Revenue and profit at Gowling WLG’s UK LLP have fallen despite the overall firm, including its Canadian arm, increasing revenue by nearly 17% last year.
Gowling’s UK LLP accounts for the year to 30 April 2018 say revenue fell 5% to £179.9m. Profit, meanwhile, fell to £51.9m from £60m, a 14% drop. Continue reading “LLP accounts: Gowling’s UK revenue and profit fall while top-earner’s pay drops 6%”
White & Case arbitration partners Dipen Sabharwal (pictured) and Aloke Ray make up half of the solicitor-advocates taking silk in this year’s Queen’s Counsel (QC) appointments, with 108 making the cut overall.
Completing the all-male group of solicitor-advocates taking silk were Allen & Overy partner Mark Levy and Stephen Fietta, founder of disputes boutique Fietta. Continue reading “White & Case duo among four solicitors made up in reduced 2018 silk round”
Heathrow Airport has completed an overhaul of its legal panel, with Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Allen & Overy among those re-appointed to a reduced roster.
Heathrow has slimmed down its legal panel from nine to seven firms and restructured it from 11 sub-panels to a main general approved list. Pinsent Masons, Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner and Eversheds Sutherland were also awarded spots, alongside City outfit Towerhouse and Thames Valley firm Owen White. Continue reading “Seven firms land spots on Heathrow’s reduced legal roster”
One of the most touted private equity names in the City, Adrian Maguire, has quit Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer to join Kirkland & Ellis just over a year after his former colleague David Higgins made the same move.
Freshfields-bred and regarded as a loyalist to the firm, Maguire is leaving the Magic Circle outfit after more than two decades in what will be seen as a notable setback for its attempts to limit the damage of Higgins’ $10m move in December 2017. Continue reading “Buyout star Adrian Maguire to join Kirkland in body blow to Freshfields”
Pinsent Masons has hired six partners from a range of firms for a new Frankfurt office, the firm’s third opening in Germany since 2012.
Frankfurt follows moves into Munich and Düsseldorf for Pinsents in 2012 and 2016 respectively. The new office will focus on the technology, energy and real estate sectors initially with an eye to developing in financial services. Continue reading “‘A global solution’: Pinsents hires six partners for Frankfurt launch as DLA expands in Dublin”
US-based New Law darling Elevate has continued its acquisitive form with the purchase of UK-based flexible lawyer firm Halebury, creating a combined business of over 1,000 members of staff and $70m in annual revenue.
The acquisition will see Halebury become part of Elevate, although as an ABS the firm will still operate under its own name in the UK. However, profit pools will be integrated as Halebury is fully acquired by Elevate, while John Croft, president of Elevate, and founder and executive chairman Liam Brown will both sit upon Halebury’s board. Denise Nurse and Janvi Patel, co-founders of Halebury, will take up roles on Elevate’s managing committee. Continue reading “New year brings major New Law consolidation as Elevate acquires Halebury”
On occasion, we are asked to give our house view at partner conferences and the like. Undertaking one such gig last month for a top-50 UK law firm while the government unhelpfully melted down in the background, I put down some notes on the outline questions the law firm asked me to address before the conference. Obviously, I was not reading my notes in front of the audience in a two-way Q&A and did not stick to the script, but with a little scrubbing up and the identifying information removed, the notes seemed a decent compilation on the kind of topics that Team LB is frequently asked to opine on.
*** Continue reading “Comment: The Legal Business view on the profession for you to cut out and keep”
Dechert has ramped up investment in its European funds business with a pair of hires, including Marianna Tothova in London from Ashurst.
The hire of Tothova, which comes amid a pacey recruitment drive for the US firm in London in recent months, coincides with that of Carol Widger from Maples and Calder as the managing partner of its Dublin office. Continue reading “Dechert bolsters European funds team with key City and Dublin hires”
DAC Beachcroft has extended its European footprint with the opening of a new two-partner Paris office, while Watson Farley & Williams, Holman Fenwick Willan and Cooley also kicked off 2019 with key lateral hires.
The new Paris office is DAC’s first in France and its 12th worldwide. Two partners have been hired from local firm HMN to staff the new branch: Vladimir Rostan d’Ancezune, who will head the office, while Christophe Wucher North also joins. Continue reading “Revolving doors: DAC Beachcroft christens new year with Paris opening as WFW, Cooley and HFW make European hires”
Baker McKenzie has kicked off 2019 with another step towards its long-stated aim of beefing up its London transactional capabilities, hiring capital markets partners Rob Mathews and David Becker from White & Case.
Veteran Mathews played a key role in White & Case’s high-yield practice and led on a number of large mandates including the $10bn refinancing of Wind Tre in 2017. Continue reading “White & Case loses two capital markets veterans as Bakers ramps up City transactional investment”
Clifford Chance’s (CC) 13-strong executive leadership team took home £22m in the 2017/18 financial year, according to the firm’s filings with Companies House.
