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With Assaf, Bennett taps interest in Islamic finance |
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Thursday, 14 August 2008 |
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Summer's usually drop-dead quiet, so it was startling to see Dany Assaf
has joined Bennett Jones LLP. He is not the kind of guy a firm likes to
lose. Sure, he was the co-chair of the competition group and worked on
transactions such as Alcan and Bowater - but even more importantly he
was a key player in the burgeoning Islamic finance practice, and also
devoted a fair amount of time to building relationships with oil
players in Dubai.
He told Ogilvy Renault LLP last week he was moving and wasted little time. His last day was Monday and he was in his office at Bennett yesterday (in fact, the biggest casualty of the move may be his assistant, who was called back from vacation to help wind up his paperwork). No doubt Mr. Assaf will help Bennett continue building a competition group, but it's safe to assume the firm has bigger plans. On the firm's website, type in "Islamic finance" and you get zero results. Not for long.
AS GOOD AS REALITY TV
Donald Trump filed a $5-million (U.S.) suit against his former Manhattan lawyers this week, claiming Morrison Cohen LLP and one of its partners violated his privacy by using his name on its website and in interviews "for advertising purposes." Morrison Cohen is dismissing the lawsuit as an attempt to get out of paying $600,000 in overdue legal fees. "We are pursuing our collections claim, we are adamant that we get paid for the services rendered and we view this claim by the Trump organization as completely frivolous," David Scherl, the firm's chairman, was quoted as saying Mr. Trump filed a legal malpractice suit against the firm earlier this month, claiming it treated him like a "cash cow."
The Globe
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