Buck-passing and buyers’ remorse as KWM saga nears end

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Though it will be outdated by the time this issue hits desks, I am professionally obligated I suppose to return to the subject of King & Wood Mallesons (KWM) as the firm’s troubled European business reaches what must be the decisive chapter of its post-merger tale.

With the recapitalisation deal having failed to secure the required backing from the legacy SJ Berwin partnership that would have seen its Australian and Chinese counterparts offer much-needed support, the only obvious next step in Europe if the firm is to stay in anything like a coherent whole appears to be a transfer to another firm. With debts over £30m and partners peeling away, the chances of that outcome do not look great. That is even before you address the complications of shifting part of a business contained within a multi-profit centre verein.

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The last word: 2017 – the year ahead

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‘There is a pause in the activities firms like ours service. The question is, for what? Business may get used to a continuum of uncertainty.’

Steve Cooke, Slaughter and May

After a year of mergers, Brexit, and Trump, law firm leaders reflect on the 12 months gone by and size up the year ahead

 

A COMPLETE WORLD

‘The world has become more complex, and clients are looking for advisers who can cut through the red tape and help them navigate the choppy waters. That’s our sweet spot – the harder a deal becomes the more we feel at home.’

Charlie Jacobs, senior partner, Linklaters Continue reading “The last word: 2017 – the year ahead”

Turbulence to shape next generation of M&A stars

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There is a school of thought that the late 1980s and early 1990s proved singularly fertile ground for developing outstanding corporate lawyers. You can see the logic. The deregulation of Big Bang ushered in fresh investment, players and techniques and unleashed a wave of activity to be swiftly followed by the early 1990s’ recession.

Young corporate lawyers honed their skills by exposure to new ideas when times were good, only to sharpen their business-winning instincts and apply their abilities in volatile markets that demanded flexibility and flair. Certainly, the generation of M&A partners that came through during those formative years has cast its shadow over the profession for a long time. But those days are ending as these figures either move into c-suite roles, retire or join clients.

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Camerons’ double merger adds up but will it multiply?

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Pity the poor pundit obliged to come up with an opinion on the obtusely-forged union of CMS Cameron McKenna, Nabarro and Olswang. Despite representing one of the largest legal mergers in the UK, taking a view on the tie-up, good, bad or indifferent is challenging, not least because the trio have so far been strikingly gnomic over the whole thing.

The union combines three brands with impressive industry credentials across real estate, media, technology, financial services, energy and life sciences. That is a lot of sector to focus but in those areas, these outfits carry potency.

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The Legal 500 view: Consolidation and risk define UK legal market

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Coming off the back of a 2015 that saw a more robust deal market and greater levels of activity in the real estate sector, the 2016 edition of The Legal 500 UK reflects a legal market which has not experienced this level of growth since 2008. Our coverage of the UK regions illustrates the divergent approaches firms have taken to achieve that growth. Firms with a broad national reach sit hand-in-hand with advisers that have chosen to focus on a single-site approach in many areas.

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Green shoots: Global firms jostle for position in panda bond market

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Victoria Young reviews how global firms are positioning themselves to cash in on a market on the cusp

As the internationalisation of China’s currency continues, global firms are making much of the pioneering Yankee bond-style deals in the Chinese market, eyeing opportunities in the orient and beyond.

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The Last Word: Merger mania

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‘Consolidation is an inevitable response in a market such as ours. There is only so much work, and we are all under pressure to be more efficient.’

Mark Rigotti, HSF

Following the proposed combination of CMS Cameron McKenna, Olswang and Nabarro, we asked law firm leaders their views on consolidation in the City

 

Global ambition

‘The demands our clients place on us to be ever more global, to handle matters that cross multiple borders, and to provide a comprehensive and quality-consistent service across a broader spectrum of expertise and geographies, means these ambitious mergers and combinations in the legal industry are inevitable and will likely continue apace. The trick to whether they will stick, though, is in the integration; it’s easy to do a merger, but it’s hard to really become merged – truly one partnership, one offering.’

Tamara Box, managing partner for Europe and the Middle East, Reed Smith

 

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A period of silence from the profession on access to justice would be welcome

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Inevitably with an event as dramatic as Brexit, the unintended consequences keep coming. One of the less noted is the 11th hour reprieve it has granted the Law Society, which in the spring was looking on course to lose much of its fund-raising powers as part of a government review.

Obviously, the administration of Theresa May has got more pressing matters on its plate than legal service regulation. Yet the review kicked off by the Treasury has still put in train a sequence of reviews/land grabs/shoulder-shoving by our main regulatory and representative bodies.

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Superstar clients and super-threats to global law

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As Legal Business gathered a group of the legal elite at the top of Tower 42 to debate the issues facing the world’s top law firms – the question arose as to whether anything truly threatens law’s premier league.

Certainly the going has been more challenging since the banking crisis for all sections of the legal industry, whether you are betting on ‘flight-to-quality’ or ‘more-for-less’, but overall the Global 100 looks no nearer to an existential threat or much meaningful consolidation. AI? The accountants? New Law providers? The former reflects a genuine force set to substantially change the industry, though it is not apparent whether that will come at the expense of high-end law firms. The latter two players have yet to come near to living up to the fanfare made for them.

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Winning hearts and minds (but mainly hearts) at Linklaters

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The best Freshfields corporate lawyer Silk Street ever produced is now leading Linklaters, with incoming senior partner Charlie Jacobs ushering in a very different style at the City giant to the technocratic revolution pushed through by previous regimes.

The charismatic South African has long stood out, not only for a clubbable style more associated with Freshfields’ deal team but also for an entrepreneurial drive that looked increasingly exceptional amid Linklaters’ more seasoned M&A lawyers (the firm promises the next generation of M&A partners will rectify that).

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