Legal Business

Panel review: Taylor Wessing and KWM SJ Berwin secure spots on property developer Essential Living’s ten-strong panel

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Newly-formed rental property developer Essential Living has appointed a ten-strong panel of law firms to its roster as it focuses on ambitious development targets for the coming year, with Taylor Wessing and King & Wood Mallesons SJ Berwin securing advisory roles ‘with an overarching brief to provide corporate, finance and delivery advice,’ a statement said today (26 November).

Taylor Wessing will provide advice on matters relating to corporate, construction, real estate finance, intellectual property, and employment while SJ Berwin will also advise on corporate and real estate finance as well as environment and planning.

Essential Living, the UK’s first developer and manager of purpose built homes for rent, has also afforded three-year contracts to LB100 firms Mishcon de Reya, Pinsent Masons, RPC, Cripps Harries Hall, DAC Beachcroft, Forsters, Trowers and Hamlins, and Winkworth Sherwood, after a comprehensive selection process.

The company was set up in September 2012 in partnership with real estate investment and advisory firm M3 Capital Partners.

Essential Living is aiming to provide 5,000 private rented homes over the next decade across London and the South East, with an initial $200m funding injection from a M3 Capital fund, Evergreen. The company has so far invested over £60m in development sites.

The company said the selected group has been chosen to advise the business as it looks ‘ahead to an intense period of development work’ with Martin Bellinger, chief operating officer of Essential Living adding: ‘After a fervent year of acquisitions, Essential Living will be very much evolving into a development business. As we increase the number of consultants we work with in delivering 5,000 homes for rent, it is vital we strive to achieve best value wherever possible and we are delighted to have finalised our legal panel.’

The appointment for SJ Berwin comes in the same month as its merger with King & Wood went live, with the firm to be known as King & Wood Mallesons SJ Berwin in the UK, Europe and Middle East for a transitional period, after which the SJ Berwin name will be dropped.

sarah.downey@legalease.co.uk

The panel in full:

• Taylor Wessing: Corporate, construction, real estate finance, IP, employment and general corporate

• KWM SJ Berwin: Corporate, environment & planning, real estate finance and general corporate

• Cripps Harries Hall: Acquisitions and property litigation

• DAC Beachcroft: Acquisitions and planning

• Forsters: Property litigation, property management and employment

• Mischon de Reya: Acquisitions, property litigation, planning and construction

• Pinsent Masons: Acquisitions, property litigation and registered providers

• RPC: Acquisitions

• Trowers and Hamlins: Construction and registered providers

• Winkworth Sherwood: Planning, property management and registered providers

Legal Business

Key real estate and construction hires for Macfarlanes, Taylor Wessing and Withers

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Property and construction lawyers are taking advantage of being back in vogue with a number of high profile moves in the sector this week including Ashurst partner Anthony Burnett-Scott’s move to Macfarlanes, Nabarro’s head of infrastructure Matthew Jones to Taylor Wessing and Wither’s hire of Fenwick Elliott real estate partner Julie Teal.

At Taylor Wessing, Jones will join the construction and engineering group, working closely with the firm’s real estate group, its planning, funds and tax teams and its banking group in relation to real estate acquisitions and development finance.

Acknowledged by the Legal 500 as offering ‘expert advice on construction and procurement issues,’ Jones advises on all aspects of construction including procurement, drafting and negotiation of building contracts, consultancy appointments, and dispute resolution.

The dual-qualified English-Australian lawyer advised Land Securities in its joint venture with Canary Wharf on the construction of the Walkie Talkie. His previous projects extend to jurisdictions including Italy, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Romania, Barbados, Egypt, Turkey, Australia, Libya and Nigeria – a boost for Taylor Wessing as it seeks to extend its international reach outside of Europe.

On his appointment, Jones (pictured) said Taylor Wessing is a firm ‘both respected and admired for its quality and momentum’ adding: ‘I am enthusiastically looking forward to working with clients and colleagues in the UK, Asia, the Middle East and elsewhere in Europe.

