Skadden jumped in to rep Walkers while Freshfields backed Vitruvian Partners on a deal where the private equity shop is co-investing in the offshore law firm's corporate services arm. Walkers Professional Services does back-office stuff for hedge funds and CLO managers, and the partnership means both sides will pump money into tech upgrades and market expansion. Richard Youle and Katja Butler led the Skadden crew out of London, while Alastair Brown and Tim Wilmot ran point for Freshfields with a bunch of partners from different practice areas.
The move drops right when private equity firms are sniffing around law practices because they dig the steady cash flow and growth potential. McDermott Will recently said it might restructure to...
Incyte brought in Richard Hoffman as their top lawyer to replace Sheila Denton, who's bouncing after the holidays. Hoffman was grinding at Goodwin as a partner handling biotech stuff out of Boston, and he'll be running legal and compliance while sitting on the executive squad at the Delaware pharma company that focuses on cancer and inflammation drugs.
The guy has been doing this for over 30 years with expertise in venture money, mergers, IPOs, and international partnerships. He spent almost 10 years at Goodwin after previous stints at WilmerHale and even started his own consulting gig helping early-stage biotech companies. Before law, he co-founded a couple of pharma businesses and worked in various non-legal roles in the industry...
Kirkland & Ellis grabbed two competition lawyers from Weil to beef up their London antitrust squad. Nafees Saeed made the jump as a partner, and Chris Thomas got bumped up to partner from counsel. Saeed does work for private equity shops and corporates on massive global deals, and he spent time at the UK's Competition and Markets Authority back in 2019 running merger reviews. Thomas handles EU and UK competition stuff with a focus on merger control and foreign investment checks after spending six years at Weil.
The firm has 17 antitrust partners between London and Brussels after these hires. Law firms have been fighting over competition talent because regulators are crawling all over deals these days, and US shops keep expanding their...
The City of London Law Society set up a scholarship for Stephen Denyer, their former director of strategic relationships, who passed away. Denyer used to work at Allen & Overy and was a big deal at the International Bar Association before he died. The scholarship kicks in with help from his family, who threw in 50,000 pounds, and it will cover four people at North East Law Centre who want to become social welfare solicitors by paying for their SQE1 and SQE2 courses plus exam fees.
The Social Welfare Solicitors Qualification Fund will match the donation by funding one extra candidate each year for four years. CLLS CEO Patrick McCann said Denyer supported access to justice and helped over 1,000 future solicitors get their start. The...
Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla's half-sisters went to Parliament asking for help getting back South African guys who got tricked into fighting for Russia in Ukraine. The siblings met with International Relations Committee chair Supra Mahumapelo in Johannesburg, and they told him some family members are stuck over there after being promised security gigs but ending up in actual combat zones. They've already opened a criminal case against Zuma-Sambudla for allegedly recruiting these dudes, and 17 South Africans total got trafficked to the frontlines.
Five people appeared in court over the recruitment scheme, but Zuma-Sambudla wasn't among them, even though the Hawks are investigating her connection. She quit Parliament last week while denying...
Amazon just dropped a 30-minute delivery thing called Amazon Now in Seattle and Philadelphia, targeting Prime members who need stuff fast. The service uses tiny warehouses near residential areas to cut down delivery distances, and it competes directly with Instacart and DoorDash in the quick-commerce space. Prime users pay a small fee per order, while non-Prime customers get hit with higher charges.
The company chose Seattle because that's where its headquarters are, and Philadelphia gives it a dense urban testing ground. If the pilot works out, Amazon plans to expand to other cities. The move cranks up pressure on competitors who already offer rapid delivery, and it could push similar services in places like South Africa to speed...
Ernst Roets from Lex Libertas got dragged hard after claiming the Trump administration's refugee exemption for Afrikaners proves South Africa is falling apart. The exemption came after the US slashed refugee admissions to 7,500 spots and carved out priority access for Afrikaners facing alleged persecution, but critics say Roets and groups like AfriForum have been pushing a bogus white genocide narrative for years that finally reached Trump's team.
AfriForum insists they never used the genocide label outright, yet they've been presenting reports on minority rights violations and lobbying internationally since 2018. Government analysts and even some Afrikaners have called out the persecution claims as overblown since farm murder stats...
Jacob Zuma got slapped with another loss when a Gauteng High Court judge shut down his appeal attempt over having to pay back 28.96 million rand that taxpayers covered for his personal legal defense. Judge Anthony Millar basically said Zuma had zero shot at winning this and that higher courts already made it crystal clear the money was spent illegally. The state can go after his assets if he doesn't cough up the cash, and that might mean seizing his presidential pension.
The whole mess goes back to a sketchy 2006 deal where the government agreed to fund Zuma's defense in corruption cases tied to the arms deal scandal and other charges. Courts have been saying since 2018 that the arrangement was bogus and that he needs to repay...
President Cyril Ramaphosa told business leaders in Vilankulo, Mozambique, that South African and Mozambican companies need to stop playing it safe and start launching major deals together. He spoke at the South Africa–Mozambique Business Forum and said the cautious approach has to end because bilateral trade has already doubled between 2020 and 2024. Ramaphosa pointed out that South Africa has the tech and industrial strength, while Mozambique has natural gas reserves worth over 50 billion dollars, untapped coal, and tons of arable land.
The president called out six sectors ready for partnerships: food processing, packaging, textiles, wood products, building materials, and metals. South African firms already employ 43,000 people in...
