Legal Business

Freshfields loses another Paris partner as Norton Rose Fulbright takes tax specialist

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Strategic recruitment Freshfields Bruckhaus DeringerNorton Rose Fulbright
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Norton Rose Fulbright (NRF) has made a key appointment with tax partner Antoine Colonna d’lstria from Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer moving to its Paris office.

A member of the Paris Bar, Colonna d’lstria spent 16 years at the Magic Circle firm. He predominantly advises French and multinational groups as well as investment funds.

Recommended by The Legal 500, Colonna d’lstria has been involved in a number of transactions across Europe in recent years, particularly in the real estate, M&A, refinancing and restructuring sectors, as well as tax audits and litigation.

Colonna d’lstria’s departure follows a four-partner team exit from the firm’s Paris office to Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe last month. Corporate partner Patrick Tardivy, finance partners Emmanuel Ringeval and Herve Touraine and Paris employment head Emmanuel Benard all exited the firm.

For NRF, it follows the April hire of corporate partner Christophe Asselineau in Paris from Shearman & Sterling where he headed the Africa Group.

NRF head of tax for Europe, Middle East, Asia and Brazil Dominic Stuttaford said: ‘Our European tax practice continues to grow with Antoine’s appointment, which is the fourth to our team in the last eighteen months. Tax is an increasingly important issue for multinational companies and is a key consideration in a business’ overall risk profile. Antoine will add further depth and capability to our practice.’

George Paterson, head of the NRF Paris office, added: ‘Antoine’s appointment is great news for our Parisian team. His practice spans a number of key industry strength areas for the firm that will build on our existing experience. Antoine will be a great asset to our corporate and real estate practice in particular.’

sarah.downey@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Bumper pay hike for newly qualifieds at Freshfields as firm folds bonus into salary

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Salaries Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer
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Newly qualified solicitors at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer have an extra £17,500 in their pay packets this year after the firm announced it has folded a discretionary bonus into NQ salaries from 1 May.

The firm has boosted the amount NQs will receive, with their pay set to rise to 26% to £85,000 on last year’s figure of £67,500. However, the significant increase means NQs are no longer eligible for a discretionary bonus as this is now included in salaries. The firm noted the new structure exceeds the amount the previous salary and a bonus would draw for NQs. Earlier this week, Slaughter and May announced that it had increased NQ pay by 2% to £71,500.

In March, Linklaters announced its NQs could take home at least £81,000 including bonus, with high performers on average earning £91,000. This is up on the basic £68,500 salary newly-qualified lawyers at Linklaters earned last year.

Trainees at Freshfields will now be paid £500 a year more than Slaughters, with the firm also announcing a 5% increase in first-year trainee salaries from £41,000 to £43,000 while year two trainees will receive £48,000, a £2,000 increase (+4%).

The firm has also unveiled pay increases for junior associates. Those with one year’s post-qualified experience (PQE) sit within the same pay band as NQs – its ‘career milestone foundation’ (CMF) level and will also not receive a bonus, while those with two and three year’s PQE, who fall within its career milestone (CM1) band, will see pay rising to between £105,000 and £115,000, up from £87,500 and £100,000.

In addition to the salary changes, the firm also announced today (6 May) it would enable its fee-earners to work on an agile basis for up to 20% of their time.

London managing partner Julian Long said the firm’s ability to attract and retain talented lawyers is critical to its success.

‘Our combination of high-quality work, client interaction and global platform mean that our trainees and associates experience an outstanding start to their career,’ Long said. ‘Obviously we should not underestimate the need to be competitive with regards to pay in our market; we believe that making changes across the board for our trainees and associates maintains our strong position as one of the most attractive firms in the market.’

madeleine.farman@legalease.co.uk

Freshfields pay increases in full:

Year one trainee: £43,000 (increased from £41,000) +5%

Year two trainee: £48,000 (increased from £46,000) +4%

CMF (NQs and one-year PQE): £85,000 (increased from £67,500) +26%

CM1 (2 and 3 years’ PQE): between £105,000 and £115,000 (increased from between £87,500 and £100,000) +15-20%


Legal Business

News in brief – May 2016

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Baker McKenzieFreshfields Bruckhaus Deringer
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FRESHFIELDS PLANS VANCOUVER HUB

After launching a nearshoring office in Manchester, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer is planning to open another outpost in Vancouver, Canada. The office is set to cover a range of business services roles. The firm is looking to hire at least 20 legal services employees to launch the office.

