Legal Business

After Travers defeat, Linklaters faces discrimination claim by former paralegal

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Legal regulation LinklatersTravers Smith
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Linklaters is being sued by a former paralegal for unfair dismissal and discrimination just weeks after top 50 law firm Travers Smith was found to have discriminated against a former trainee because she had fallen pregnant.

The case against Linklaters started today (10 June) in the London Central Employment Tribunal and the hearing is scheduled to run for six days.The claim is for unfair dismissal, discrimination, racial discrimination, religious discrimination and breach of contract, according to the tribunal listing. The tribunal lists the name of the claimant as Mr A Hussain and is being heard by Employment Judge Pearl.

Hussain has instructed Laura McHugh at JMW Solicitors with Kashif Ali of St Johns Buildings acting as counsel. Linklaters is being advised by Lewis Silkin associate Shalina Crossley with Amy Sander of Essex Court Chambers instructed as counsel.

The case comes after the same tribunal in May found Travers Smith had discriminated against former trainee Katie Tantum, represented at the tribunal by Leigh Day & Co, by refusing her a place at the firm after she fell pregnant.

In that case, the tribunal found that partners Julian Bass and Andrew King artificially reduced the number of places available in real estate from two to one as a result of the pregnancy.

In 2011 the Legal Services Board (LSB) announced plans to force law firms and barristers’ chambers to publish their diversity figures, including the gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity and educational background of their lawyers.

Linklaters was one of the first major UK law firm to publish its diversity data on the LSB website. Reporting became compulsory in December 2012.

Employment claims against major law firms remain relatively rare, despite mounting focus in recent years on the general lack of diversity in the legal profession.

Linklaters declined to comment.

caroline.hill@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Leadership: Linklaters elects four new partners to its most senior board

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Leadership Linklaters
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Linklaters has elected four new members to its most senior governance board responsible for strategic and other major decisions at the Magic Circle Firm.

The new members of the international board are London capital markets partner Paul Lewis in place of outgoing City partner Michael Kent, Düsseldorf corporate partner Klaus Hoenig who takes over from Frankfurt partner Eva Reudelhuber, Moscow capital markets partner Dmitry Dobatkin in place of retired former Moscow colleague John Goodwin, and Antwerp corporate partner Jean-Pierre Blumberg in place of Brussels-based litigation head Francoise Lefevre.

The board is led by senior partner Robert Elliott as chairman and managing partner Simon Davies in a non-voting capacity. A total of 14 elected partners represent the geographic and practice spread of the firm.

Other members include Alain Garnier representing France, Wolfgang Krauel for Germany, Alberto Luzarraga from the Americas, Teresa Ma from Asia, Davide Menacci representing South Europe and London partners William Buckley, Ian Karet, Greg Reid, Tom Shropshire and Nick Syson representing the corporate, commercial and finance departments.

The official term for an international board member is three years and new appointments take place in three tranches so that the make-up of the board changes every year. According to Syson, this staggered approach means ‘you always get continuity’ rather than the entire board changing every three years. Partners are able to serve two three-year terms.

Previous members include corporate rainmaker Charlie Jacobs and banking partner David Eriera who stepped down last year.

The board appoints the members of Linklaters executive committee (Excom), which is responsible for the day-to-day management of the firm. Excom is chaired by Davies and includes Linklaters most senior lawyers, including managing partner for Europe Pieter Riemer, regional managing partner for the Americas John Turnbull, managing partner for Asia Stuart Salt and EEMEA managing partner Sandeep Katwala.

david.stevenson@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Global London rises – Sullivan & Cromwell signs up Linklaters partner for finance push

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US LinklatersSullivan & Cromwell
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After years of conservative City growth, further signs emerge this week of Wall Street’s finest pushing into mainstream UK work with Sullivan & Cromwell recruiting Linklaters banking and restructuring partner Chris Howard.

