Instructions Of The Week 18.04.2002

The Railway Procurement Agency of Ireland has appointed a consortium comprising City law firm Masons and KPMG to advise it on the first phase of the 7.2 billion (4.5 billion) Dublin Metro public private partnership, Ireland's largest ever PPP project and one of the biggest world-wide.

The consortium fended off competition including Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Clifford Chance, Simmons & Simmons, Ashurst Morris Crisp, and Irish firms McCann FitzGerald and Arthur Cox.

First Title, the UK arm of US title insurance giant First American, has begun setting up a panel to handle bulk due diligence work for two new products: one offering title insurance for commercial property portfolios, and a similar service providing more detailed search and examination of occupational leases.

Manchester firm Halliwell Landau, East Anglian practice Mills & Reeve, and Scottish firms Boyds and MacRoberts have so far joined the panel, with terms still being agreed with two more firms.

Another three have expressed interest.

First Title approached firms it felt could cope with the scale of the work and has emphasised that it is not a closed panel.

US law firm Paul Hastings Janofsky & Walker is the new service's first customer.

City firm Norton Rose has picked up a new client in the shape of Global Energy Development, which it steered through its recent flotation on the Alternative Investment Market, one of the first by a company in the Latin American oil and gas sector.

Nabarro Nathanson has gone into partnership with Essex County Council after a tendering process.

Nabarros has preferred supplier status for major projects such as the outsourcing of learning services and private finance initiatives.

West country firm Bevan Ashford has joined Plymouth City Council's debt recovery panel, and also secured the reserve position as preferred second-choice solicitors for Camden Borough Council's debt recovery work.

Moon Beever retained the top spot after a re-tender.

Also in the south-west, a recommendation from accountants has seen Plymouth-based Foot Anstey Sargent complete its first deal for Gloucestershire company Ringpress Books, handling the demerger and sale of its Pet Books Publishing arm to Lawrence Plc, advised by City firm Stephenson Harwood.