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Eating our lunch: Eversheds unshackles New Law offering and sets £100m revenue target

Konexo management team

Eversheds Sutherland is spinning off its £40m New Law business in a bid to supercharge its growth to £100m over the next five years, while opening it up to external investment.

The firm today (26 June) launched Konexo, an entity merging its advisory, interim resourcing and managed service offerings – including its ES Consulting business – to act as a global alternative legal service and compliance provider. Eversheds intends to make it a separate corporate structure, initially owned by the partnership but with the potential to attract external investment. Continue reading “Eating our lunch: Eversheds unshackles New Law offering and sets £100m revenue target”

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A&O pips Links to the post in Magic Circle NQ pay hikes

Allen & Overy

Allen & Overy (A&O) has become the latest Magic Circle firm to hike its salary for newly-qualified solicitors (NQs) to £100,000, narrowly beating a similar commitment from final holdout Linklaters.

The move will see NQs take home a minimum of £100,000, including bonus, marking a 20% uptick on the £83,000 salary set by A&O less than a year ago. Continue reading “A&O pips Links to the post in Magic Circle NQ pay hikes”

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Bakers scraps 46 City business services staff roles, more at risk

Baker McKenzie

Baker McKenzie is the latest firm to scale down its London business support staff in favour of low-cost centres, scrapping at least 46 City roles and leaving another 33 at risk.

The move comes eight months after the firm launched a review of its London professional and business services (PBS) staff, estimated to include 350 people. Continue reading “Bakers scraps 46 City business services staff roles, more at risk”

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Mayhew secures new four-year term at BCLP with Pritchard ineligible to run again

Lisa Mayhew

Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner (BCLP) co-chair Lisa Mayhew has been elected to serve another four years in the role. Meanwhile, current co-chair Therese Pritchard was ineligible to serve another term and is to be succeeded by St Louis transactional partner Steven Baumer.

The terms for Mayhew and Baumer begin 1 January 2020 and will run four years, with Pritchard set to return to her practice after not being eligible to seek another term. Both Mayhew and Pritchard had led their legacy firms going into the transatlantic merger to create BCLP, which was completed 3 April 2018. Continue reading “Mayhew secures new four-year term at BCLP with Pritchard ineligible to run again”

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Fieldfisher reducing UK reliance following third consecutive year of double-digit growth

Michael Chissick

Fieldfisher is looking to further reduce the percentage of overall turnover generated in the UK following a year defined by geographic expansion.

Turnover at the mid-market pace-setter hit £242m, up a better-than-expected 17% in the third consecutive year of double-digit growth at the firm. Profit per equity partner (PEP) rose 7% to £805,000, and has nearly doubled over the last five years. Continue reading “Fieldfisher reducing UK reliance following third consecutive year of double-digit growth”

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Pay for today: Slaughters boosts associate remuneration package to £100k as talent war intensifies

Slaughter and May office

Slaughter and May is bolstering associate pay to a £100,000 including bonuses, becoming the latest of the City elite to play its hand on lawyer salaries.

The move comes after Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Clifford Chance (CC) both hiked their newly-qualified (NQ) pay to £100,000 in a bid to head off the ever-increasing threat from US rivals. Continue reading “Pay for today: Slaughters boosts associate remuneration package to £100k as talent war intensifies”

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Guest comment: LB’s New Law critique flawed as alt players build a ‘new order of client value’

LB editor-in-chief Alex Novarese recently posted a piece entitled ‘Innovation needs law firm champions’, which hooked on to the story of Axiom’s much-awaited flotation and made some excellent points on the limitations (versus the hype) of New Law. However, in discussing Axiom’s decision to split up its business pre-float, the claim was made that it is easier to see progress in the industry coming from conventional law firms, than New Law equivalents.

This argument just doesn’t hold water. Yes, conventional law firms might have the heft behind them to implement progress, but the hard truth is that they are hampered by their traditional structure. This is what has made the pace of change within the sector slow – the structure lacks transparency and responsiveness, promotes inefficiency and simply costs too much. Continue reading “Guest comment: LB’s New Law critique flawed as alt players build a ‘new order of client value’”

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Freshfields partner fails to block SDT sexual misconduct tribunal

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer

The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT) has thrown out an application by Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer partner Ryan Beckwith to dismiss its prosecution following misconduct allegations made against him by a junior member of staff.

The move came to light today (19 June) on the second day of a case management hearing before the SDT. The case against the restructuring partner will now start on 30 September and run for two weeks, the SDT confirmed. Continue reading “Freshfields partner fails to block SDT sexual misconduct tribunal”

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Latham confirms death of Spain managing partner Juan Picón

Juan Picon

Latham & Watkins’ Spain managing partner and former DLA Piper senior partner Juan Picón, one of his home country’s top commercial lawyers, has died of lymphoma cancer.

A post on Picón’s LinkedIn profile about a week ago mentioned a ‘new challenge’, referencing an article on Spanish business media El Confidencial talking about an ‘unforeseen health issue’ affecting Picón. Continue reading “Latham confirms death of Spain managing partner Juan Picón”

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Comment: Less dire than expected but profession may yet squander influx of BAME lawyers

Raph Mokades

The good news is that up close the reality turns out to be not as awful as the cynics have feared. After all, for years the profession has avoided a frontal discussion of its record on ethnic diversity, choosing to submerge the topic within the umbrella of diversity and inclusion even as law firms became more intent on selling their progressive credentials.

