Legal Business

Q&A: A long-term commitment – Severn Trent’s in-house team share the thinking behind the new five-year sole adviser mandate with Eversheds

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In-house Eversheds SutherlandSevern Trent
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FTSE 100 water company Severn Trent recently re-appointed Eversheds as its sole adviser for a five-year term, commencing 1 April. Deputy general counsel Stuart Kelly and legal counsel Kristin Garret talk to Kathryn McCann about the mandate, getting monthly updates and the key performance indicators (KPIs) the firm will be judged on.

Stuart, why did you decide to stick with the sole advisor mandate, despite strongly considering at least two firms?

I would say this is the most extensive tender process that Severn Trent has done, it was robust and exposed all of our day to day work to the market. We engaged with a wide range of firms and that has led to the outcome that Eversheds will be appointed for five years for the entirety of our work that was subject to the tender.

We did originally expect to end up with at least two firms, as the debt recovery work is very small in volume and we thought that it was the type and volume of work that really should have been more attractive to a smaller, local firm. But that has proved not to be the case. The proposals that we had simply weren’t as good as the current arrangement. Ultimately it didn’t end up as we expected.

Why commit to a longer five-year term?

SK: There are a couple of points there. The first one to make is that we are in an industry regulated in five-year periods. One of the drivers was budget certainty because we know what our economic landscape looks like for the next five years and we need to work within that. We are also asking an awful lot from our legal service providers – a lot of commitment and a lot of investment and I think that goes hand in hand with a long-term commitment from us as well.

Kristin, what factors differentiated Eversheds from the rest of the proposals?

We were looking for three key things really: financial efficiency, budgetary certainty and a real quality offering. In terms of the financial efficiencies and budgetary certainty, Eversheds’ proposal for each of the five lots was the most competitive. In terms of the value added services offered, the proposal was very attractive as well. They offered to help us with our business processes, carry out reviews with us, provide online resources, horizon scanning and providing feedback, and also give us access to leadership and development coaching for the in-house legal team.

Another aspect of the proposal we were really keen on is the commitment to continuous improvement and innovation. What the proposal gave was a willingness to be measured against KPIs and to provide real detailed management information, each on a monthly basis, with analysis as to how we can use that to drive continuous improvement.

What sort of KPIs will the firm be judged on?

KG: Some of them are very simple KPIs around agreed fee estimates, not going over those fee estimates unless it has been agreed, the timing of when advice is given, how commercially focused the advice is and it being tailored to the right audience.

SK: There are also KPIs relating to innovation and contribution to continuous improvement. These are at the other end of the scale and really differentiated the proposal.

What is the next thing that Severn Trent will instruct Eversheds on?

SK: The industry is preparing itself for competition. We are currently a monopoly but competition is starting to make its way into the water industry and that’s important. Eversheds will be one of the key advisors preparing Severn Trent to be successful in a competitive market.

kathryn.mccann@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

In-house: Severn Trent sticks by Eversheds as sole adviser until 2020

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In-house Eversheds SutherlandSevern Trent
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FTSE 100 water company Severn Trent has reappointed Eversheds as its sole adviser for a new five-year term, despite having strongly considered appointing at least two firms to its new roster.

The company’s review took proposals from a total of 13 firms across five different areas: debt recovery, employment, general quality regulation, property and combined competition/commercial economic regulation. The legal team at Severn Trent had originally planned to give the debt recovery mandate to a smaller, local firm because it didn’t have the volume of work to hand to a larger sole adviser. However several firms, including Eversheds, pitched for a single mandate.

In a show of confidence in Eversheds, the appointment, which kicks in from 1 April, will stay in place until 2020, which is longer than the previous three-year arrangement and is longer than most other existing sole-adviser mandates. It is understood that the appointment is based on a fixed-fee basis, with fixed fees for each of the five practice area lots.