It means the firm’s leaders have seen remuneration swell by 38% since last year, when the group of 13 pocketed £16m. Continue reading “LLP accounts: Strong returns for CC leadership with bumper 38% pay rise as Eversheds executives see take home remain static”
As 2018 draws to a close, an editor’s thoughts naturally turn to digging out stuff we’ve already done when they should be focusing on stuff we haven’t yet done for 2019. So with that proud tradition in mind, dear reader, below are ten defining pieces from the last 12 months that shone some light on this funny old game we call law.
We’ll now be taking a break from live blogging over the Christmas period but we’ll be returning early in 2019 for what promises to be another… eventful year in the legal profession. Nearly mentioned Brexit just then but I got away with it… Continue reading “Looking back on 2018 – The year in law through ten on-point pieces”
The long-serving general counsel (GC) of international energy player Centrica, Grant Dawson, is set to retire after more than 20 years, while the rising star GC of property company ZPG, Ned Staple, has also left.
Dawson, one of the most prominent names in the in-house community, said this week (17 December) he will retire from Centrica on 31 March 2019. He will be replaced by deputy GC, Justine Campbell, who will sit on the company’s executive committee and board. Continue reading “In-house: prominent Centrica GC Dawson to retire as ZPG legal head departs”
Jones Day, Sidley Austin, Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft and Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld have unveiled their 2019 partner promotions, together welcoming four more London based-lawyers to their partnerships than last year.
Jones Day saw the largest cohort in a bumper round, with the firm promoting four in the City out of 46. Last year it promoted just one in London out of 39. Continue reading “US partner promotions: Nine minted in the City as Jones Day, Sidley, Cadwalader and Akin announce latest rounds”
DWF has appointed a group general counsel (GC) ahead of its touted London Stock Exchange (LSE) listing early next year.
Litigation finance, meanwhile, has attracted more investor cash after Australian funder Litigation Capital Management (LCM) rose £20m on listing and Burford Capital secured £1.6bn in funding for new litigation investments. Continue reading “Pre-float DWF hires GC as another litigation funder lists and Burford secures $1.6bn”
City deal teams are having a busy run-up to Christmas, with Baker McKenzie, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Addleshaw Goddard and Linklaters leading on two multibillion-dollar deals.
Bakers’ London private equity head David Allen and corporate partner Jannan Crozier led a team advising Hitachi as the Japanese conglomerate acquired 80.1% of Swiss giant ABB’s power grid division for around $6.4bn. Continue reading “Deal watch: Busy year-end as Japanese group buys Swiss power grid and Malaysian funds invest in Battersea”
Watson Farley & Williams (WFW) has re-elected its management duo for a further five years.
Chris Lowe and Lothar Wegener (pictured right to left) have been re-elected as the UK firm’s managing partners for a second term, beginning 15 January next year. The pair have held the roles since January 2014, with WFW’s revenue up 60% over the last five years, one of the strongest performances among a top 50 UK practice. Continue reading “Watson Farley management get second term as half-year revenue comes in flat”
Operating profits at Linklaters dipped 1% to £472.3m, while Macfarlanes’ highest-earning partner brought home almost £4m in 2017/18, the two firms’ LLP accounts showed this week.
In a mixed bag of financial results, the fall in profits at Linklaters came despite a 6% rise in turnover to £1.51bn. The operating profit figure reported is more than £200m lower than the £676.2m pre-tax profit the firm posted in July . Continue reading “LLP accounts: Linklaters posts fall in profits as top earner doubles income at Macfarlanes”
Allen & Overy (A&O) will open its technology incubator space Fuse to a third group of companies from early next year, as it partners with a University of Oxford AI project.
The firm announced today (December 13) that applications to enter Fuse will be welcomed from companies until 25 January. A selection pitch to the firm will follow in February before successful applicants move into the space shortly after. Both early stage and mature companies can apply, joining Fuse for about six months. Continue reading “A&O opening Fuse tech lab for third round as it partners on £1.2m AI legal services project”
Slaughter and May has increased its salary rates for newly qualified (NQ) associates by £3,000, with junior associates also seeing an increase alongside performance-related end-of-year bonuses.
All associates from NQ to 18 months post-qualification (PQE) will enjoy salary increases, with NQs seeing their pay increase to £83,000 from £80,000. Pay for associates 6 months after qualification will see their pay go up £2,000 to £86,000, while associates one year and 18 months post-qualification will see their pay go up by £1,000 to £89,000 and £93,750 respectively. Continue reading “Slaughters lifts associate salaries alongside performance-related bonuses”
