Legal Business

Chief adviser: Eversheds wins Specsavers preferred supplier tender

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Following an extensive tender process, Eversheds has been appointed as preferred supplier for Specsavers across multiple practice areas.

Eversheds has secured a preferred supplier role advising on areas including UK litigation, employment law, and commercial and corporate issues including data protection, IT and supply chain.

High-profile work carried out by the firm on behalf of Specsavers included its five-year trademark litigation against supermarket giant, Asda, in which it fought to keep the trademark for its oval shape alone.

On choosing the firm as its preferred supplier, Specsavers global legal director Stretch Kontelj said: ‘We’re a global company with growth ambitions. Through the tender process, Eversheds showed that they were the firm to help us realise them. We were particularly impressed by the care they took to focus on our strategic priorities and how they would support these.’

Eversheds corporate partner James Travis who pitched for the mandate on behalf of the firm, added: ‘We’re immensely pleased and look forward to helping Specsavers in the next step of their remarkable journey.’

Similar mandates won by the LB100 firm included its high profile sole adviser agreement with Tyco International, a multi-million pound annual retainer where it provides the industrial conglomerate with all its ‘business-as-usual’ legal work across EMEA. That contract, which has been renewed several times, has evolved each time, underpinned by Eversheds’ Global Account Management System.

In May 2013, Eversheds was also appointed by Tyco spin-off Pentair Flow Control to take over all its routine litigation, certain intellectual property (IP) and commercial work and some premium work in the EMEA region.

This year also saw Eversheds land a spot on a seven-firm global panel created by US car rental giant Avis.

sarah.downey@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Eversheds records 7% revenue bump but PEP stays flat

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Financial results 2015/16 Eversheds Sutherland
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Eversheds has reported revenue growth of 7% to £405.5m for 2015/16. The increase follows a year of flat turnover for the firm after last year it posted £380.7m in revenue, up less than 1%.

This firm’s 2015/16 results include the integration of its German arm into Eversheds’ LLP, adding approximately £20m to the firm’s topline.

The firm reported profit per equity partner (PEP) of £742,000, which is essentially flat from the year prior, off profits at £87.5m.

Eversheds chief executive Bryan Hughes (pictured) said the performance was in line with expectations. The firm achieved double digit revenue growth in the Middle East, Asia and in its consulting arm, Eversheds Consulting.

He added: ‘We made the decision to make significant investments across the board, and are pleased that we maintained our net profit position notwithstanding these investments, which we believe give us an even stronger platform on which to build.’

‘Significant operational investments were made in our IT infrastructure, global client management systems and global billing processes which are all going to enhance the level of service that our clients enjoy.’ Hughes said.

In recent months the firm won spots on panels including that of US car rental giant Avis and French defence multinational Safran.

In its latest promotions round, Eversheds made up 26 partners globally, including four in its London office.

Recent deals for the firm include advising on the sale of £150m worth of shares of Secure Trust Bank by investment firm Stifel.

Fellow mid-tier firms have seen slower growth this year compared with 2014/15. Addleshaw Goddard reported it had passed the £200m mark with revenues up 5% to £201.8m this year. Meanwhile, Pinsent Masons also saw more subdued growth compared to the previous year, reporting revenue up 5% to £382.3m and PEP up 2% to £550,000.

matthew.field@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Eversheds, Hogan Lovells and Bakers secure spots on defence multinational’s first panel

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Eversheds, Hogan Lovells and Baker & McKenzie are among nine firms to have won places on French multinational aerospace, defence and security firm Safran’s inaugural global legal panel.

Weil, Gotshal & Manges, as well as Fieldfisher and Osborne Clarke (OC) have also made the roster, alongside domestic French boutiques Betto Seraglini, Brunswick Société d’Avocats and Courrégé Foreman.

The panel will last two years, expiring at the start of 2018. It was instigated and led by the company’s group general counsel (GC), Adam Smith, who joined Safran in September 2014 after spending four years as chief compliance officer for French industrial group DCNS.

