Posted on

Comment: Star power is core to the law firm sales pitch – clients won’t buy excuses

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”

Posted on

‘We continue to look’: Listed Gateley eyes more opportunities after first legal acquisition

Michael Ward

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”

Posted on

Guest post: Is law a franchise or a business? Lessons from Warren Buffett

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”

Posted on

‘Dubious financial arrangements’: Disgraced ex-Locke Lorde partner struck off and handed £70,000 bill

Solicitors Regulation Authority SRA

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”

Posted on

Government backs ‘under-funded’ legal AI and data technology with £20m contestable R&D fund

cyborg

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”

Posted on

Revolving Doors: City laterals pick up with hires at Dentons and Eversheds as international moves maintain momentum

City of London

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”

Posted on

Freshfields steps up New Law makeover with Euro services hub and Manchester expansion plans

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”

Posted on

Looking east: Linklaters gets long-awaited Shanghai approval as CMS launches Hong Kong association

Shanghai, China cityscape

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”

Posted on

CMS, Fieldfisher and NRF among firms awarded spots on social housing regulator’s panel amid regime shake-up

CMS Cameron McKenna Nabarro Olswang

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”

Posted on

Client profile: Daniel Toner, Spire Healthcare

Daniel Toner

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”

Posted on

Iberia: Off the Richter scale

Richter Scale

‘An earthquake’; ‘very shocking’; ‘difficult to understand’; ‘one of the most relevant moves in the market over the last few years’: if you want members of the Spanish legal elite to come up with the most melodramatic expressions they can find, mention Juan Picón and Latham & Watkins.

You can easily see why. The news in November that DLA Piper’s senior partner and global co-chair was joining the US giant as Spain managing partner alongside fellow DLA corporate partners Ignacio Gómez-Sancha and José Antonio Sánchez-Dafos put Spain in the headlines of the global legal press. That does not happen every week. Continue reading “Iberia: Off the Richter scale”

Posted on

Middle East: Mission unaccomplished

Riyadh

‘The Middle East. We will try to make it better, but it is a troubled place’: the words of Donald Trump as he announced the recent military strikes targeting Syrian president Bashar Assad’s chemical weapons facilities. Although there is some truth to his sweeping statement, most of the over 400 million citizens in the 17 countries that comprise the Middle East region beg to differ. While the World Bank estimates that GDP growth in the region slowed from 5% in 2016 to 1.8% in 2017 – fuelled by oil production cuts and geopolitical tensions – this is projected to rebound to 3% in 2018 and 3.2% the following year.

The region’s lawyers point to the six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) economies as leading the way, supported by infrastructure investment. ‘It’s a very good time in the region,’ says Doug Peel at White & Case, head of the firm’s Middle East practice, which is spread across five regional offices: Cairo, Riyadh, Doha, Abu Dhabi and Dubai. ‘We are busy all the way around – there’s substantial activity in all the GCC countries and in Egypt.’ Last year White & Case – along with Latham & Watkins – advised JPMorgan, Citi and HSBC on Saudi Arabia’s debut 144A/Reg S Sukuk programme, including the issue of $9bn Sukuk. Continue reading “Middle East: Mission unaccomplished”

Posted on

Kirkland and Baker McKenzie chart course for €950m sale of Danish shipping giant

DFDS

Kirkland & Ellis and Baker McKenzie have secured key roles as Turkish freight shipping operator UN Ro-Ro launched its sale to Danish shipping and logistics company DFDS in a deal worth roughly €950m.

The Kirkland team, spearheaded by London corporate partner David Arnold, advised Actera Group and Esas Holdings, while the Bakers team was led by Charles Whitefoord (London) and Eren Kurşun (Istanbul). Continue reading “Kirkland and Baker McKenzie chart course for €950m sale of Danish shipping giant”

Posted on

Deal view: Life after Hatchard – does Skadden hunger to take its peerless M&A team to the next level?

Scott Simspon and Michael Hatchard

‘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?”

Posted on

KPMG: Still not a law firm, still not being taken lightly

Jürg Birri

KPMG’s global head of legal Jürg Birri (pictured) does not know how much it will cost to reach its target of doubling its legal services arm to 3,000 lawyers in the next three years.

He floats $50m and $100m, but for him it is beside the point. It is the appetite he is seeing from KPMG’s member firms – spread across 154 countries and territories – wanting to invest in setting up a legal services arm. Continue reading “KPMG: Still not a law firm, still not being taken lightly”

Posted on

McDermott’s mass lawyer swoop casts shadow over DLA financial renaissance

DLA Piper

It has been a bumpy few months for DLA Piper. Just as the dust was settling following McDermott Will & Emery (MWE)’s 20-partner blitz on its US offices, the Chicago-based firm hired another three partners from DLA in London.

What a way to take some of the gloss off a turnaround in global turnover to back above $2.5bn, coupled with double-digit percentage growth in net profit, also announced in April. Continue reading “McDermott’s mass lawyer swoop casts shadow over DLA financial renaissance”

Posted on

Gamification – the thoroughly modern way to redesign legal services

lawyer board game

You may not have heard the term ‘gamification’, but the chances are you have experienced a form of it.

Perhaps you’re an executive in a FTSE 500 company with a generous bonus triggered when your performance meets certain conditions. You could be a corporate client, flicking through the ranked lawyers in The Legal 500, preparing to draw up a shortlist for your next deal. In each case, you would be responding to an element of gameplay dynamics, subtly influencing your judgement, or motivating particular choices. Continue reading “Gamification – the thoroughly modern way to redesign legal services”

Posted on

Trust me, I’m a lawyer… technology and the evolving role of GCs

lighthouse illustration

Academic and Thinkers50 honouree Rachel Botsman is focused on trust. Of late, that focus has looked at how technology has shifted our understanding of trust and impacted on both our personal and professional lives.

In particular, Botsman draws a distinction between ‘trust’ and ‘trustworthiness’. The former is generally thought of as a state of mind engendered by the latter. ‘Trustworthiness’, therefore, can be defined as a set of qualities that inspire trust, and is arguably more measurable, because trust can be influenced by emotional factors. There is a symbiotic relationship between the two, but they do not always follow on from each other; hence we can instinctively trust someone, or feel that someone is trustworthy – without trusting them yet. Continue reading “Trust me, I’m a lawyer… technology and the evolving role of GCs”

Posted on

The New Normal is good news for litigators

Alex Novarese

Returning with our fourth annual Disputes Yearbook, by far the largest we have yet published, it is still a great time to be a quality litigator or arbitrator at a well-positioned team. While the flood of banking-related work that gave such a shot in the arm to the City contentious market post-Lehman has now largely passed – as have the days when London courts were block-booked by Russian clients – there is still plenty to go around.

As can be seen by our cover feature, the commercial Bar continues to thrive, with the Magic Circle of the chambers variety looking rather more confident over the last decade than their larger solicitor counterparts. Continue reading “The New Normal is good news for litigators”