Legal Business

H1 2013/14: Ashurst sees combined half year figures rise by 6%

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Financial results 2013/14 Ashurst
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Newly-merged Ashurst has joined the growing numbers of top 50 LB100 firms to report an increase in turnover during the first half (H1) of 2013/14, with its combined revenues up by 5.8% to £298m, thanks to improved prevailing economic conditions and an uptick in transactional work.

The 1,800-lawyer firm, which achieved full financial integration with big six Australian firm Blake Dawson in September this year, has disclosed combined revenues for the two firms during the period 1 May to 31 October 2013. Its 5.8% increase is set against a pre-merger combined revenue of £281.7m this time last year.

The 419-partner firm said its corporate practice in Hong Kong has been especially busy in capital markets and disputes work, while client work across Continental Europe has also risen despite the economy remaining challenging.

Ashurst managing partner James Collis said: ‘The firm performed very strongly in the first half of the year, reflecting stronger economic conditions in many of the jurisdictions in which we operate and an uptick in transactional work. In particular, we have seen an impressive performance in the finance division, with disputes also performing robustly. In corporate, we have benefited from the notable increase in capital markets work.’

He added: ‘Activity in Continental Europe has been impressive and we have also seen a strong performance in the U.S, Middle East and Asia, in particular in Hong Kong.’

Over the last six months there has been an increase in restructuring work in the firm’s Madrid and Paris offices and a rise in real estate deals across the firm’s German offices, while Ashurst’s structured finance team in the US, London and Germany have also performed well.

The firm’s revenues in Asia were around £50m this year, while the U.S structured finance team brought in around £15m. The firm declined to give individual legacy firm revenue breakdowns in these sectors.

Collis said: ‘What we are about is the profitability of the combined firm and not the individual parts. There are huge synergy benefits across both legacy firms.’

The merger has re-positioned Ashurst in the Legal Business Global 100 list from number 72 into the top 35.

jaishree.kalia@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Davis Polk bolsters English law practice with hire of Ashurst finance partner Nick Benham

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Strategic recruitment AshurstDavis Polk & Wardwell
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Davis Polk & Wardwell’s aggressive approach to building and developing an English law practice has seen the top 30 global 100 firm hire Ashurst finance partner Nick Benham into its City office.

Benham, who has been a partner in Ashurst’s credit group since 2010, focuses on complex finance transactions including domestic and international leveraged finance and financial restructurings, acting for debt providers and strategic debt investors.

Davis Polk has only had English law capability since last year, when it poached high profile Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer capital markets partner Simon Witty (pictured) at the start of 2012. Witty’s hire was followed in quick succession by the arrival of another Freshfields lawyer, Jonathan Cooklin, who headed the Magic Circle firm’s insurance tax practice, with the pair joined in November by Herbert Smith Freehills’ leading M&A partner Will Pearce.

The trio have already acted on the English piece of a number of Davis Polk’s high profile corporate transactions, including the record breaking $49bn Verizon bond issue in September, where the 798-lawyer firm advised underwriters J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Barclays Bank, Merrill Lynch and Pierce, Fenner & Smith as joint leader arrangers and joint bookrunners, with the trio providing English law advice on the deal.

‘Nick is an outstanding addition to our elite English law team,’ said Thomas Reid, Davis Polk’s managing partner. ‘Our commitment to developing an English law practice in London was subject to only one qualification – that we attract lawyers of the same high calibre as our U.S. practices. With Nick, once again, we have a lawyer of exceptional intellectual and client capabilities.’ Reid added, ‘We look forward to Nick’s arrival when, with our existing U.S. leveraged finance lawyers in London and New York, we will be able to offer our clients a complete international solution of the highest quality in the market.’

Benham’s departure will be a blow to Ashurst, following shortly in the wake of the resignations of global corporate head Stephen Lloyd and fellow corporate partner Eavan Saunders Cole. The departures come within weeks of the top 15 firm’s full financial integration with Australian Big Six firm Blake Dawson and of ex-senior partner Charlie Geffen unexpectedly losing the chairman vote to litigator Ben Tidswell on 16 October.

