Legal Business

Fieldfisher continues European push with Luxembourg and Frankfurt offices

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Europe Fieldfisher

Legal Business 100 pacesetter Fieldfisher has further extended its European reach with the opening of a new office in Luxembourg, which will be managed by country managing partner Ingrid Dubourdieu who joins from local firm D.Law.

Initially focusing on finance and funds work, the London-headquartered firm expects the office to grow into corporate M&A and international tax, and will complement existing offices in Brussels and Amsterdam.

Legal Business

Another record year for Fieldfisher as ‘more international’ firm breaks £200m barrier

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Financial results 2017/18 Fieldfisher

Fieldfisher’s leader believes the firm has a ‘very happy partnership’ after cementing its position as the mid-market pace setter with a 24% increase in revenue this year.

The firm turned over £207m globally, largely as a result of organic growth in a 2017/18 financial year less defined by international expansion than previous periods. Profits per equity partner (PEP) also grew by a healthy 17% to £750,000.

In a performance which managing partner Michael Chissick hailed as ‘outstanding’, the UK business brought in £135.6m, up on last year’s £110. The firm was in April named the Law Firm of the Year at the 2018 Legal Business Awards.

The results were certainly a nice birthday present for Chissick, who turned 53 this week, with the firm more than doubling its revenue under his watch over the last five years. The 117% growth from £95m in 2012/13 speaks volumes of his success in reinventing a business which was going through a near-crisis situation when he took on his management role.

‘All of the offices have grown,’ Chissick told Legal Business. ‘We had a very strong year in the tech sector and particularly in GDPR privacy work – we are the go-to firm for that type of work. We had a very strong run in litigation and international arbitration.’

The firm recently added life sciences, which brought in £11.5m, as its fourth area of focus, alongside financial services, energy and natural resources, and technology. Chissick added: ‘Our sector strategy is paying off very well.’

The firm’s alternative legal services platform Condor, which in October last year entered South Africa, also boosted revenue for the firm. Launched in January 2017, the platform combining document data management and technology solutions with low-cost legal expertise turned over more than £2m.

‘We are a very happy partnership,’ said Chissick, who pointed to the firm not losing a single partner over the year, while bringing in a record 22 laterals.

Although the global growth was relatively slower than last year’s record 36%, it came on the back of comparatively subdued international expansion, only opening new offices in Bologna, Amsterdam and Shanghai.

While the UK accounted for 65% of revenue, Germany grew by 46% to £13m, becoming the second largest source of foreign income for the firm after France’s £14m. The Brussels office was third at £11m.

‘We are becoming more international, that’s my message,’ said Chissick. More recently the firm added offices in Frankfurt and Luxembourg and is looking to launch in Madrid and Barcelona.

The firm was more cautious on forecasting future revenue growth, pointing to expectations closer to high single-digit improvements. But Chissick said: ‘We started the year well, there seems to be good activity level. I’m optimistic.’

In other financial results unveiled this month, fellow mid-market high performer Osborne Clarke reported 14% global revenue growth to €273m.

For more on Fieldfisher’s and Osborne Clarke’s reinvention, see Reversal of Fortunes (£).

marco.cillario@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

CMS, Fieldfisher and NRF among firms awarded spots on social housing regulator’s panel amid regime shake-up

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Adviser reviews CMS UKFieldfisherNorton Rose Fulbright

CMS Cameron McKenna Nabarro Olswang, Norton Rose Fulbright (NRF) and Fieldfisher have been appointed to the Regulator of Social Housing’s (RSH) inaugural legal panel.

Trowers & Hamlins, Devonshires and Mills & Reeve will also be in the roster of firms advising the government body, announced today (18 May), for a four-year term.

The RSH started life in January, when the Homes and Communities Agency branched into a development and regulatory entity as the government tried to expedite the delivery of affordable housing.

The new entity, Homes England, will work on the delivery side, while the RSH will assist on commercial law and regulation, as well as a new special administration regime for social housing providers.

Under the new regime, if a registered provider is insolvent the administrator will try to keep its assets for use in the social housing sector.

Fieldfisher and Devonshires will advise specifically on regulatory, corporate and financial law, while CMS and NRF will work on insolvency and special administration law, with the other firms on the panel advising on both.

‘As a firm, we have extensive experience of advising on special administrations and in the social housing sector, and we look forward to deploying this in helping RSH,’ said CMS’ Glen Flannery, member of Restructuring Team of the Year at the latest Legal Business Awards. The firm’s real estate partner Candice Blackwood will also be part of the team advising the RSH.