Legal Business

Freshfields fee fallout: Government to consider capped fee contracts after Eurostar controversy

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Corporate Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer
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The UK government will explore the use of capped fee contracts for legal work following a report into the £2.8m legal fees charged by Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer after it advised HM Treasury on the sale of Eurostar International.

The firm advised the government during the £585.1m sale of its 40% stake in Eurostar in March last year.

The Committee of Public Accounts (CPA) found the government relied heavily on external advisers and its investments sector ‘needs to improve its understanding of the costs and value of this work’.

Responding to the CPA’s recommendations last month, the government confirmed that ‘where appropriate, [it] will seek capped fees although this will be dependent on the detail of the individual project and the negotiated commercial contract between the government and advisory firms.

The government confirmed it would also seek to require firms to transfer skills to its in-house teams ‘wherever possible and practical, to reduce dependence on external resources in future assignments’.

A report carried out by the National Audit Office in November last year said HM Treasury was ‘concerned about the cost of the legal work and considered re-procuring the legal adviser during the sale process but it decided that a change of legal team midway through the process would have been inefficient and problematic due to the time-critical nature of the work.’

Freshfields’ fees were charged on a billed-time basis rather than a fixed fee, and the legal cost for an internal transfer of shares from the Department for Transport (DfT) to the Treasury was £500,000.

The adviser fees in total and other costs related to the transaction totalled £8.2m, which amounted to 1% of the proceeds of the 40% stake in Eurostar and the preference share. Financial adviser UBS was paid around £3.6m.

The government agreed to sell its share in Eurostar to winning bidder Patina Rail – a consortium made up of a Canadian investment fund, and UK based Hermes Infrastructure.

madeleine.farman@legalease.co.uk

 

Legal Business

Revolving Doors: Freshfields, Dentons and Pinsents make key hires as Uber and Callcredit build in-house teams

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Strategic recruitment DentonsFreshfields Bruckhaus DeringerPinsent Masons
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Following a string of seven recent hires to its Advanced Manufacturing and Technology (AMT) sector, Pinsent Masons has boosted its corporate team with the appointment of TMT specialist Andrew McMillan to its AMT sector. Previously head of Simmons & Simmons TMT practice, McMillan brings experience in advising TMT corporates, investment banks and private equity houses on in-sector mergers and acquisitions and high-value commercial contracts.

In bar news, 39 Essex Chambers has welcomed Sian Davies and Edmund Townsend to the set. Called to the bar in 1999, Davies joins the set from Cornerstone Barristers. She specialises in a full range of public law matters including adult social service, children services, housing, immigration & asylum, EU law and Court of Protection. Civil law barrister Townsend joins 39 Essex from Farrar’s Building Chambers. Although he specialises in personal injury and insurance, Townsend undertakes work for both claimants and defendants across the spectrum of chambers’ practice areas.

In-house teams are not exempt from this week’s round up of hires. Callcredit Information Group has announced Colin Rutter as its chief risk officer and general counsel (GC). Previously GC at Experian Rutter said he was looking forward to joining the credit reference agency and consumer data management specialist which he believes will provide him with a new leadership challenge. Callcredit CEO Mike Gordon described Rutter as a ‘valuable asset’ to its leadership team. ‘With a distinguished legal career that includes extensive commercial, legal, compliance, risk, government affairs and regulatory experience working in the credit reference industry both in the UK and overseas markets, Colin will provide critical guidance as we look to double the business over the next five years and expand into international markets.’

Meanwhile, Uber has hired former DLA Piper commercial litigator Helen Fletcher to its team as its senior compliance and litigation counsel. With over ten years’ experience at the firm, Fletcher will bring her experience in complex IT disputes, with significant experience in high value public sector IT contracts.

In international appointments, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has hired one of the US Department of Justice’s (USDoJ) leading international white-collar prosecutors, Daniel Braun, who was most recently the deputy chief of the USDoJ’s fraud section of the criminal division. Braun will focus on the defense of investigations into alleged market misconduct and collusion, foreign bribery and corruption and economic sanctions and related issues for public companies and financial institutions for the firm. Freshfields global head of dispute resolution David Scott said: ‘Dan’s arrival is a wonderful addition to the leading regulatory enforcement team we have been building across the US, London, Europe and Asia. Our outstanding range of recent assignments that straddle multiple jurisdictions reflects our global clients’ demand for an integrated one-firm approach to handling their biggest and most complex challenges.’

