Legal Business

Taylor Wessing launches data breach app in latest tech push

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In its latest push to provide clients with new technology, Taylor Wessing has launched a data breach mobile app TW:Cyber Response ahead of regulation changes next year.

The app provides practical assistance to help clients prepare for and manage breaches as effectively as possible, to minimise their exposure to regulatory action, litigation risk, and reputational damage. Taylor Wessing has released the product one year before General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) come into effect.

The project is part of the firm’s Global Data Hub which includes in-depth analysis, news updates and events to help clients deal with global data protection law. The GDPR creates EU wide rules for businesses and aims to give EU citizens to better control over their personal data.

Disputes and investigations partner and TW:Cyber Response creator Paul Glass said: ‘It hasn’t been created exclusively because of the GDPR. The genesis of it came from a number of breaches that I worked on last year and seeing the differing reactions of clients to what is effectively a crisis management situation.

Glass (pictured) added: ‘The GDPR is a push on that because you’ve got two primary issues which is potentially much larger fines coming in – 4% of global revenues or up to €20m, whichever is the greater – but you’ve also got much more stringent breech notification obligations and what that means is a lot more breaches will be in the public domain.’

This is not the first piece of technology Taylor Wessing has made available for its clients. The firm created TW:navigate, an AI solution using Rainbird technology for automated analysis of exposure to legislation, and TW:diligence, a proprietary software tool and Intapp for legal workflow automation.

In March it emerged the firm had started working with legal tech provider Brainspace for UK litigation analysis. Taylor Wessing has also made a series of launches using eDiscovery platforms such as Relativity alongside trials of RAVN, Kira, Leverton and Luminance.

The firm has a long established presence in UK innovation hubs such as Cambridge, and in 2011 also opened up a small office to service the UK’s ‘Tech City’ near Shoreditch.

Taylor Wessing has also added several leading practitioners to bulk out its technology offering, hiring Latham & Watkins TMC partner Martin Cotterill last year as well as Bird & Bird corporate technology partner Angus Miln.

While the new ventures show Taylor Wessing pushing forward its New Law efforts, the firm previously shelved its document review business New Street Solutions, bringing the project back in-house after a mooted £5m funding round in 2012.

madeleine.farman@legalease.co.uk

Read more: ‘No more Taylor Who? Flair and a bit of vision take Taylor Wessing to next step but what now?’

Legal Business

Taylor Wessing engages machine learning provider Brainspace for UK disputes

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In a push into disputes innovation, Taylor Wessing has started working with legal tech provider Brainspace for UK litigation analysis.

The firm has been using the Brainspace Discovery platform that uses machine learning to analyse unstructured data and provides visualisations to provide insight into analysed documents, with the tech currently being trialled on a live matter.

The work with Brainspace is the latest legal tech venture by Taylor Wessing, which also been developing its own in-house products through its TW: navigate initiative, such as working with AI provider Rainbird. Rainbird’s tech has been used in close of 2016 for legislation analysis, performing the first pieces of analysis on the Modern Slavery Act.

The firm has also been trialling other leading legal AI tools, including working with Neota Logic to create a client app to analyse Persons with Significant Control Rules changes in April last year.

Taylor Wessing chief operating officer Rachel Reid told Legal Business: ‘Our clients have been hugely engaged with both of these products, they can take control of the actions and really understand what they need to do within their business. It demystifies it to a large extent.’

Taylor Wessing is the second firm to confirm it has been working with Brainspace, with CMS Cameron McKenna launching a new litigation technology business, CMS Evidence, and adopting the technology under disputes head Guy Pendell.

The firm is also currently trialling artificial intelligence due diligence tools such as RAVN, Kira and Luminance as well as real estate tool Leverton.

Taylor Wessing has a long established presence in UK innovation hubs such as Cambridge, and in 2011 also opened up a small office to service the UK’s ‘Tech City’ near Shoreditch.

The firm has also added several leading practitioners to bulk out its technology offering, hiring Latham & Watkins TMC partner Martin Cotterill last year as well as Bird & Bird corporate technology partner Angus Miln.

While the new ventures show Taylor Wessing pushing forward its New Law efforts, the firm previously shelved its document review business New Street Solutions, bringing the project back in-house after a mooted £5m funding round in 2012.

For more on the latest legal AI developments, see ‘The arms race’

Read more: ‘No more Taylor Who? Flair and a bit of vision take Taylor Wessing to next step but what now?’

 

Legal Business

Revolving doors: Taylor Wessing strengthens in Europe as the New York Times appoints new GC

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Taylor Wessing has added to its Warsaw office as 39 Essex Chambers brought in a new arbitrator and the New York Times got a new general counsel this week.