 

david.stevenson@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Ashurst to lose another corporate partner in wake of Stephen Lloyd resignation

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Corporate Ashurst
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Having achieved a transcontinental full financial merger with Blake Dawson almost without drama there will be those who say Ashurst had it coming, as it emerges that corporate partner Eavan Saunders Cole is set to leave the firm after last week’s revelation that global head of corporate Stephen Lloyd has handed in his notice.

Cole, whose experience at Ashurst includes advising corporate, financial sponsor and hedge fund clients particularly in the public M&A, leveraged buy-out and cross border M&A sectors, has been a partner since 2006 and advised clients including Odeon and Bank of Ireland.The corporate partner is blaming personal reasons for her departure, as she will shortly go on maternity leave and relocate to Ireland after attempts to find a mutually acceptable way to keep her at the firm failed.

The news comes as the firm last week announced Lloyd’s resignation to its partnership, within weeks of ex-senior partner Charlie Geffen unexpectedly losing the chairman vote to litigator Ben Tidswell on 16 October.

While Tidswell is described as a popular choice, sources have indicated to Legal Business that these latest exits come from a partnership unsettled by the changes in management, with Tidswell’s election interpreted in some quarters as an act of partner rebellion against Geffen, who spearheaded the merger with Big Six Australia firm Blake Dawson.

Further changes at the top 15 firm have seen a new management board and executive committee elected, which came into effect November 1.

But while one source close to the situation indicated that Cole and others had “had enough”, the corporate lawyer strongly rejected the assertion that her departure had anything to with the change in management or the merger.

Cole, who joined Ashurst in 2000 from Dublin firm McCann Fitzgerald, told Legal Business: ‘Charlie Geffen and I were looking at different roles and the option of working from Dublin, but in the end I decided I would go on maternity leave and not return.’

jaishree.kalia@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Ashurst corporate head Stephen Lloyd quits in set-back for Anglo-Australian giant

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Corporate Ashurst
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Ashurst global head of corporate Stephen Lloyd has resigned in a move that comes within weeks of a vote for full financial integration with its Australian partner Blake Dawson and post-merger management elections.

Lloyd (pictured), who in July was appointed as co-head of the united firms’ corporate, commercial and competition team alongside Sydney-based Phil Breden, became the legacy Ashurst global head of corporate in 2010.

It is understood that Lloyd informed Ashurst’s senior management of his decision last month. The firm’s wider partnership is to be informed today (7 November). Lloyd is believed to have not yet finalised his next move, though he has spoken to a number of rival law firms.

The highly-rated corporate partner this summer advised Canadian private equity house Alberta Investment Management Corporate on its £935m acquisition alongside OMERS Private Equity of Vue Entertainment from Doughty Hanson.

The departure will be regarded as a set-back for Ashurst, coming a month after the firm voted ‘overwhelmingly’ in favour of full financial integration with the legacy Blake Dawson. Ashurst in October also voted in litigator Ben Tidswell as the new chairman of the combined firm in a surprise result that saw long-time Ashurst head Charlie Geffen defeated.

At the time of his election Tidswell denied claims that the defeat of Geffen reflected negative feelings towards the merger stating: ‘That would be completely wrong. I have spoken to an enormous amount of partners and the mood is one of excitement. The merger went through with a very large majority and at no point at all was that message coming through.’

Lloyd, who trained at Herbert Smith before working at Weil Gotshal & Manges, is particularly well regarded for private equity work, having handled regular instructions for Apax. He is believed to have spoken to a number of rival practices including Allen & Overy and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, though Lloyd had previously pulled back from a move to the Wall Street leader.

While Lloyd, who was personally involved in the Blake Dawson talks, has spoken of his support for the Australian union, the departure comes amid expectations that a handful of London corporate partners close to Geffen will depart following last month’s management vote.

A spokesperson for Ashurst commented: ‘Stephen has made a considerable contribution to the corporate practice and the firm. He is a talented lawyer and we will be sorry to see him go but we wish him the very best for the future.’

caroline.hill@legalease.co.uk

For further comment on Ashurst’s merger with Blake Dawson see Comment: The air of unreality – can the big deal deliver for Ashurst?

