Firm posts 8% PEP hike and 4% revenue increase
With all of the Magic Circle financial results in, Allen & Overy (A&O) has outperformed its peers in an otherwise muted year of growth for the London elite, which saw both Clifford Chance (CC)’s and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer’s profitability drop.
Continue reading “A&O leads City’s big four amid subdued results”
Four partners are tipped as potential successors as Weston prepares to step down
CMS Cameron McKenna is gearing up for its managing partner election this autumn as chief Duncan Weston prepares to stand down from the role after eight years, with potential successors across the firm’s corporate and disputes practices already coming to the fore.
Continue reading “Candidates emerge as CMS gears up for autumn managing partner election”
Firm eyes IBM Watson partnership and new software products
Six months into the role, Clifford Chance (CC)’s head of innovation and business change, Bas Boris Visser, has moved to re-establish the firm’s reputation as a pioneering business, partnering with IBM Watson, and forming innovation committees.
Continue reading “CC innovation chief creates taskforces to drive change”
Slaughters’ senior partner race also underway
‘There’s no-one else,’ mused one ex-Linklaters partner. ‘If Charlie Jacobs isn’t the next senior partner at Linklaters, it would be a bigger upset than UKIP winning the next general election. If I was Ladbrokes, I’d give better odds for Farage for PM than any of Charlie’s rivals at Linklaters.’
Continue reading “Jacobs frontrunner for next Linklaters senior partner”
White & Case announced last month the re-election of executive chair Hugh Verrier, who takes on the role for a third time at the US firm.
First elected in 2007, Verrier will start another four-year term on 1 September. Having won re-election, the project finance partner also made appointments to the firm’s executive committee, gifting places to London managing partner Oliver Brettle, São Paulo-based Donald Baker, and banking partner David Koschik in New York. The body is responsible for decision making for the 38-office firm and will see the trio also take up their positions on 1 September 2015.
Continue reading “Re-elected Verrier shuffles the White & Case pack”
Tom Moore looks at the US-EU free trade pact’s potential for arbitration
The rise of international arbitration has gone unhindered and under the radar, despite the proliferation of investor-state disputes that has seen investors sue governments for changing tax regimes, introducing austerity measures and implementing plain packaging for cigarettes. But negotiations over the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) – a free-trade deal between the EU and US that will cover half of world trade – has changed that, throwing attention on a shift away from national courts and raising the potential for a boom in arbitration.
Continue reading “TTIP: Arbitration moves into the limelight”
M&A work in the pharmaceutical industry continued apace last month, with White & Case’s London office winning its first mandate from CVC Capital Partners, as the private equity firm led a club of investors in buying a controlling stake in Simpson Thacher & Bartlett-client Alvogen.
Although White & Case has a historic relationship with CVC stateside, the deal for the $2bn pharma company is the first to be led out of London for the European private equity fund, which has previously turned to a raft of firms for its corporate work, including Clifford Chance and Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton. Private equity heavyweight Ian Bagshaw in London, alongside Oliver Brahmst from New York, led the firm’s team, which included New York partner Brian Smarsh and London partners Justin Wagstaff and Marcus Booth.
Continue reading “Booming pharma sector delivers work to US firms’ City offices”
The recent appetite of Canadian pension funds for high-quality assets was demonstrated again in June as Allen & Overy (A&O), Ashurst, Proskauer Rose and Dickson Minto all won roles on the off-market, bilateral sale of Environmental Resources Management (ERM) to OMERS Private Equity and the Alberta Investment Management Corporation (AIMCo).
The sale saw Charterhouse Capital Partners sell its stake in the $1.7bn business, turning to longstanding adviser Alastair Dickson from Dickson Minto, whose previous mandates for the private equity investment firm include acting on the company’s £1.35bn acquisition of Saga in 2004.
Freshfields among firms in talks to take over the office
The last 12 months have been quite a whirlwind at Olswang. Following the surprise exit of chief executive David Stewart last autumn, the firm had only just appointed intellectual property (IP) partner Paul Stevens as its new chief executive in May, when last month its entire Berlin outpost announced it was splitting off.
Continue reading “Olswang to lose Berlin team in strategy reversal”
Withers makes further Asia push with Japanese opening
King & Spalding chose Tokyo last month as its second base in Asia, hiring a team of Ashurst partners led by Tokyo managing partner John McClenahan to spearhead its launch, while private client specialist Withers also made moves in the region by establishing a Japanese tax practice.
Continue reading “King & Spalding secures four-partner Ashurst team for Tokyo launch”
