America’s largest law firm, Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom, has launched a class action defence practice in the UK in preparation for what it believes could be an onslaught of group actions across Europe.

The New York giant will attempt to defend clients from group actions across Europe, in a development that comes in the same week as US class action specialist Cohen Milstein Hausfeld & Toll made its long-awaited London launch.