‘In our business it’s people that matter: the clients whom we advise, our colleagues we work together with and the professional community in which we operate. Those relationships – and the opportunity to provide intelligent and astute advice – help to define who we are. I am privileged then to have fond memories and friendships from my time at Nabarro and, looking ahead, will enjoy contributing to Taylor Wessing’s ongoing efforts and success.’

Laurence Cobb, head of construction & engineering at Taylor Wessing, said: ‘Matthew is extremely highly regarded in the construction and real estate community, and his hire is evidence of our commitment to those sectors.’

Elsewhere, third-tier commercial real estate firm Macfarlanes has notched up a third significant partner hire from from top 15 LB100 firm Ashurst, as the arrival of Burnett-Scott follows the hire of former head of construction Anne Minogue in the summer and former head of real estate, Ian Nisse, who joined in the autumn of 2011 and heads the commercial real estate team at Macfarlanes.

Having been a partner at Ashurst since 1999, Burnett-Scott’s clients include supermarket Morrisons and Qatari Diar, which appointed Ashurst to three of its real estate investment legal panels, with the firm providing advice on its construction, infrastructure and engineering projects.

This latest hire from Macfarlanes comes as the highly profitable independent UK firm departs from an almost singularly organic approach to growth, to using lateral hires to build its business in key areas.

The 312-lawyer firm posted a 12% rise in revenues to £114.2m for 2012/13 and a profit per equity partner figure of £985,000, up 9%.

On Burnett-Scott’s appointment, Nisse said: ‘Anthony is a highly experienced real estate partner with an excellent reputation and has advised on some of the most complex, high value real estate transactions in the UK.’

Senior partner Charles Martin, added: ‘Anthony represents an important step in the rebuilding of our commercial property team. The tremendous platform that Ian has built with our full support combines lateral and home-grown talent of the highest calibre. Our ambition is now to lay claim to, and firmly establish, a place at the top table for the most complex real estate projects in the UK, serving the leading players in the market.’

Meanwhile, leading construction firm Fenwick Elliott has lost former SJ Berwin real estate partner Julie Teal to private client firm Withers. Ranked second-tier in the Legal 500, Fenwick Elliott has already witnessed the exit of a number of partners, including Julian Critchlow who joined fellow City firm Payne Hicks Beach to help launch its new construction and energy practice this year. Elsewhere, disputes specialist David Robertson, a former lawyer at Baker & McKenzie, moved to Berwin Leighton Paisner in February, and arbitration expert Frederic Gillion joined Pinsent Masons’ Paris office.

Withers real estate practice group leader Paul Brecknell, said the team’s fee income grew by nearly 20% last year, having ‘experienced a significant growth in demand for construction-related advice, as investors and property owners look to maximise value with developments and improvements.’

Teal added: ‘I have worked with the Withers team for a number of years and have always been impressed by their commitment to achieving their clients’ objectives. The team works on very exciting commercial and residential projects and I look forward to bringing my experience to bear on these.’

sarah.downey@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Fourth Asian office for Taylor Wessing as firm ties up with HPRP in Jakarta

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Described by Legal 500 as a ‘dynamic emerging market’, Indonesia has welcomed another international entrant as Taylor Wessing launches in Jakarta via a cooperation agreement with local law firm Hanafiah Ponggawa & Partners (HPRP).

The deal will see top 20 LB100 firm Taylor Wessing and 10-partner HPRP ‘share knowledge, resources and best practice, enabling them to provide a service to clients in Singapore, Indonesia and across Taylor Wessing’s wider network of offices,’ a statement said today (8 October).

Indonesia’s HPRP, ranked first-tier in the Legal 500 in real estate and second-tier in restructuring and insolvency, has been a close partner of RHTLaw Taylor Wessing in Singapore over the last two years.

The news follows the 964-lawyer firm’s announcement in July that the Singapore office would spearhead a regional network through which it would form alliances with local firms across the ASEAN region. This latest Indonesian agreement will offer clients access to more than 950 legal professionals across 23 offices in the EMEA region.

