Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer co-managing partner Chris Pugh stepped down less than halfway into his term, making him the second person to vacate the position in four years. The disputes specialist remains at Freshfields, continuing his client-facing work for the Magic Circle firm.
August
Pinsent Masons continued its international expansion with a new office in Perth, making it the third Australian branch for the firm after Sydney and Melbourne. The launch also saw the hire of four infrastructure and disputes partners from Norton Rose Fulbright.
September
Covington & Burling was among the firms to provide a Brexit boost to Dublin, launching a life sciences team also focusing on pharma and regulation. London-based EU life sciences partner Grant Castle and technology partner Daniel Cooper were charged with spearheading the new team.
October
Reports of a merger between Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) and Bryan Cave arose last October, with Bryan Cave emerging as the new candidate after an earlier transatlantic union attempt between BLP and Greenberg Traurig ended abruptly.
Allen & Overy New York corporate veteran Peter Harwich departed for Latham & Watkins, underlining the challenge for leading London law firms in maintaining their US practices.
Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) strengthened its European disputes offering by hiring Simmons & Simmons’ Italian disputes and IP head Laura Orlando. The addition of the Milan outpost meant HSF had opened four offices throughout Europe over the previous five years, while Orlando’s departure continued a run of high-profile IP lawyers moving to larger rivals.
November
Simmons & Simmons soon had better news, launching in Dublin through the local hire of Fionán Breathnach from Mason Hayes & Curran where he acted as head of investment funds and financial regulation.
December
In arguably the most significant partner move of the last 12 months, leading private equity specialist David Higgins left Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer for Kirkland & Ellis. Higgins joined the US law firm as London co-managing partner in a deal worth around $10m a year, making him one of the most expensive lateral hires in Europe’s legal market.
DLA Piper also saw a heavyweight departure in December, with senior partner and global co-chair Juan Picón leaving for Latham & Watkins. Spending less than two years in his role as senior partner at DLA, Picón took over the role of Latham’s managing partner in the country following the retirement of predecessor José Luis Blanco.
Rainmakers at Herbert Smith Freehills received a seasonal boost, with the firm deciding to modify its lockstep in a shake-up of its partnership that saw top earnings bumped up by a third. Plateau equity shares were hiked up from 100 to 130 points, in a move that significantly lengthened the firm’s core pay ladder and paved the way for top City earners to take home well over £1.5m with bonuses.
Mayer Brown made inroads in Asia, opening a new office in Tokyo after hiring Ashurst’s former Tokyo office head Rupert Burrows. Burrows had been based in Ashurst’s longstanding Tokyo practice for 20 years, and is highly regarded for his oil and gas, chemical and infrastructure work.
Juan Picón swapped the senior partner role at DLA Piper for that of Spain managing partner at Latham & Watkins
2018
January
Disputes expert Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan was handed a post-Christmas boost as the firm saw London revenues rise by 61% to £71.9m, with net profit increasing by the same percentage, rising from £32.6m to £52.6m, making the firm’s profit margin a startling 73%.
Norton Rose Fulbright (NRF) was dealt a blow in Asia by Paul Hastings, as the firm recruited its Japan head of corporate Eiji Kobayashi along with his four-person team. NRF also saw offices close in Abu Dhabi and Kazakhstan respectively, with Yerzhan Kumarov establishing a domestic shop in Kazakhstan while the closure in Abu Dhabi continued a trend for global law firms in the Middle East as many offices fail to live up to their initial promise.
Ropes & Gray started the year with a key acquisition as the firm bolstered its English-qualified litigation firepower at the expense of Clifford Chance (CC). Judith Seddon joined the firm having been at CC since 2008.
Kirkland & Ellis made a heavyweight hire on the other side of the Atlantic in January, hiring one of Manhattan’s top M&A names in the form of Eric Schiele, who joined from Cravath, Swaine & Moore. Schiele had been at Cravath for more than 17 years, establishing himself as one of the bigger names at the Wall Street leader.
Latham & Watkins continued the trend of US-bred advisers pushing into London disputes scene with two partner hires from Hogan Lovells. London-based partners Jon Holland and Andrea Monks joined the American firm, with Holland having spent over 30 years at Hogan.
Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy hired a four-partner team from Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft. The team included Cadwalader’s global financial restructuring co-chair Yushan Ng, as Milbank expanded its City finance team. The shopping spree continued for Milbank, who also secured the services of Shearman & Sterling high-yield heavyweight Apostolos Gkoutzinis. Gkoutzinis had been Shearman’s head of European capital markets, and is another sign of Milbank’s lofty ambitions to make inroads in City finance.
February
Latham & Watkins surged to become the first law firm ever to report revenues over $3bn, kicking off what would become a mixed year for the Los Angeles-bred firm. Latham added nearly $250m to its top line, showing a 9% hike in revenues to $3.06bn, while profit per equity (PEP) shifted by 6% up to $3.24m as the firm pressed its case to be considered the world’s most potent law firm.