Legal Business

Ashurst leadership elections draw to a close as board and ExCo unveiled

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Leadership Ashurst
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Ashurst’s lengthy governance elections have come to a close as the top 15 firm announces the results of its final board elections and unveils the members of its executive committee (ExCo).

The 1006-lawyer firm’s new board comprises fourteen members from Ashurst and Big Six Australian merger partner Blake Dawson, with the eight newly-elected members announced today (5 November) including competition partner Peter Armitage and corporate partner Ian Williams in Sydney; London corporate partner Simon Beddow; Madrid real estate partner Cristina Calvo; Perth corporate partner Roger Davies; Frankfurt corporate partner Reinhard Eyring; Hong Kong corporate partner Robert Ogilvy Watson and London banking partner Mark Vickers.

The remaining six members of the board are new chair Ben Tidswell, newly-elected vice chair Mary Padbury, managing partner James Collis, chief financial officer Brian Dunlop and two independent board members Robert Gillespie and David Turner.

Separately, the firm earlier disclosed to Legal Business the final make-up of ExCo, which was decided this month and comprises 13 partners including the co-heads of each of its four divisions, client partners Tony Denholder and Logan Mair, Australia managing partner John Carrington, Asia managing partner Matt Mubb, and Collis.

Tidswell said: ‘Our new board is a key element in our governance structure and I am delighted to welcome such a strong team from across the new firm to this important role. I would like to congratulate them all and I am confident that they will each make a significant contribution in shaping the firm’s future.’

jaishree.kalia@legalease.co.uk

For a detailed analysis of the Ashurst/Blake Dawson merger see Comment: The air of unreality – can the big deal deliver for Ashurst?

The executive committee in full:

Global managing partner James Collis

Managing partner Asia Matthew Bubb and managing partner Australia John Carrington

Client partners Tony Denholder and Logan Mair

Corporate, commercial and competition division co-heads Phil Breden and Stephen Lloyd

Disputes, IP and employment co-heads Simon Bromwich and Lisa Ritson

Energy, resources, real estate and infrastructure co-heads Mark Elsey and Geoff Gishubl

Finance co-heads Paul Jenkins and Laurent Mabilat

Legal Business

Ashurst says ‘no’ to Geffen for chairman in surprise election result

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Leadership Ashurst
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A popular long-term board member with the social skills needed to pull together a newly-merged transcontinental firm, Ashurst’s October announcement that dispute resolution partner Ben Tidswell has been elected chairman, is nonetheless a shock defeat for incumbent firm head Charlie Geffen.

In a simple ‘one partner, one vote’ election, the emergence of Ashurst Australia’s competition and consumer protection partner Peter Armitage as a contender for the top job had turned the election into a three-horse race.

However, Geffen, whose current senior partner title was subsumed by the new chairman role after newly-merged Ashurst Australia revised its corporate strategy in July, was widely expected to be re-elected.

Legal Business

Ashurst leadership contest – Mary Padbury for vice chairman

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Leadership Ashurst
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The latest instalment of Ashurst’s senior management elections has seen Ashurst Australia’s chair Mary Padbury voted in as vice chair of the newly-merged firm just days after partners said no to incumbent head Charlie Geffen for the chair role in favour of Ben Tidswell.

Padbury, who was widely-tipped for the vice chair post, held a number of management roles at legacy Australia Big Six firm Blake Dawson, which formally merged with Ashurst in September, including as the firm’s resident London partner from 2001 to 2003 and as an executive partner with responsibility for the firm’s national corporate, competition and intellectual property practices from 2003 to 2005.

Having served as a member of Ashurst LLP’s board since March 2012, Padbury – who will take up this latest five-year term with effect from 1 November 2013 – led the merger talks on behalf of her firm.

In the interest of democracy, the vote on the vice chairman role was open only to Ashurst Australia.

Tidswell, who the firm announced on Wednesday (16 October) had been elected into the chairman role, said: ‘Mary will play a critical role in the firm’s future and I congratulate her on her appointment. Mary’s substantial leadership experience as chairman of Ashurst Australia combined with her intellect, energy and strategic insight will be invaluable to us as we enter this next stage to our development.’

