Aussie staff help global law firm to charity success

Aussie staff help global law firm to charity success
Staff from Sydney and Melbourne were among 850 to have joined in with the inaugural global charity challenge at Clyde & Co.

The law firm’s employees in 25 offices across 11 countries have so far taken part in a volunteering or sporting challenge for children’s palliative care charities.

The worldwide initiative began in Sydney with a sports day challenge in aid of Bear Cottage, the only children’s hospice in NSW. Then staff in Melbourne took to the table tennis tables for a tournament to raise funds for Very Special Kids and Perth employees volunteered and raised money for Ronald McDonald House.

Asia Pacific lawyers from Clyde’s offices in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Singapore also joined in with the challenges that also took in the MENA, Europe and Americas regions.

"I'd like to congratulate and thank everyone who took part in our inaugural ‘Follow the Sun’ charity challenge, especially clients who joined us on the day and those who have generously supported us with donations,” said Simon Konsta, Senior Partner at Clyde & Co.

Startup M&A activity growing fast says global report
The worldwide M&A market is growing fast according to a new report from global law firm Orrick.

The report tracked over 15,500 startup exits globally over the last seven years and found that over the past year, deal volume has shown the highest annual increase since 2011 at 42%.

The US and Europe continue to control most deals (83% of volume) and capital (90%), centred primarily on Silicon Valley with the UK as Europe’s ‘exit capital’. Of the world’s top acquirers, 15 were US firms, 9 of them based in Silicon Valley.

There were 9,902 US deals totalling $837 billion and 3,573 European deals, totalling $366 billion.

Asia Pacific deals totalled 1,342 with a value of $75 billion with South Korea, China and Japan among the key acquirers of startups.

The report was a collaboration between the law firm, Mind the Bridge and Crunchbase, and will be discussed at the European Innovation Day conference in Silicon Valley on September 20th.

The Voice TV format at centre of court case
TV show The Voice has wowed audiences in Australia, the UK, America and many other countries but a court case began on Tuesday over its creation.

Although the show is credited to Dutch production company Talpa Media, formed by Big Brother creator John de Mol, Irishman Roy Barry says he filed a copyright in 2008 for a show called The Voice of America which featured singers performing behind screens, hidden from the show’s judges.

Barry began action against Talpa Media two years’ ago, The Guardian reports.

“We robustly refute this spurious claim, which is completely untrue and baseless, and we will vigorously defend our format,” a Talpa spokesman said.