This is the second panel appointment this week for Fieldfisher, which was among a group of seven firms appointed by Co-Op on Monday (14 May) to work alongside primary advised Allen & Overy.

marco.cillario@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

‘Benelux connection’: Fieldfisher expands European reach with Luxembourg office

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Strategic recruitment Fieldfisher

Newly-crowned Law Firm of the Year at the Legal Business Awards 2018, Fieldfisher has continued its campaign of geographical expansion with a new office in Luxembourg.

The outpost of the London-headquartered firm opened this week. Initially focused on finance and funds work, the office is being managed by country managing partner Ingrid Dubourdieu, who has joined from local firm D.Law where she was a partner.

Dubourdieu has a broad practice, advising domestic and international financial institutions on Luxembourg legal, regulatory and compliance issues. She also has experience acting for EU and non-EU asset managers on their activities in Luxembourg, and has been a member of the Luxembourg Bar since 1998.

The firm expects the office to grow into other areas, namely corporate M&A, tax and international tax.

Currently Dubourdieu is the only partner in the office, supported by two associates. However the firm expects to bring in a corporate partner and a tax partner in the coming months.

Fieldfisher managing partner, Michael Chissick, told Legal Business: ‘The Luxembourg launch has been in the pipeline for nearly 16 months, and I’m glad it’s over the line because it’s been the missing piece of the puzzle. It complements our Brussels and Amsterdam offices to form a Benelux connection.

‘A lot of our investment fund work and corporate activity includes a Luxembourg angle. So it’s a great location and in Ingrid we have a great managing partner.’

Luxembourg marks the latest in a string of new jurisdictions for Fieldfisher, with the firm now having a presence in nine different markets and 20 offices worldwide.

Chissick, who contends that over 50% of the firm’s work has an international element, has made no secret of his desire to have an office in every major European capital city. Openings in Barcelona and Madrid are also slated to take place in the coming months.

Among the openings in 2017, Fieldfisher added a fifth Italian office via a tie-up with Bologna firm Lucchini Gattamorta & Associates (LGA). With four other offices in Milan, Rome, Venice and Turin, the LGA combination grew Fieldfisher’s Italian arm to 210 lawyers and 28 partners.

The firm also launched an office in Amsterdam last year, staffed by a team of five partners who arrived from local TMT specialists Kennedy Van der Laan.

tom.baker@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Fieldfisher, Kirkland and Stephenson Harwood the major winners at 2018 Legal Business Awards

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FieldfisherKirkland & EllisStephenson Harwood

Fieldfisher, Kirkland & Ellis and Stephenson Harwood were the big winners at the 2018 Legal Business Awards in front of more than 900 people last night (18 April), as Allen & Overy’s deal star Denise Gibson was recognised as Lawyer of the Year and BT’s Dan Fitz GC of the Year.

Hosted by journalist, writer and television presenter Mariella Frostrup, the ceremony saw Fieldfisher crowned Law Firm of the Year after an impressive 36% revenue growth to £165m in 2016/17 – the largest rise of any law firm in the Legal Business 100 table last year. The firm scooping the most prestigious award of the night underlines the work of managing partner Michael Chissick and senior partner Matthew Lohn in turning around a firm which only in 2012 was near-crisis (as described in our recent cover feature Reversal of Fortunes .

It was a big night for Kirkland too. The world’s highest-grossing firm secured two of the most sought-after awards, Private Equity Team of the Year and US Law Firm of the Year. Matthew Elliott, Neel Sachdev, Steven Lucas, David Holdsworth and Stuart Boyd were joined by recent high-profile lateral hire David Higgins on stage when they picked up their second award.

Stephenson Harwood also picked up two awards on the night – Private Client Team of the Year, and one of the most coveted awards – Corporate Team of the Year – for its role advising Lavendon Group in its takeover by Loxam. A&O’s banking star Denise Gibson, who featured prominently in our cover feature Alphas this year about the leading female deal talent, was crowned Lawyer of the Year.

Meanwhile, Glen Atchison’s decade at the helm of successful West End practice Harbottle & Lewis secured him Management Partner of the Year.

In other practice awards, Norton Rose Fulbright scooped Finance Team of the Year for the pro bono work of the team led by chair-elect Farmida Bi advising the International Committee of the Red Cross on the development of the Humanitarian Impact Bond, a funding mechanism to encourage social investment from the private sector.

