Instructions of the week

Herbert Smith has completed its first deal for lastminute.com after winning the company's corporate, and mergers and acquisitions work following a pitch in February.

It acted on its 9 million purchase of Travelselect.com, advised by Olswang, lastminute.com's first significant acquisition in the UK.

There has been a string of instructions for City firm DLA's employment department.

Existing DLA client Barclays Capital has used the employment team for the first time, in relation to the recruitment of 26 former Enron employees.

Cable company Telewest has decided to slim down its employment law panel from 12 firms to just one, with DLA the last firm standing.

The practice has also been appointed by Jacobs Bakery.

The City office of Addleshaw Booth & Co has just completed its first deal for Australian company Sonic Healthcare.

In its first significant UK acquisition, Sonic has spent 65 million to buy Roadhaven, which owns The Doctors' Laboratory Group, the largest private pathology practice in the UK.

Slaughter and May acted for Roadhaven.

A former Welsh international rugby player who has just finished a stint as a paralegal at M4 firm Morgan Cole snared the firm a high-profile instruction acting for six leading rugby players - including former England captain Lawrence Dallaglio, Ireland's Rob Henderson and Scottish international Kenny Logan - on a new clothing venture.

The players have formed a company - EP6 Ltd - to take on a franchise to a store in Richmond, south-west London, selling casual clothes manufactured by French company Eden Park.

Eden Park was founded by two former French rugby internationals and has become a leading brand name in France.

Headway, the charity providing support for brain-injured accident victims, has added to its panel West country firm Bevan Ashford's personal injury practice.

Headway has accredited 96 firms outside London.