Instructions of the Week

City firm Ashurst Morris Crisp has won the lucrative tender to advise Cross London Rail Links (Crossrail), a joint venture between Transport for London and the Strategic Rail Authority, on the development and implementation of two major rail infrastructure projects in the capital with a total value of around 9 billion.The Crossrail 1 scheme will run from east to west and includes a tunnel linking Paddington and the City, while Crossrail 2 will run across London linking areas in the south-west and north-east.

The first project is provisionally expected to be open during 2012, with the second three to five years later.US Fortune 500 company Johnson Controls has named Birmingham firm Wragge & Co as its preferred legal adviser for the UK in a rationalisation of its European legal services.

The company - which in the UK employs 7,000 people and has a turnover of 1 billion - has selected one firm in each of the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain.

Wragges had previously undertaken only 'a very small amount of work' for Johnson Controls.West country firm Bevan Ashford has been appointed to advise Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Trust on its 65 million hospital improvement scheme.

The project to modernise acute services in north Nottinghamshire is one of the first 14 NHS fifth wave acute schemes to have appointed legal advisers.Manchester firm Halliwell Landau has won a tender run by Liverpool City Council to handle both legal negotiation and documentation for the proposed Kings Waterfront redevelopment, the likely new home of Everton Football Club.City firm Lovells has just completed its first deal for global ship power supplier Wrtsil, acquiring the John Crane-Lips marine business from the Smiths Group for 215 million.

The instruction came from an informal referral and is the first deal brought to signing by partner Richard Lewis since he joined the firm late last year from Clifford Chance.City firm SJ Berwin has built on its existing relationship with Nomura International by acting on a major corporate transaction for the first time.

It advised on the decision to appoint Terra Firma Capital Partners as manager of the substantial portfolio of private equity investments which is currently being managed by its principal finance group.

It also acted for Nomura on its investment of up to 300 million in the private equity fund being established by Terra Firma.