National operator DWF has bolstered its services clout ahead of a touted stock exchange listing with the hire of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer’s well-regarded chief of business operations, Anup Kollanethu (pictured). Kollanethu, who joined the Magic Circle firm in mid-2015 after 12 years at Aviva Investors, has been appointed chief executive of DWF managed services.
As DWF positions to float, Hamish McNicol asks if the legal IPO is going mainstream Eversheds Sutherland co-chief executives Lee Ranson and Mark Wasserman recently hosted more than 700 partners at the firm’s partner conference in New York.
The global M&A market is booming. Bill Mordan, general counsel at FTSE 100 drug-maker Shire, would know. Shire’s board recently recommended a £46bn takeover offer from rival Japanese pharma giant Takeda. ‘Money continues to be cheap to borrow and so it’s still easy to get funding from venture capital, as well as other speciality equity …
Continue reading “Big deals – meet the GCs running the headline deals”
The London office of peer-to-peer lender Funding Circle is exactly what you would expect from one of the UK’s largest and most high-profile fintech businesses. Open-plan, has meeting rooms with names like ‘Borough Market’, and staff play table tennis as you walk into reception. It feels like a fun place to work.
A ‘challenging market’ led to sluggish revenue growth at Burges Salmon for the last financial year, while profit per equity partner (PEP) dipped for the second year in a row. Revenue at the Bristol-headquartered firm rose 3% to £90m for the 2017/18, after being flat the previous period. However, turnover has grown more than 20% …
Gowling WLG has replicated a broadly strong year for law firms after adding nearly 17% to its top line. The firm’s second full financial year since the 2016 tie-up between Wragge Lawrence Graham & Co and Canadian firm Gowlings saw revenue increase to £455.5m from £390.1m last year.
Old-fashioned defamation disputes may rarely create significant precedent these days but the rapidly evolving area of privacy is a very different matter, a dynamic underlined this week in dramatic form in the conclusion of Sir Cliff Richard’s legal battle with the BBC. The veteran celebrity’s victory in his long-running privacy case against the BBC has …
Shifting to an agile-working office is a peculiar experience. Two camps quickly emerge: those excited by change and colleagues happy with decades-old paper in a pile on their desk. It is unsettling, yet can galvanise a workforce. DLA Piper is similarly moving into a bespoke, semi-open-plan office this year – its single-largest capital investment ever. …
Continue reading “Comment: Deal View – DLA moves house in London but can it break free?”
Addleshaw Goddard wants to expand in any possible way and in any possible place following a sustained period of growth and the early signs of a successful Scottish merger. The firm’s revenue for the 2016/17 financial year was up 23% to £242m from £197m, while profit increased 36% to £87m. Since 2012/13, Addleshaws’ revenue has increased …
Continue reading “Addleshaws’ appetite for expansion grows amid strong 23% lift in revenue”
Scottish independents Brodies and Shepherd and Wedderburn have continued to grow despite a backdrop of what both describe as political and economic uncertainty. For Brodies, a 3% uptick in turnover for the financial year represents its eighth consecutive year of top-line growth, while Shepherd and Wedderburn reported record revenue and profit of £53.5m and £22m respectively.
