Sarah Downey assesses the post-merger state of NRF’s dispute resolution practice
With Norton Rose Fulbright (NRF)’s eye-catching union now over a year old, the top ten UK firm has achieved the enviable feat of creating, through a succession of global bolt-ons, a 3,800-lawyer firm with $1.9bn in revenue, almost without fallout.
Its 138-fee-earner (excluding trainees) City dispute resolution practice is something of an exception, having lost a handful of its star players, including Dorian Drew, adviser to ex-Barclays’ chief executive Bob Diamond on the Libor scandal, who last year left for Clifford Chance.
Pre-merger departures in 2012 included arbitration head Joseph Tirado for Winston & Strawn, respected financial disputes partner Charles Evans to Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy, Steve Abraham for Baker & McKenzie and high-profile litigation partner Antony Dutton, who resigned in January 2012 to join the City office of Dechert.
They leave behind many prominent partners, including energy head Neil Miller, and disputes partners Susan Dingwall, Radford Goodman and Ruth Cowley. With
Fulbright came respected global co-head of regulation and investigations Lista Cannon, together with head of investigations for EMEA Chris Warren-Smith and financial services litigator Melanie Ryan.
But there are grumbles that go beyond the de rigueur moans about chief executive Peter Martyr’s robust style of leadership – widely acknowledged to have facilitated the firm’s transition to now serious global player.
Ex-partners speak of an unhealthy competition between the various departments within the practice – particularly a turf war between the construction and energy teams – with measures to encourage client sharing often unsuccessful.
Martyr’s ‘golden circle’ is also said to mean partners feel unable to contribute to the direction of the practice, a claim denied by the man who this September is expected to stand for a fifth term.
‘If you’re in an old-fashioned partnership sitting round a table where everyone says their piece… that may be a paradigm some pander after,’ he observes.
‘I don’t take a hard line but if a small minority believes the strategic direction is wrong, then you ask: “Is it right for the majority?” You have to go with it. It’s wrong to water it down with reference to a small interest group. You try to accommodate them in some way but you end up creating a strategy with reference to the lowest common denominator and we all know that means you won’t change.’
With regard to suggested lack of co-operation within the team he adds: ‘Client grabbing? I don’t get that.
I don’t take a hard line but if a small minority believes the strategic direction is wrong, then you ask: “Is it right for the majority?”
Peter Martyr, Norton Rose Fulbright
Every law firm in the world without exception is accused of internal client grabbing.
We are in the bottom quartile of that. It’s something we do not approve of and we work against it.
‘The issue with energy and construction isn’t a London issue. We don’t have a massive construction practice there. We have a particularly strong oil corporates practice. That’s conflict that arises unfortunately by having a strong position in energy. That issue is a fact of life and we manage it.’
While the merger has yet to project NRF’s City commercial litigation practice into the top tier, its successful banking litigation practice is viewed as upwardly mobile and client wins in the last 12 months include AIG, Bulgari SpA, ExxonMobil Australia, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, GlaxoSmithKline Australia, and Shell.
High-profile litigation for the City office includes acting for British Canadian businessman Victor Dahdaleh in the criminal prosecution brought by the UK’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) over allegations of corruption, following an investigation undertaken by the SFO, US Department of Justice and other national anti-corruption agencies. The mandate also involves proceedings in the US and the firm is acting for Dahdaleh in connection with matters in Australia.
The disputes practice’s global centre of power has notably shifted to the US, first with the announcement last June that New-York-based legacy Fulbright partner Linda Addison had been appointed to take over from London partner Deirdre Walker as global head. In recent weeks Addison handed over the role to Gerry Pecht after she was elected US managing partner.
However, Walker, now disputes head for EMEA, intends to carry out a review of the practice this September, meeting with all the team leaders across the EMEA region.
The review follows an overhaul last year which saw the disputes practice’s dual energy and transport, and banking and commercial divisions multiplied into four, to include a contentious insurance practice following the hire of CMS Cameron McKenna partners Liam O’Connell and Kirsty Hick and the investigations and regulatory team run by Lista Cannon and Martin Coleman.
Walker comments on her approach: ‘We will be taking stock of our current position together and our strategy going forward will support growth outside of London. We’ve had significant growth here and we want to replicate that elsewhere too.’
sarah.downey@legalease.co.uk