Tan Chong Huat, managing partner of RHTLaw Taylor Wessing said: ‘In Singapore we are fortunate to have grown into new markets, and developed practice specialisms along the way. Our partnership with HPRP, one of the most respected law firms in Indonesia, will give a tremendous boost to our regional Southeast Asian practice.’

HPRP managing partner Constant Marino Ponggawa added: ‘Our partners have enjoyed a long-standing and solid relationship with the partners of RHTLaw Taylor Wessing and are pleased to be in association together to offer our clients the added resources and expertise of a full-service international firm.’

Taylor Wessing has three other offices in Asia and is known to be considering its options in relation to a further office opening in Hong Kong.

Many international firms have recently entered into similar partnerships in Indonesia, including top 15 LB100 firm Clyde & Co, which joined up with Lubis Ganie Surowidjojo (LGS) in September, while global verein DLA Piper signed an agreement with Ivan Almaida Baely & Firmansyah (IAB&F) in May.

Elsewhere, White & Case partnered up with Indonesian firm MD & Partners in January, six years after finishing its alliance with local firm Ali Budiardjo Nugroho Reksodiputro. Hogan Lovells also joined up with Hermawan Juniarto in April 2012, and Ashurst entered into an association with Oentoeng Suria & Partners, following its merger with Australia’s Blake Dawson.

sarah.downey@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Retention round up: mixed bag as Shoosmiths, Dentons, Taylor Wessing record reduced rates

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Following last week’s round of positive trainee retention rates within a mix of Magic Circle, international and regional firms; the latest batch of results has revealed a substantial reduction in the number of newly qualified lawyers offered a position at their respective firms.

It’s bad news for the junior lawyer at Shoosmiths as the national firm announced yesterday (7 July) that it will only retain 41% of NQ trainees. Out of a cohort 22, nine out of 11 trainees have so far accepted jobs while out of the remaining 13 newly qualifieds (NQs), seven have been offered jobs at other law firms, and one will return to a non-legal career.

It follows the release of top-40 firm Shoosmiths’ financials which illustrated a modest 3% rise in turnover while PEP dropped 9.7% from £298,000 to £269,000. The firm attributed this to the rise in average equity partner numbers from 40 to 45 during the year.

A spokesperson for Shoosmiths said: ‘Because our trainees are recruited so far in advance, it’s always difficult to predict exactly what our requirements will be at qualification time.

‘Continuing economic uncertainty makes that doubly difficult, and unfortunately we have fewer vacancies at this point in time for newly-qualified solicitors than trainees. We’re hoping more vacancies will become available between now and September, should the economy pick up. In the meantime, we will take all the steps we can to provide support, guidance and help to those trainees still looking for an NQ role.’

Newly merged Dentons has also posted a modest retention rate compared to its peers so far, of 68%. Of its 25 trainees, 17 accepted offers while three were unsuccessful and five chose not to apply.

The low numbers follow the release of the entity’s first financials last month. Publishing broadly flat figures since combining SNR Denton, Salans and Fraser Milner Casgrain, the results equated to a combined total turnover of £829.7m, in the top 20 of global law firms in terms of turnover.

Top-20 firm Taylor Wessing also announced its retention rate this week, posting a 70% retention rate out of a cohort 23, making disappointing reading on last year’s figure of 86%. This year, three chose not to apply and the 16 out of 20 that did were successful, equalling a retention rate of 86% from that perspective.

‘We always try to retain as many NQs as possible,’ said graduate recruitment partner, Tim Worden. ‘Having trained them, we expect them to be first-rate associates with good prospects for continued career growth at Taylor Wessing. It’s obviously disappointing that our retention rate isn’t as high this year.’

‘Every year we try our best to match the needs of our various practice areas with the areas into which our trainees wish to qualify, but it’s not always easy to find the perfect match. We hope our retention will be back up to normal levels again next year.’

Those results follow the firm’s announcement last week where a recent redundancy consultation resulted in 22 secretary job losses.