On the contentious side, Charles Russell Speechlys was named International Arbitration Team of the Year for Patrick Gearon’s team work in defending a Qatari telecoms provider against a $660m claim brought by a Saudi Arabian multinational. Wedlake Bell won Commercial Litigation Team of the year for advising Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga as he challenged the outcome of the 2017’s presidential election, which brought to Kenya’s Supreme Court annulling the election results.

DLA Piper was named Real Estate Team of the Year for its use of tech in advising Oval Real Estate in its acquisition of the Custard Factory and Fazeley Studios in Birmingham. The team closed the deal just over a month after the terms had been agreed by using automated contract review system Kira.

Two separate awards recognised the growing importance of tech. Legal Innovator of the Year went to F-Lex, a platform that connects firms and in-house lawyers with pre-vetted paralegals. Squire Patton Boggs brought home Legal Technology Team of the Year for developing Global Edge, an app portal providing employment advice across 32 jurisdictions.

In-house lawyers had their chance to shine too. BT’s Dan Fitz was the first winner of the newly-established GC of the Year prize, while Kendra James at the FT won Rising Star In-House Counsel of the Year. In-House Team of the Year went to The Carlyle Group. The awards ceremony was preceded by a reception to mark the launch of this year’s GC Powerlist report, featuring the top 50 in-house teams in the country.

Irish leader William Fry scooped International Law Firm of the Year after advising on Linde’s $70bn merger with Praxair, the largest deal in Europe in 2017.

The winners were selected by an external judging panel comprising: Nilema Bhakta-Jones, group legal director of Ascential Group; Kate Cheetham, group general counsel, Lloyds Banking Group; Kirsty Cooper, group general counsel and company secretary, Aviva; Simon Croxford, general counsel – group centre legal, Barclays; Maaike de Bie, general counsel, Royal Mail; Claire Debney, chief of staff and director of legal strategy, Shire; Dan Guildford, general counsel, FT; Rachel Jacobs, group general counsel, Springer Nature; Rosemary Martin, group general counsel and company secretary, Vodafone; Nigel Paterson, general counsel and company secretary, Dixons Carphone; Nayeem Syed, assistant general counsel, Thomson Reuters; Ned Staple, general counsel and company secretary, ZPG; Liz Tanner, director of legal services, SSE; Geoffrey Timms, group general counsel and company secretary, Legal & General; Clare Wardle, general counsel and company secretary, Coca-Cola European Partners. The panel also included Legal Business managing editor Mark McAteer and editor-in-chief Alex Novarese.

Our May edition will include a full report of the night. For more details on the awards, click here .

Marco.cillario@legalbusiness.co.uk

Legal Business Awards 2018 – The Winners

Hogan Lovells – TMT Team of the Year

Norton Rose Fulbright – Finance Team of the Year

Charles Russell Speechlys – International Arbitration Team of the Year

CMS Cameron McKenna Nabarro Olswang – Restructuring Team of the Year

Wedlake Bell – Commercial Litigation Team of the Year

Stephenson Harwood – Private Client Team of the Year

Eversheds Sutherland – Competition Team of the Year

Pinsent Masons – Energy and Infrastructure Team of the Year

Clifford Chance – Insurance Team of the Year

Stephenson Harwood – Corporate Team of the Year

Kirkland & Ellis – Private Equity Team of the Year

DLA Piper – Real Estate Team of the Year

GQ Employment Law – Boutique Law Firm of the Year

Denise Gibson, Allen & Overy – Lawyer of the Year

Weil, Gotshal & Manges – CSR Programme of the Year

William Fry – International Firm of the Year

Kendra James, Financial Times – Rising Star In-House Counsel of the Year

Dan Fitz, BT – GC of the Year

The Carlyle Group – In-House Team of the Year

Glen Atchison, Harbottle Lewis – Management Partner of the Year

Kirkland & Ellis – US Law Firm of the Year

F-Lex – Legal Innovator of the Year

Squire Patton Boggs – Legal Technology Team of the Year

Shoosmiths – National/Regional Law Firm of the Year

Fieldfisher – Law Firm of the Year

Legal Business

‘Clients want greater choice’: Fieldfisher’s Condor spreads wings through Integreon deal

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Innovation Fieldfisher

A year since its much-touted launch, Fieldfisher’s alternative legal services platform Condor has agreed a partnership with pioneering legal outsourcer Integreon.