Kristin Garrett, legal counsel at Severn Trent, said: ‘We were looking for three key things: financial efficiency, budgetary certainty and then a real quality offering. In terms of the financial efficiency and budgetary certainty, Eversheds’ proposal for each of the five lots was the most competitive and also the proposal in terms of value added services was very attractive as well.’

Eversheds has been in a Tyco-style sole adviser role for Severn Trent, which is a top-15 client globally for the firm, since April 2010 with a relationship dating back to 2008. The company will still farm out some treasury and substantive M&A work to Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF).

Eversheds relationship partner for Severn Trent and head of litigation Ian Gray said: ‘To get this kind of appointment from one of our core client relationships is really important for us. We have invested a lot of our own time and effort in these kind of relationships and Severn Trent has always been at the forefront of that, alongside Tyco.’

kathryn.mccann@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Severn Trent sticks by Eversheds as sole adviser until 2020

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In-house Eversheds SutherlandSevern Trent
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FTSE 100 water company Severn Trent has reappointed Eversheds as its sole adviser for a new five-year term, despite having strongly considered appointing at least two firms to its new roster.

The company’s review took proposals from a total of 13 firms across five different areas: debt recovery, employment, general quality regulation, property and combined competition/commercial economic regulation. The legal team at Severn Trent had originally planned to give the debt recovery mandate to a smaller, local firm because it didn’t have the volume of work to hand to a larger sole adviser. However several firms, including Eversheds, pitched for a single mandate.

Legal Business

Branching out: RPC, Eversheds and Bird & Bird create new consultancy offerings

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Innovation Bird & BirdEversheds SutherlandRPC
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The recent push by major UK firms into non-legal services looks set to continue, with Bird & Bird and RPC both unveiling moves into non-legal consultancy, while Eversheds further expands its pioneering service.

Sticking with its technology, media and telecoms specialism, Bird & Bird in February established an IT project consultancy, Baseline, in a joint venture with Lancashire-based ASE Consulting. The endeavour sees partners, led by co-head of Bird & Bird’s transformational project team Dominic Cook, invest their own capital in the project, with the team agreeing to pass legal work back to the firm.

Legal Business

Expanding overseas: Eversheds grows South African offering with new alliance

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Middle East and Africa Eversheds Sutherland
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Eversheds has further extended its presence in South Africa, establishing a new formal alliance with Cape Town firm Walkers, which counts clients including EY, Investec, Standard Bank and Woolworths.

Under the agreement, Walkers, which is a full service law firm, will continue to trade under its own name but will work closely with Eversheds in servicing clients. Eversheds already has two offices in Johannesburg in South Africa and a third in Durban which it opened last year (2014).

Over the last couple of years, the firm has also bolstered its Africa presence through the expansion of its Eversheds Africa Law Institute (EALI), a network of independent firms from across the continent, which currently incorporates 37 offices across Africa. Eversheds itself also has an existing presence in Africa, with offices in Casablanca, Durban, Johannesburg, Mauritius, Morocco, Tangier and Tunis.

Commenting on the tie-up, Peter van Niekerk, managing partner Eversheds South Africa, said: ‘Walkers are a first class firm who follow the same client focused ethos as Eversheds. I look forward to welcoming them on board and being able to offer our clients real expertise in one of South Africa’s most vibrant business hubs.’

Charl Theron, chairman of Walkers added: ‘This tie-up empowers Walkers to expand its service offering and expertise across Africa. In addition to this, the international reach of Eversheds will enhance our service offering to our many international clients.’

Africa seems to be the destination of choice for firms this week, with Norton Rose Fulbright announcing yesterday (24 February) strategic alliances with Ugandan firm Shonubi Musoke & Co Advocates and Zimbabwean firm Gill, Godlonton & Gerrans.

kathryn.mccann@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Revolving Doors: Management hires for K&L Gates and Eversheds plus a high-profile GC appointment

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Strategic recruitment Eversheds SutherlandK&L Gates
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Last week’s laterals saw a focus on hiring management with K&L Gates bringing in a new finance head in Sydney, Eversheds hiring in London for a head of strategy for Hungary, and, in the US, General Motors (GM) appointing a new general counsel (GC).

