RPC is the latest LB100 firm to emerge from a ‘very challenging’ period to today (22 July) post exceptional financial results for 2020/21.
The firm’s total revenue for the financial year 2020/21 was £136m, an increase of 23% on FY20 (£110.1m) and 26% on 2018/19 (£108m). Continue reading “Financials 2020/21: RPC latest to shrug off lean spell to post robust financial growth”
Amid an uncharacteristically sluggish week for lateral hires, two top-50 Legal Business 100 firms have welcomed former colleagues back to their London insurance practices.
Herbert Smith Freehills has hired Will Glassey to further bolster its solicitors’ professional indemnity and regulatory practice, as well as its professional negligence offering more broadly. He joins from Mayer Brown, where he was head of insurance disputes in London and global co-head of insurance. Before moving to Mayer Brown in 2000, he was an associate in legacy Herbert Smith’s disputes team in London. Continue reading “Revolving Doors: HSF and RPC reunite with former London insurance specialists”
Clifford Chance had a late flurry of transactional activity to thank for a respectable set of Covid financials, as profit per equity partner climbed 9% and revenue inched up by 1%.
The firm’s PEP reached £1.85m, up on last year’s £1.69m, while revenue hit £1.828bn from £1.803bn. There was also an 8% uptick in partnership profit, growing to £716m from £666m. Continue reading “Financials 2020/21: ‘Strongest-ever quarter’ rescues revenue growth at Clifford Chance”
In another set of buoyant pandemic financial results, Ashurst has breached the £1m-profit-per-equity-partner barrier for the first time since the global financial crisis, while revenues received a double-digit boost.
PEP stood at £1.038m, a striking 15% increase on last year’s £903,000 figure. In doing so, Ashurst has fulfilled managing partner Paul Jenkins’ ambition to top £1m in PEP , albeit a year later than hoped. Continue reading “Financials 2020/21: Ashurst breaks the £1m PEP barrier again as turnover climbs 10%”
Simmons & Simmons managing partner Jeremy Hoyland said there was ‘an element of the exceptional’ in the firm’s financial results announced today (16 July), with revenue growing 12% to £437m and profits shooting up 35% to £171m.
There was also a steep increase in profit per equity partner, growing 30% to reach £980k. Overall, this year’s results far outstrip the unremarkable 4% revenue growth and 6% profit increase from last year , as Hoyland explained that the firm benefited from a significant boom in instructions due to the pandemic. Continue reading “‘An element of the exceptional’: Simmons latest to post striking pandemic financials with double-digit revenue growth and soaring profits”
‘This level of scrutiny of governance is quite unusual. Historically in deals of this kind, no-one ever used to ask: “What’s going to happen to the workers?” It is becoming more and more of an issue as companies seek to avoid reputational damage.’
The words of Paul Watchman, ESG luminary, senior UN legal adviser and former Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer partner on the proposed £6.3bn takeover of UK supermarket giant Morrisons resonate as the deal looks set not only to become one of the biggest public to private transactions of the decade, but also to enshrine a playbook for ESG in years to come. Continue reading “Comment: Value is critical but ESG intentions must check out in Morrisons take-private”
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The adoption of technology by the legal industry has been slow-moving. We first saw new technologies emerge to digitise document storage, data rooms and case management systems. As they have become more or less commonplace, the innovations have provided incremental improvements to the way lawyers work – streamlining, optimising and providing new insight. While the industry is moving in the right direction, we are yet to see technology bring something new to the table; the tools haven’t changed the process entirely nor enabled lawyers to deliver legal services in a totally different manner. Continue reading “Sponsored briefing: Transaction management: Is technology taking over the deal?”
Linklaters partners have elected global finance head Paul Lewis as the successor to managing partner Gideon Moore, the firm announced today (15 July).
The move sees Lewis, a Linklaters lifer and a partner since 2006, take the helm alongside Aedamar Comiskey, the M&A heavy-hitter who succeeded Charlie Jacobs as senior partner on 1 July. Continue reading “‘Laser-sharp focus’: Linklaters elects finance head Lewis as managing partner”
Veteran litigation partner Lawson Caisley has joined White & Case after nearly nine years at Allen & Overy. Caisley typically advises large corporations, financial institutions and funds on all aspects of commercial litigation and investigations, such as post-acquisition disputes as well as fraud and white-collar crime.
Markus Langen, head of disputes for White & Case in EMEA, described Caisley as a ‘highly ranked lawyer with a strong international practice’ with ‘a track record for advising a number of the world’s largest global companies on their most significant disputes’. He added: ‘The depth of his experience and expertise across sectors and industries will add further prestige and bench strength to our team in London and EMEA.’ Continue reading “Revolving doors: White & Case lures A&O disputes veteran as McDermott expands energy group”
Herbert Smith Freehills announced a striking 30% increase in profitability as part of its 2020/21 financials today (13 July), with strong international contributions underlining the firm’s robust overall pandemic performance.
