Instructions of the week - 13.03.2003

A big win for west country firm Bevan Ashford kicks off this round-up.

Together with Scottish firm Shepherd & Wedderburn, it has won the instruction from the Greater Glasgow NHS Board to advise on a seven-year 700 million capital investment in acute services.

It is one of the largest ever NHS public/private partnerships.

East Anglian firm Mills & Reeve has been added to the Bank of Ireland's national panel.

US/UK firm Dechert has won two major property clients.

Unitary has instructed the firm to act on two large redevelopments in the London boroughs of Hackney and Barnet, each of which will involve the refurbishment or construction of more than 1,000 flats or houses.

Peaston & Co - a specialist developer of university accommodation - has instructed Dechert on the acquisition of a site in Leeds which will be developed for Leeds University, including a 280-bed accommodation building.

Simmons & Simmons has won a competitive pitch to advise the Ministry of Defence on a multi- billion pound public/private partnership to replace the present flying training arrangements with a new tri-service military flying training system from 2007.

Halliwell Landau has won its first instruction from the Tracinda Group, owned by reclusive US billionaire Kirk Kerkorian, in a piece of litigation.

It relates to an $8 billion lawsuit in the US, in which Tracinda claims that the $36 billion 1998 merger between Daimler-Benz and Chrysler to form DaimlerChrysler was misrepresented to shareholders as a merger of equals, when in fact it was a takeover by Daimler.

Tracinda, which was the largest shareholder in Chrysler, instructed Halliwells to take legal action in the High Court to force the Financial Times to hand over a tape recording of an interview with Daimler's chief executive.

Halliwells head of litigation, Ian Austin, said the tape backed up Tracinda's case.

The High Court gave the order.

The north-east division of construction company Ballast has selected Newcastle-based Watson Burton as its legal adviser.

Central London property firm Forsters has won the legal work for Allied London Properties' redevelopment of The Brunswick, a grade II-listed landmark building in Bloomsbury that will provide 165,000 sq ft of new and refurbished retail space.