Clyde & Co has completed its management turnover by replacing long-standing chief executive Peter Hasson with chief operating officer Matthew Kelsall.
Kelsall’s (pictured) appointment is effective from 1 January 2020 and comes after the firm elected Peter Hirst its new senior partner, replacing Simon Konsta from November 1. Hirst and the Clydes’ management board led the chief executive recruitment process. Continue reading “Clyde & Co further reshuffles leadership with internal CEO appointment”
The acrimony between Burford Capital and Muddy Waters has shown no signs of abating, with the litigation funder enlisting Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan to chase the identities of traders who allegedly manipulated its shares.
Quinn partner Richard East (pictured) submitted a statement to the High Court on behalf of Burford on Monday (30 September) which argued that the decline in the litigation funder’s share price was the result of ‘unlawful trading activity’. As a result, Quinn formally asked the High Court to obligate the London Stock Exchange (LSE) to reveal the identities of those placing orders and on whose behalf the orders were being placed. Continue reading “‘They’re lying’: Muddy Waters retaliates as Burford ramps up stock manipulation claims”
A busy week for lateral hires saw Dentons, Akin Gump and Squire Patton Boggs each make City hires as DLA Piper turned to Aviva to expand its pensions team.
Dentons said today (30 September) it had hired M&A and private equity partner Paul Doris from the London office of US firm Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe. He is the firm’s third corporate lateral hire in the last 18 months and advises financial sponsors, particularly in energy and infrastructure and in markets including Spain and Latin America. Continue reading “Revolving doors: Dentons and Akin Gump double up in London as Squire Patton Boggs offsets loss in the City”
US New Law provider UnitedLex has bolstered its total revenue to $350m in its most recent financial results, with expansion across the UK and Europe is high on its agenda for the rest of the year.
Turnover is up 27% on the company’s last set of financials, while UK revenue increased 8% over the last year from £54m to £58.5m. Headcount in the UK also grew over the year, rising from 125 fee-earners to 145 this year, of which 80 are qualified solicitors. Continue reading “New Law, new money: UnitedLex turnover hits $350m with UK expansion on the cards”
The partnership of global giant Baker McKenzie has voted in Milton Cheng to become the firm’s next chair.
A Bakers lifer, Cheng (pictured) currently serves as the firm’s Hong Kong managing partner, as well as chief executive for the Asia-Pacific region. Cheng will officially take over the role on 17 October, replacing acting global chair Jaime Trujillo, and is set to serve a four-year term. His appointment marks the first time a partner from the Asia practice has taken the top role at the firm. Continue reading “Asia coup for Bakers as partnership chooses Hong Kong’s Cheng as new chair”
It is a measure of how fast-moving the Brexit-dominated landscape now is that imagery in this year’s Legal Business 100 (LB100) is dominated by Conrad, Castro and Coppola as the summer months have moved to rapidly challenge notions of how Britain works. One of the most stable and predictable major economies in the world has been locked into a mounting political conflict more akin to a banana republic than the Mother of Parliaments. Sooner or later Westminster drama on this scale will spill into a real economy that already contracted in the second quarter.
And yet, the UK’s largest law firms have endured another 12 months of uncertainty and ominous haze with impressive resilience, pushing revenues up 9% to £26.35bn, one of the better years of all-round performance since the banking crisis. And though a handful of mergers flatter that headline figure, 28 firms managed double-digit revenue growth, showing that plenty of UK firms are thriving in these challenging conditions. Continue reading “The LB100 Comment: UK legal elite shows resilience amid the ominous haze”
CMS has dropped off Lloyds Banking Group’s core panel of advisers after a review which reshaped the roster into two lots.
A total of 25 firms are understood to have been appointed, split between a smaller number of core firms and a group of general firms. It was the bank’s first panel review since 2016, when DLA Piper and Norton Rose Fulbright lost their spots as the core panel shrunk from ten to eight firms. Continue reading “In-house: CMS bumped as core adviser following Lloyds panel review”
Clyde & Co will be transferring its Simpson & Marwick Aberdeen estate agency team of 12 to Ledingham Chalmers in the latest in a recent spate of departures from the firm.