The firm’s profit jumped to £366.9m from last year’s £283.2m. This represents an emphatic comeback after profits tumbled by 8% last year amid steep operating costs. Continue reading “Financials 2020/21: Profits soar 30% and revenues surpass £1bn at Herbert Smith Freehills”
The geopolitical and strategic importance of the Republic of Turkey – established in 1923 by its founding father Mustafa Kemal Atatürk – to the European Union, America, Russia, the Middle East, and Asia is undeniable. Being a central meeting point of the continents of Asia, Europe, and Africa via the Mediterranean, and its membership of NATO, the Council of Europe, and its current accession talks with the European Union has meant that Turkey has become a significantly important partner for many states around the world.
According to the Turkish constitution, the word Turk, as a political term, includes all citizens of the Republic of Turkey without distinction of or reference to race or religion. Although more than nine-tenths of the population identify their religious identity as Muslim, Turkey is nonetheless a secular country. Certainly, in 1928 Islam was removed as the official state religion and since then, the military has maintained a vigilant watch over Turkey’s political secularism. Continue reading “Sponsored briefing: Turkish Citizenship by Investment”
In the latest round of lateral partner appointments, K&L Gates established a new base in Luxembourg while firms went worldwide for their strategic hires.
K&L Gates combined with Luxembourg firm Volckrick & Associates, handing the firm its eighth European branch and bringing the network worldwide up to 46 offices. Continue reading “Revolving doors: K&L Gates opens in Luxembourg as firms go global for partner hires”
Thanks in part to their respective European networks, Fieldfisher and Kennedys have both posted robust 2020/21 revenues in the face of the pandemic.
There was an inevitable slowdown in growth at Fieldfisher, today unveiling a modest 6% uptick in revenues to reach £290m. It is the firm’s eighth consecutive year of growth, but it does not match double-digit increases seen in recent years. The firm chalked up the deceleration to ‘the impact of the pandemic.’ Continue reading “Financials 2020/21: European contributions crucial as Fieldfisher and Kennedys post resilient revenues”
CMS UK unveiled a muted set of financial results today (5 July), with revenues inching up from £566m to £567m as global income increased 3% from €1.426bn to €1.475bn.
However both marginal increases represent a slowing of growth on the previous year, when UK and global figures grew 4% and 5% respectively. Continue reading “Financials 2020/21: revenues up just £1m at CMS UK despite modest global growth”
There was a transactional theme to this week’s lateral partner recruitment, as Ashurst, King & Spalding, Pinsent Masons and Squire Patton Boggs (SPB) all made strategic hires, while Michelmores added a number of partners.
Seasoned private equity specialist François Hellot has joined Ashurst’s Paris office after a 12-year partnership stint at Dechert. Hellot is particularly noted for his work in the telecoms, health and biotechnology sectors, and has assisted clients on both French domestic and international matters. Continue reading “Revolving doors: Ashurst and King & Spalding expand transactional teams”
As Euro 2020 fever well and truly takes hold, the London deal team of Skadden has scored four times in recent days, not least advising Visa on its €1.8bn acquisition of European open banking platform Tink opposite an international team from White & Case.
Tapping into the ongoing trend of transactions in the online payments sector, the high-profile deal sees the US financial services giant acquire Stockholm-headquartered Tink, a platform that enables banks, fintechs and start-ups to develop data-driven financial services. Continue reading “Dealwatch: Global 100 firms bank on €1.8bn Visa deal as payments, gaming and ESG charge the market”
The legal industry is still fragmenting. Pre-2008 it was an easier game: a buoyant economy, predictable government and a converging world flattened by globalisation and the internet. Law firms sought to be ‘global’ and ‘full-service’ and merged or opened offices accordingly. The business model was simple: bigger clients, bigger teams, higher utilisation, higher rates. Hold onto more rainmakers than your rivals and the fortifications of a professional monopoly took care of the rest.
What has evolved post-2008 is a buyers’ market that shows no signs of abating. ‘There’s more choice of providers now than ever,’ says Chris Fowler, general counsel (GC) of BT Technology. ‘Alternative providers have a far greater share of wallet. There’s more of them and a wider spread, and then you’ve got the Big Four coming into play. The key thing coming into focus now is choice.’ Continue reading “Arrested development – the legal innovation report”
Two observations from the GC of BT Technology, Chris Fowler, stand out in our innovation feature, ‘Arrested development’. One: ‘If the work is repeatable and needs delivering to certain set outcomes at a certain price point, you become agnostic as to who is actually doing the work’ – suggesting the sacred cult of the individual may be diminishing in the eyes of clients. Two: ‘It always appears to us that the partner wins the work, the partner prices the work, and the partner delivers the work. I struggle with that in today’s world.’
While partnership and megalomania can go hand-in-hand, we have come a long way from the days when power-play behaviour from individual partners could actually hurt firms. Control has been ceded in many areas, recognising that allowing business professionals to play their part and junior lawyers to develop on the job enhances the offering that clients receive. Continue reading “Letting go: anathema to a control-freak partner”
‘Our corporate practice now is the strongest it’s ever been. We feel confident about the future.’
Roland Turnill, Slaughter and May
Following on from our Legal 500 M&A feature, we ask leading London corporate partners what is driving the growing dominance of US firms in public M&A