Firstly, in London, Seddons announced the hire of prominent libel and defamation lawyer Mark Lewis, who joins the firm from Taylor Hampton. Lewis – who has 25 years of experience in libel, privacy, confidentiality, reputation management and intellectual property matters – has worked with clients on the phone hacking scandals, including representing the Dowler family against News International, and since bringing the first case against the company in 2007, he has represented over 120 victims.

Lewis commented: ‘As the landscape for press regulation and complexity of modern reputation management continues to evolve, I’m confident that I can make a significant contribution to the firm and support its clients in protecting and defending their reputations in the UK and around the globe.’

Meanwhile, Richárd Eördögh, managing partner of Bird & Bird’s Hungarian offering, is set to join Eversheds as partner and Head of Strategy in its Budapest office. Eördögh joined Bird & Bird in 2011 after relocating from his position in London as chief legal counsel of Chayton Capital and its private equity real estate funds

Another in-house move, this time in the US, saw GM hire Craig Glidden as its new GC replacing long-time incumbent Michael Millikin on 1 March. Milliken, who has faced questioning from Congress in relation to the carmaker’s response to its faulty ignition switches, announced his retirement last year. Glidden joins from plastics, chemical and refining company LyondellBasell Industries and will take over responsibility for GM’s legal team in more than 30 countries worldwide.

Further afield, in Sydney, international law firm K&L Gates hired Jason Opperman as a partner in the firm’s finance practice. Opperman, who has more than 17 years of experience acting for banks and financial institutions, joins from Henry Davis York, where he led the banking, restructuring and insolvency practice.

Nick Nichola, K&L Gates’ managing partner for Australia said: ‘Jason was targeted for his outstanding leadership qualities and will assume the leadership role of our national practice group immediately upon commencement in the K&L Gates Sydney office. Jason shares the firm’s vision and believes the global platform and reach the firm delivers is critical to clients who want to stay competitive in the global marketplace.’

kathryn.mccann@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Bringing lawyers and consultants ‘under the same roof’: Eversheds launches financial services consulting arm

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Innovation Eversheds Sutherland
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Eversheds has expanded its consulting services business, Eversheds Consulting, with the launch of a financial services regulatory compliance offering, and recruited six senior consultants and a team of compliance contractors, including Jean-Paul Simoes and Jonathan Steward from EY and KPMG respectively.

Announced today (16 February) others to join includes Simon Chapman, Noreen Husain and Clive Summers from specialist regulatory and compliance practice Resources Global Professionals (RGP). They will be joined by RGP’s former managing director Simon Collins this month. The new venture will be spearheaded by financial services partner David Saunders, who prior to his move to Eversheds served as deputy general counsel at Nationwide Building Society.

Steward joins with 15 years of regulatory experience accrued at KPMG, Deloitte and as UK and EMEA compliance officer for insurer Beazley. Simoes comes from EY where he was a regulatory advisory manager, and having previously worked at Willis.

The firm stated it intends to make further investment in growing the team ‘over the coming months’, and Paul Worth, head of Eversheds’ financial institutions group, said: ‘The true differentiator here is that we will have lawyers and consultants under the same roof. The growth of the financial services regulatory consulting practice has already seen the firm winning work which otherwise would have gone to the “big four” accountants or risk consultants. This is a natural evolution of our financial services regulatory practice and provides us with the unique ability in the market to be a “one stop shop” for regulatory advice and assistance to our clients.’

Worth added, ‘Where appropriate it will also enable the client to rely on legal professional privilege, which is something which the accountants and risk consultants cannot provide.’

Eversheds was one of the first of the LB100 firms to enter the contract-lawyer market in 2010 when Eversheds Consulting was launched as a standalone legal consultancy offering, aimed at advising international in-house legal teams on how to manage their legal function more efficiently and effectively.