The agreement will see the move of property partner David Geddie and senior associate Lynne Stewart, who will operate under the Ledingham Chalmers Estate Agency name. The team will practise from both Simpson & Marwick’s current premises in Aberdeen and Ledingham Chalmers’ headquarters in the city. Continue reading “Another team transfers: Clyde & Co Aberdeen conveyancing practice moves to Ledingham Chalmers”
Mischon de Reya and Blackstone Chambers are among the legal reputations seeing a significant boost this morning after securing a historic victory in the Supreme Court challenge to the suspension of Parliament by Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
Unveiling its verdict this morning (24 September), president of the Supreme Court Lady Hale said that the advice given to the Queen to suspend Parliament was ‘unlawful, void and of no effect’, leaving it to Commons’ speaker John Bercow to decide whether to recall MPs immediately. The much-awaited decision was handed down unanimously by 11 Supreme Court judges. Continue reading “Victory for Mishcon and Blackstone heavyweight as Supreme Court rules Parliamentary suspension unlawful”
US firms led the way with lateral hires in London last week, with Alston & Bird launching a City branch. The Atlanta-based Global 100 firm has hired three partners for its UK finance and payments practices.
Andrew Petersen joins from K&L Gates, where he was head of the finance practice and is joined by fellow finance partner James Spencer. Petersen and Spencer have worked together for more than 17 years and handle a range of transactions related to real estate private equity, commercial mortgage-backed securities, restructuring, and debt and equity workouts. They are joined by competition partner and payments industry specialist James Ashe-Taylor from Constantine Cannon where he was head of its European antitrust practice. Continue reading “Revolving doors: US players dominate lateral recruitment as Alston & Bird opens City branch”
With news this weekend that Thomas Cook is on the brink of collapse and has ceased trading with immediate effect, a number of global elite firms have been lined up to advise on the latest high-profile collapse of a household name.
Ashurst is advising the Official Receiver as well as AlixPartners and KPMG, which were appointed as special managers in respect of certain Thomas Cook entities, while Slaughter and May and Latham & Watkins are advising Thomas Cook. Insolvency practitioners from AlixPartners have been appointed as special managers over the airline and tour operator companies, while practitioners from KPMG have been appointed as special managers to the group’s retail division and to its aircraft maintenance companies. Continue reading “Global firms lined up to advise as Thomas Cook rescue talks fail”
Major companies are pressing external counsel to pay to compete for adviser spots in a move set to be resisted by some major law firms. The practice sees law firms paying to be ‘validated’ by a procurement company, effectively pushing the cost of the agency onto the pitching law firms. One prominent case has been National Grid’s ongoing panel review. Santander has also used a comparable model on a recent pitch.
The National Grid panel review, covering a range of work understood to be worth about £12m a year in the UK alone, began six months ago and is due to be finalised at the end of November. Six to ten spots are available on its roster, which is being reduced from 12 advisers. Continue reading “Pay to play – Bluechip clients force law firms to pay to pitch as GCs flex buying power”
We go to press with Parliament locked in battle with the Government over threats to take the UK into a ‘no-deal’ exit from the European Union (EU). I’m not going to offer political predictions but we are clearly at the point where a disorderly exit from the EU is a very real prospect for the country and the profession.
The good news is that the largest UK law firms feel confident they can largely mitigate the immediate impact of no-deal, even with the abrupt end of EU rights to practise that have been such a boon. This is because potentially obstructive Bars in key markets in France and Germany have been kept onside and UK lawyers feel that other decent workaround options are available (see pages 12-13). With leading UK firms also having substantial foreign operations, including the Legal Business 100 having 19% of their lawyers in mainland Europe, and rapidly increasing their ranks of Irish-registered solicitors, the large outfits at least are braced. The Law Society recently issued research arguing a no-deal would knock 10% off the value of the UK legal market, equivalent to more than £3bn, and costing 10,000 jobs. Most law firm leaders see such predictions as excessive – a scepticism I share – though the industry does believe such an exit would be damaging. Continue reading “Comment: A no-deal outlook and the law – time for pragmatic pessimism”
Transatlantic firm Eversheds Sutherland has today (19 September) announced new targets to improve BAME representation across its UK partnership, with the firm’s current figures among the worst in the UK’s top 12.
