Linklaters

The firm has become a leading global player of the legal profession, with its London roots and ‘Magic Circle’ status as strong as ever.

The firm’s development in London has always been in direct response to the commercial needs of its clients - global corporations, financial institutions and governments. As the City of London has become increasingly important to these clients, the firm has expanded its UK capabilities to cater for their needs.  Linklaters has responded to the growing international needs of its clients by enhancing the cross-border experience of its lawyers and integrating multi-practice teams from other Linklaters offices around the world. As a result, Linklaters offers an unparalleled multi-jurisdictional transactional, regulatory and advisory service.

Linklaters combines a number of core businesses, all of which are leaders in their field. In corporate/M&A, banking & finance and capital markets, project finance, commercial real estate, investment management,  litigation and arbitration, TMT, IP and Tax, Linklaters’ lawyers have built a formidable track record of successful transactional, contentious and regulatory advice across the spectrum of industry sectors. Many of the most significant and complex transactions with a UK element in recent years have featured advice from integrated teams of Linklaters experts.

Recent significant transactions include advising

• PwC on the insolvency of Lehman Brothers
• the underwriters on HSBC’s £12.5bn rights issue, the largest ever
• BP in relation to the shareholder dispute surrounding its Russian joint venture, TNK-BP
• on the whole-business securitisation of the regulated water and waste water business of Thames Water Utilities Limited
• Scottish and Newcastle plc on the £7.8bn recommended cash offer by Carlsberg A/S and Heineken N.V.
• ONGC Videsh Limited on its acquisition of UK-listed Imperial Energy (one of the largest overseas acquisitions of 2008 by an Indian company)
• Swiss Re on the £600 million sale of its iconic tower building at 30 St Mary Axe, London EC3, (the ‘Gherkin’), at the time the UK’s largest ever single building investment transaction
• The Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc in the Bank Charges Litigation
• a number of financial institutions on the UK government's Credit Guarantee Scheme
• Scottish Power plc as the target in the takeover by Iberdrola S.A.
• three leading banks on the establishment of Source, a new commodities trading platform
• the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) on the early ending of its contract with ETS Europe for the provision of national curriculum test operations
• Merrill Lynch outside the US on its $50bn takeover by Bank of America
• Rio Tinto on the US$19.5bn investment by Chinalco; on its defence against the hostile takeover announced by BHP Billiton (the largest announced deal of 2008) and on its US$38.1bn acquisition of Alcan (one of the largest takeovers of 2007)
• RBS on its €71.1bn consortium bid for ABN AMRO (the largest takeover in financial services history)
• Vodafone Group plc on its US$11.1bn acquisition of a controlling stake in Hutchison Essar (the largest ever inward investment into India by a foreign corporation)
• Lloyds TSB Group plc on its recommended acquisition of HBOS plc