Page 244 – Legal Business

28 March 2018

Client profile: Sarah Nelson Smith, Yum! Brands

In many ways it was ideal preparation. Before embarking on a legal career, Sarah Nelson Smith took a post-law school gap year working as a holiday rep in the popular Greek retreat of Halkidiki. It was an eye-opening experience, figuratively and literally, welcoming holidaymakers at unholy hours and dealing with bizarre questions and gripes.

‘We had one guy who complained about the sea. There was a beautiful blue-flag beach but he said: “The hotel smells too salty in the morning.” He also complained about too many fish, while once a woman was crying during the welcome speech. When I asked her what was wrong, she said: “I can’t find my boyfriend.” I asked: “When was the last time you saw him?” and she said: “I haven’t seen him since we arrived at the airport, when the police took him.” He’d been smuggling drugs and got arrested. I had to go to the British consulate and fetch him.’ Continue reading “Client profile: Sarah Nelson Smith, Yum! Brands”

28 March 20186 February 2025

Life during law: Richard Youle, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom

When I moved to Hull from Sheffield at five my next-door neighbour was a just-born, [Linklaters partner] Alex Woodward – Woodie. A very good friend. Our mums and dads are very good friends. Went to the same schools, drank in the same pubs.

Woodie is super-smart, so he got a training contract at Linklaters, whereas I trained at Stamp Jackson & Procter in Hull. Continue reading “Life during law: Richard Youle, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom”

28 March 201823 July 2024

‘Our values are imperatives’: Pinsents chief on diversity, success and being bolder

Legal Business (LB): How do you create a clearer picture of what Pinsents is doing on diversity?

Richard Foley (RF): You’ve got to be consistent in highlighting it as a priority. We’re clear about the programmes we have and we’re vocal about successes. We’ve just been ranked second of all UK corporates in this year’s Stonewall index for the second year running. Continue reading “‘Our values are imperatives’: Pinsents chief on diversity, success and being bolder”

28 March 201823 July 2024

Welcome to the hurricane – Latam GCs struggle with corruption clampdown

It has been a turbulent few years for many of those in the upper echelons of Brazilian politics and business. Around the world, headlines have been filled with salacious tales of corruption, perhaps most notably the bribery and kickback scandal emanating from state-backed oil giant Petrobras, embroiling many high-profile individuals and entities across the region.

Anti-corruption legislation and regulation enacted in the past five years – the so-called 2014 Clean Company Act, fully implemented in 2015 amid public unrest by the soon-to-be-impeached President Rousseff – has enabled Brazil to usher in a new era of compliance, the efficacy of which has left many in the business community reeling. The judge-led ‘Lava Jato’ (‘Carwash’) investigation, started in 2014, is perhaps the most recognisable herald of this new era. Continue reading “Welcome to the hurricane – Latam GCs struggle with corruption clampdown”

28 March 201823 July 2024

An ill wind… The LB100 leadership debate

Alex Novarese, Legal Business: How is the market generally?

Lee Ranson, Eversheds Sutherland: Most of the managing partners around this table will say it was a better 2017 than expected. We had some of our highest numbers against a budget where we were very, very wary with Brexit and uncertainty. Very strange. We are going into a new budget now and management is more cautious than the practitioners. Continue reading “An ill wind… The LB100 leadership debate”

28 March 201823 July 2024

Striking out… or how to lose a client in ten minutes

A 23-year-old became the most sought-after baseball player last year when he announced he would leave Japan to play in the US. Shohei Ohtani was already a phenomenon. Able to pitch and hit – a skillset as rare as hens’ teeth in the game and infinitely more prized – league rules limiting his initial pay guaranteed whichever team landed him an absolute bargain.

The intrigue intensified when Ohtani’s agent sent all 30 Major League teams a list of questions he wanted answered in English and Japanese, from which just seven were asked to deliver a two-hour presentation. At the end, Ohtani made the surprise decision to sign with the Los Angeles Angels. Continue reading “Striking out… or how to lose a client in ten minutes”

28 March 2018

Letter from… Latin America: Blood vs bureaucracy – market forces weigh on Latam counsel

‘In the blacksmith’s house, the knives are made of wood’ – a common saying in Central America, which encapsulates an enduring truth across legal markets in the region: for all the formal education, technical nous and practical experience that resides with their partners, firms often fail to apply the same focus they afford their clients to their own organisation.

