Ben Tidswell has been handed another term as chair of Ashurst following an election which last week culminated in his leadership going unchallenged.
The City firm launched an election process at the start of May, giving opponents until the end of that month to put themselves forward for the role. But it is understood no other partners stood in the election. Continue reading “Tidswell goes unchallenged in securing second term as Ashurst chair”
Expansive US firm White & Case is continuing to walk the talk on its going ‘toe to toe with the Magic Circle’ mantra after making another City hire in its litigation practice.
The experienced Chris Brennan is joining White & Case from Addleshaw Goddard, where he headed the firm’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) investigations and enforcement team and was a partner since 2012. Before that he was head of regulatory at Lloyds Banking Group, general counsel for a global inter-dealer broker and a senior lawyer in the FCA’s enforcement arm. Continue reading “White & Case makes another City litigation play with Addleshaw Goddard hire”
The rebuild at Ashurst following a complicated end to 2017 in which three key partners left in a fortnight has gained some traction with the hire of a senior City lateral from Baker McKenzie.
Bakers’ former global co-head of securitisation Jonathan Walsh will leave the firm today (31 May) after 13 years and take a place in Ashurst’s securitisation team from next Monday (4 June). Continue reading “‘I like new challenges’: Bakers securitisation veteran exits for Ashurst”
Lawyers On Demand (LOD) has secured new private equity backers in place of parent Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner (BCLP) as the New Law pioneer gears up for a growth drive aimed at positioning it as a global player.
Buyout house Bowmark Capital is acquiring BCLP’s entire stake of 62% in LOD for an undisclosed sum. The sale is expected to carry a multi-million pound price tag and represent a significant windfall for BCLP, which was formed by the merger earlier this year of Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) and US law firm Bryan Cave. James Lever at Livingstone Partners advised BCLP and LOD’s shareholders, while Stephenson Harwood advised Bowmark on the deal with a team lead by Jonathan Pittal. Jessica Adams at Macfarlanes advised for LOD and Alex Lewis at Baker McKenzie represented the management.
Continue reading “New Law pioneer LOD primed for growth as BCLP sells to buyout house”
The UK government’s bid to trim legal costs for the public sector has taken another step after firms were invited to pitch for a multitude of spots on the Crown Commercial Service’s (CCS) new £320m panel.
Procurement agency CCS announced last October it planned to set up a £650m ‘legal services marketplace’ through which central government, devolved administrations and public bodies would procure legal advice. Continue reading “Bidding opens on UK government’s reshaped £320m public sector legal panel”
City recruitment kept pace last week as a trio of firms made City hires, led by Baker McKenzie’s corporate hire from Clifford Chance, while Reed Smith made big plays in the US.
Baker McKenzie added to its London bench with the hire of Kathy Honeywood to its energy, mining and industrials practice. Honeywood joins from Magic Circle firm Clifford Chance, bringing experience in M&A transactions, corporate finance and joint ventures. Continue reading “Revolving Doors: City laterals pick up pace as Baker McKenzie and DWF make moves while Reed Smith expands in the US”
‘Theirs is the biggest succession issue faced by any firm in the City,’ says one Magic Circle partner of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom’s prospects, following the retirement of veteran dealmaker Michael Hatchard (pictured right) at the end of last year.
The widely-admired Hatchard did much to make Skadden a US trailblazer in public M&A work in Europe. Though leveraged finance hogs the headlines these days, Hatchard and Skadden were still the competitive forces most cited by top M&A partners at London rivals. Having moved from Theodore Goddard in 1994, Hatchard (who remains a consultant to Skadden) was one of the most successful transfers ever in City law. Continue reading “Deal View: Life after Hatchard – does Skadden hunger to take its peerless M&A team to the next level?”
Major transactions continue to flow after Ropes & Gray’s London arm acted on the largest-ever UK private equity software buyout while White & Case and Eversheds Sutherland also landed on sizable deals.
Private equity powerhouse Helen Croke (pictured) led a team from Ropes & Gray advising Intermediate Capital Group (ICG) on a £1.3bn joint partnership investment. The investment, alongside HG Saturn Fund, is in IRIS, a business-critical software provider for the UK accountancy, education and business market. Continue reading “Deal watch: Ropes & Gray advises on £1.3bn private equity deal as White & Case and Eversheds score major mandates”
Taylor Wessing has completed its management reshuffle with the election of the law firm’s litigation co-head Shane Gleghorn (pictured) to managing partner.
Gleghorn succeeds veteran managing partner Tim Eyles, who announced in December he would be stepping down days before the 1,000-lawyer firm elected Dominic FitzPatrick as its new senior partner, replacing Adam Marks after six years. Continue reading “Taylor Wessing finalises leadership overhaul as litigation chief succeeds veteran managing partner Eyles”
An expansive Paul Hastings has made its second headline lateral in London in a week, this time at the expense of Linklaters.
M&A heavyweight Roger Barron is leaving the Magic Circle firm after more than 17 years as a partner, where he has acted on a number of key mandates. Continue reading “Paul Hastings turns to Linklaters for hire of second City corporate heavyweight in a week”
Within the same week, two Magic Circle firms stressed to Legal Business the same mantra after departures of big-name lawyers: it is not about stars, the focus is the platform and that is what top clients are buying. In a mobile market where even the once-untouchable elite City law firms lose marquee names to high-paying rivals, it is an increasingly familiar refrain, albeit one that has spread from mid-weight stalwarts to the tier more used to the role of hunter than prey.
