Ken and McKenna
THE Olympics 2012 feast has started and we will all be seduced by it. I took my first taste on City Hall’s top floor last week when Ken Livingstone (launching London’s bid for the industrial World Skills 2011 competition scheduled for the Olympic site) serenaded an international audience on the imminent transformation of the East End. Unfortunately the mist across the river was too dense for anyone to see the future that Ken was depicting.
Inevitably, though, a fearsome number of legal disputes lay concealed by the fog. Already the row over the wavy-roofed aquatics centre, running two years late, has produced (courtesy of The New Civil Engineer magazine) the first maxim for construction lawyers: “When things aren’t straight, that’s where you can really see your costs rocket.”
Which was why I was delighted to receive, on the day after Ken’s murky lecture, CMS Cameron McKenna’s Olympics Toolkit. This is an “all you need to know guide” for business on “how to take best advantages of the opportunities the Olympics could provide”. Also included is a timeline for the big construction projects. I am sure Ken will find that very helpful — especially when the line goes wavy (www.law-now.com/Olympics)
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Manches’ maritime practice
NO DOUBT it was in the Olympic spirit that Manches launched last week the Manches Cup which is, so I am told, the UK’s “fourth-largest sailing event”. Open to all sides of the legal profession about 800 lawyers are expected to savour the waters of the Hamble and Solent on the weekend of May 19-21.
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Alarmingly, however, for those of us who live locally, there is no sign so far that any lawyers from Hampshire or West Sussex will be taking part. Shameful to report the event was actually won last year by London landlubbers, S J Berwin. This is a scandal and a humiliation for the South Coast legal community. I hope, in due course, to be able to report a more Nelsonian attitude from my neighbours. For more information contact Simon Boulding, Britannia Corporate Events, on 02380 458900 or go to simon@britanniaevents.co.uk
CC surge
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MUCH though I enjoy awards events, league tables, where they exist, are probably a better indication of real performance for law firms. As they say in football, the table does not lie.
On that basis a resurgent Clifford Chance must be enjoying seeing itself at the top of yet another league table in the bubbling M&A business. The Mergermarket 2005 full-year table put Clifford Chance at No 1 in the 2005 pan-European league table of legal advisers by both value and volume advising on 299 deals worth €314.4 billion.
By contrast Linklaters — last year’s table-topper — dropped to third despite Paris partner Michel Frieh being Europe’s most voluminous “rainmaker”. I trust that this is not a sign of things to come. Again football has a lesson. Top goalscorers can be lured away from teams who aren’t ahead of the game.
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A tragedy for all
The murder last week of the Linklaters litigation lawyer Thomas Ap Rhys Pryce, a young man in his early 30s, was a terrible loss for his family, friends and colleagues in the City legal community. We offer them our sincere condolences and sympathy. In every sense this is a tragedy for the law as well as the individuals involved.
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edward.fennell@virgin.net