The high-profile hire will be seen as a significant boost to Sullivan’s English practice in restructuring, distressed M&A and finance. Howard will advise international corporations, banks and financial sponsors on corporate restructurings and financings throughout Europe, the Middle East and the US.

The well-regarded Howard joins the US law firm after hopping between the Magic Circle for over a decade; previously, he joined Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer as a partner in 2004 from Linklaters, where he was a senior associate. He then rejoined Linklaters in 2010 as a partner in the London banking team.

He recently acted for Carlyle on the financing of the £1bn acquisition of RAC as well as advising on the leveraged buy-out of DFS and representing Carphone Warehouse on its £1bn de-merger facilities. Other clients include Lloyds Banking Group, Royal Bank of Scotland, BNP Paribas and HSBC.

Sullivan has been edging further into City work, having in recent years hired high profile corporate finance partners Tim Emmerson and Presley Warner, respectively from Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy and Freshfields. The firm’s closest New York rival Davis Polk & Wardwell last year signalled its move into UK law with the hire of Freshfields corporate partner Simon Witty.

Despite US firms’ rising international ambitions, Magic Circle rivals will be relieved that elite Wall Street firms move slowly. In 2007 Sullivan had 70 lawyers in its City arm. By 2012, that figure had fallen to 64.

jaishree.kalia@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Old normal update – Linklaters outpaces Slaughters to hike starting associate pay by £2,500

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Salaries LinklatersSlaughter and May
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A further reminder comes this week that despite much talk of the pressure on the legal market (see Comment: Things I would have said about the future of law if I hadn’t forgotten my notes), leading City players continue to be highly profitable with Linklaters announcing on Tuesday (7 May) that it is raising its salary bands for associates.

The move sees Linklaters increase newly-qualified pay from £61,500 to £64,000. Year one post-qualification experience (PQE) associates see a more modest £500 rise to £69,500. Years two and three PQE respectively earn £78,250 and £89,000, a rise of £2,250 and £1,000. Trainees see a £500 rise, increasing in seat one to £39,500.

The rises put Linklaters just ahead of magic circle rival Slaughter and May, which last week announced modest increases to its underlying pay bands.

The review is separate to the annual increases in pay associates gain as they move up the qualification ‘ladder’. Linklaters also operates a bonus scheme for ‘exceptional’ performance. The rises at Linklaters and Slaughters underline expectations that most City firms will agree modest increases in associate pay in 2013 after three years in which market rates for associates have largely been frozen.

Salaries for City associates have fallen around 15% in real terms since 2009, when many firms effectively dropped the salary for newly-qualified lawyers from around £66,000 to £60,000 in response to the banking crisis.

While some voices have argued that junior associates are over-paid given the prolonged slump in Western economies, pressure remains on leading City firms given the higher compensation on offer at the UK arms of many US rivals.

One solution to this tension firms have hit upon is bringing in a stronger element of discretionary promotion to associate progression and pay, a shift from the traditional ‘associate lockstep’ model in which lawyers are paid strictly on years of post-qualification experience.

While that trend is set to continue, and City firms continue to modestly downsize their UK intakes in response to the sullen domestic economy, pay for those lucky enough to gain a training contract is likely to be maintained or modestly increase in the years ahead.

alex.novarese@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Clifford Chance and Linklaters make most of their partner promotions in Europe

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Partnership promotions Clifford ChanceLinklaters
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Partner promotions continue apace with Magic Circle firms Clifford Chance (CC) and Linklaters the latest to announce their numbers, the majority of which are in Europe.

CC welcomed 20 new lawyers to its partnership, with three-quarters of those promotions spread across Europe, while Linklaters promoted 24 partners, of which 19 were in Europe.

CC announced five London based promotions, namely corporate lawyers Tom Evans and Nick Hughes, finance partners Peter Dahlen and Oliver Hipperson and litigator Maxine Mossman.

Half of CC’s total promotions were spread across the firm’s central European offices with three in Paris, two each in Madrid and Frankfurt and one apiece in Düsseldorf, Milan and Amsterdam. Three lawyers were made up in Asia, one in the US and one in Saudi Arabia.

