Morning Briefing: Slater & Gordon: No offer to Quindell

Slater & Gordon tells stock exchange that no offer has been made to Quindell
Slater & Gordon has updated its position on the possible takeover over the legal services division of Quindell after the UK firm gave an optimistic statement to the London stock market. Slaters has told the Australian Stock Exchange that no offer has been made and that it may not make an offer that would be attractive. It has said that it is undertaking due diligence on a portfolio of Quindell work.
 
International law firm reappoints global chair
Nicholas Cheffings has been reappointed as chair of Hogan Lovells for a second three-year period. The real estate partner will continue in his role overseeing the culture of the expanding law firm through until 2018.
 
Law firms and banks work together on cyber threats
Law firms in the US are to share information with the financial sector on the risk of cyber attacks. The long-awaited affiliation will see a group set up by law firms swapping information with the Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center in a bid to make both sectors stronger. Law firms have been cited as a possible weak link between cyber attackers and the financial services industry and the US president is encouraging private firms from related industries to share cyber threat data.
 
Norton Rose Fulbright expands global footprint
Norton Rose Fulbright has announced new alliances in Africa that will expand its presence in the continent. Leading law firms Shonubi Musoke & Co Advocates in Uganda, and Gill, Godlonton & Gerrans in Zimbabwe will partner with NRF to work on “selected client matters”. NRF already has offices in Africa in Dar es Salaam, Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban, Casablanca, East Africa and Zimbabwe.
 
Lenovo hit with lawsuit over ‘adware’
The recent allegations that computer firm Lenovo had supplied laptops with software that would allow targeted advertisements to appear on user’s machines have landed it with a class action lawsuit. Californian Jessica Bennett claims that her Lenovo Yoga 2 laptop was infected with malware when she bought it which led to adverts appearing featuring “scantily-clad women”. Bennett says that Lenovo initially denied that they had put the Superfish software on the machine but it later emerged that the software had been included to “help customers find interesting products” while shopping. It later admitted that using it was a mistake. However, Bennett wants more than an apology and has filed the lawsuit against both the computer manufacturer and the software firm.