Taylor Wessing announced Pawel Kuglarz as the latest addition to its Warsaw office. Specialising in real estate and restructuring and dispute resolution, Kuglarz joined from Beiten Burkhart/Wolf Theiss, where he worked for over 15 years. Kuglarz is Taylor Wessing’s third appointment in the region in the last four months.

Taylor Wessing CEE managing partner Raimund Cancola said: ‘We have been very successful in pursuing our goal of enhancing our Central and Eastern Europe offering by bringing onboard outstanding lawyers.’

39 Essex Chambers has hired Eversheds of counsel Loretta Malintoppi who will practice as an international arbitrator. She joins chambers from Eversheds where, since 1991, she was a member of the Public International Law and International Arbitration team, first in Paris and then in Singapore since 2012.

The New York Times also appointed its new general counsel (GC) this week in Diane Brayton, as its current top counsel Kenneth Richieri is set to retire at the end of the year.

Brayton has been with the newspaper since 2004, and currently serves as deputy general counsel and corporate secretary, and will take over the new position on 1 January 2017. Prior to the New York Times, she was vice-president and senior counsel at Credit Suisse, having joined from Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton.

Thompson said: ‘Diane’s keen understanding of the legal environment in which The New York Times operates and her broad range of legal and corporate governance expertise make her ideally suited to lead our legal department.

‘She is known across the company not just for her reasoned approach to addressing legal matters but also for her passion for our business and her deeply collaborative spirit. I’m looking forward to continuing what is an already strong partnership.’

georgiana.tudor@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Taylor Wessing guides UK fintech newcomer Nutmeg on latest funding round

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Taylor Wessing has advised UK digital wealth management startup Nutmeg on its latest funding round, the biggest fintech fund raise since the Brexit vote.

Nutmeg raised £30m from Hong Kong financial advisory firm Convoy, bringing the fintech company’s total fundraising to almost £60m.

The firm has acted for Nutmeg since its launch in 2012, advising on funding rounds from Schroders and Balderton Capital. Taylor Wessing corporate technology partner Howard Palmer advised on the funding, with specialist advice from the firm’s head of financial services regulatory group Jonathan Rogers and partner Graham Hann.

Palmer said: ‘We are delighted for Nutmeg on the outcome of this investment, which will further position them as an ambitious and innovative player in the competitive wealth management industry.’

Nutmeg offers a digital wealth management system that allows investments of as little as £500. The startup currently manages around £500m worth of investments for more than 20,000 customers.

In recent years, Taylor Wessing has positioned itself as a leading UK fintech and startup legal adviser, with an office in London’s Tech City and an office in Cambridge.

The firm counts UK startups such as Citymapper among its clients, and added corporate technology partner Angus Miln in March this year from Bird & Bird, who acts for clients such as retail startup Farfetch.

Other firms are eyeing the fintech and startup market, with Simmons & Simmons launching a £100,000 fund to back fintech stars with free legal advice in March this year under partner Angus McLean. The firm has offered free advice to investment platform Alterest Investment Technologies, hourly car-insurance company Cuvva, banking platform RailBank and invoicing firm Tallysticks.

The UK fintech industry is now worth more than £20bn, while UK companies Funding Circle and Transferwise have both achieved £1bn valuation, or ‘unicorn’ status.

matthew.field@legalease.co.uk

To read more on the UK’s growing fintech sector, see ‘Comment: UK’s fintech boom is set to dazzle but advisers are still struggling to respond’

To read more on Taylor Wessing see: ‘No more Taylor Who? Flair and a bit of vision take Taylor Wessing to next step but what now?’

Legal Business

KWM exits continue as German banking head takes team to Taylor Wessing

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Following the resignations of five King & Wood Mallesons (KWM) partners last week, the firm has lost the bulk of its Frankfurt financing team to Taylor Wessing, which takes on five lawyers including two partners. The exits come as the legacy SJ Berwin practice has halted its recapitalisation plans in the face of mounting departures.

KWM’s German head of banking and finance Sabine Schomaker and partner Clemens Nieder will join Taylor Wessing before the end of the year along with of counsel Ulf Gosejacob and two associates.

The partners joined KWM from White & Case in January 2013. Schomaker and her team have been recommended in the European Legal 500 for their ‘excellent level of service’.

The hire brings Taylor Wessing’s German banking and finance practice up to 17 lawyers. German banking and finance head Peter Seemann said: ‘This is a milestone in strengthening out Frankfurt location and expanding our financing practice.’