Launched in January 2017, Condor is a division of LB100 pacesetter Fieldfisher that offers clients a flexible package of process-efficient services. Among those on offer are contract negotiation outsourcing, contract automation and AI and robotics.

The partnership with Integreon, a long-established player in the alternative legal services sphere that has worked with firms including Allen & Overy and CMS in the past, allows Condor to significantly increase its work capacity and offer clients lower prices.

Condor chief Christopher Georgiou told Legal Business: ‘What clients want is better price efficiency and greater choice. One of the other understated things they want is trust and confidence in delivery. Integreon has a lot of history in this space, so we enhance each other’s brands.’

Georgiou also highlighted the multilingual ability that Integreon brings to the table, offering services in more than 50 languages.  ‘Clients often ask us on those multijurisdictional projects what language capabilities we have’, he says.

Integreon marks the fourth partnership Condor has entered into since its inception. When the service launched last January, it announced a tie-up with eClerx, a leading Indian business process outsourcer.

In October that year, Condor expanded to South Africa, via a partnership with tech-based legal services provider Cognia Law.

Most recently, in November, Condor joined up with Donaldson Legal Consulting, a Belfast-based financial markets contract negotiation team.

The innovative piece has received considerable endorsement from Fieldfisher’s senior figures since its introduction, with managing partner Michael Chissick telling Legal Business last year that client interest in the division has been ‘phenomenal’.

Condor has grown rapidly since its launch, generating around £2m for 2017/18. According to the firm, the service has already attracted ‘six leading bank clients.’

tom.baker@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Disputes round-up: Burford launches insurance business while Fieldfisher spin-off begins £100m unequal pay claim

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Disputes Burford CapitalFieldfisher

Disputes funder Burford Capital is launching a separate insurance company to cover clients’ adverse costs risk, while Fieldfisher’s consumer-led litigation spinoff Roscoe Reid is beginning a potential £100m equal pay claim against retail giant Morrisons.

In other market news, the Law Society has voiced concerns over reforms proposed by the Disclosure Working Group (DWG) to combat voluminous disclosure.

Burford Worldwide Insurance is being touted as closing a gap in the market. The funder argues that it is difficult in the current insurance market to gain cover once adverse costs exposure approaches £20m, a likely outcome in larger, more complex claims.

Burford Worldwide Insurance is expected to have full regulatory approval ‘imminently’, and will receive financial backing from the funder considerable balance sheet. Burford generated more profit in the first half of 2017 than any full year in its history, with total income rising 130% to $175.5m.

Hausfeld litigation partner Lianne Craig told Legal Business: ‘There is a gap in the market, many insurers don’t want to insure in excess of £10m per case and this can lead to complexities where you are looking for cover above that. There is also increasingly an appetite for funders to deal “in-house” with the insurance aspects of a case. This feels like a natural next step to me.’

Other disputes partners have also seen the benefit, as one said: ‘What Burford is offering is relatively new. If you go to any of the other funders, they will usually say they’ve only got between two and five million pounds behind them to cover adverse costs. They don’t have in-house insurance.’

Shepherd and Wedderburn’s Guy Harvey is unsurprisingly supportive of the new business, given his firm’s  ‘substantial, eight-figure’ litigation financing deal it signed with Burford last year. He observed: ‘International arbitration usually involves big sums. I don’t know exactly how many cases there are over the year, but there must be a three-figure number of cases where it amounts to these kinds of numbers. It’s increasingly not unusual in big ticket litigation.’

Meanwhile, Roscoe Reid, an entity set up by Fieldfisher in January to act on consumer-led litigation, is pursuing a potential £100m claim against Morrisons.

The action relates to the alleged difference in pay between the predominantly female workers on Morrisons shop floors and the typically male workers in the grocer’s distribution centres.

Jonathan Hofstetter, who is spearheading the claim, told Legal Business that Roscoe Reid has already attracted 300 claimants. The firm is expecting to spend the rest of the year drawing more to the group, with Hofstetter estimating around 20,000 in total.

‘There’s a lot of momentum to redress this unfairness, which has happened over many years. We believe there has been historical pay differentials between men and women from anywhere between £1.80 and £2.80 an hour, which is very significant.’

Elsewhere, the Law Society has argued that new disclosure reforms should be limited to only cases valued at more than £500,000.

