Ashurst advises on New Zealand oil assets acquisition… Panama Papers firm closing with reputation destroyed…
Are law firms failing to innovate or just not making that clear?
Law firms and legal services providers are lacking in innovation according to a survey of clients.
The poll of corporate legal departments in the US by Acritas found that 69% of respondents say they haven’t seen any of their law firms or legal services providers innovate in the last 12 months.
However, this could be down to perception of what innovation is.
“What is innovative to one client is normal practice to another. Our research clearly shows legal departments and their external legal service providers are at different stages of evolution,” Lizzy Duffy, VP at Acritas US explained.
She added that even though firms may be innovating, it’s important that this is made clear to clients, especially as 41% of them say they have innovated internally.
“Some law firms would benefit from a better understanding of the changing legal landscape, both in terms of solutions and providers and have an innovation plan. However, most law firms simply need to do a better job of communicating to their clients the innovations on offer,” she said.
Ashurst advises on New Zealand oil assets acquisition
Lawyers from Ashurst are advising Austrian-based oil and gas company OMV on its acquisition of Shell’s Upstream business in New Zealand.
The U$578 million deal comprises joint venture interests Pohokura and Maui and related infrastructure.
The Ashurst team was led by co-head of oil and gas and partner Michael Burns. Tax partner Nicholas Gardner, employment partner Ruth Buchanan, counsel John Gordon (pensions) and counsel Eleanor Reeves (environmental, health & safety) were among others in the team.
OMV’s in-house legal department and New Zealand firm Simpson Grierson were also involved in advising OMV.
Panama Papers firm closing with reputation destroyed
Mossack Fonseca became one of the world’s most well-known law firms for a time in 2016 as millions of documents – dubbed the Panama Papers – were leaked online.
Now the firm says it will close all of its offices by the end of this month as reputational damage has destroyed its business.
The firm was founded in 1977 and was a major provider of offshore law services with clients including some of the world’s most famous and powerful individuals.
However, the scandal caused by the leaking of the Panama Papers has proved too much to recover from.