Padbury added: ‘I am really excited to take on this role and to get an opportunity to work closely with Ben and James Collis, our managing partner, to realise the benefits of the full merger for all our clients and people wherever they are situated across the firm’s practice. I feel particularly privileged to be part of the team with the responsibility of taking our new merged firm forward.’

While Tidswell is said to have the social skills needed to draw together the partnership and was a popular member of the board, his election was nonetheless a surprise defeat for Geffen.

The result is being interpreted in some quarters as a backlash against Geffen’s efforts to push through the merger, a claim denied by Tidswell, who as a board member was heavily instrumental in the merger.

Elections for Ashurst’s board will take place shortly. The board will comprise 14 members including the elected chair and vice chair, along with the managing partner, four elected legacy LLP partners, an elected Asia partner, three elected legacy Ashurst Australia partners, two independent members, and a non-voting CFO.

francesca.fanshawe@legalease.co.uk

For more details on Ashurst’s merger and leadership contest, including the recent election of Bed Tidswell as chairman, see Ashurst says no to Geffen for chairman in surprise election result and Comment: The air of unreality – can the big deal deliver for Ashurst?

 

Legal Business

Ashurst says no to Geffen for chairman in surprise election result

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Leadership Ashurst
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A popular long term board member with the social skills needed to pull together a newly-merged transcontinental firm, Ashurst’s announcement today (16 October) that outside runner, dispute resolution partner Ben Tidswell has been elected as chairman, is nonetheless a shock defeat for incumbent firm head Charlie Geffen.

After a simple ‘one partner, one vote’ election, the emergence of Ashurst Australia’s competition and consumer protection partner Peter Armitage as a contender for the top job had turned the election into a three horse race.

However, Geffen, whose current senior partner title was subsumed by the new chairman role after newly-merged Ashurst Australia revised its corporate strategy in July, was widely expected to be re-elected.

Instead, lesser-known Tidswell will now take over the five-year term on 1 November, as the top 20 firm beds down its merger with Big Six Australian outfit Blake Dawson.

Many of the largest stumbling blocks to the merger have notably already been ticked off, with the firm in September announcing its full financial integration including a single profit pool, single partnership compensation system and single governance system.

However, current and ex-Ashurst partners have reported a recurrence of the ambivalence that has plagued the 1,006-lawyer firm in the past, and Tidswell’s largest challenge is likely to be winning hearts and minds as he draws the partnership together.

The complex commercial disputes lawyer, who has been a board member since 2007, having joined Ashurst in 1993 and become a partner in the London-based dispute resolution team in 2003, acknowledges that the challenge going forward will be integration on a personal level. He told Legal Business: ‘A lot has been done over the past two years but now the challenge is making the business work and it’s about getting the partners thinking together.’

However, he denies taking over a firm that is largely apathetic to its merger, or that his election is a message of protest at Geffen’s role in pushing the merger through.

‘That would be completely wrong,’ says Tidswell, adding, ‘I have spoken to an enormous amount of partners and the mood is one of excitement. The merger went through with a very large majority and at no point at all was that message coming through.

‘This is not a backwards election, what we have done is really ground breaking and in all the discussion and healthy debates it’s not about history. Even if it had been, on the board I have been completely beside Charlie on the merger.’

However, one ex-partner comments: ‘There was a big “them and us” [mentality] at Ashurst. Charlie was very divisive, there would have been a lot of protest votes against him but Ben is a strong candidate and has lots of positives. A number of people would have voted for him anyway.’

Moving forwards, Tidswell points to Asia as an area presenting ‘exciting opportunity’ as well as maintaining the firm’s success in Europe.

His election will now be followed by a vote on the vice chairman role, which in the interest of democracy will only be open to Ashurst Australia. Current Ashurst Australia chairman Mary Padbury is widely tipped for the role.

The remaining board elections will then follow, in which four legacy Ashurst partners, three legacy Blake Dawson partners and an Asia partner will be chosen to assist in the firm’s management alongside the chairman, vice-chairman, CFO, two independent members and global managing partner James Collis.