In contrast, City firm Nabarro posted an 83% retention rate across its London and Sheffield offices. It’s a significant boost on the firm’s ranks last year which equalled a 69% retention rate last September. Out of 18 that applied this time around, 15 offers were made and all applicants accepted.

Jane Drew, head of graduate recruitment at Nabarro said: ‘We are pleased that all 15 of our offers have been accepted this year and our retention rate has improved after a blip last year. We put a lot of work into the selection process for our trainees and it is always rewarding to welcome such high quality new lawyers to the firm.’

Elsewhere, SJ Berwin, which recently confirmed a ground breaking union with Asia powerhouse King Wood & Mallesons, unveiled an 88% graduate intake for September 2013

Out of 16 applicants, a total of 14 trainees accepted newly qualified roles with the firm, illustrating a 10% improvement on the firms’ Spring retention rate of 78%. The overall retention rate for this year was 83%. To date, 96% per cent of trainees have accepted roles with the firm.

Nicola Bridge, training principle at SJ Berwin said the firm was ‘impressed at the level of talent this year,’ while its continually ‘high’ retention rates ‘demonstrate that SJ Berwin remains an attractive option for trainees.’

Sarah.downey@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Asia round-up: Bakers ushers in new Singapore head as MoFo and Taylor Wessing plot regional growth

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Aside from the big Asia Pacific news this week of SJ Berwin’s tie-up with King & Wood Mallesons, other major players are expanding in the region or re-freshing their leadership teams.

Baker & McKenzie Wong & Leow, the Singapore arm of Bakers, has appointed a new managing partner. Andy Leck is to replace Edmund Leow, who has been appointed as a Judicial Commissioner in the Supreme Court of Singapore. Leow will leave the global law firm on 31 August to take on his new role.

‘Leow is one of the finest legal minds around, who has practised law with the highest integrity,’ said Wong Kien Keong, chairman of the firm in Singapore

Leck is currently the head of the intellectual property (IP) practice and co-head of the disputes practice in Singapore and has 20 years of experience in contentious and non-contentious IP matters.

Morrison & Foerster, meanwhile, has bulked up its Singapore presence with the hire of corporate partners Jake Robson and Adam Summerly from Norton Rose Fulbright. The firm, which opened in Singapore earlier this year, has landed two Singapore veterans as Robson and Summerly have been in Singapore for eight and 14 years respectively. Both partners’ practices are focused on M&A, private equity, cross-border investment and joint ventures in the banking, insurance, natural resources and telecoms sectors.

‘Jake and Adam, both of whom have extensive M&A experience, bring distinguished track records advising on large and cutting-edge transactions throughout the region,’ said Eric Piesner, Singapore managing partner and firm-wide managing partner for Asia.

Finally, Taylor Wessing‘s Singapore member firm, RHT Law Taylor Wessing, has stated plans to secure formal alliances with local firms in four Southeast Asian markets next month. The firm is looking for tie-ups with firms in Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia in the next four months.

Tim Eyles, UK managing partner of Taylor Wessing, commented: ‘Asia is an area of focus for us and we are continuing to develop relationships in Hong Kong and the ASEAN region.’

david.stevenson@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Redundancy watch: DWF, Hill Dickinson and Taylor Wessing all confirm job cuts

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The stream of UK law firm job cuts continues apace as DWF, Hill Dickinson and Taylor Wessing have today (30 July) confirmed that recent redundancy consultations have resulted multiple job losses.

DWF, having completed five mergers in less than 18 months and with a remarkable 84% increase in turnover to £188m, has become one of the most closely watched national practices in the legal market of late. The expansion has led to some significant streamlining of the business however and the firm has confirmed to Legal Business it has cut 38 staff from its ranks following redundancy consultations that began in May.

‘Following a recent restructure, DWF has had a net reduction of 38 roles across the practice groups,’ said a firm statement. The firm would neither specify which offices the job cuts have affected nor which roles.

The redundancies come after DWF announced a review of 80 roles in May, while two months previous to that the firm placed 99 jobs under threat after its run of five acquisitions – and having taken on the heavy load of 419 staff from the collapsing Cobbetts.