The Australian-Chinese firm recently lost key European funds partner Sonya Pauls from its Munich office. High-billing Pauls left for Clifford Chance in August. Pauls has more than 20 years’ experience advising European and global fund managers.

In July, K&L Gates opened an office in Munich with a three-lawyer hire from KWM, bringing in investment management partner Hilger von Livonius.

KWM’s European arm has endured a difficult summer of partner exits, a leadership election and a stalled recapitalisation. Just weeks after electing Frankfurt-based Michael Cziesla as EUME senior partner and London-based Tim Bednall as EMUE managing partner the firm saw four key partners announce their resignations last week.

Key private equity partner Michael Halford and former managing partner Rob Day both resigned along with corporate finance partner Andrew Wingfield and Jonathan Pittal.

The firm’s legacy SJ Berwin office halted its recapitalisation plans following the exits. A spokesperson said at the time: ‘In light of these resignations, the firm has paused its recapitalisation programme in EUME (having received commitments for the requested amount of capital) whilst it assesses the financial impact. We anticipate this process will be complete within four weeks.’

matthew.field@legalease.co.uk

Read more: ‘Comment: the moment of truth arrives in the SJ Berwin saga’

Legal Business

Taylor Wessing hires buyout partner in latest London exit for Olswang

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Taylor Wessing has moved to bolster its City buyout practice with the hire of a partner from Olswang in the latest in a string of departures from the City media and entertainment specialist.

Duncan McDonald joins Taylor Wessing’s City corporate team, bringing the number of lawyers covering private equity in London for the firm to 20. McDonald spent eight years at Olswang and has previously advised clients including Better Capital, Chamonix Private Equity and Sony.

Before joining Olswang, McDonald spent 18 months as general counsel for Citigroup Capital UK and was previously a partner at Pinsent Masons.

Taylor Wessing head of private equity James Goold said McDonald’s arrival would ‘consolidate our position in the UK and international private equity mid-market’.

Olswang has seen a number of partner exits in the last 18 months, with international telecommunications head Purvi Parekh leaving the firm earlier in the summer. Corporate partner Barry Stimpson also left in July to join Bond Dickinson. Stimpson worked with investment funds and private equity and has been retained as a consultant by Olswang despite his new role at Bond Dickinson.

The top 40 UK firm has seen a dip in revenues, falling 11% to £112.5m for 2015/16, the sharpest fall this year in the LB100, a fall linked to the departure last summer of a large team which moved to US practice Greenberg Traurig to launch a Berlin practice. The annual report showed Olswang had also lost 14 partners in that year to leave it a 100-partner firm.

In contrast, Taylor Wessing has been a consistent financial performer in recent years, with the Anglo-German law firm seeing revenues up 32% over the last five years to £254.5m.

matthew.field@legalease.co.uk

For more on Taylor Wessing, see ‘No more Taylor Who?’ to see our analysis in the September edition (£)

Legal Business

No more Taylor Who? Flair and a bit of vision take Taylor Wessing to next step but what now?

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Matthew Field and Victoria Young talk to Taylor Wessing head Tim Eyles and assess the firm’s prospects

‘When Tim Eyles took over there was a sea change,’ says one Taylor Wessing partner of their firm’s high-profile UK managing partner. ‘What you need as a leader is clear vision and Tim’s vision of how important it is to be global and focused and to have a culture that recognises achievement is key.’

Legal Business

‘Natural next step’: Taylor Wessing opens in Hong Kong through local association

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Weeks after cementing a Vietnamese tie-up, Taylor Wessing has launched a Hong Kong office, by entering an association with a local firm to expand its presence across Asia.

The firm has teamed up with Hong Kong firm HM Chan & Co, a firm that provides advice on corporate, M&A, capital markets and regulatory matters.

The latest addition to Taylor Wessing is its 33rd office worldwide, with the firm now operating in 20 jurisdictions across Europe, the Middle East, Asia and the US.

German corporate partner Jakob Reimenschneider will relocate to the Hong Kong office to head up the new Taylor Wessing branch.

Taylor Wessing UK managing partner Tim Eyles said Hong Kong was ‘the natural next step for our growth’.

He added: ‘Our international growth strategy has always been aligned to the needs of our clients and we are seeing an increased focus from them on the inbound and outbound opportunities Asia presents.’

The firm said the new association would help complement Taylor Wessing’s international sector strength across technology, media and communications, life sciences, private wealth and energy.

HM Chan & Co managing partner Mark Chan said: ‘Taylor Wessing is a quality operator and my team and I look forward to working with Jakob to provide our clients with a formidable international team.

‘Having worked with Taylor Wessing over the last 12 months we know our fit and values are completely aligned, which is core to great client service and international integration.’

