Shearman & Sterling plans first African office opening

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Firm prepares for association in Egypt with energy focus

US law firm Shearman & Sterling is preparing to open an office in Egypt, marking the firm’s first foray into Africa with plans for an international arbitration and projects practice.

Shearman, which has a five-partner office in Abu Dhabi handling project finance and arbitration work, and a satellite operation in Dubai, is hoping to extend its on-the-ground presence in Egypt as investors return to the country after the revolution in 2011.

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Addleshaw Goddard to establish flexible resourcing capability after strategy revamp

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Addleshaw Goddard (AG) is looking to establish a flexible resourcing capability by creating a pool of qualified lawyers and paralegals to backfill gaps in services left by lawyers seconded to clients or where extra capacity is needed for discrete assignments.

The firm has already spoken to recruiters about setting up a roster of flexible workers and may expand its use in the future. It is understood that the new flexible resourcing will form part of the client development centre (CDC) headed up by key clients senior manager Greg Bott, although after an initial pilot, progress is still in the early stages. The model is seen as a first step to potentially offering a flexi-working service to clients, similar to those offered by Berwin Leighton Paisner’s Lawyers On Demand (LOD) and Pinsent Masons’ Vario network. A spokesperson for the firm added: ‘This is just one of many initiatives that we are looking at to improve our agility and operational effectiveness.’

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News in brief – February 2015

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KENNEDYS OPENS IN SCOTLAND

Last month, Kennedys finally entered the Scottish market with the opening of offices in Glasgow and Edinburgh after talks with Simpson & Marwick fell through at the end of 2013. The firm hired Francis Gill & Co’s founder and director Frank Gill, and Rory Jackson, insurance liability and regulatory partner at McClure Naismith, to co-lead the practice.


LATHAM OPENS NEARSHORING OFFICE IN MANCHESTER

Latham & Watkins announced it is set to open a business services office in Manchester during 2015. In the firm’s second centre (after its first in LA), 25 staff will focus on IT and technology support in Europe and there will also be a financial analysis team to provide practice and regional heads with greater budgetary insight.

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Tackling ‘passive disobedience’: Layton sets CC course with new strategy

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CC international plan for increases in US and Asia revenue

With the partnership keen to improve retention rates and eager to re-establish itself as an iconoclastic, ambitious and imaginative business, Clifford Chance (CC) managing partner Matthew Layton has laid out the firm’s international strategy, which includes greater focus on client satisfaction, making new leadership appointments, and increasing US and Asia revenues to approximately 20% and 25% respectively over five years.

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Weil tops City partner promotions at leading Global London firms

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US firms continue to break ground in London and are increasingly investing in moving their City lawyers up the partnership ranks.

Three out of Global London’s top ten US firms made over a fifth of their partner promotions in the City. Weil, Gotshal & Manges led the way with the highest percentage of partner promotions in January, having a total of 33% of its promotions round in the City. The firm recently announced strong partner profits – up 16.5% in 2014 after two disappointing years of falling profits – and stated its restructuring, finance and transactional practices in London were performing well.

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From suits to silks: the rise of the solicitor QC

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The five solicitors to take Queen’s Counsel in the latest round of appointments had one thing in common: they were all arbitration specialists. While the number of solicitors taking silk remains low, the latest round, announced in January, saw the highest percentage of applicants from law firms, with 4% of the 223 applications coming from solicitors and a record percentage of successful solicitors taking silk, with 5.4% of the 93 new QCs coming from law firms.

Clifford Chance (CC)’s Audley Sheppard, Hogan Lovells’ Simon Nesbitt, Boies, Schiller & Flexner’s Wendy Miles, King & Spalding’s Thomas Sprange and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer’s Paris-based Peter Turner all made the cut.

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A robust year for M&A shows challenge for City leaders in competing with US rivals

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With no single UK law firm having made a significant impact on the US market, it was no surprise that the Magic Circle surrendered more ground to their US peers in the annual M&A league tables for 2014, given the deal splurge US corporates have been on.

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Linklaters, Allen & Overy (A&O) and Clifford Chance (CC) all slipped down Thomson Reuters’ global adviser rankings for value of deals completed during 2014. Ironically, Slaughter and May, which markets to clients and US law firms for UK advisory spots on US deals, was the only Magic Circle firm to rise up the law firm rankings for global M&A, jumping from 28th to 12th.

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Cultural revolution: will the UK Anti-Corruption Plan create a US enforcement regime?

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Michael West reports on how a shift in enforcement will herald a raft of new advisory work

At the tail end of last year, the government launched its long-awaited UK Anti-Corruption Plan, a disparate collection of actions, initiatives and priorities aimed at improving the UK’s transparency, strengthening investigation powers and toughening enforcement options. The strategy, if implemented, will mean an increasing workload for defence lawyers and further overhaul of companies’ compliance regimes.

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Slaughters, Davis Polk and Skadden cash in on Shire’s biggest ever takeover

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Dublin-headquartered Shire, took to the January sales with the $1.5bn it received in a break-fee from US pharma giant AbbVie following the collapse of their proposed $55bn tie-up late last year, securing the acquisition of biotech firm NPS Pharma.

The company returned to Slaughter and May, which drafted the AbbVie break-fee due to the political climate around tax inversion deals, to advise on the purchase of biotech NPS for $5.2bn. The deal is Shire’s largest-ever acquisition and comes amid increased pressure to deliver shareholder value.

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Birmingham’s £307m NEC sale puts the limelight on Eversheds, WLG and Gateley

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Lloyds’ private equity arm acquires landmark event venue

Birmingham City Council brought in the New Year with one of its largest ever sales with Eversheds, Wragge Lawrence Graham & Co (WLG) and Gateley all winning mandates on the sale of the National Exhibition Centre (NEC) to Lloyds Banking Group’s private equity arm LDC.

WLG acted for the council on the £307m deal, which is for all NEC Group businesses except the leases of the Hilton Metropole and Crowne Plaza hotels. That included a 125-year lease for the NEC site itself plus a 25-year leasehold interest in the International Convention Centre and Barclaycard Arena. The transaction involved a substantial amount of property work as well as corporate aspects and saw Eversheds act for LDC, with Gateley for the management.

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