The reforms, drafted last November by a group of lawyers, judges and clients that make up the DWG, suggested scrapping the standard regime in favour of ‘basic’ and ‘extended’ approaches. The proposed system will default to the basic disclosure, which involves parties producing only the key documents necessary to the case. Extended disclosure will be granted at the judge’s discretion.

In a statement, the Law Society said: ‘We have expressed some concern that perceived issues relating to disclosure may exist only in high-value commercial litigation. With that in mind, we have suggested that the working group may wish to consider whether there are existing powers the court could exercise in relation to disclosure.’

The Society also noted that the time and effort required to implement the new regime would put more pressure on the judiciary, which is described as ‘already overstretched.’

tom.baker@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Who Represents Who: Firms that will be affected by the fall of Carillion

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Corporate Addleshaw GoddardClarks LegalClyde & CoDLA PiperEversheds SutherlandFBC Manby BowdlerFieldfisherIrwin MitchellKennedysLinklatersPinsent MasonsRPCSacker & PartnersSlaughter and May

For more information on Who Represents Who, contact:
David Burgess,
Publishing Director, The Legal 500
legal500.com/wrw
david.burgess@legal500.com

Legal Business

Rich rewards on offer – Fieldfisher accounts show top earnings soar over £2m as profits surge

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Financial results 2017 Fieldfisher

It has become established in recent years as one of the most potent performers in the UK top 50 but recent accounts illustrate just how much that means for a select few partners at Fieldfisher. Most strikingly, on the back of a year of substantial financial and geographic growth, Fieldfisher’s top-earning partner took home over £2m for the period, a 70% increase on the previous figure.

According to the filings with Companies House, Fieldfisher’s highest-paid partner earned £2.03m for the 2016/17 financial year, a £837,000 increase on the previous year’s tally of £1.19m.

Fieldfisher’s partnership earnings currently range between £230,000 and £2.03m, though the majority of equity partners earn between £300,000 and £800,000, with allocations being reviewed on an annual basis. Discussing the firm’s model in Legal Business’ latest cover feature, managing partner Michael Chissick (pictured, right, with senior partner Matthew Lohn) said: ‘It’s merit-based, not eat-what-you-kill. If a partner has a tough time, we support that partner.’

The accounts also show that key management personnel, defined as Fieldfisher’s executive committee and supervisory board, received £11.7m for the year, up 20% from £9.8m for 2015/16.

The LLP filing, published in late December, also showed that the total number of staff at the top 50 UK law firm increased from 597 to 647, with staff costs increasing from £35.6m to £42.5m accordingly. This included 360 fee earners. Operating profit also saw a sharp increase of 35%, from £51.5m to £69.9m. The firm generated revenues of £145.7m, up from last year’s reported figure of £123m. Fieldfisher’s total announced income for 2016/17 was higher at £165m thanks to several foreign businesses falling outside the LLP structure.

Fieldfisher has been in expansive form in recent years, adding a host of international members to its verein. This includes the firm’s Italian presence, which expanded to five offices with a new Bologna outpost opened in July 2017.

The firm also added a five-partner Amsterdam branch to its verein in February 2017, after hiring a team from local TMT specialist Kennedy Van der Laan.

According to other recent LLP filings, the 13-strong executive leadership team at Magic Circle firm Clifford Chance (CC) took home £16m for the financial year. Geographical revenue breakdown showed revenue was up in all areas for CC, with Asia Pacific seeing the greatest growth, rising 23% from £224m to £276m.

tom.baker@legalease.co.uk

For more on how firms like Fieldfisher have outpaced larger City rivals see Legal Business’ latest cover feature, Reversal of fortunes (£)

Legal Business

Mid-pack pacesetters go early with half-year financials as performance matches expectations

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Financial results 2017 FieldfisherWatson Farley and Williams

Two of this year’s best-performing mid-pack firms in the Legal Business 100 (LB100), Watson Farley & Williams (WFW) and Fieldfisher, have continued their run of impressive form with their half-year 2017/18 results.

After quietly establishing itself as one of the strongest firms in the last financial year, WFW recorded a 13% jump in its 2017/18 half-year revenues. Turnover for the first six months of the financial year to 31 October grew to £76.1m, up from £67.6m the previous year. WFW co-managing partner Chris Lowe argued that the strong result was ‘clear evidence of the success of our industry sector-focused model despite a challenging macro-economic environment’.