Taylor Wessing’s Singapore-based office RHTLaw Taylor Wessing recently completed a tie-up with Vietnamese firm PBC Partners, adding two new offices to the firm’s Asian offering.

The firm has also furthered its international presence with an association in the Middle East. In May, Taylor Wessing officially entered an association with Alsumlaim Alawaji & Partners Law Firm in Saudi Arabia. The local firm has offices in Riyadh and Jeddah.

matthew.field@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

‘Maintaining momentum’: Taylor Wessing posts UK income up 4.4% to £126.6m

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Growth has stalled at Taylor Wessing as UK income is up 4.4% to £126.6m. The results follow an increase of 8.2% in UK revenues the year before.

Taylor Wessing has reported an increase in global revenues 1.4% to £254.4m from an adjusted £251m for 2014/15.

The firm’s UK profit per equity partner (PEP) is now at £512,000, while the year prior the firm posted PEP of £767,000. However the firm recently changed to an all-equity partner structure and says on a like-for-like basis UK PEP stands at £770,000. For 2014/15 Taylor Wessing had reported a bumper PEP increase in the UK of 17%.

Taylor Wessing said it had achieved growth in the UK and internationally with a focus on its key sectors; technology media and communications, private wealth, life sciences and energy.

UK managing partner Tim Eyles (pictured) said: ‘Against a backdrop of challenging economic conditions, both in the UK and further afield, these well-balanced results consolidate our stellar performance in 2014/15 and maintains the momentum we have generated as a firm.’

He added the firm is continuing its international strategy, having recently opened two offices in Vietnam following a merger between local firm PBC Partners and Taylor Wessing’s Singapore practice RHTLaw Taylor Wessing. The launch in June this year brings the firm’s global reach to 32 offices in 19 jurisdictions.

The firm has also increased its presence in the Middle East, entering into an association with Saudi Arabia firm Alsulaim Alawaji & Partners.

The firm has shaken up its management structure over the last twelve months, with Rachel Reid joining as chief operating officer from King & Wood Mallesons and Michael Michaelides joining as international business development director from Allen & Overy.

Taylor Wessing also recently acted on one of the first major post-EU referendum transactions, advising News Corporation on its offer for talkSport owner Wireless Group for £220.3m.

Recent financial results have seen Addleshaw Goddard post a 5% revenue increase to £201.8m, while Clyde & Co posted double digit growth of 13% to £447.3m.

matthew.field@legalease.co.uk

 

Legal Business

Making it official: Taylor Wessing deepens Vietnam reach with local merger

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Taylor Wessing has expanded its offering in Vietnam, by merging its Singapore outpost, RHTLaw Taylor Wessing, with its Vietnamese alliance firm PBC Partners.

In a move to strengthen its regional cross-border practice, the firm has merged with PBC Partners, its local partner since 2014, adding two offices to its global network. Taylor Wessing now has 32 outposts around the world.

The launch adds 25 lawyers in the two cities covering a range of practice areas including foreign direct investment, M&A, real estate, energy, banking and tax.

PBC Partners was founded in 2005 and has been active in developing Vietnam’s legal current legal system.

RHTLaw Taylor Wessing Singapore managing partner Tan Chong Huat said: ‘What started out as an alliance of like-minded law firms has now grown into a pre-eminent legal firm in Vietnam. Vietnam is one of the fastest growing emerging markets in the world and is poised to play an important role in the ASEAN economy.’

The Vietnam office will be led by Tran Thanh Hai as managing partner and Benjamin Yap as senior partner, both of PBC Partners.

Hai has 19 years of legal experience and previously practiced with PwC Legal Vietnam. Yap is called to the English and Singapore Bar and has 20 years’ experience handling M&A and real estate matters for local and international clients.

Taylor Wessing UK managing partner Tim Eyles told Legal Business: ‘We see Asia as one of the important regions for our clients and the sectors we focus on. This is a very logical extension to Vietnam – it’s a very fast growing market in its own right. It’s also a gateway to the Indochina region, which could help take us into Laos, Cambodia or Myanmar.

‘We feel that having worked with PBC Partners for some time now we have been very impressed with the quality of the lawyers and their ability to service sectors that are important to us. There are good cultural relations between us, which have been established by our working together.’

The coming months will see partners from Taylor Wessing’s Singapore office seconded to the new Vietnam practices and vice versa. The firm said this will help strengthen knowledge across the Asia practice.

Taylor Wessing has seen a series of recent expansions into the far east and South-East Asia. In 2013 the firm opened in Indonesia with an office in Jakarta and formed an association with South Korean full service firm DR & AJU two years ago.

matthew.field@legalease.co.uk