And in fairness, avoiding that debate has been as much about a general British reticence to tackle issues of race head on with commentators and the media often treading with excessive delicacy in such matters. Still, the end result has been little frank discussion, certainly compared to the increasingly forthright debate on the profession’s record on female representation and retention or tackling social mobility. Continue reading “Comment: Less dire than expected but profession may yet squander influx of BAME lawyers”

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CMS grows UK revenue 5% in second year post-merger but keeps profits under wraps

Stephen Millar

Revenue at CMS Cameron McKenna Nabarro Olswang hit £545.8m in 2018/19, 5% up on the previous year in what managing partner Stephen Millar (pictured) described as ‘pleasing results in a market which is experiencing a degree of uncertainty’.

The results today (18 June) cover the second financial year since the three-way UK merger between Camerons, Nabarro and Olswang went live in May 2017 and are the first allowing for a full like-for-like comparison with the previous year. The firm said in a statement that the results exceeded budget. Continue reading “CMS grows UK revenue 5% in second year post-merger but keeps profits under wraps”

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Taylor Wessing beset by Goodwin’s City expansion as four more partners defect

Working in a lightbulb

Goodwin Procter has made good on its promise to build out its City technology and life sciences bench having again targeted Taylor Wessing, this time for a four-partner team.

On the back of a pacey 58% revenue growth for the 2018 financial year in London, Goodwin has hired Malcolm Bates, David Mardle, Tim Worden and Adrian Rainey to its life sciences and technology companies practices. Continue reading “Taylor Wessing beset by Goodwin’s City expansion as four more partners defect”

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Return to growth for Stephenson Harwood as PEP rises 9% and revenue tops £213m

Sharon White

Stephenson Harwood’s profit per equity partner (PEP) bounced back from two consecutive years of decline, rising 9% to reach £727,000 as the firm’s top line grew 12% to hit the £213m mark.

The results will come as a welcome improvement on last year’s performance, which saw steady revenue growth of 6% to £189m offset by a disappointing 6% drop in PEP to £664,000. Continue reading “Return to growth for Stephenson Harwood as PEP rises 9% and revenue tops £213m”

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City O’Melveny exodus continues as Akin Gump hires private equity funds duo

James Roome

The London woes of Allen & Overy’s prospective merger partner O’Melveny & Myers have continued with the loss of private equity funds lawyers John Daghlian and Mary Lavelle to Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld.

The path from O’Melveny to Akin Gump has become a well-trodden one of late after private equity funds partners Daniel Quinn and Aleksander Bakic decamped in April for the Texas-bred firm’s investment management practice and transactional platform in London. Continue reading “City O’Melveny exodus continues as Akin Gump hires private equity funds duo”

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Serious money: Elevate bolsters acquisition chest with $25m backing while Orbital Witness raises £1.2m

John Croft

Investment continues to flow into New Law and legal tech with US-based law company Elevate securing $25m in private equity backing while legal tech start-up Orbital Witness raises £1.2m.

Elevate today (17 June) announced that private equity house Kayne Partners had injected $25m into the New Law pioneer in what is the first significant private equity investment into the company since its inception. Continue reading “Serious money: Elevate bolsters acquisition chest with $25m backing while Orbital Witness raises £1.2m”

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Comment: A Big Four breakthrough will need a far better GC offensive

Matthew Kellett

This title is on the record as having doubts regarding the Big Four’s legal ambitions, at least judged against claims typically made by some outside observers. Readers will all know such assertions: that the group are more sophisticated, slicker and tech-savvy than law firms and set to disrupt law on a global scale.

But while the last 25 years has not yet seen them live up to such claims, the Big Four clearly have formidable assets, contacts and brands and have collectively stepped up their investment in the last three years. Continue reading “Comment: A Big Four breakthrough will need a far better GC offensive”

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The Client Profile: Sonya Branch, Bank of England

Sonya Branch

Bank of England (BoE) general counsel (GC) Sonya Branch puffs her cheeks as she ponders how much work Brexit has created for her team. ‘It has been absolutely vast,’ she says.

About 65% of the UK central bank’s legal team, which has grown from 90 to more than 150 since she joined four years ago, has been involved since the mid-2016 referendum in reviewing about 10,000 pages of legislation and tracking 39 statutory instruments, to which it has contributed drafting. ‘The total count was 6,000 pages of binding technical standards, 6,000 rules that had to be changed, as well as 4,000 pages of secondary legislation,’ she comments. ‘That’s just having a regulatory framework for the UK financial services sector that’s fit for purpose on the point of exit.’ Continue reading “The Client Profile: Sonya Branch, Bank of England”

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Three GC perspectives on change

three digital butterflies

Gloria Sánchez Soriano, head of transformation – legal department, Santander

When our group general counsel (GC), Óscar García Maceiras, joined two years ago, he came with the idea of transforming the legal department. But Santander as a business is also in a huge process of transformation. Maceiras had a concern that we in our legal department in the market – and in many other legal departments – were working the same way as 100 years ago. We have legal databases, word processing, some digital resources – but we were not doing anything special. So the project he envisioned was not only to implement a range of technologies, but to foster a savvier legal department, with fewer pain points and better co-ordination and efficiency. Continue reading “Three GC perspectives on change”

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Life during law: Dominic Griffiths

Dominic Griffiths

I didn’t plan a career in law. At school I did those career survey things twice and on both occasions it said I should become a fashion designer.

I have been a bar manager in a country house hotel and then a golf club bar. Great fun. Taught me the concept of keeping people in the line happy. I always say to junior lawyers: ‘Make sure you respond quickly to clients.’ It doesn’t mean you produce all the work in half an hour, as long as they know someone is looking after them. Continue reading “Life during law: Dominic Griffiths”