Baker McKenzie was one of the first firms in 2018 to be embroiled in the #MeToo controversy, as the firm launched a review of its procedures following an allegation that a partner sexually assaulted a junior lawyer. The partner in question had remained at the firm with the incident taking place several years previous, and went on to assume a management role following the claim by the junior lawyer.
Kirkland & Ellis continued its recruitment drive, this time at the expense of rival Latham. Jennifer Perkins had been co-chair of Latham’s private equity practice, and was a significant loss for the firm as the US competitors jostle for the number one spot in the PE space.
Bakers engaged in some significant new-year restructuring, bringing its London office and eight of its offices in Europe, Middle East and Africa into a single profit pool, with the firm moving towards full financial integration in the region. The shake-up includes 250 partners, and went live on 1 July.
Clifford Chance acquired Carillion’s pioneering in-house legal arm, Carillion Advice Services (CAS). The surprise addition came about after CAS was put up for sale following the collapse of its parent in one of the largest UK insolvencies for years.
March
#MeToo reached the highest echelons of law in March, with former Latham & Watkins head Bill Voge standing down amid ‘voluntary disclosures relating to personal misconduct’. Vice-chairs Ora Fisher and Richard Trobman assumed the responsibility of co-heads of the firm as Voge bowed out.
The departure of Voge was the beginning of a March to forget for Latham, as Kirkland & Ellis outstripped the American powerhouse to become the world’s highest-earning law firm, with revenues surging to $3.165bn. The Chicago-bred giant announced a revenue hike of more than $500m, a rise of 19%, while PEP rose nearly 15% to $4.7m.
Baker McKenzie opened its ninth US office in Los Angeles after recruiting a five-partner employment and litigation team from Hogan Lovells. The move formed part of the firm’s 2020 strategy, with Hogan local head of employment Robin Samuel moving alongside litigator Barry Thompson and counsel Joe Ward.
March also proved to be the month for controversy, as news emerged that CMS’s Singapore head was dismissed from the firm regarding a matter reported to the Solicitors Regulation Authority. Former Olswang corporate partner Andrew Scott left the firm after being dismissed in February.
With talks beginning between Bryan Cave and Berwin Leighton Paisner in October 2017, the BCLP merger went live in April this year with Therese Pritchard and Lisa Mayhew (pictured left to right) at the helm
April
Ultra-conservative Slaughter and May returned to the market in April to make only its third-ever partner hire in Hong Kong. Wynne Mok joined from the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC), where she had been a director of enforcement since 2016. Slaughters hired its first external partner four years previously with another Hong Kong appointment in John Moore.
DLA Piper, meanwhile, saw an exodus as McDermott Will & Emery hired another three partners from the firm shortly after bringing in 20 partners from DLA’s US offices. London-based real estate partners Neville Wright, Laurence Rogers and Tom Calnan all departed.
News first emerged in April of merger talks between Allen & Overy (A&O) and West Coast firm O’Melveny & Myers. A&O has been sounding out US firms outside New York for at least six years, with reports of opposition touted as Legal Business went to press mobilising within A&O as the transatlantic relationship between City firms and US players becomes increasingly asymmetric.
With talks first coming to light in the autumn of 2017, the merger between players Berwin Leighton Paisner and Bryan Cave went live in April, forming Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner. With both firms opting for full financial integration from day one.
May
Spring showed no sign of curtailing the expansive Kirkland & Ellis, with the US firm securing a rare Magic Circle intellectual property (IP) hire. Allen & Overy’s global head of IP Nicola Dagg left after 12 years at A&O.
Paul Hastings also made further headline acquisitions in the City, hiring M&A heavyweight Roger Barron from Linklaters and private equity rising star Anu Balasubramanian from DLA Piper.
DLA then made good on a long-considered move to Dublin. The firm hired corporate partner David Carthy from William Fry, who will head up the new office. Financial services, technology and life sciences will be the primary focuses as the firm eyes increased business in Ireland post-Brexit.
Linklaters and CMS both committed to Asia after the firms made moves to expand their presence in the region in May. Linklaters announced its lawyers will be able to practise local law in the Shanghai Free Trade Zone (FTZ) through a joint operations agreement with its local firm Zhao Sheng, with FTZ rules allowing international players to tie-up with domestic firms and practise local law. Meanwhile, CMS announced an alliance with Hong Kong firm Shirley Lau & Co, again to practise local law.
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer made a move into New Law in May, as it built upon its mass relocation of support roles with the launch of an equivalent hub for continental Europe. The move will aim to create a new career track for legal staff and support tech-assisted services, and was a further development on the Magic Circle firm’s 2015 shake-up which created more than 700 jobs in Manchester. Berlin has been cited as the most likely destination.
June
US West Coast tech leader Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati announced in June the opening of a City office as the firm sets its sights on a venture into the UK technology and life sciences space. The office will be led by corporate and technology partner Daniel Glazer, who heads the firm’s US expansion practice. LB