Page 250 – Legal Business

14 February 2018

US moves: Freshfields hires DoJ heavyweight while White & Case opens Houston office

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has enhanced its US antitrust bench with the hire of veteran Eric Mahr from the Department of Justice (DoJ), while White & Case has established its seventh American office in Houston.

Mahr, who joins Freshfields after serving as director of the well-respected antitrust division at the DoJ, has multiple decades’ worth of experience in antitrust litigation, including cartel follow-on litigation and merger disputes. Continue reading “US moves: Freshfields hires DoJ heavyweight while White & Case opens Houston office”

14 February 2018

CC hits Newcastle for surprise takeover of Carillion’s volume legal arm

Get your Magic Circle-meets-Geordie Shore quips ready as Clifford Chance (CC) has made a surprise acquisition of Carillion’s pioneering in-house legal arm.

The Newcastle-based business Carillion Advice Services (CAS) was put up for sale following the collapse of its Wolverhampton-headquartered parent in January in one of the largest UK insolvencies for years. Carillion filed for liquidation after talks with its creditors and the government failed to reach a deal on Carillion’s £1.5bn liabilities. Continue reading “CC hits Newcastle for surprise takeover of Carillion’s volume legal arm”

13 February 201823 July 2024

Life during law: Tom Cassels, Linklaters

My family moved from London to Essex in the seventies, we bought a big house with a big garden and were going to live off the land. We were basically seen as the village’s hippies – the obvious background for a City lawyer! It went wrong because my dad wasn’t very good at killing chickens, and I became very attached to a duck. He became a teacher to get an income to buy things.

I never decided I wanted to be a lawyer. I studied law because I wanted a fresh start. The school I went to – a large Essex rural comprehensive – did not traditionally produce Oxbridge candidates and I thought: ‘At least everyone is starting from the same place if I do law.’ But even then, I was clearly going to be a footballer, a rock star or a journalist in my head. Continue reading “Life during law: Tom Cassels, Linklaters”

13 February 201823 July 2024

Precision instruments – the curiously orderly disruption of legal ops teams

With increasing scrutiny of outside spend, general counsel (GCs) are under mounting pressure to deliver a smooth-running and more efficient machine, as well as effective legal advice. GCs must therefore fine-tune their teams with a discerning eye for quality and economy.

It is a far cry from even ten years ago, when legal heads in the main functioned as a general superintendent of sorts, deploying outside counsel to do much of the work. By 2018, it is becoming increasingly common to see GCs at major plcs running in-house teams similar in scope to top-tier law firms. Continue reading “Precision instruments – the curiously orderly disruption of legal ops teams”

13 February 201823 July 2024

On borrowed time – the GCs looking for answers in a post-LPO age

The collapse of film giant Kodak in 2012 is already established to many as the definitive case study of the failure of a business convinced its model would last forever. At its peak, Kodak’s share of the photographic film market was more than 80% in the US and 50% globally. So, when a Kodak employee invented the first digital camera in the 1970s, he was told by the board to keep quiet about it. Denial took hold right up until January 2017 when it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Reborn as a tiny, niche player with a few lucrative patents these days, annual profits for Kodak now are around $12m.

The lesson? Adapt or die. If innovators stop innovating, problems follow. Just ask Nokia and BlackBerry. This, on a much smaller scale, could be an existential crisis that the legal process outsourcing (LPO) industry may have to face. Continue reading “On borrowed time – the GCs looking for answers in a post-LPO age”

13 February 201823 July 2024

Off the leash – as regulators target City leaders, is more to come?

It was a prized scalp. In December, Clifford Chance (CC) became the first Magic Circle player to fall foul of the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA), when the firm and its disputes partner Alex Panayides were each fined £50,000 for their role in the well-documented Excalibur professional negligence saga.

It was a highly-symbolic move. But the £50,000 penalty is small beer relative to CC’s global revenues, and to the fines received by White & Case and Locke Lord in 2017. US firm Locke Lord, with a small City operation, was ordered to pay a record £500,000. Continue reading “Off the leash – as regulators target City leaders, is more to come?”

13 February 2018

Client profile: Neil Murrin, trainline

The train puns were inevitable, but it took longer than expected. Towards the end of my conversation with the general counsel (GC) of online ticket retailer trainline, Neil Murrin, he says: ‘It’s a matter of getting people to join us on that journey.’ And adds: ‘Getting people on the right track and all that.’

Coming from a family of medics, Murrin was intent on avoiding a career in health services. He cites his earliest interest in law as originating from seminal-yet-cheesy drama series L.A. Law, in addition to the influence of his solicitor uncle. He recalls: ‘I’ve always been interested in economics and companies. There was an understanding that law gives you a good training in those areas and could move you towards the company side.’ Continue reading “Client profile: Neil Murrin, trainline”

13 February 2018

‘Incredibly strong’ – debt counsel gear up for another boom year in leveraged finance

Nathalie Tidman finds lawyers bemused by crazy pricing and a wall of debt

‘Short of Trump nuking North Korea, I can’t see any immediate problems on the horizon,’ reflects Latham & Watkins partner Christopher Kandel. It is safe to say finance advisers believe the recent bonanza of European leveraged finance activity will continue through 2018 on the back of another record year for the European market. Continue reading “‘Incredibly strong’ – debt counsel gear up for another boom year in leveraged finance”

13 February 201823 July 2024

The offshore elite in review – rolling with the punches

Global stock markets rose by 22% in 2017, according to the Morgan Stanley Capital International index of bourses. Meanwhile, the World Bank is forecasting global economic growth to increase to 3.1% this year after a better-than-expected 2017 as investment, trade and M&A continue to rebound while commodity prices recover. Against this favourable economic background, it is no surprise that offshore law firms had another very good year.