Still in the US, Dentons has added former Pinsent Masons partner Meriam Alrashid to its New York office. The international arbitration lawyer will expand Dentons’ capabilities to counsel clients in complex disputes across key geographic markets. Alrashid has served as counsel in international disputes and transactions involving parties from nearly 20 countries across Asia, the Middle East, Europe, Africa and North America. Dentons US managing partner Mike McNamara said: ‘Meriam’s experience in guiding clients through international investment disputes expands our capabilities as a leading international arbitration firm and builds upon our goal to strategically grow our exceptional team of award-winning international arbitrators in key regions.’

Fladgate has appointed Russia specialist and dispute resolution partner Eugene Matveichuk. Joining from Osborne Clarke, Matveichuk specialises in advising entrepreneurs, high net wealth individuals and corporates from Russia and the CIS on their international interests. The firm’s chairman Charles Wander said: ‘His extensive experience of advising businesses and individuals from Russia and the CIS will add gravitas to our growing capability in this field while his considerable expertise in dispute resolution will enhance our existing high profile in this area.’

madeleine.farman@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Report hits out at Freshfields and SRA involvement in ScottishPower scandal

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Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer
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Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) have been criticised in a parliamentary report into ScottishPower’s ‘cashback guarantee’ scandal.

A report by an all-party Parliamentary group chaired by Andrew Percy MP, said that the warranty scheme was ‘effectively a fraud on the public’. When the scheme collapsed customers lost out on a collective estimated £75m.

The report states Freshfields had worked with Scottish Power to ‘foster misinformation’ about the cashback promise to 625,000 customers.

The report said: ‘In essence ScottishPower were lying about their liability so that they could secure the best deal for them. This group is shocked that a major utility and prominent law firm could act in such a way when the money belonging to 625,000 defenceless consumers was at stake.’

The group also found both Freshfields and Scottish Power’s behaviour ‘very concerning’, and accused Freshfields of applying pressure during the sale of guarantee contracts to now defunct company, Powerhouse.

The report said: ‘One letter from Freshfields appears to use strong arm tactics, at one point suggesting that if Powerhouse collapsed under the pressure, ScottishPower could always come to the aid of customers on a “White Knight” basis.’

According to the report, the SRA threw out a complaint made by the founder of the campaign group Scottish Power Broken Promises, Alan Campbell. The SRA concluded Freshfields could not be said to have lied to regulators.

However, the MPs criticised the finding in the report, stating: ‘Though the SRA’s reasoning on this issue may be technically correct, it only exemplifies the backward logic applied to this entire scandal. The SRA are effectively saying that no-one can be proven to have lied about the liability for the Cashback Promise until a court has ruled either way.’

Freshfields would not comment on the report but said in a statement: ‘The SRA concluded after careful consideration of the evidence that there was no misconduct on the part of Freshfields, and decided they will not be taking any further action.’

An SRA spokesperson said: ‘We now have a copy of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on the Scottish Power Cashback Mis-selling report and are looking at the detail. We have not been asked to meet with the APPG or contribute to their enquiry, but we are always happy to provide information on how we work.’

victoria.young@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Freshfields and Gibson Dunn lead on $1.4bn Canadian miner battle with Venezuela

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Litigation Freshfields Bruckhaus DeringerGibson, Dunn & Crutcher
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Ranked as seasoned players on the most lucrative cases, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher have landed key instructions on a $1.38bn bilateral treaty arbitration taken against Venezuela by Canadian miner Crystallex International at the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID).

Toronto-headquartered Crystallex instigated the claim at ICSID in 2011 after the country denied an environmental permit for the Las Cristinas mining project, located in the south east region, despite Crystallex’s $1.2bn investment at that stage.

Crystallex is represented by Freshfields partner Nigel Blackaby, while the company is represented in a separate Delaware action by Gibson Dunn partner Robert Weigel, as well as Raymond DiCamillo, Jeffrey Moyer and Travis Hunter of Richards Layton & Finger. Venezuela was represented by US firm Foley Hoag.

In early April, an arbitral tribunal presided over by arbitrator Laurent Levy found the country had violated a bilateral treaty with Canada when it reneged on the expected mining permits and subsequently breached two articles of the investment treaty with its unfair and inequitable treatment and unlawful expropriation of the company’s investments. The court awarded the claimant roughly $1.38bn in damages which comprises $1.2bn for damages, plus pre and post-award interest.

