Anthony Salz
Anthony Salz was one of the partners of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer credited with developing the elite London law firm into one of the most successful law firms which in the 1990s became known as the magic circle. He retired from Freshfields in 2006 aged 55 and was immediately offered several other prestigious positions. [1]
Activities
In Salz's time with Freshfields he was instrumental in several high profile corporate deals including SmithKline’s merger with Beecham in 2000 to form GlaxoSmithKline, at the time the world's largest drug company.[1] Salz oversaw Mannesmann’s defence against a hostile takeover by Vodafone, which Vodafone finally won in 2000. [1]
In 1986, he acted as adviser to Guinness over its takeover of Distillers (later United Distillers) which was later found to have been done fraudulently. Salz argued that he had warned the Guinness directors that their behaviour was illegal, Guinness boss Ernest Saunders denied this. Salz was eventually vindicated. He was a prosecution witness but also spent much of his time answering questions from the defence, he told the Telegraph "I had to give evidence for far too long. In part, in my view, because they wanted me to help explain the intricacies of a long and hard-fought competitive takeover. You might even cynically say the defence wanted me to show how complicated it was, to make it more difficult for the jury to understand, or just to wear them down." Salz says that his experience with Guinness made him more careful about choosing clients. [2]
Affiliations
- Trustee of the Paul Hamlyn Foundation
- Lead non-executive board member at the Department for Education.
- Deputy chairman of N M Rothschild & Sons
- Trustee at the Eden Project
- Trustee of the Royal Opera House
- Trustee of the Tate Foundation
- Trustee of the Media Standards Trust
- Director of the Scott Trust
- Former vice-chairman of the BBC [3]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Jane Lewis, Anthony Salz: the City lawyer everyone wants to hire Money Week, 7th June 2006, accessed 31st October 2011
- ↑ The Telegraph, Business profile: An Outsider with fresh eyes, 8th July 2007, accessed 31st November 2011
- ↑ Paul Hamlyn Foundation, Anthony Salz appointed to board of Department for Education 17th December 2010, accessed 31st October 2011