DWF also confirmed in May that the redundancy consultation would affect fee-earners and support staff at the firm’s Manchester, Coventry, Teesside and London bases, while restructuring at the Birmingham office was completed with two exiting the office and three others finding alternative roles.

Meanwhile Hill Dickinson, following an announcement in April that it would be reviewing jobs ‘in response to the prevailing market conditions’ has announced a total of 83 job losses, including 14 partners and 69 employees – 44 of which are leaving on a voluntary basis.

The news was confirmed shortly after the firm had announced it has sold its Chester office to Midlands firm Knights Solicitors for an undisclosed sum. The acquisition is a first for the James Caan-led Knights following the private equity investment it received from Hamilton Bradshaw in June 2012.

The cuts are a surprise given Hill Dickinson has averaged 10% revenue growth over the last five years and posted a 22% rise in profit per lawyer in 2011/12.

Senior partner David Wareing said: ‘This has been a sensitive time for all involved and we have done our utmost to conduct a professional and thorough consultation process with our staff throughout.

‘We have a strong and sustainable business and indeed many of our teams recorded revenue growth in the last financial year. Inevitably however, we have been affected like all our competitors by the difficult trading conditions which presently exist in our regional centres and accordingly it has been necessary for us to proactively manage the business to ensure the stability of the firm as a whole and to enable us to continue to further invest in the business in the future.’

In the City, Taylor Wessing, having enjoyed modest financial growth this year with UK revenue growing 4% to £104.5m, has confirmed 22 secretaries will be made redundant. This was originally anticipated to be 26 out of a consultation of 96 secretarial roles which began in June.

The firm said the consultation was part of a restructure of its secretarial resource rather than simply a headcount reduction exercise. It also expects a new secretarial support model to improve workplace efficiency with new secretarial services desk that will provide document services support to secretaries and fee-earners alike.

Finally, just four partners and eight staff at DLA Piper have decided to accept permanent relocation from its now closed Glasgow office to Edinburgh. This follows a three-month trial period in which the 10 partners and 30 other staff could decide whether to make the move. DLA declined to comment.

The latest cuts by Taylor Wessing, DLA Piper, DWF, and Hill Dickinson are a string of many across major UK firms under pressure to maintain profit levels, with firms such as Berwin Leighton Paisner and Eversheds both confirming job cuts this year.

sarah.downey@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Asia Round-up: Singapore in focus for Minter Ellison, Sidley Austin and Taylor Wessing

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The decline in Singapore M&A has seemingly done little to dampen the enthusiasm of international firms to launch or build their practices in the region.

Sidley Austin – which despite having been in Singapore since 1982, has just 10 lawyers in the region and to date has not had the same impact as top-tier banking & finance and corporate Magic Circle rivals Allen & Overy, Clifford Chance and Linklaters Singapore – has benefited from Vinson & Elkins recent decision to close its office in Shanghai, by hiring energy partner Tju Liang Chua.

Chua, who is from Singapore and qualified to advise on both local and US law, is set to join the top 15 Global 100 firm’s energy practice in the coming weeks.

Sidley Austin has been building its presence in the region with hires including Clifford Chance local funds partner Han Ming Ho and its longevity and commitment to the region reaped significant rewards in February, as the firm was one of only a handful to gain a qualifying foreign law practice (QFLP) license, allowing them to practice certain types of Singaporean law, with Chua an obvious person to drive this initiative.

‘Tju Liang’s arrival follows closely that of energy partner Tom Deegan in Hong Kong. He joins an expanding energy team in the region, which is able to offer clients in Asia a full array of energy-related legal services, particularly because it is fully integrated with our Houston colleagues and elsewhere in the U.S’ said Thomas Albrecht, managing partner of Sidley Austin in the Asia Pacific region.

Meanwhile, Taylor Wessing’s Singapore office, known locally as RHTLaw Taylor Wessing, has secured the hire of Morgan Stanley’s former head of compliance, Nizam Ismail, as partner to head up the firm’s regional compliance solutions practice. RHTLaw Compliance Solutions is a dedicated financial services compliance consultancy and solutions provider.