Although there are nine firms on the panel with the same framework agreement, Eversheds, Hogan Lovells and Baker & McKenzie will handle the bulk of legal work for Safran, which has an annual legal spend of around €10m. The rest of the firms have been appointed to the panel for specific or niche mandates, including Weil Gotshal for corporate, Betto Seraglini for arbitration, Brunswick for venture capital work and Courrégé Foreman for white-collar crime.

Fieldfisher is currently on the panel for environmental work, though it could also be used for data protection, IT and intellectual property.

Before Smith joined Safran, the legal team operated an informal adviser roster with around 30 firms and most of the company’s legal spend went outside that panel. However, it was decided that in order to get better rates from law firms as well as value-adds, such as secondees, a formal legal panel would be a better fit.

After initial analysis, over a dozen firms were invited to pitch. The main selection criteria were quality and expertise, knowledge of Safran’s industry, value for money, and innovation in legal solutions and ways of working.

kathryn.mccann@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Eversheds, Hogan Lovells and Bakers secure spots on defence multinational’s first panel

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Adviser reviews Baker McKenzieEversheds SutherlandHogan Lovells
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Eversheds, Hogan Lovells and Baker & McKenzie are among nine firms to have won places on French multinational aerospace, defence and security firm Safran’s inaugural global legal panel.

Weil, Gotshal & Manges, as well as Fieldfisher and Osborne Clarke (OC) have also made the roster, alongside domestic French boutiques Betto Seraglini, Brunswick Société d’Avocats and Courrégé Foreman.

Legal Business

Promotions 2016: Eversheds makes up 26 partners as TLT names four in reduced round

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Partnership promotions Eversheds SutherlandTLT
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Eversheds has promoted 26 partners globally, with four in the firm’s London office, while TLT has made up four partners across the UK in a reduced round.

Of Eversheds’ 26 promotions, 11 of were female and ten are in its international offices with new partners in Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland and United Arab Emirates.

The company commercial practice group promoted 15 new partners – the highest in the practice groups in the firm, while litigation and dispute management and human resources made up four each, with three in real estate. The 1,300-lawyer firm made up 22 partners in 2015, including nine outside the UK.

Commenting on the promotions, Eversheds chief executive Bryan Hughes emphasised the number of female promotions as reflecting the firm’s commitment to gender diversity.

TLT, meanwhile, has promoted four partners across its offices in London, Bristol and Belfast. Real estate lawyer Philip Collis and energy and renewables corporate lawyer Kay Hobbs were made up in Bristol, with banking and lender services lawyer Frances Thompson in Belfast and private client and international tax specialist Christopher Williamson in London. This year’s round was down compared to last year when the firm made up six partners in total.

TLT’s senior partner Andrew Glyn said: ‘Our internal promotions recognise the role all our people play in the success of our growth strategy.’

kathryn.mccann@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Eversheds and Gowling WLG target Singapore with high hopes for booming ASEAN economic region

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International firms target local mergers in regional hub

Asia’s burgeoning economic growth coupled with new initiatives from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) community has seen further interest in Singapore’s legal market spike as Global 100 firms explore new ventures in the city-state.

Legal Business

Clydes misses out as Eversheds and Burness Paull take away places on Yum! panel

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Eversheds and Burness Paull have won places on Yum! Brands slimmed down legal panel, with Clyde & Co missing out on reappointment.

Sarah Nelson Smith, general counsel (GC) (pictured) for the company behind KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, has trimmed its legal panel from nine in its latest panel review. Squire Patton Boggs, Whiting & Purches and Wright Hassall have both retained their places on the legal panel, with Yum! Brands introducing TLT to the list.

Alongside Clyde & Co, Howard Kennedy, Collins Dryland & Thorowgood, which advised on real estate work, and Leeds firm Woods Whur which had advised on licensing work, have not been reappointed to the panel.

Panel firms have been assigned for a two year period, the same time frame as the last Yum! Brands panel which was appointed in 2014.

