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COVER STORY: Top billing
Why competition partners are the new stars of M&A |
The general counsel of a multi-billion-pound FTSE-100 company tells this column that 75p of every pound he is currently paying a Magic Circle firm is going on competition advice. He also admitted to paying competition partners significantly more per hour than their M&A colleagues. As with private equity – which is currently dominating the higher echelons of the City recruitment market via opportunistic US raids – competition mandates are driven by personal relationships, and the key players are undoubtedly making these pay.
As our cover story points out, the competition partners at the heart of the battle for Europe’s leading stock exchanges have been taking centre stage. With antitrust regulators subjecting European takeovers to even greater scrutiny, competition partners have become the City’s go-to advisers, particularly in an auction with rival bids.
In addition to the epic-stalking of the LSE and other European exchanges, Heinz’s proposed takeover of HP Foods; TelefÛnica’s pursuit of O2 and Boots’ on-off deal with Unichem are together generating fees totalling tens of millions of pounds for their respective advisers. And with the hitherto unregulated private equity and hedge fund sectors expected to come under greater scrutiny as huge portfolios are built up in the same market, expect the City’s top competition partners to have US private equity-style pay packages dangled under their noses any time soon.
James Baxter, editor
LEGAL BUSINESS APPOINTMENTS
The ultimate partner moves and our special Job of the Month section |
THE LEADER Pritchard
Testing times ahead for Morley and Allen & Overy
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THE BUSINESS
It takes more than flashing the cash for US firms to thrive in London, says Richard Lloyd. Plus exclusive news and the best market analysis |
THE FORUM Management elections
DLA Piper's Nigel Knowles and TLT Solicitors'David Pester consider the issues involved when selecting a new leader for your firm |
COVER STORY: COMPETITION Leading roles
Market consolidation coupled with increasing scrutiny from regulators have put competition lawyers at the front-line of the biggest deals. The balance of power within the world’s top corporate teams is shifting, reports Chris Crowe |
 LEVERAGED FINANCE A&O’s debt burden
Allen & Overy has been leaking leveraged finance stars, lured by the dollar signs at the top US firms in London. Richard Lloyd looks at what’s pushing ambitious partners to go elsewhere |
 OFFSHORE LAW FIRMS Island race
Globalisation has hit the offshore legal market, with a series of mergers and new offices extending firms’ reach around the globe. Derek Bedlow reports | 
NATIONAL PROFILE Blue-sky thinking
Clarke Willmott has evolved from a small-town practice to a booming South West firm. Following its merger with Heatons in Birmingham, Stephen J Doggett speaks to the firm’s ambitious managing partner, David Sedgwick |
THE LAST WORD
Michael Burton J – a top performer in more ways than one
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