Ismail has 20 years of experience working in the financial services industry, including working with some of the world’s leading investment banks such as the now defunct Lehman Brothers and Citigroup. He was also at the Monetary Authority of Singapore and worked on capital markets reform, including the enactment of the Securities and Futures Act and the Financial Advisers Act.

Taylor Wessing has three offices in Asia and is known to be considering its options in relation to a further office opening in Hong Kong.

Elsewhere, one of the last of Australia’s big six firms not to have merged, Minter Ellison is closely considering opening a Singapore office, giving the firm added strength in Asia on top of its existing offices in Hong Kong, Beijing and Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, as the firm seeks to compensate for declining revenues in the depressed Australian market.

‘We’re considering establishing a foreign law office in Singapore to serve our clients across Southeast Asia – we already do a significant amount of work in Southeast Asia for Singapore-based and other regional clients – but no decision has been made yet regarding this,’ a spokesperson for the firm told Legal Business.

Other firms to have ramped up in Singapore this year include Stephenson Harwood, after agreeing a formal association with local firm Virtus Law.

david.stevenson@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Deal Watch: Slaughters, Dentons, Taylor Wessing and Nabarro act on high profile European deals

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Europe and particularly the UK has thrown up a number of high profile mandates from the nationally significant restructuring of UK Coal through to the solid £500m private equity buyout of Chesapeake by the Carlyle Group.

Nabarro has led for UK Coal on the corporate, insolvency and pension elements of a second restructuring following a devastating fire at the company’s Daw Mill in February. The company accounts for 5% of the UK’s energy needs and as a result of the restructuring over 2,000 jobs and the pensions of 7,000 members have been protected.

Nabarro insolvency and restructuring partner Glen Flannery led alongside corporate partner Ben Hendry and a cross-practice team including pensions partner Ian Greenstreet.

Flannery said: ‘UK Coal has been one of Nabarro’s longest standing clients and to secure the future of its viable mining operations is a positive achievement for everyone involved.’

Elsewhere, Telefonica UK instructed Global 100 UK firm Simmons & Simmons to lead on what is said to be one of the largest contact centre outsourcings in Europe to date and the largest deal of its kind ever entered into by Telefonica UK.

The £1.2bn, 10-year deal sees 2,700 Telefonica advisers based at four sites in Britain transferred to Capita’s management from July 1. The deal involved related real estate, employment, pensions, finance and tax issues.

Alexander Brown, an ICT partner at Simmons who led the deal, told Legal Business: ‘It was a big deal. I would think £500m is a big outsourcing deal so £1.2bn is huge, certainly the biggest Telefonica has ever done.’

Simmons is a longstanding adviser to Telefonica UK and acted on the sale of Manx Telecom in 2011 and a finance and accounting outsourcing to Genpact in 2012.

The deal was led at Telefonica by head of operations (legal and regulatory) Dean Savage, who told Legal Business: ‘[The deal] will create a workforce of 2700. It’s a massive outsourcing deal in terms of people and packs. For us, it’s going to give massive savings.

‘We’ve worked with [Simmons] in the past on M&A work including when we sold Mancks. I find them very good to work with and what I like about them is that they’re not ivory tower. They roll their sleeves up and relate to the clients. They just become part of the O2 team culturally.’

Another UK multi-million pound deal saw Dentons advise UK insurance giant Aviva and its co-investors on the sale of remaining assets at PaddingtonCentral to British Land in a deal worth £470m.

The deal included circa 500,000 square feet of offices and retail/leisure space, a 206 bedroom hotel and two development sites with consent for further 335,000 square feet of offices.

Led by Dentons real estate partner Nichola West and corporate partner Martin Kitchen, the firm’s involvement in the PaddingtonCentral project dates back to 2000, when it acted for Aviva Investors and The Equitable Life on the original acquisition of the development site and the appointment of the original developer.

Since then, the work involved representing the joint venture in negotiating the development documents as well as disposal of the investments.