The number of promotions is down from 27 in 2012, bringing the total to 589 partners.

CC managing partner David Childs said: ‘Many of this year’s new partners have demonstrated a strong commitment to supporting the growth of the firm’s offering internationally, including leading development efforts in a wide range of markets beyond their “home” office, into Scandinavia, the Middle East, Latin America and South East Asia.

‘This international mindset is at the heart of our firm’s culture and it is very pleasing to see our principles so clearly embodied in these individuals.’

Linklaters, meanwhile elected six new London partners – Stuart Boyd and Savi Hebbur in mainstream corporate, litigators Ben Carroll and Harriet Ellis, Edward Aldred in banking and Timothy Lowe in tax.

In Europe promotions were spread across Paris, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Brussels, Amsterdam, Madrid, Warsaw, Lisbon and Moscow. The remaining five were in Beijing, Hong Kong and Dubai, with two in New York.

Linklaters’ chairman and senior partner Robert Elliott said: ‘These promotions underline our commitment to invest in our global practices in order to enhance the breadth and depth of expertise we offer our clients.’

Promotions at both firms will take effect from 1 May 2013.

Meanwhile, Lawrence Graham has announced three partner promotions – the same as last year – with two in London and one in Monaco. Since March 2012 nine new partners have joined the firm from Bird & Bird, Herbert Smith, Linklaters and Stephenson Harwood. Most recently private capital partner Zac Lucas joined the Singapore office in February from Ogier.

Elsewhere Watson Farley & Williams has promoted four partners, Jahnavi Ramachandran and Kavita Shah in asset finance in London, and Ahmad Khonsari and Daniel Marhewka in the corporate department in Munich.

jaishree.kalia@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Commerzbank loses bankers’ bonuses appeal

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Litigation CommerzbankLinklaters
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Commerzbank has today (26 April) lost its appeal in its high-profile four-year battle over unpaid bankers’ bonuses – one of the largest cases against a bank to run since the credit crunch.

Represented by Linklaters, Germany’s second largest bank will have to pay €52m to 104 London-based bankers, unless it obtains leave to appeal to the Supreme Court.

Stewarts Law head of commercial litigation Clive Zietman represented 83 of the claimants, alongside 4 Pump Court’s Nigel Tozzi QC. Mark Levine, employment partner at Mishcon de Reya, and Andrew Hochhauser QC acted for the remaining 21. Commerzbank turned to Linklaters employment partner Nicola Rabson, instructing Matrix Chambers’ Thomas Linden QC.

All three judges at the Court of Appeal – Lord Justice Maurice Kay, Lord Justice Elias and Lord Justice Beatson – upheld an earlier High Court decision that Commerzbank had breached its contractual obligations by failing to pay retention awards promised to Dresdner Kleinwort (now part of Commerzbank) employees.

Commerzbank, when it took over Dresdner in 2009, claimed the bonus promises were not bound by law. This was despite a verbal announcement made by Dresdner Kleinwort’s, chief executive officer Stefan Jentzsch for its investment banking division in April 2008, which claimed there was a guaranteed minimum bonus pool of €400m for that year.

The retention pool was formally approved at a board meeting where members clarified that revenues of an estimated €2.3bn formed the basis of a €400m cash pool.

 

Zietman said: ‘This is not just a victory for my clients. It is a triumph for common sense and for some very well established principles of English contract law. It is a great pity that the bank saw fit to contest so vigorously and for so long, a case that could so easily have been avoided.’

 

Kingsley Napley employment law partner Andreas White commented: ‘Given the huge sums at stake, Commerzbank is bound to attempt an appeal to the Supreme Court, but the bank’s patience with employment litigation may be wearing thin.’

