forwarded to a large distribution group, reportedly says leading partners hope for a valuation in the billions and want to attract external investors.
Joffe & Associés advised GENEO Capital Entrepreneur on its entry into the capital of Lodigroup, a French biosecurity and building protection manufacturer. The transaction is led by Geneo Capital Entrepreneur and BNP Paribas Développement. The Joffe team comprised partners Aymeric Dégremont and Romain Soiron.
HSBC's yearly UK Law Firm Strategy and Investment Survey of 100 law firms found almost three-quarters say greater use of technology is driving disruption, and 60 per cent cite clients bringing more work in-house. 73 per cent call AI integration a major organisational challenge. Almost every firm surveyed has a generative AI strategy.
Ithaca Holdings is taking Bumble private in a $1.3 billion deal. Davis Polk advised a Bumble special committee from New York, Washington, D.C. and London. Kirkland & Ellis advised Ithaca Holdings with a national team of about three dozen lawyers.
Sports investor John Textor has brought a nine-figure lawsuit against DLA Piper. He alleges the firm was representing him when it made changes to documents that cost him tens of millions. The allegations are Textor's claims.
Freshfields leaders are considering opening the firm's AI unit to external investment, discussing carve-out options into a separate legal entity they believe could be worth 'billions', according to a Financial Times report. The discussions were revealed by a leaked internal email exchange involving global managing partner Alan Mason.
Bredin Prat advised Cemex on entering exclusive negotiations with Vicat for the proposed sale of its ready-mix concrete and aggregates activities in south-east France, including some joint-venture interests. Closing is expected before 31 December 2026. It is subject to works council consultation and merger control clearance.
Clifford Chance advised British International Investment (BII) and FMO on the US$52 million financing of the Kafue solar project in Zambia, developed by Globeleq Kafue Solar Limited. The Paris team was led by partner Delphine Siino Courtin. In London, partner Edward Bretherton and senior associate Jonathan Forrest advised on construction aspects.
McDermott Will & Schulte advised Elevation Capital Partners, via its FPCI Elevation Patria fund, on a minority investment in SOFEMA, a French defense equipment distribution and MCO company. Partners named: Fabrice Piollet and Maxime Fradet (corporate), Sabine Nauges (regulatory), Côme de Saint-Vincent (tax).
The Bundespatentgericht (Federal Patent Court) deleted Ceramtec's colour mark for hip implant components. It ruled on bad-faith filing, not lack of distinctiveness. The title reports Taylor Wessing as successful.
Cleary and Latham lead on the sale of French commercial vehicle lessor Fraikin, valued at €3B, to Spain's Asterion. A previous proposed sale of Fraikin Industrial Partners for around €1.5 billion failed to get by French antitrust regulators.
Senior UK law firm figures assess whether Number 10 North can turn buzz around Andy Burnham's devolution agenda into opportunities for the legal sector. Sarah Walton, managing partner at Weightmans, is one of many law firm leaders cautiously optimistic about the new Downing Street operation. She says the buzz in Manchester will drift away.
The Ellwangen public prosecutor's office is investigating Innoscripta over suspicion that it may have helped customers obtain unjustified tax advantages. About a week earlier, group premises were searched under two warrants from the Schwäbisch Gmünd district court. The company has responded with an internal investigation.
Antas da Cunha Ecija advised QUADRANTE – Engenharia e Consultoria, as buyer, on acquiring the engineering business unit of Geometric Talks. The acquisition includes a project portfolio valued at about 750,000 euros, with activity in Portugal, the Middle East and Africa. The team was Carolina Meireles (counsel), Tânia Nogueira and Tomás Moita (associates).
MVP Schoenherr, based in Serbia, advised the lenders on a EUR 400 million syndicated facility for the State of Montenegro, per a press release. The facility has a seven-year term with semi-annual repayments and pays 6-month Euribor plus 2.5 percent. Partner Nikola Babić led the team; Petar Vučinić also worked on it.
Lone Star Funds agreed to sell 100% of IKB Deutsche Industriebank AG to Crédit Agricole, S.A., per a press release. Hengeler Mueller advised Lone Star; Latham & Watkins advised IKB. IKB has a balance sheet total of EUR 14.3 billion.
Taylor Wessing advised BPCE ENERGECO on financing Albioma's acquisition of a portfolio of photovoltaic plants in metropolitan France, for 8 million euros. The portfolio has 14 operating solar plants totalling 10.9 MWc of installed capacity.
Ballard Spahr attorneys are defending the British Broadcasting Corp. against President Donald Trump's $10 billion defamation claim. They faced an "unusual, perhaps even novel" problem in discovery involving bypassing the Secret Service.
Simmons & Simmons has launched an AI adoption framework called the Legal AI Maturity Mountain. The text invites readers to find their place on it and see where to go next with the firm.
Latham & Watkins advised Partners Group's private credit platform as senior lender, on behalf of its clients, on a unitranche refinancing of Delabo.group. The facility is structured as unitranche/super senior, with further acquisition and investment facilities and a working capital facility. Delabo supplies dental technology products in Germany.
Simmons, Cooley and Slaughter and May lead nominations in the Leadership in Law Awards shortlist. The awards ceremony takes place on December 3 and celebrates the best legal talent shaping the future of law.
Freshfields advised Asieris Pharmaceuticals on its conditional exclusive license agreement with Theramex for CEVIRA® (APL-1702). Theramex gets commercialisation rights in Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Turkey. Aggregate deal value exceeds US$250 million.
Goodwin advised Voltaback, a French fleet-management software company founded in 2024, on its €2.8 million fundraising led by Serena alongside several business angels. The Goodwin corporate team comprised Xavier Leroux (partner), Louis Taslé d'Héliand (counsel) and Charlotte Muller (associate).
A&O Shearman advised the lenders and hedging banks on the refinancing of the A28 motorway concession operated by Autoroutes de Liaison Seine-Sarthe (ALiS). ALiS is owned by Vauban Infrastructure Partners, Aberdeen, CVC and PGGM. The multi-tranche financing combines bank and institutional debt, partly guaranteed by Assured Guaranty.
Addleshaw Goddard advises Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations on a 35% minority stake, via Banque des Territoires, in Hydro Tanika, an EDF subsidiary developing the 50 MW Tanika marine pumped-storage project in La Réunion. Works are planned for the second half of 2028. The team included partners Mathieu Taupin and Jacques Dabreteau.
A column by the Global Lawyer says pressure to make big, often risky hires, alongside pressure to invest, is more intense than ever. It says this leads firms to avoid significant questions over long-term health, and that PE investment is unlikely to resolve this.
Confirmed items are announced by the firm or reported as fact by the cited outlets. Unconfirmed items are reports the firms have not confirmed. Every item links to its sources; we add nothing the sources do not say.