An English Man in New York by John North, Corporate Department

At the end of October I had a whirlwind couple of days in New York to attend the Interleges Executive Committee meeting. It’s 10 years since I was last in the Big Apple and I was struck by the fact that it seemed even busier than ever with so many people and an incredible amount of traffic.

From the work perspective, we had a successful Executive Committee meeting where we further developed our plans for the conference we are planning for Paris in May 2011 on the commercial aspects of environmental law – particularly issues relating to carbon trading. Our colleagues at Interleges firms in Paris and Sweden are leading lights in this field.

I attended a drinks reception at the New York firm of Anderson Kill & Olick, PC whose 42nd floor offices are in a building on the Avenue of Americas in the extension to the Rockefeller Center, the famous Art Deco complex in Midtown Manhattan. It was interesting to meet the partners there – especially as the firm is amongst the leaders in the area of insurance litigation. Then we had dinner with a few of the partners at famous Italian restaurant Remi – which was excellent.

Whilst in New York, I also had a brief meeting with Daniel Rayner of Rayner Rowe LLP – which is another New York Interleges member – which specializes in corporate law. David is dual qualified in United States and English law. Then the rest of my day was free! So I spent a couple of hours walking back to the hotel via The Metropolitan Museum of Arts – where I particularly admired the Egyptian artworks - and through Central Park.

In the evening a special treat – I went with lawyers from Interleges firms in Dublin and Zurich to Birdland, the jazz landmark club established in 1949 by Charlie "Yardbird" Parker.

The weather in New York was beautiful so it was a bit of a shock when I returned to the freezing conditions in London.

Royds Quiz Night by Deanna Hurst

Great fun was had by some of Royds’ charity clients, our partners and other lawyers from various departments on the 4th November when we held a quiz evening and charity raffle at a local wine bar. Teams included the Royal Society of Musicians, Action for Children, Artists Studio, Clydesdale, West London Synagogue, and Ndoro Children’s Charity.

Our general knowledge was tested with six rounds of questions, two of the most interesting entitled “pirates” and “beer”, while the wine and conversation flowed between the rounds. The most exciting guest of the evening award went to David Mason from the Royal Society of Musicians who played on six number one singles with the Beatles.

One of the charities present took home over £200 raffle proceeds following a lucky draw, while some individual charity team members were fortunate enough to win some voucher treats as the main raffle prizes, and the winning quiz teams were suitably rewarded with champagne, fine wine and chocolates. This event followed on from a very successful quiz night for our retail clients, the atmosphere was buzzing and we will no doubt be holding more of the same …………

Investing in London commercial real estate by Alison Ayre

In conjunction with BNP Paribas Real Estate our commercial property lawyers have produced a short guide for international investors on London real estate. Topics covered include:

- The favourable conditions in the London commercial real estate market at present
- An overview of the London real estate market
- An overview of the Central London office market
- How to manage your UK real estate transaction

Please let me know if you would like further information or email info@royds.com for a copy of the free guide.

Children's Hospices UK/Pennies Foundation

Deanna Hurst attended a lunch time reception today where guests heard all about the work of Children’s Hospices UK, which is the national body supporting the work of the 45 individual children’s hospices around the UK. This charity is supported by the Pennies Foundation, also a registered charity which has just launched the Electronic Charity Box, a wonderful initiative whereby shoppers paying online or in-store are invited to round up their purchase to the nearest pound and those excess pennies are given to UK charities. We expect to see many retailers signing up and the capacity for fundraising is enormous.