By 2025 the firm wants 10% of its UK partnership to be comprised of BAME lawyers, with the figure currently standing at just over 5%. Throughout its UK workforce, including partners, the firm wants to hit 14% BAME representation by 2022, with the figure currently sitting at just below 12%. Continue reading “Realistic: Eversheds sets new targets to combat paltry BAME partner numbers”
UK legal tech company Luminance has established a new advisory board aimed at accelerating AI adoption by BigLaw, with Slaughter and May senior partner Steve Cooke and Vodafone GC Rosemary Martin part of the heavyweight line up.
Cooke and Martin will sit alongside Italian law firm Portolano Cavallo founding partner Manuela Cavallo and former chairman of the International Bar Association Technology Committee Vagn Thorup. The group will support the work of the Security Advisory Board led by former director general of MI5 Lord Evans of Weardale KCB. Continue reading “Luminance creates new advisory board as senior lawyers line up to back legal tech start-ups”
Kingsley Napley has acquired Archon Solicitors to create a combined employment practice of seven partners and 11 associates.
Corinne Aldridge, managing partner of City employment firm Archon, has been appointed as the new head of Kingsley Napley’s employment team. The Archon team will move into Kingsley Napley’s Farringdon offices on 30 September and will no longer operate under the Archon name. Continue reading “‘A real competitor’: Kingsley Napley strengthens employment practice with Archon Solicitors acquisition”
The private equity push into New Law looks to be gathering momentum with Axiom Managed Solutions (AMS) in talks to arrange a sale to MML Capital Partners.
Legal Business has learned that the sponsor had been chosen as preferred bidder after AMS was put on the market earlier this year when the wider Axiom group unveiled plans to pursue an initial public offering (IPO). Though the value of a potential acquisition is unknown, MML buyout tickets normally range from €10m to €50m. Continue reading “Private equity bidder closes in on Axiom break-off as sponsors continue New Law push”
A double Magic Circle hire today (17 September) has seen Allen & Overy (A&O) hiring financial services regulation counsel Knox McIlwain as a partner from Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton as Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer bolstered its own regulatory offering, hiring Linklaters’ Paris FinReg partner Marc Perrone.
The hire of McIlwain reunites him with Bob Penn, A&O’s former financial regulatory services head, who re-joined the firm in June 2018 having defected for a two-year stint at Cleary. It also makes good on A&O’s plan to accelerate investment in its US-law capability following protracted and ultimately fruitless merger talks with Los Angeles firm O’Melveny & Myers. Senior partner, Wim Dejonghe, said that the hire demonstrates the firm’s commitment to growing its top-tier global regulatory practice and building on its US capabilities. Continue reading “A&O adds NY capability in London as Freshfields lures Linklaters Paris partner”
Like the rest of Britain, barristers at the commercial Bar are impatiently waiting for some clarity over Brexit: it is a paramount concern because they want London to retain its position as the premier location for international business disputes. But more than three years on from the referendum result, the much-debated uncertainty has not yet had a significant impact on the volume or value of their work.
‘The commercial Bar is thriving at the moment and I expect it to continue to thrive,’ says Sonia Tolaney QC, chair of The Commercial Bar Association. ‘Dealing with the still-unknown consequences of Brexit presents a challenge. But although there has been a period of real uncertainty, the truth is that the health of the commercial Bar is very strong.’ Continue reading “The Bar – Happy when it rains”
The crisis engulfing high-street retailers is showing few signs of abating. May saw the public collapse of almost the entirety of Jamie Oliver’s restaurant eateries, and in June, retail tycoon Philip Green’s Arcadia empire narrowly avoided bankruptcy with a rescue deal severing some 50 clothing stores.
According to data from Deloitte, 125 retailers went into administration last year compared to 118 in 2017, including 26 large companies. Continue reading “Under pressure – Retail GCs fight to adapt to a brutal High Street”