The bank also lost the employment tribunal case against former employee Latifa Bouabdillah earlier this month, who was dismissed after not informing the bank about suing her previous employer and rival Deutsche Bank for discrimination. jaishree.kalia@legalease.co.uk

 

 

 

Legal Business

Love the legacy but it’s time for renewal

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Comment Linklaters
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Tony Angel and the cute teddy bear next to him greeted me as I found my new desk – a Legal Business cover from 2003 and a personal favourite, a brilliant dissection of Linklaters’ painful reinvention as metric-driven world-beater. I soon dug out other classics, including the 2009 Icarus-themed investigation into pre-collapse Halliwells and the crumpled Hammonds cigarette packet illustrating a 2005 piece on the national player’s strained finances.

Legal Business

Davis Polk and Linklaters win landmark Lehman settlement

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Litigation Davis Polk & WardwellLinklaters
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Linklaters and Davis Polk & Wardwell have won a settlement agreement in the long-running Lehman Brothers bankruptcy that ‘unlocks’ $9bn of assets and sees them returned to the bank’s customers.

Linklaters acted for administrators PwC, an instruction the firm has enjoyed since Lehman collapsed in 2008, on all English law matters.

The Magic Circle firm has fielded a large team acting for PwC, including restructuring partners David Ereira, Tony Bugg and Richard Holden in London and litigation partner James Warnot in New York.

Legal Business

Insolvency teams line up on high-profile failures

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Finance Linklaters
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With HMV, Jessops and Blockbuster all entering into administration in the first few weeks of 2013, leading City firms have scored significant instructions.

Linklaters is involved in the administration of HMV, with restructuring and insolvency partners Richard Hodgson and Richard Bussell taking the lead. Linklaters had also been advising the lenders, The Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group, to HMV Group since the beginning of 2011 and banking partner Chris Howard continues to advise the lenders.

Legal Business

Cleary and 2012 GC take top prizes in 2013 Legal Business Awards

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Cleary Gottlieb Steen & HamiltonLinklaters
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Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, Linklaters and London 2012’s Terry Miller were among the key prize-winners at last night’s Legal Business Awards.

Cleary Gottlieb was named Law Firm of the Year from a shortlist including Baker & McKenzie, Bristows, Clifford Chance, Clyde & Co, RPC and Travers Smith. The Wall Street leader was singled out for a truly outstanding year, combining cutting-edge mandates such as Greece’s sovereign bond restructuring and advising Rosneft on its $55bn acquisition of TNK-BP, while posting the highest five-year growth rate of any elite global law firm.

In one of the most popular awards of the night LOCOG general counsel Terry Miller won the title of Lawyer of the Year for her work on London’s internationally-lauded 2012 Olympics.

Telefónica UK, meanwhile, was named In-House Team of the Year. Reinforcing a notable night for corporate counsel, the awards also saw the launch of Legal Business’s GC Powerlist, an annual appraisal of the most influential UK and international lawyers at the in-house Bar.

The awards, now in its 16th year, was held at London’s Grosvenor House Hotel with nearly a 1,000 guests in attendance.

Other flagship awards saw Bill Drummond pick up the Management Partner of the Year Award, after being elected for a sixth term as head of Brodies, while TLT was named National/Regional Firm of the year following bold strategic moves into Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Ropes & Gray was named US Firm of the Year after establishing itself a major finance and private equity force in the City. South Africa’s ENS (Edward Nathan Sonnenbergs) was crowned International Firm of the Year for setting out its stall to become the first pan-African law firm.

Among the practice awards, Skadden Arps Meagher & Flom secured Dispute Resolution Team of the Year for the second year running, while Linklaters was named Corporate Team of the Year and Clifford Chance won Finance Team of the Year.

Mills & Reeve won the award for Real Estate Team of the Year, while Herbert Smith Freehills took home Competition Team of the Year.

Other winners included Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, which won the award for CSR Programme of the Year, CMS, which won Energy & Natural Resources Team of the Year and O’Melveny & Myers, which picked up Private Equity Team of the Year.

For a full list of winners and shortlisted firms, click here.

mark.mcateer@legalease.co.uk This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.