Lawyers and accountants are like neighbors that live in the same building called “The Deal” but have only a vague idea of what the other does or how the other contributes to community living. When does one come in and when does the other exit? How do they relate?

Come and learn about what exactly lawyers and accountants do on a given deal and how they relate to each other. Make all pieces of the puzzles come together and understand where you are best suited to add value.

The panel: Caren Austin, Senior Manager at Deloitte & Touche LLP; Barbara Collins, Partner at LangMichener LLP; Calle Johnson, Director at Pricewaterhouse Coopers LLP; Sandra Knowler,

Partner, Lang Michener LLP; Joanna Pearson, Audit Partner, Deloitte & Touche LLP.

RSVP to 604-662-4401 or fax this form to 604-681-4545 before noon on Thursday, March 19, 2009.

Our inaugural Savvy Geek Chix event “Weathering the Economic Storm” will address how you can effectively manage your career in a tough economic climate.

Join us on March 24 in Palo Alto, CA for an evening of Networking, Job Hunting Strategies, and our Resume Clinic.

Please help us spread the word about this event to those who will benefit. We’ve kept the cost low ($25) to make it affordable for everyone. Special thanks to SAP for hosting this event! You’ll find full details at https://savvygeekchix.com/.

by Heather Cassell (San Francisco)

Finance and legal firms came out on top of Employers Group’s spot light on California’s Best Places to Work for the second year with video game’s rounding out the bottom in technology.

“These companies send the message that, despite the doom and gloom currently pervading the business world, there are companies that champion their workforce and exhibit a creative, caring, and dynamic culture,” says Mark Wilbur, president and CEO of Employers Group, about the second year ranking California companiesin a March 10 news release. “The 15 winners of 2008’s program are leading the way to a brighter future for all of us.”

Nicholas-Applegate Capital Management, a diversified global investment firm leaped up the survey’s ranks to first place in 2008 from fourth place in 2007.“We are actually really delighted with it,” says Susan Hunter, head of public relations of Nicholas-Applegate Capital Management, founded in San Diego, California more than 20 years ago. The finance company now has offices in New York, London, Melbourne and Sydney.

“For one thing, working in this program gave us some good ideas,” continues Hunter about incorporated ideas from other companies that participated in the survey with the Nicholas-Applegate’s existing strong employee benefits and programs. “We found it a great platform to improve our benefits program and respond to employee requests. We took it as an opportunity to make it better. We are absolutely delighted and honored.”

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Contributed by Martin Mitchell of the Corporate Training Group

In case you were too busy to have kept up with all the news, contributor Martin Mitchell has gathered some Contributed by Martin Mitchell of the Corporate Training Group important market events from last week to help you start this week well informed:

Mergers and Acquisitions

• Rio Tinto’s proposal to raise $19.5bn from Chinese company Chinalco is concerning Rio’s shareholders. The deal involves Chinalco buying stakes in Rio assets for $12.3bn and buying convertible bonds for $7.2bn and is currently being proposed to shareholders as an ordinary resolution, requiring a simple majority. The UK institutional shareholders believe it should be a special resolution requiring 75% to be passed. The concerns revolve around the principle of ‘pre-emptive rights’ that allow existing shareholders to retain their stakes in capital raising efforts, something that the Chinalco deal fails to accommodate. In Australia, one of Rio Tinto’s largest institutional investors, the Australian Foundation Investment Company (AFIC) that owns almost 1% of Rio’s Australian listed shares, also expressed concerns about the deal. AFIC argue that the investment will hand the Chinese state-owned company significant influence for no premium.The ongoing need to placate shareholders has led Rio Tinto to turn to a new chairman. Jan du Plessis will replace current chairman Paul Skinner at the AGM scheduled for April 20^th.
• After being caught out by the announcement that Porsche controlled 75% of the shares in Volkswagen last October, hedge funds are gathering under the auspices of the Alternative Investment Management Association to explore whether legal action is possible. An extraordinary spike in the price of Volkswagen shares – they increased 400 per cent in a few days and saw VW temporarily become the world’s biggest company by market value – led to billions of dollars of losses for a number of hedge funds.
• It was revealed that in the weekend after Lehman Brothers collapsed last September, Goldman Sachs was involved in talks to buy regional lender Wachovia. The deal foundered on the amount of federal support available, and Wachovia ended up being taken over by Wells Fargo.
• China’s largest securities company, Citic Securities is teaming up with Evercore Partners, the US investment bank, in a joint venture to make direct investments and advise clients on both sides of the Pacific.
• Coca Cola’s $2.4bn takeover of China’s leading juice company, China Huiyan Juice was rejected by the Chinese ministry of commerce. The Huiyan Juice brand has 42% of the pure fruit juice market in China, and the rule against the proposed acquisition was on competition grounds. The ministry quoted limited choice and harm to smaller domestic companies as reasons for the rejection.
• Hedge fund Paulson & Co is buying an 11.3% stake in South African gold miner AngloGold Ashanti for $1.28bn. The purchase from Anglo American, underlines Paulson’s view that gold will benefit as paper currencies suffer from the combination of the financial crisis and countries printing money.
• IBM is in advanced talks to acquire rival Sun Microsystems for about $6.5bn in cash.
• Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said he still thought there was a ‘good opportunity’ for a deal with Yahoo that would combine the two companies’ internet search operations. Last year Yahoo rebuffed a potential $47.5bn deal from Microsoft. However, since then Jerry Yang, Yahoo’s chief executive at the time has stood down.

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