West said: ‘This sale represents a successful conclusion to Dentons’ 13-year involvement in this award winning scheme. The strength and breadth of our real estate team ensured we were able to guide Aviva through every phase of the project, culminating in this significant sale.’

And while the European private equity market remains unpredictable, one of the largest recent deals has seen Latham & Watkins’ London corporate partner David Walker advise Washington-based private equity group the Carlyle Group on its reported £500m acquisition of packaging company Chesapeake from Oaktree Capital Management and Irving Place Capital. The deal is a significant result for Latham and for Walker, who joined in May from Clifford Chance, where he was global head of private equity.

Walker, who advised alongside finance partners Dominic Newcomb in London and Washington, DC-based Jeffrey Chenard, said: ‘The European PE market has remained choppy in the first half of the year but deals are still getting done. For high quality businesses, the landscape continues to be very competitive.’

Nottingham-headquartered Chesapeake – which produces packaging for Glenfiddich whiskey and Bombay Sapphire Gin – was advised by Slaughter and May led by corporate and commercial partner Jeff Twentyman and Taylor Wessing led by head of private equity Nick Hazell.

Mike Cheetham, chief executive officer of Chesapeake said Carlyle’s ‘backing will support our aspirations to build upon our strong investments over the past three years [and] allow us to respond effectively to new business opportunities as we look to further align our business with our customers’ global requirements.’

Hazell, added: ‘We were delighted to help Mike Cheetham and his team on this. They have built a great reputation in their sector and with Carlyle’s backing can further develop international opportunities. The deal also shows that there is considerable appetite within the market for high quality assets managed by a strong and effective team.’

sarah.downey@legalease.co.uk

david.stevenson@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Taylor Wessing to review secretarial jobs

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96 London support staff put on notice of potential redundancy.

Taylor Wessing is to make 26 of its City secretaries redundant with all 96 secretaries in London put on notice pending a consultation.

The firm but expects the process to last for at least 30 days.

A statement released by UK managing partner Tim Eyles said: ‘The realisation of our strategy is dependent on us ensuring that all areas of our business are structured with a view to providing the best and most efficient service possible to our clients.

The redesign of our secretarial support is driven by that focus.’

Taylor Wessing in May announced that its revenues increased by 7% annually in 2012/13 to £228m, with UK revenues up 4% to £104.5m. The firm has yet to confirm partner profits for the financial year.

Taylor Wessing joins a growing list of major UK practices to announce job cuts in recent months including DWF, Berwin Leighton Paisner and Osborne Clarke, with 2013 shaping up to be the toughest legal labour market since 2009, when more than 2,000 jobs were cut in the UK.

Last month Ashurst launched a wide-ranging consultation with 350 support staff in London after announcing plans to launch a ‘north-shoring’ arm in Glasgow to provide back office and legal support.

Legal Business

Taylor Wessing to review 96 City secretarial jobs leaving 26 redundant

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Taylor Wessing is to make 26 of its City secretaries redundant with all 96 secretaries in London put on notice pending a consultation.

As first revealed by RollOnFriday, the firm has not yet entered a formal consultation but expects the process to last for at least 30 days.

A statement released by UK managing partner Tim Eyles said: ‘The realisation of our strategy is dependent on us ensuring that all areas of our business are structured with a view to providing the best and most efficient service possible to our clients. The redesign of our secretarial support is driven by that focus.’

Taylor Wessing last month announced that its revenues increased by 7% annually in 2012/13 to £228m, with UK revenues up 4% to £104.5m. The firm has yet to confirm partner profits for the financial year.

Taylor Wessing joins a growing list of major UK practices to announce job cuts in recent months including DWF, Berwin Leighton Paisner and Osborne Clarke with 2013 shaping up to be the toughest legal labour market since 2009, when more than 2,000 jobs were cut in the UK. Last week Ashurst launched a wide-ranging consultation with 350 support staff in London after announcing plans to launch a ‘north-shoring’ arm in Glasgow to provide back office and legal support.

sarah.downey@legalease.co.uk