Lexpert identifies and reports on emerging business issues and practice areas in the business of law. Whether online, in our magazine or in the DealsWire e-newsletter, we chronicle deals and lawsuits of interest, and cover issues of broad concern to the legal profession and those who purchase legal services. We hope you enjoy this sampling of our latest content.
From the DealsWire: Exxon, Chevron to exit Azerbaijan | Teck sells stake in copper project | Ivanhoé Cambridge to sell stakes in shopping malls
The Lexpert DealsWire (subscribe here) documents facts, figures and key legal players behind recent deals. This week’s announced deal spotlight features the key players and figures in the reverse takeover of Barbados-based Sagicor Financial by Alignvest Acquisition II Corp., a special purchase acquisition corporation.
In our closed deals section, we look at Brookfield Infrastructure in its $4.3 billion acquisition of Enercare, as well as Pinnacle Renewable Energy in its purchase of a 70-per-cent stake in an Alabama wood pellet production facility.
We also look at the legal players behind DCC Technology acquiring the JAM Group of Cos. and the sale of Kinder Morgan Canada’s Trans Mountain Pipeline system and Trans Mountain Expansion Project to the Government of Canada.
In high-stakes litigation, you might think everyone on a team has the same objective.
You might be wrong. The company has a business objective. External counsel has that too, as well as a litigation objective; public-relations advisers have a reputational objective, and government relations specialists an outcome-related objective. Usually they overlap, but not always completely. It is up to in-house counsel to keep an eye on all the balls in the air and co-ordinate the exercise. And that can be a daunting task.
UK clarifies scope of privilege
A recent decision of England and Wales’s Court of Appeal has allayed concerns about the narrowing scope of professional privilege afforded to legal advice in the United Kingdom. In a case in which a resource company was required to hand over working papers and notes prepared by lawyers for an internal investigation, the Court of Appeal ruled that advice whose dominant purpose was to avoid legal proceedings, or in furtherance of settlement, was protected by litigation privilege.
The American civil rights movement was instrumental in the shaping and reconfiguring of commercial discourse in North America. Shortly after 1965, the year in which public segregation was outlawed, minority business ownership began to increase. However, many minority-owned businesses continued to be overlooked for contract consideration. But hiring a ‘diverse’ firm can also be good for business, writes Change Agent columnist Tanya Walker.
At least two of this year’s Lexpert Rising Stars winners are managing partners at their firms. Several others lead firms, albeit without that title, writes Lexpert’s editor-in-chief Jean Cumming. How challenging is it for these lawyers to lead those partners or colleagues who are considerably older than they are? Is it more or less challenging than leading younger lawyers who may have different expectations?
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