King & Spalding today announced that Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois Patrick Otlewski has joined its Special Matters & Government Investigations practice as a partner in the Chicago office. The third former federal prosecutor to join the Chicago office since its launch this past fall, Otlewski further fortifies the firmwide Special Matters & Government Investigations team’s deep bench of former trial-tested prosecutors and enforcement officials.

Jay Baris joins Shearman & Sterling as a partner in the Investment Funds practice in New York from Morrison & Foerster, where he chaired that firm's investment management practice. Jay is widely recognized for his breadth of experience representing funds and their independent board members, investment advisers, broker-dealers and other financial institutions in all aspects of regulation, compliance and structuring transactions.

Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP announced today that Keith Noreika has returned to the Firm as a Partner in the Financial Institutions Practice in Washington, D.C. Keith most recently served as Acting Comptroller of the Currency, heading a 4,000-person agency responsible for chartering, regulating and supervising all national banks and federal savings associations as well as federal branches and agencies of foreign banks in the United States.

Arthur Cox has announced three senior appointments to its Asset Management and Investment Funds Group – Tara O’Reilly, Cormac Commins and Ian Dillon.

With effect from today the Arthur Cox funds team will be led by Tara O’Reilly and the current head Kevin Murphy.

International legal practice Osborne Clarke strengthens its commercial disputes practice with the appointment of Russia and CIS focused international arbitration specialist, Artem Doudko.

Previously at White & Case in London, Artem will be joining Osborne Clarke as a Partner and Head of Russia and CIS Disputes.

International law firm Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) today (8 January 2018) announced the appointment of Mark Stevens as Partner in Hong Kong, further boosting its Corporate Real Estate capabilities in Asia.

Mr. Davies resumes his role as Litigation Partner after serving as Assistant Solicitor General for the New York Attorney General’s Office

Andrew Rhys Davies, a former partner in Allen & Overy’s litigation practice, has returned to the firm following two years of public service. Mr. Davies left Allen & Overy in 2016 to serve as Assistant Solicitor General for the Office of the New York Attorney General, representing the State of New York and its agencies in appellate litigation.

On 29 December 2017, advised by King & Wood Mallesons (KWM), Baidu Online Network Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd. and Beijing Baidu Netcom Science Technology Co., Ltd. (collectively “Baidu” ) achieved its first success in the first instance over a series of high-profile patent infringement litigation cases regarding input method (the “Case”) in Shanghai Intellectual Property Court.

Munich - Frankfurt Stock Exchange listed KPS AG acquires Infront Consulting & Management GmbH, Hamburg. Taylor Wessing has been advising Munich based KPS AG as buyer in this transaction. KPS is a consulting specialist for business transformation and process optimisation and counts to the leading consulting companies in this field in Europe. Infront is a leading consulting boutique for digital strategy and transformation in the German-speaking countries. The parties agreed not to reveal the purchase price. The transaction is closed.
Legal advisor KPS AG

Global law firm White & Case LLP has advised Blue Horizon Partners and Blue Horizon Advisors (together "Blue Horizon") on the recent establishment of Blue Horizon Investors, a strategic real estate investment group; Blue Horizon Opportunities LP, a private venture capital fund; and Blue Horizon Pi Partners LP, a private equity fund.