But law firms – and this goes double for the leaders in the UK and US – would be well advised to go nowhere near the seductive institutional defence and not only because the financial results of the last ten years provide ample evidence that contradicts the assertion. Continue reading “Comment: Star power is core to the law firm sales pitch – clients won’t buy excuses”
The boss of AIM-listed law firm Gateley is confident investors would support further acquisitions after its third in three years, citing a return to the capital markets as an option, for the right opportunity.
Earlier this week, Gateley announced it was making its first legal acquisition since its landmark £30m listing in 2015, entering an agreement to buy Surrey-based GCL Solicitors for £4.15m. Continue reading “‘We continue to look’: Listed Gateley eyes more opportunities after first legal acquisition”
I often look for knowledge outside of the legal profession to help me develop strategy for our [Microsoft’] legal business. I recently came across Warren Buffett’s 1992 Berkshire Hathaway shareholder letter, and this passage on franchises vs. businesses caught my attention:
An economic franchise arises from a product or service that: (1) is needed or desired; (2) is thought by its customers to have no close substitute and; (3) is not subject to price regulation. The existence of all three conditions will be demonstrated by a company’s ability to regularly price its product or service aggressively and thereby to earn high rates of return on capital. Moreover, franchises can tolerate mis-management. Inept managers may diminish a franchise’s profitability, but they cannot inflict mortal damage. Continue reading “Guest post: Is law a franchise or a business? Lessons from Warren Buffett”
A former Locke Lord partner who played a key role in the US firm receiving the largest ever fine from the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT) has been struck off and ordered to pay £70,000 in costs.
Jonathan Denton, a banking and finance partner at Locke Lord, was sacked in July 2015 after using the firm’s client account for transactions ‘that bore the hallmarks of dubious financial arrangements or investment schemes’, according to a judgement from the SDT last November. Continue reading “‘Dubious financial arrangements’: Disgraced ex-Locke Lorde partner struck off and handed £70,000 bill”
A £20m government fund for the development of artificial intelligence (AI) and data analysis in law, accounting and insurance is being welcomed as a positive step for what is ‘under-funded and under-thought’ research and development (R&D) in the legal tech space.
Earlier this month, the government launched the fund as part of a wider drive to address challenges through research funding agency UK Research and Innovation and its Innovate UK arm. It is the latest development in the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund which focuses on improving UK science and business innovation. Continue reading “Government backs ‘under-funded’ legal AI and data technology with £20m contestable R&D fund”
City recruitment picked up after a lull last week as Dentons strengthened its bench in London at the hand of Eversheds Sutherland, which saw moves both ways.
Dentons announced the hire of Howard Barrie, who re-joins the firm after several years at Eversheds Sutherland. Barrie had previously spent 19 years with Dentons in his first stint at the firm, and returns to its finance practice. Continue reading “Revolving Doors: City laterals pick up with hires at Dentons and Eversheds as international moves maintain momentum”
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer is to build on its mass relocation of support roles to the north with the launch of an equivalent hub for continental Europe. The move is also set to usher in a new career track for legal staff and support tech-assisted services, further building on the City giant’s 2015 shake-up, which has already created more than 700 jobs in Manchester.
The latest initiative will see Freshfields launch a new back and middle office centre to cover mainland Europe, with Berlin viewed as the most likely destination. ‘Berlin is the preferred location because it’s a centre for legal tech, and the only European city where there is a real start-up scene,’ Freshfields managing partner Stephan Eilers told Legal Business. Continue reading “Freshfields steps up New Law makeover with Euro services hub and Manchester expansion plans”
Linklaters and CMS Cameron McKenna Nabarro Olswang have shown Asia is still high on the agenda of global law firms after each made moves to expand their presence in the region.
The Magic Circle firm announced today (21 May) its lawyers will be able to practise local law in the Shanghai Free Trade Zone (FTZ) through a joint operations agreement with local firm Zhao Sheng. FTZ rules allow international players to tie-up with domestic firms and practise local law. Continue reading “Looking east: Linklaters gets long-awaited Shanghai approval as CMS launches Hong Kong association”
CMS Cameron McKenna Nabarro Olswang, Norton Rose Fulbright (NRF) and Fieldfisher have been appointed to the Regulator of Social Housing’s (RSH) inaugural legal panel.
Trowers & Hamlins, Devonshires and Mills & Reeve will also be in the roster of firms advising the government body, announced today (18 May), for a four-year term. Continue reading “CMS, Fieldfisher and NRF among firms awarded spots on social housing regulator’s panel amid regime shake-up”
Daniel Toner had done his research. Before an interview to become head of legal at Bupa Hospitals in 2006, he noticed the company had shifted some of its non-hospital assets to a new division.
At the interview he asked, tongue-in-cheek, whether Bupa was selling its hospitals division. He was told: ‘Absolutely not. That would never happen. They’re central to the Bupa philosophy.’ After getting the job, Toner recalls: ‘On my first day, I was called aside and told, “Right, we’re selling our hospitals division. Sign this NDA.”’ Continue reading “Client profile: Daniel Toner, Spire Healthcare”