Collis commented: ‘On behalf of the partnership, I congratulate Ben on his appointment. Ben has considerable leadership skills. As board member of Ashurst LLP for the last six years, and chair of the new partners committee prior to that, he has made a significant contribution to the firm and its strategy. He will make an exceptional chair and help us drive our ambition to become a global elite law firm.’

caroline.hill@legalease.co.uk

For more comment on the Ashurst and Blake Dawson merger, click here

Legal Business

Staff cuts: Ashurst confirms 120 jobs to go in London

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Job cuts Ashurst
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Ashurst is nearing the end of its London redundancy round as the firm confirms 120 of its support staff will be leaving its City base after 45 days of ongoing consultations.

The 120 employees – selected out of a possible 350 staff earmarked for redundancy – have been given the option to transfer to the firm’s new lower cost Glasgow site or take redundancy, while some effort has been made to find replacement positions in London.

It is unclear at this stage how many staff will opt to relocate, although the firm confirmed that many have accepted redundancies already. Consultations around who will transfer to Glasgow are still taking place, said a spokesperson at the firm. Any transfers will be made in early 2014.

The review impacted all staff in the firm’s London business services group, which includes those working in IT, business development, finance, HR, risk and compliance, business services, and knowledge and learning.

In total 350 of Ashurst’s support staff were notified that job cuts were going to take place in light of the new Glasgow office opening in June.

The Scottish office – headed by former Dundas & Wilson partner Mike Polson -aims to create 150 new roles including 120 support staff, with the additional 30 positions made up of a newly-created legal analyst position.

The office will cover back office support and volume legal work, initially covering areas like document review in litigation and corporate, with a focus on supporting the City firm’s work in London before moving to cover the law firm’s global network.

At present, six legal analysts have been recruited, which the firm hopes to double by the end of the year.

jaishree.kalia@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Comment: The air of unreality – can the big deal deliver for Ashurst?

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Legal mergers Ashurst
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‘Historically, what killed Ashurst’s mergers has been apathy. Latham, Fried Frank, Clifford Chance – people were apathetic.’ So recalls one former veteran of the City firm.

Ashurst has finally voted on a transformative merger with its Australian partner. But even two years since the firm agreed a formal alliance with big six Australian outfit Blake Dawson, the idea of Ashurst going through with the tie-up still seems odd, unreal even, though this timeframe was always set out and the Australian practice immediately took the name of its City suitor.

A neutral observer would have to say Ashurst is yet to entirely counter that air of unreality, even among some of its own partners. That the deal has come this close to crossing the line doesn’t mean Blake Dawson is a more compelling proposition than a marriage with Latham (arguably the best legal deal that didn’t happen in the last 20 years) or CC. It does indicate that Ashurst is a more centrally managed, less consensual outfit under the leadership of Charlie Geffen than it used to be.

It’s hard to query that Ashurst needed to be more robustly led, but it is debatable whether the horribly tricky balance of corralling the partnership while winning hearts and minds has been achieved. Partners are currently marching towards this merger with some of the ambivalence of old – it’s just that such attitudes are no longer enough to stop the train leaving the station.

There have certainly been successes. By consensus, the two years since this course was mapped have been absent of serious reverses or dramas. That is an achievement worth noting; there has been no repeat of the painful contortions that greeted Ashurst’s 2009 entry into the US legal market with the acquisition of a large US structured finance team and little sign of the tensions at Herbert Smith Freehills or Hogan Lovells.

Indeed, there is agreement that – for once – the pre-merger claims of cultural common ground have been proven correct. There has been considerable growth in Asia and plenty of cross-working in energy, infrastructure and litigation. Clarity that Ashurst has been in the driving seat on this union has also been welcome.

Set against that, the Australian market has cooled a fair bit since 2011 and some contend that the Australian business still needs to slim down considerably.

Financial performance has been respectable, but probably too steady in itself to generate much additional goodwill. Inevitably, perhaps, there is muttering in the halls of Appold Street about distractions and the amount of management time that has been expended so far.

Perhaps such sentiments linger because, while a solid case can be marshalled for the union around the need to achieve critical mass in Asia, the narrative has been muddled by Ashurst’s complex motives. The end game is a US union. Pulling off a large merger is hard enough; pulling of a large international merger you are triangulating with a view to an ultimate US deal is another matter entirely. The deal went through. But apathy must still be conclusively conquered.

Alex.novarese@legalease.co.uk