The tribunal criticised Venezuela’s Ministry of the Environment for its ‘arbitrary’ and ‘non-transparent and inconsistent conduct’ in connection with its denial of an environmental permit.

The court further held it ‘cannot but conclude that the permit denial letter and [a report] on which the first appears to be based are so fundamentally deficient that, to the eyes of a reasonable third person, they surprise a sense of juridical propriety.’

The tribunal concluded the State had ‘frustrated Crystallex’s legitimate expectations and concluded Venezuela’s ‘overall conduct vis-à-vis Crystallex, thus violated the [Treaty] standard … and caused all of the investments made by Crystallex to become worthless.’

sarah.downey@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Freshfields European exits continue as four partner Paris team gears up to join Orrick

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Europe Freshfields Bruckhaus DeringerOrrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe
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Partners from Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer continue to exit the firm’s European offices as a four partner team is about to leave the Paris outpost to join Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe.

Corporate partner Patrick Tardivy, finance partners Emmanuel Ringeval and Herve Touraine and Paris employment head Emmanuel Benard are all set to depart from the Magic Circle firm and join Orrick’s Paris outpost Orrick Rambaud Martel in due course.

Orrick has over 100 lawyers in Paris having initially launched its office in 2002 and then expanded in 2006 through a merger with local firm Rambaud Martel, which specialised in M&A and dispute resolution work in France.

A spokesperson at Freshfields said: ‘These partners join a firm with a different platform to ours and with a different strategy. We wish them well. We are delighted with the current momentum that our Paris practice has developed in the market which has been reflected in high profile instructions. We look forward to continuing to deliver to our clients in France and internationally the high level of service they want and expect.’

The news comes within a week of a four-strong team exiting Freshfields’ Hamburg office to launch a boutique called Chatham Partners.

At the end of last year, Freshfields announced it was closing its Cologne office, with the bulk of its staff transferring to the firm’s existing Düsseldorf outpost.

Orrick has been expanding this year, with 13 partners joining the US firm including McDermott Will & Emery’s global head of energy Blake Winburne, and DLA Piper’s co-chair of global and US patent litigation Claudia Frost, as the firm launched a new office in Houston in February.

Orrick declined to comment.

jaishree.kalia@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Freshfields and Linklaters advise as competition issues threaten stock exchange merger

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Competition Freshfields Bruckhaus DeringerLinklaters
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Börse/LSE tie-up raises regulatory concerns

As Europe’s two largest financial market operators, the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and Deutsche Börse, begin their third attempt at a tie-up, concerns have been raised over antitrust issues.

Legal Business

Freshfields and Linklaters take the lead as Glencore disposes of $2.5bn stake in agricultural arm

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Corporate Freshfields Bruckhaus DeringerLinklaters
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Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Linklaters are advising on Glencore’s $2.5bn sale of a 40% stake in Glencore Agricultural Products to Canada’s largest pension fund, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB).

Linklaters advised Glencore with a team led by corporate partner David Avery-Gee, while Freshfields corporate partners David Higgins and Richard Thexton advised CPPIB. Amsterdam managing partner Winfred Knibbeler also advised on the deal for Freshfields.

With the deal having been in the pipeline since last year, the 40% stake values the agricultural business at around $6bn and the sale proceeds will be used to reduce Glencore’s $30bn debt pile. The miner and commodities trader has suffered from a dramatic fall in share value over the past year amid the collapse in world commodity prices linked to China’s economic slowdown.

Glencore and CPPIB have also agreed to an initial four year lock-up period, subject to a carve-out, for Glencore to sell up to a further 20% stake in the business. As well as customary exit provisions, including a right of first refusal, each of Glencore and CPPIB may call for an initial public offering of Glencore Agri after eight years of closing.

Last September Glencore gifted Linklaters with an advisory role on cutting $10.2bn of debt, with corporate heavyweight Charlie Jacobs, who handles the firm’s relationship with Glencore, selected to advise.

Freshfields, meanwhile, previously advised its longstanding client CPPID on its $250m investment in Markit group, another deal on which where Higgins also led. However, Glencore did instruct Freshfields itself last month to sue Colombia over claims the government sought to revoke parts of a coal mining licence.

On the deal, Glencore Agri chief executive Chris Mahoney said: ‘With the investment potential created by this partnership, and given the existing network of high-quality origination, logistics and port assets in key export regions, the business is now well-placed to take advantage of the significant opportunities that are expected to emerge across the sector in the coming years.’

sarah.downey@legalease.co.uk