The official reasons for this are as varied as they are hollow – volume of work, pace of development or the classic ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ approach. But with an eye to the Latin American market, organisational structure – particularly the prevalence of the family firm – is a far more pertinent consideration than given credit. Continue reading “Letter from… Latin America: Blood vs bureaucracy – market forces weigh on Latam counsel”

28 March 2018

The golden age of law firm leadership has passed… what now?

I used to say three things when asked for a view on the quality of leadership in the profession. Firstly, that it was pretty good (certainly better than commonly supposed). Secondly, the standard has generally improved (since the early 2000s). And, thirdly, the notion that law lags far behind most industries in management is nonsense (poor leadership being rife).

It was only when recently asked this by a new reporter – an experienced business correspondent but new to the profession – I realised that I could only now stand by the latter contention. After all, there is still much to be said for the disciplines of the owner-manager structure, even amid New Law disruption (and perhaps more than ever in an age that has revived the fashion for the cash-burn phase). But as someone who has met hundreds of managing and senior partners, my view is that this is a long way from the golden age of law firm leadership. Standards of operational polish have continued to improve – there is a reason that major law firms so rarely fail in the UK. That matters, but it is only part of the equation in an industry facing structural issues. Continue reading “The golden age of law firm leadership has passed… what now?”

28 March 2018

No-one cares about those corporate values

Attending a conference recently for general counsel was a reminder that for all the chasm that remains between clients and law firms, they have both imbibed many of the same corporate fashions. A few years back it was all adding value and performance, now it is ‘values’, ‘authenticity’ and other forms of Diet Coke morality.

Talk to law firms, as with plcs, and without irony, you will hear much about ‘tone from the top’, ‘walking the talk’ and interchangeably using ‘piece’ when you mean ‘issue’. Which would all be fine if there was any indication this was leading to a more ethical or caring profession. It would also help if such talk resonated remotely beyond the upper echelons of the corporate and professional services worlds, and did not provoke huge cynicism in staff and clients. Continue reading “No-one cares about those corporate values”

28 March 2018

Brexit looms yet City law tilts further towards US leaders

Striking numbers abound in this year’s Global London table, if you are into that kind of thing. The three pace-setting US brands in London – Latham & Watkins, Kirkland & Ellis and White & Case – are all generating in the $300m region in the Square Mile, last year saw the first $10m lateral and my back-of-the-envelope scribbling indicates that the top 50 US firms are comfortably pulling in over $5bn in the UK.

The market is increasingly now defined by this trio, predictably so in the case of Latham, though City lawyers are still trying to get their heads around the idea of Kirkland and White & Case as mounting a frontal challenge. A few years ago, I’d have been equally sceptical, particularly in the latter’s case, but if there is a glaring hole in the game plan of these two outfits, they are hiding it well. With all three making ground in mainstream transactional work through 2017 and securing significant hires – the idea that certain kinds of M&A will remain the preserve of City advisers over the next three years looks fanciful.

Continue reading “Brexit looms yet City law tilts further towards US leaders”

28 March 2018

The Last Word – Views from the market

To mark the launch of our 2018 Global London report, we ask senior figures at leading US firms in London for a progress update

Keeping talent happy

‘Until a few years ago it was very hard to get a UK partner to leave their firm. Today we see the pendulum swinging: it went from extreme loyalty to far less. The focus for US firms has to be on how to keep people. Historically, Proskauer has done that really well.’
Mary Kuusisto, London office head, Proskauer Rose Continue reading “The Last Word – Views from the market”

28 March 201823 July 2024

The Brexit countdown – The Irish question

‘A dense population in extreme distress inhabits an island’ – that is how Disraeli began to define the Irish Question in the Commons in 1844. Without much hyperbole, it also defines the current state of the UK. Over halfway through the two-year time limit prescribed by article 50, but with no Brexit deal in sight, the Irish Question still resonates: now less about a united independent Ireland, rather more about an independent but divided Britain.

