Main contacts | Herbert Smith LLP: Henry Raine
Gleiss Lutz: Michael Arnold | Rainer Loges
Stibbe Amsterdam: Martin In de Braekt
Stibbe Brussels: Olivier Clevenbergh
Number of fee-earners | over 1,800 fee-earners in 18 jurisdictions
Mutual clients include | Atmel | BP | Électricité de France | Goldman Sachs | NTT Docomo | Swiss Re | Telekom Malaysia
Our Alliance with Gleiss Lutz and Stibbe offers clients access to law firms recognised as leaders not only in the UK, Belgium, France, Germany, The Netherlands, Russia and Spain but also across Asia and the Middle East.
In those jurisdictions where our Alliance does not practise, for example Africa, India and the US, we work closely with leading local firms with whom we have established relationships to ensure our clients get the best possible service.
Our Alliance has a track-record of advising on large, often complex cross-border mandates. This was recently illustrated by Mergermarket's 2008 M&A tables, where we were ranked fourth in Europe and sixth globally by value.
Although we are independent firms, we operate effectively as one service provider so far as our clients are concerned. The joint systems we have in place to support the seamless service provision our clients expect (eg, conflict clearance, engagement terms and billing) are complemented by the very strong personal relationships that we have built with each other over the eight years the Alliance has been operating.
Recent highlights
- Électricité de France (EDF), one of Europe’s largest energy groups, on its agreed £12 billion takeover bid for British Energy
- First Choice Holidays on the recommended £10 billion merger with the tourism division of TUI
- MW Tops, a Guernsey incorporated single-manager hedge fund, on its €1.5 billion listing on Euronext Amsterdam
- NTT Data Corporation, a listed Japanese IT consulting company, on the acquisition of a 72.9% stake in Cirquent from BMW
- OSI Group on the sale of its food processing plant, valued at up to US$900 million
- Société Générale and BNP Paribas as lead arrangers on providing senior and mezzanine financing for 3i’s acquisition of VNU Business Media Europe
- TAQA (Abu Dhabi National Energy Company) on the development of a gas storage project in The Netherlands
- Tata Steel on its successful £6.2 billion takeover of Anglo-Dutch steelmaker Corus