GC Nelson Smith oversees more than 1,500 stores in the UK with a team of just three lawyers and has led on several initiatives for the company, including the recent trial of acquiring licenses to sell alcohol from a number of Pizza Hut delivery stores. She joined Yum! Brands in 2011, having been trained at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and having also worked at US firm Baker Botts.

In other recent panel appointments, Pinsent Masons won a place on FTSE 100 firm Land Securities’ legal panel, while Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has come off the roster following a review and Eversheds, Reed Smith, Dentons and K&L Gates have landed spots on a seven-firm global panel created by US car rental giant Avis.

madeleine.farman@legalease.co.uk

 

 

Legal Business

KWM and Simmons clock poor retention rates as Eversheds hits 100%

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Trainee retention Eversheds SutherlandKing & Wood MallesonsSimmons & Simmons
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The rough and tumble of trainee retention season offers contrasting images to future lawyers as Eversheds keeps on all eight trainees while Simmons & Simmons becomes the latest firm accused of tampering with its figures.

Simmons & Simmons, which recently released a 78% retention rate for its spring trainees, has been accused of altering its figures after a poor year for keeping its young talent. The firm announced that nine trainees had gone through the qualification round ending in February, with eight offered jobs and seven accepting. However, it has since emerged that there were 13 trainees on the intake, rather than nine, giving Simmons & Simmons a lower retention rate of 54%.

A spokesperson for the firm would not confirm how many people started in the trainee cohort, stating that ‘it’s not manipulation’ and that the firm only counts people who ‘go through the process.’ She would not detail how long it takes for a trainee at the firm to be considered ‘going through the process’.

Simmons & Simmons previously posted a poor retention rate for its autumn 2015 cohort, with just 64% of the 28 trainees that begun the programme still with the firm as a newly qualified lawyer.

King & Wood Mallesons, which recently cut 15% of its European and Middle Eastern partnership, has kept on 14 of its 20 qualifying trainees, or 70% of this round.

Eversheds, on the other hand, posted a 100% retention rate with all eight trainees set to continue at the firm. Three of these are based in London, qualifying into commercial and financial services disputes and investigations practices, with a further four trainees qualifying in Birmingham and Cambridge. The firm also took on a trainee in Paris, to be based in the firm’s international arbitration practice.

Firms in the Magic Circle all released their retention rates earlier this year, with the general pattern being that firms have achieved lower retention rates than the same time last year, although Slaughter and May has bucked this trend by keeping on 91% of trainees, up from the 88% it kept on in spring 2015.

Our sister website The Lex 100 has created a retention rate table which will be updated as more figures are announced.

tom.moore@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Revolving doors: A high profile return to chambers as Squire, Eversheds and A&O make key hires

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Strategic recruitment Allen & OveryEversheds SutherlandSquire Patton Boggs
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The legal market has seen a high-profile return to chambers and a series of both national and international lateral appointments this week at firms such as Squire Patton Boggs, Allen & Overy (A&O) and Eversheds.

In a move back to her old stomping ground, Shami Chakrabarti is to re-join 39 Essex Chambers as a door tenant. Formerly director of civil liberties advocacy group Liberty where she spent 13 years in the role, Chakrabarti began her career with a pupillage at 39 Essex Chambers in 1994.

Speaking on her return to 39 Essex, Chakrabati described it as a ‘pleasure and privilege’ to be back at the chambers where she learned her law and began her career. ‘Lawyers face unfair attacks but a chambers that produces advocates on both sides of vital disputes and so many senior judges well represents the Rule of Law.’ Chakrabati has been replaced at Liberty by Doughty Street Chambers barrister and human rights campaigner Martha Spurrier.

Meanwhile Squire Paton Boggs has appointed Andrew Herring to its real estate practice in its London office. Joining from DWF, Herring brings his experience advising on international and cross-border projects throughout the US, Europe, and the Middle East to the firm. Head of the firm’s global infrastructure group Philippa Chadwick predicts Herring will play a key role in supporting its global clients after seeing significant growth in its rail work in markets around the world. Chadwick said: ‘Andrew Herring is a go-to international rail and transportation lawyer. He has advised on some of the most complex global and UK projects, and he brings a wealth of experience to our burgeoning infrastructure practice.’