The Irish Republic, whose economy and culture are closer to the UK than any other, is the only EU member state that also shares a land border. Resolving this 310-mile conundrum – maintaining the open border guaranteed by the Good Friday Agreement while finessing its position in the EU single market and customs union – has become a fault line between the government in London and EU leaders. The Irish taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, has ruled out tripartite talks on the issue and rejected Theresa May’s suggestion that customs arrangements on the US-Canada border could provide a post-Brexit model. Continue reading “The Brexit countdown – The Irish question”

28 March 201823 July 2024

Unstoppable: The Risk Report

Our debut risk management and professional indemnity report with broker Marsh in February 2008 featured a timid segue into an unfamiliar topic. We suggested that neither were ‘glamorous subjects’, while observing that firms were ‘thinking harder than ever’ about how to mitigate risks. A necessary evil, if you will.

The risk landscape portrayed then – six months before Lehman Brothers was to collapse – still has a familiar ring: ‘When things are going well, as was the case from 2003 to mid-2007, resources are stretched and clients want every deal done yesterday. Throw in an overheated recruitment market in which the firm that blinks misses out, and the competitive pressure of having to race into every new, emerging market and firms could be forgiven for never thinking about their professional indemnity at all.’ Continue reading “Unstoppable: The Risk Report”

28 March 201823 July 2024

Reborn supremacy – inside the unlikely White & Case revolution

‘Stick that in your pipe and smoke it!’ exclaims Oliver Brettle, White & Case’s London executive partner, before getting up and heading for the door.

Given an amicable discussion of the considerable recent growth of White & Case’s City arm, the reaction to a question about the firm’s disputes practice seems a little abrupt. Continue reading “Reborn supremacy – inside the unlikely White & Case revolution”

28 March 2018

‘Investments have come home’: City branches stand out in big year for US players

Marco Cillario finds City offices outpacing worldwide growth at many Global London firms

2017 was a boom year for many of the London outposts of US law firms, with several convincingly outpacing their firm’s global performance financially and two passing the $300m mark. And it was not just a frenetic private equity market that boosted the London coffers: many UK teams also picked up headline mandates in areas including disputes and financial restructuring.

White & Case remains the highest-grossing US firm in London thanks to a 13% hike to its top line to $328m in 2017 – a faster growth than its 10% global revenue rise to $1.8bn. Continue reading “‘Investments have come home’: City branches stand out in big year for US players”

28 March 2018

Real estate, real estate, real estate: Bryan Cave? Questions surround BLP’s transatlantic union

Hamish McNicol and Thomas Alan canvass the market on the latest UK/US tie-up

‘Next year all our troubles will be out of sight,’ sang Judy Garland in the 1944 film Meet Me In St Louis. You wonder whether the leadership of Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) was singing those words from ‘Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas’ in December before the firm’s quest for a US merger ended with St Louis-bred Bryan Cave. Because apart from a press release lauding the aspirations of the transatlantic tie-up, first floated publicly last October, there has not been much singing since. Continue reading “Real estate, real estate, real estate: Bryan Cave? Questions surround BLP’s transatlantic union”

28 March 2018

Gordon Dadds acquisition sweep continues but breakthrough deal remains illusive

Hamish McNicol speaks to chief executive Adrian Biles about tubthumping, going public and frustration

Gordon Dadds managing partner and group chief executive Adrian Biles talks ambitions for nearly an hour before recalling a story about a businessman who never smiled in photos. The reason being those photos were always the ones that would accompany any bad news stories further down the track. Continue reading “Gordon Dadds acquisition sweep continues but breakthrough deal remains illusive”

28 March 2018

‘It’s a promotion problem’: what the gender pay gap figures tell us so far

Marco Cillario rounds up the latest stats as the April deadline looms

And so it begins. The first gender pay gap reporting season has kicked off and for many Legal Business 100 law firms (and indeed all British companies with 250+ people) there is an early April deadline to disclose how much they are paying their UK-based female employees compared to men. Continue reading “‘It’s a promotion problem’: what the gender pay gap figures tell us so far”

28 March 2018

Global London 2018 – Main Table

Continue reading “Global London 2018 – Main Table”

28 March 2018

Collective shame as City law falls firmly under #MeToo spotlight

Thomas Alan finds profession facing tough questions over record on sexual harassment

From the Presidents Club charity dinner to the news in March that the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) will challenge the misuse of non-disclosure agreements (NDAs), the legal profession has been jolted by allegations of misconduct and sexual harassment since the start of the year. Continue reading “Collective shame as City law falls firmly under #MeToo spotlight”