London’s Ashurst Morris Crisp and Clifford Chance (CC) are in pole position to reap a fees windfall from the battle for Safeway after three rival bidders were knocked out last month – while it emerged that Philip Green’s lead legal adviser has taken a sabbatical.
News that Simmons & Simmons corporate partner Stuart Evans, who personally won the retail entrepreneur as a client in January, went on sabbatical in August and will not return to the firm until mid-November, suggests a loss of interest in the bid by Green.