In Manchester, Eversheds has expanded its commercial contracts team with the hire of Nick Stubbs, who joins from Ward Hadaway and has in-house experience as Aviva’s legal counsel. Eversheds head of contracts in Manchester Tom Bridgford said of the appointment, ‘we are delighted to welcome Nick Stubbs who is joining our award winning Manchester commercial contracts team as a partner to support our continued growth. Nick has a wide range of expertise in high value commercial contracts, IT and outsourcing agreements.’

After spending two years at Simmons & Simmons, corporate partner Tom Butcher has returned to A&O to head the firm’s Middle East technology, media and telecommunications and intellectual property practice groups. With Butcher’s expertise in strategic outsourcing, technology procurement, data protection and transactional IP, the firm’s Middle East head of corporate Andrew Schoorlemmer said: ‘This is a significant appointment at a time when Middle East governments are investing in technology to develop sustainable knowledge-based, innovation-led economies to diversify from the traditional hydrocarbon industries. Local and international corporates are also engaging more and more in high value transactions and projects to bring technology to the Middle East and African markets.’

Hogan Lovells has strengthened its corporate practice offering with appointments to its New York and Tokyo offices with two international lateral hires. Paul Downs joins as partner in the firm’s New York office from Jones Day, where he was partner in the firm’s New York M&A group and co-head of its sovereign investor practice. With focuses on domestic and cross-border investments, M&A, and joint ventures, global head of Hogan Lovells’ corporate practice group David Gibbons said Downs brings a particular knowledge to the firm, which will help expand its offering. ‘Paul is a talented lawyer, whose transactional and cross-border experience is a natural fit with our M&A and private equity teams. His skill set and successful track record for clients will continue to strengthen our offerings both nationally and on a global scale.’

The firm has also hired partner Lisa Yano to its Tokyo office, increasing its capabilities in Asia and its cross-border M&A offering into and out of Japan. She brings experience advising both Japanese and offshore clients across electronics, telecommunications, media, life sciences and automotive sectors to Hogan Lovells. Regional managing partner for Asia and the Middle East Patrick Sherrington said: ‘Lisa has a profound understanding of the Japanese market and her contribution will be invaluable as we continue the build-out of our capabilities in the region.’

madeleine.farman@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Eversheds, Reed Smith and Dentons land spots on inaugural Avis panel

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Adviser reviews DentonsEversheds SutherlandReed Smith
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Eversheds, Reed Smith, Dentons and K&L Gates have landed spots on a seven-firm global panel created by US car rental giant Avis.

Avis, the world’s third largest car rental agency, has condensed its use of law firms through a detailed panel review that will see it move from using around 650 firms to a seven-firm global panel.

Eversheds, Reed Smith, Dentons and K&L Gates have all secured spots for European legal work. Three US firms have also been selected.

The New York-listed company has an annual revenue of $8.5bn and has expanded rapidly in Europe over the past five years, purchasing car-sharing firm Zipcar for $500m in 2013 and Avis Europe, once a separate corporate licensing the Avis brand, for $1bn in 2011. The company has a fleet of 500,000 cars.

Avis created an innovative legal panel that bars its law firms from competing with each other for work. Each firm has been given pre-determined areas of work, with the idea being that the panel firms act as one unit, joining up their advice across their respective remits. The firms have agreed to a global blended rate.

The panel process was run by Michael Tucker, executive vice president and general counsel, and EMEA head of legal Gail Jones. Legal Business understands that Trevor Faure, the former general counsel at Big Four accountancy EY, was drafted in to advise Avis on its use of outside legal counsel.

K&L Gates has a long history of advising Avis, particularly in the US, where Washington DC-based partner William Kirk is known to provide lobbying advice.

Other recently concluded panel reviews include Siemens, which reappointed Eversheds and Osborne Clarke, while adding Addleshaw Goddard to its list of preferred firms, and Credit Suisse which appointed Ashurst along with the big four of the Magic Circle to its panel.

tom.moore@legalease.co.uk