IFLR 1000
The Guide to the World's Leading Financial Law Firms

	Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer Linklaters Slaughter and May
	Allen & Overy Ashurst Clifford Chance Gleiss Lutz Hogan Lovells Latham & Watkins Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom Van Bael & Bellis White & Case
	Arnold & Porter Baker & McKenzie Bonelli Erede Pappalardo Bredin Prat Cuatrecasas Gonçalves Pereira Gibson Dunn & Crutcher Gide Loyrette Nouel Hengeler Mueller Herbert Smith Jones Day McDermott Will & Emery/Stanbrook O'Melveny & Myers Shearman & Sterling Sidley Austin Stibbe Uría Menéndez Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr
	Bird & Bird Covington & Burling Eubelius Garrigues Loyens & Loeff Macfarlanes Mannheimer Swartling NautaDutilh Norton Rose Salans Squire Sanders Hammonds Vinge

"Very good people, broad practice, lots of jurisdictions, a lot of merger work, state aid and cartel: high quality," says a peer. One client recommends the firm saying: "Good communication, friendly, always available [and] very knowledgeable.... [more]

"Very good people, broad practice, lots of jurisdictions, a lot of merger work, state aid and cartel: high quality," says a peer. One client recommends the firm saying: "Good communication, friendly, always available [and] very knowledgeable."

Among the leading individuals in the firm's 40-strong partnership is John Kallaugher, who is recommended in the telecoms sector especially, Javier Ruiz-Calzado (the Brussels and Spain co-chair), Brussels-based Howard Rosenblatt, Mark Hansen (who splits his time between London and Brussels) and the Paris / Brussels partner Eric Barbier de la Serre.

On the cartel side, the firm advised Toshiba, Singapore Airlines Cargo (SIAC) and ArcelorMittal. The latter case followed nine years of investigation by the Commission into the prestressing steel cartel, and recently resulted in the firm winning an unprecedented reduction of fines for its client from €276 million to €46 million. The case has prompted new policy announcements on fining levels and the procedure of revealing fining levels recipients.

L&W also received favourable results for SIAC (a case which spanned Europe, the Americas and Asia), which it is now defending against on damages claims by British Airways. The Toshiba case was notable for its use of the new settlement procedures.

Merger cases included the firm's advice to Live Nation on its $2.5 billion merger with Ticketmaster, which resulted in phase one clearance.

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	Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton Linklaters Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom
	Allen & Overy Clifford Chance Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer Latham & Watkins
	Debevoise & Plimpton Herbert Smith White & Case
	Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld Andrey Gorodissky & Partners Baker & McKenzie Dewey & LeBoeuf Hogan Lovells Liniya Prava
	Nektorov, Saveliev & Partners

	Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton Linklaters
	Allen & Overy Clifford Chance White & Case
	Baker & McKenzie Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer Hogan Lovells Latham & Watkins Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom
	Debevoise & Plimpton Liniya Prava

"Latham have been through a difficult phase of losing partners. It had a changing of the guard in the crisis too," says one partner, giving some background to the big news within the firm's Moscow office over the past 12 months.... [more]

"Latham have been through a difficult phase of losing partners. It had a changing of the guard in the crisis too," says one partner, giving some background to the big news within the firm's Moscow office over the past 12 months.

This was the departure of managing partner Mark Banovich, who decided to take a step back from the law and return to his family in the US. This was all done on good terms, and the experienced Chris Allen took over the managing partner role.

The firm then moved to bring on board Mikhail Turetsky from Baker & McKenzie, a lawyer described as "...very solid, young, but very good" by a rival partner, to help replace the capital markets capability previously provided by Banovich. Senior associate David Stewart, another highly-regarded practitioner, also stepped up to help co-head the capital markets practice.

The firm was actually a leader coming in to 2011, closing the first successful IPO of the year advising HMS Hydraulic Machines and Systems Group on an offering of 14 and a half million Global Depository Receipts (GDRs) each representing an interest of one ordinary share, a subsidiary offering of 23 million GDRs in HMS Technologies and a further offering of six million GDRs by Skye Commercial too. Representing a total value approaching $360 million, the transaction completed successfully in the first quarter of 2011.

The firm had made a strategic point of improving its debt work and it has been acting on some good deals in this area too. A solid mandate for the firm was its advising of MTS International Fundings as issuer on the issuance of Loan Participation Notes, which were in dollars, showing an 8.625% annual interest rate and maturing in 2020. The deal closed in 2010 for an overall value of $750 million.

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	Allen & Overy Clifford Chance Herbert Smith Linklaters
	Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer White & Case
	Baker & McKenzie Chadbourne & Parke Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton CMS Russia Dewey & LeBoeuf Gide Loyrette Nouel Hogan Lovells SNR Denton
	Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld Alrud Debevoise & Plimpton Latham & Watkins Norton Rose Salans Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom
	Goltsblat BLP Nektorov, Saveliev & Partners Peterka & Partners

	Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer Linklaters White & Case
	Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton Clifford Chance Herbert Smith Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom
	Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld Allen & Overy Baker & McKenzie CMS Russia Debevoise & Plimpton Dewey & LeBoeuf Hogan Lovells Latham & Watkins Salans
	Alrud DLA Piper Egorov Puginsky Afanasiev & Partners Norton Rose
	Goltsblat BLP Nektorov, Saveliev & Partners Russin & Vecchi Vinson & Elkins

Latham & Watkins has had its hands full with telecoms mandates in recent years and it continued into this period, with a large deal sealed by the team in this area.Leading lawyer and head of department Chris Allen, as ever, was active on the transaction, representing Mobile Telesystems, a leading telecoms company listed on the NYSE, as it merged with London-listed Comstar, in the process creating the largest integrated telecoms provider in the Russia and CIS regions in the process.... [more]

Latham & Watkins has had its hands full with telecoms mandates in recent years and it continued into this period, with a large deal sealed by the team in this area.

Leading lawyer and head of department Chris Allen, as ever, was active on the transaction, representing Mobile Telesystems, a leading telecoms company listed on the NYSE, as it merged with London-listed Comstar, in the process creating the largest integrated telecoms provider in the Russia and CIS regions in the process. The mammoth deal, which also saw a parallel voluntary tender offer from MTS for a 9% stake in Comstar, closed for over $1.7 billion in the early part of 2011.

The highlight deal for the team however was definitely representing Wimm-Bill-Dann (WBD), a NYSE-listed juice/dairy company, and its selling shareholders as PepsiCo acquired a 66% stake of its share capital. The single largest foreign investment into Russia, setting aside oil and gas, the deal completed earlier this year for a figure approaching $3.8 billion.

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