City giant Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer was this week injuncted from acting for Philip Green and the consortia intending to bid for Marks & Spencer (M&S).

As the Gazette went to press, Mr Justice Collins granted an application - brought by Freshfields' City rival Slaughter & May on behalf of M&S - seeking to remove the firm as Green's adviser because of previous advice given over an internal M&S restructuring.

Freshfields' role - which related to the successful Per Una line of clothing - gave rise to a real prospect that there would be a conflict of interest, he said.

Freshfields fought to continue acting for Green, arguing that undertakings could be made that any relevant confidential information held at the firm would not be disclosed, and that an effective information barrier - a so-called Chinese wall - had been set up.

The firm also argued that an injunction would be unreasonable because any large City firm undertaking to act for Green would be in a similar potential conflict position.

But the judge said: 'I cannot see that any effective information barriers could be put in place - even granted the size of Freshfields - given the large numbers of people at the firm with such knowledge [of the confidential information].' He awarded costs to Slaughter and May.

Freshfields obtained a stay of the injunction until early on 3 June, pending an attempt by the firm to make an expedited application for permission to appeal.

Jeremy Fleming