The service has already won work from clients including Barclays, ITN, Volvo and Du Pont and currently offers assistance with compliance, records management and dealing with legal suppliers as well as providing in-house teams with experts and approaches to tackling challenges within their organisations.

It follows RPC’s announcement last week of a new management consultancy business aimed at targeting its core insurance sector clients, with the firm hiring Rory O’Brien, the former head of risk consulting and software at Towers Watson, to spearhead the venture.

sarah.downey@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Revolving Doors: DLA Piper continues Asia rebuild as Eversheds bulks up its Swiss offering

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Strategic recruitment DLA PiperDWFEversheds Sutherland
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Matthew Elliott’s long-mooted arrival at Kirkland & Ellis from Linklaters stole headlines last week, but LB 100 firms including DLA Piper, Eversheds and DWF also all made hires.

DLA Piper continued to rebuild its depleted Asia offering with the capture of Morrison & Foerster capital markets partner Melody He-Chen.

He-Chen’s practice is largely made up of Chinese corporates, specialising in securities offerings. Her arrival follows the hire of a group of former Jones Day colleagues in Singapore, with corporate partners John Viverito and Myles Hankin joining from Gibson Dunn & Crutcher and Joseph Bauerschmidt from Jones Day.

Terry O’Malley, chairman emeritus of DLA Piper, said ‘Melody’s experience of working in the United States will help further align the Asia business with the strategic objectives of the firm and reflects the growing business flows we are seeing between the two regions.’

Eversheds, intent on improving its offering in continental Europe, added three partners in Switzerland last week. The firm hired BNP Paribas lawyer Patrick Eberhardt to boost its banking group and made moves to improve its transport group with the addition of two partners.

Barbara Klett, who recently established the national claim centre for the Swiss Federal Railways, joins as a partner from local firm Kaufmann Rüedi Rechtsanwälte. She advises on liability issues in the transport and medical sectors and is a lecturer at the University of Lucerne. The firm also added procurement projects lawyer Bruno Schoch as its head of rail, leaving his position as head of legal at Swiss rail company BLS to take up the post.

Klett said ‘investment in transport continues to be high on the agenda’ for governments and said her new firm has ‘one of the largest teams of specialist lawyers acting for some of the world’s major transport providers’.

Back in the UK, rapidly expanding DWF has hired Tods Murray’s head of renewables Ben Powell in Edinburgh. The project finance lawyer has had stints at Dundas & Wilson, McGrigors and Hammonds in the past and brings extensive knowledge of the Scottish and UK energy markets.

His hire follows the capture of former Royal Bank of Scotland in-house lawyer Gary MacDonald from Pinsent Masons, where he was a legal director.

tom.moore@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

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

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Corporate Eversheds SutherlandGateleyGowling WLG
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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.

Legal Business

Under new leadership: Eversheds appoints senior partner in Paris as Brown departs after 18-year tenure

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Leadership Eversheds Sutherland
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Eversheds has appointed Rémi Kleiman as the new senior partner in its Paris office, following the departure of long-standing incumbent Michael Brown, who has decided to retire.

Brown played a key role when Eversheds integrated its UK operations in 2000 and has been in charge of the firm’s European offices for 18 years. He oversaw the development of the Paris office to a 16-partner strong outpost as its managing partner and was in charge of Eversheds owned non-UK offices.

Paris-based Kleiman is a commercial litigation expert who has extensive experience in assisting clients in contract litigation as well as in product liability actions. He also has substantial experience in acting for French and international banks in liability actions.

Commenting on his appointment, Kleiman said: ‘Michael has done a sterling job of building the Paris office into a strong and successful practice, with a holistic offering for a wide range of multinational clients. I look forward to building on his successes.’

Eversheds has recently expanded its footprint internationally with the creation of two new alliance networks covering Asia Pacific and Latin America. The firm is also actively looking for a US merger after the partnership gave its backing to the search in a vote earlier this year.

kathryn.mccann@legalease.co.uk