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Global 100 overview: Beasts of burden

In Legal Business’ last Global 100 issue, as firms enjoyed financial years almost entirely untainted by the economic chaos wrought by Covid-19, we said the strain would start to show in this year’s report. It meant last year’s results were all the more important, as they would be the platform upon which Global 100 firms would face their worst economic crisis in over a decade.

We added that across key metrics, the global elite had reason to be optimistic – gross revenue was up 5% to $119.72bn – but the dent many saw to their profitability was only anticipated to get worse, as average profit per equity partner (PEP) at a Global 100 firm shrank 4% to $1.8m across 2019/20. Continue reading “Global 100 overview: Beasts of burden”

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Sponsored briefing: Fraud and asset recovery in the Cayman Islands

Frauds, especially those of a complex nature, often have an international or multi-jurisdictional component. Given the status of the Cayman Islands as one of the leading financial and banking centres in the world, the use of Cayman Islands based financial institutions and corporate entities has featured in some of the worlds largest frauds including the Bernie Madoff Ponzi Scheme, 1MDB scandal and the approximate $126bn Ponzi Scheme involving Ahmad Hamad al-Gosaibi & Brothers and the Saad Group.

Fortunately, there are a number of tools in our toolkit in the Cayman Islands to combat complex and cross-border fraud and assist in asset recovery, including discovery, document, and asset preservation mechanisms such as freezing injunctions, insolvency proceedings, and Norwich Pharmacal, Anton Piller, and Bankers Trust orders; as well as the ability to recognise and provide assistance to foreign courts and officeholders. Continue reading “Sponsored briefing: Fraud and asset recovery in the Cayman Islands”

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Sponsored briefing: Ship arrest, maritime liens and ship mortgages in the UAE

While the subjects of maritime liens and ship arrest are areas of divergent approaches by different legal systems, they are also persistent areas of controversy when the two subjects are to receive simultaneous treatment in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). This paper seeks to discuss the possibility for a creditor to arrest and enforce a contractually agreed maritime lien over a ship in the UAE jurisdiction.

Relevant to our following discussion is that the UAE has yet to ratify any of the major international maritime conventions related to maritime liens, mortgages, and arrest of ships, which aim to establish certain uniformity within different legal systems that would reconcile the divergent approaches, such as the International Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules relating to Maritime Liens and Mortgages of 1967, the International Convention on Maritime Liens and Mortgages of 1993 and the International Convention on Arrest of Ships of 1999. Continue reading “Sponsored briefing: Ship arrest, maritime liens and ship mortgages in the UAE”

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Braced for impact: GCs on the threat of group actions and collective redress

In April, Legal Business spoke to dozens of disputes counsel in private practice to ascertain the salient trends in contentious law. Near-universally, at the forefront of minds was an imminent and drastic increase in the volume of class actions and other group claims. Now, the in-house community has added its own wave of concerned voices.

A perfect storm of legal changes and market conditions have brought us to this point. In the UK for example, the seeds were planted in 2015 with the introduction of the Consumer Rights Act, which allowed UK consumers to seek collective redress on competition cases in a US-style class action system. Since then several class action claims have formed, among the most notable being the mammoth truck cartel case, in which thousands of individual and corporate claimants are pursuing damages from several of Europe’s biggest truck manufacturers over price collusion spanning multiple years. Continue reading “Braced for impact: GCs on the threat of group actions and collective redress”

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Sponsored briefing: New consolidated regime of early access in France

On 14 December 2020, the French Social Security Financing Act for 20211 (article 78) reformed early market access mechanisms in France and simplified the former systems of derogatory reimbursement for medicines, which included the temporary authorisation for use (ATU) and temporary recommendation for use (RTU) regimes.

Two new regimes have been created: early access authorisation (AAP – exceptional use of certain drugs for specific therapeutic indications, intended to treat serious, rare, or disabling diseases) and compassionate use (exceptional use of certain medicines in specific therapeutic indications). Continue reading “Sponsored briefing: New consolidated regime of early access in France”

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The ESG debate: Balancing growth and risk

As part of an ongoing series of thought leadership roundtables and webinars we have been hosting with Paul Hastings before, during and after lockdown, we were delighted to finally have an in-person debate at Paul Hastings’ London office in November. We gathered together leading general counsel (GCs) and Paul Hastings partners to discuss the role the legal team within corporates plays in advising the board on major risks – particularly environmental, social and governance (ESG) concerns – without stifling healthy growth.

