Allen & Overy and Shearman & Sterling today announced (1 March) the names of the key leadership term that will head A&O Shearman once the $3.5bn merger completes on 1 May – with no UK-based partners making the line-up.
A&O’s current interim global managing partner and Middle East and Turkey regional managing partner Khalid Garousha has been elected senior partner of the combined firm. The managing partner role, meanwhile, has gone to current Paris managing partner Hervé Ekué.
DLA Piper leads this week’s round of strategic hires with a quartet of notable additions to its London office. Steven Bryan, who left Paul Hastings in October, has joined the London corporate practice, bringing expertise in energy and infrastructure M&A along with Paul Doris from Brown Rudnick. Accompanying them, Derwin Jenkinson, who also departed Paul Hastings last year, enhances DLA’s finance projects and restructuring group.
DLA Piper also welcomed Andrew Sackney to its corporate crime and investigations team in London. Coming from Pinsent Masons, where he led the global investigations practice, Sackney brings expertise in tackling large-scale, domestic, and international investigations.
McDermott has announced today (28 February) that Michal Berkner has joined the firm as a partner, bolstering its transactions practice in London.
She joins from Cooley, where she led the cross-border M&A practice, including negotiated and unsolicited transactions and joint ventures. Her clients include strategic and private equity buyers and sellers in public and private transactions.
Quinn Emanuel today announced its firmwide financial results for calendar year 2023, with the litigation powerhouse joining an elite band of firms to notch revenue over $2bn, with a 26% jump taking it from $1.65bn last year to $2.08bn.
The firm also broke $1bn in profit, which reached $1.35bn. Revenue per lawyer was up nearly 16% from $1.61m to $1.86m, despite an increase in total headcount of 108, to 1,120. The results are even more impressive on PEP, which rose 39% from $5.23m to $7.29m – higher than any firm in last year’s Global 100 apart from first-place Kirkland & Ells ($7.52m) and second-place Wachtell ($7.29m).
DLA Piper has today (23 February) announced the election of Charles Severs as its next managing partner. His tenure will begin on 1 January 2025.
Severs moved to DLA Piper as a partner in 2003 from Herbert Smith Freehills. A Legal 500 Hall of Famer for M&A: Lower Mid-Market Deals, Severs has an impressive client book including John Menzies, Symphony Technology, Science Group, Elekta, Hexcel, Puretech and Keller Group.
Leading this week’s high-profile moves, Allen & Overy has appointed John Goldfinch as a partner in its global structured finance practice in advance of its planned merger with Shearman & Sterling. Previously at Milbank, Goldfinch has experience dealing with derivative products and securitisation asset classes including CLOs and CDOs (cash and synthetic), lease receivables, trade receivables, equity, credit rates, NPLs, covered bond transactions and secured structured lending.
Goldfinch brings with him a team of four senior associates from Milbank: Adrian Kwok, Peter West, Eleanor Cripps and Alexandra Wells. A&O has highlighted private capital as a key strategic focus for the firm, with its private capital revenue growing by over 60% over the past two years.
The long-dormant restructuring market has had a shot in the arm recently, with the City teams of US stalwarts winning lead mandates on the administration of The Body Shop and a rescue deal of Yodel.
Jones Day and White & Case are handling the administration of cosmetic group The Body Shop, while Dechert and Weil advised parcel delivery business Yodel to secure a rescue deal backed by one of its rivals.
The Global London survey window will be closing on Friday 1 March. We invite all participating firms to complete the survey.
Global London is an annual report on the performance of US and international firms in London, which appears in the March/April issue of Legal Business.
Spanish leader Garrigues has continued its pacesetting reputation among the Euro Elite firms by becoming the first in the group to break the €450m turnover barrier.
The results, announced on Tuesday (20 February) continue a decade-long purple patch for the firm, with a 2.5% revenue increase on last year to €454.3m marking a banner year.
In keeping with Hogan Lovells’ recently released financial results, Akin has reported strong financials for 2023, contradicting fears of diminished returns for the global elite.
Revenue at the firm is up 11% to $1.37bn from $1.23bn, while profit per equity partner (PEP) has jumped 22% to $3.15m from $2.58m. This follows a sluggish 2022 for the firm, which saw global revenue grow by only 1% and PEP drop by 17%.
The firm highlighted its financial restructuring, private credit, traditional energy, energy transition, international trade and litigation practices as particularly high performers over the last financial year.