The session examined how businesses are facing a significant number of challenges and opportunities, and the senior in-house counsel present discussed some of the specific challenges they are facing, including re-aligning to e-commerce, re-establishing supply chains, taking advantage of excess liquidity to drive strategic M&A, responding to new ESG demands from investors and stakeholders and responding to an evolving legal and regulatory landscape. Continue reading “The ESG debate: Balancing growth and risk”

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Revolving doors: Management merry-go-round as CC, Mayer Brown and Watson Farley name new leaders

Dominic Griffiths

Capping off a week of significant change in big law’s C-suites, Clifford Chance has appointed financial markets partner Charles Adams as its next managing partner.

Adams will succeed incumbent Matthew Layton on 1 May 2022, when he will commence a four-year term. For his part, Layton was re-appointed for a second term in 2017, after improving operational rigour, bolstering partner performance and ushering in shake-ups to CC’s historically restrictive lockstep model . During Layton’s second term, CC boosted revenues by 35% and profit per equity partner by 65%. Continue reading “Revolving doors: Management merry-go-round as CC, Mayer Brown and Watson Farley name new leaders”

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Revolving doors: Bumper week for Taylor Wessing with team hire in Poland and double partner swoop in London

Taylor Wessing dominated this week’s lateral partner recruitment, with eye-catching expansion both at home and abroad.

In Poland, the firm has taken on a ten-lawyer team from Deloitte Legal. The group is led by partners Łukasz Szymański and Zbigniew Korba, who together will strengthen the firm’s banking and finance and real estate capabilities in the region. As a result of this team hire, Taylor Wessing’s lawyer headcount has swelled to more than 30 in Poland. Continue reading “Revolving doors: Bumper week for Taylor Wessing with team hire in Poland and double partner swoop in London”

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Revolving doors: White & Case lands corporate heavyweight from Clifford Chance as Hogan Lovells makes German team hire

Frankfurt graphic

Headlining the latest round of lateral partner appointments, White & Case has made an eye-catching move for Clifford Chance’s former co-head of mining and metals, David Lewis.

Lewis specialises in M&A, joint ventures and equity investments with a primary focus on the mining, metals and energy sectors. Continue reading “Revolving doors: White & Case lands corporate heavyweight from Clifford Chance as Hogan Lovells makes German team hire”

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Guest comment: The new differentiator for law firms?

A quiet revolution is happening, and I am here to champion it. For many years, the role of a professional support lawyer (PSL) or knowledge lawyer has been viewed as an optional extra, a ‘nice to have’, something that only a magic circle law firm could possibly justify. If this is what you think, then it’s time to update your precedent. PSLs have become a key differentiator as firms look to benefit not only from their legal experience but also their business acumen.

The PSL role was created back in the 1990s to support a firm’s practice by drafting and maintaining standard form precedents. At the time there was little in the way of legal databases or online research tools and PSLs became the focal point for this activity as well. However, while this remains a central part of the role, the functions of a PSL have evolved. Continue reading “Guest comment: The new differentiator for law firms?”

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Revolving doors: Cleary makes Bay Area move as HogLov and Squire enhance Africa offerings

San Francisco, California

In a bold Bay Area play, Cleary Gottlieb has announced that it is opening in California with the arrival of renowned antitrust trial lawyer Heather Nyong’o and the relocation of a team of partners and associates from its New York and Washington DC offices to Palo Alto and San Francisco.

Nyong’o was partner-in-charge of WilmerHale’s San Francisco office and leader of its California antitrust and competition practice. She joins long-standing Cleary antitrust partners Brian Byrne and George Cary, white-collar partner Jennifer Kennedy Park, M&A partner Benet O’Reilly, and a team of six associates. Continue reading “Revolving doors: Cleary makes Bay Area move as HogLov and Squire enhance Africa offerings”

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Significant matters – Autumn 2021

easyJet flies off with Legal Business Awards

The Legal Business Awards, held at Grosvenor House on 30 September, provided the perfect backdrop to honour the leading lights of the in-house legal community from the last year. Taking the top prize of GC of the Year was easyJet’s legal chief Maaike de Bie (pictured), recognised for piloting the company successfully as the aviation sector was ravaged by the pandemic and responding robustly to a sophisticated cyber-attack. Highly commended in this category was Emily Reichwald, general counsel of Dr Martens.

Continue reading “Significant matters – Autumn 2021”