But there were some local difficulties. Hurricane Irma and Hurricane Maria created havoc across the Caribbean, not least in the British Virgin Islands (BVI). ‘It had a devastating impact on the lives of our BVI colleagues,’ says Jonathan Rigby, managing partner of Mourant Ozannes. ‘None of us will ever fully understand what they have been through, but their strength of character and resilience has been truly humbling.’ Continue reading “The offshore elite in review – rolling with the punches”

13 February 2018

The last word: Deals or no deals

2017 ended with surprising confidence in a rebounding market. Here we ask the City’s leading corporate players for their prognosis on 2018

Finding the edge

‘We have come back from the holidays to a whirlwind of deal activity. I’m expecting to see financial investors looking to reduce the competition on deals by pursuing transactions where only a limited number can compete. For example, I expect the large-cap financial investors will look for multibillion-enterprise-value businesses to acquire either on their own or as part of a consortium. Also, financial investors will look to specialise further in certain key sectors so that they can differentiate from their competitors and create that all important auction-winning angle.’
Adrian Maguire, co-head of global financial investors group, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer Continue reading “The last word: Deals or no deals”

13 February 2018

DLA whittles senior partner race to three-way contest as elections grip the City

Hamish McNicol looks at the frontrunners amid a bumper season of senior leadership changes

DLA Piper is making up for lost time in its first senior partner election in a decade. The month-long process, which initially involved eight candidates, two voting stages and ten days of hustings, has been heralded by the firm as showing its breadth and depth, but has also raised eyebrows. Continue reading “DLA whittles senior partner race to three-way contest as elections grip the City”

13 February 2018

Latham and SH cheer as latest silk round bountiful for Red Lion and Garden Court

Arbitrators dominate solicitor appointments amid creation of 119 new silks as Latham does double

Red Lion Chambers and Garden Court Chambers saw six and five of their respective barristers take silk in this year’s QC appointments round, while the number of successful solicitors becoming QCs dipped from last year. Continue reading “Latham and SH cheer as latest silk round bountiful for Red Lion and Garden Court”

13 February 201823 July 2024

Being great at one thing is not enough – remaking a City leader for the times

LB: What have been the big wins for Herbert Smith Freehills [HSF] over the last two years?

Mark Rigotti (MR): It has been the shift from integration. That’s by definition backwards-looking so it’s good to move on. We’ve been strengthening some of the smaller offices. We’re different from the Magic Circle that have long-established European practices. We’ve grown about 50% in five years in mainland Europe. The German, Madrid and Paris offices are all significantly bigger. There are more European clients and more leadership positions going to Europeans. That’s a big cultural shift. Continue reading “Being great at one thing is not enough – remaking a City leader for the times”

13 February 2018

After an expansive 2017, Norton Rose Fulbright starts year with Asia pullback

Norton Rose Fulbright (NRF) made headlines in 2017 by pulling off mergers in the US and Australia, but 2018 has started with the firm retrenching internationally, closing in Kazakhstan and Abu Dhabi while Paul Hastings raided its Japanese corporate team.

NRF Tokyo head of corporate, M&A and securities Eiji Kobayashi joined Paul Hastings’ Japanese base in mid-January, with a four-person team, including two associates, one paralegal and one secretary, to follow him a few weeks later. Continue reading “After an expansive 2017, Norton Rose Fulbright starts year with Asia pullback”

13 February 2018

An ‘amicable’ discussion sees Weil Gotshal exit Hungary as 20-strong team joins Bird & Bird

Bird & Bird has bolstered its Budapest operations by adding a 20-strong Weil, Gotshal & Manges team, bringing the US firm’s presence in Hungary to an end.

Both parties insisted that the two-partner team move on 1 February was the result of an ‘amicable arrangement’ between the firms rather than headhunting by Bird & Bird. Continue reading “An ‘amicable’ discussion sees Weil Gotshal exit Hungary as 20-strong team joins Bird & Bird”

13 February 2018

On a roll: Eversheds Sutherland sees December deal flurry carry over

Eversheds Sutherland corporate head Richard Moulton cannot remember a busier December than in 2017 and believes the January deal market is already gathering pace.

As the transatlantic tie-up marked a year since going live this month, the firm has enjoyed a robust start to 2018. On 4 January, Eversheds advised as British retailer Poundland secured a £180m loan to reduce its reliance on its South African owner Steinhoff International, under investigation following accounting irregularities estimated at £7bn. Continue reading “On a roll: Eversheds Sutherland sees December deal flurry carry over”

13 February 2018

Deal view: Eversheds deal team – so much promise but so much steady

Newcomers to London quickly learn the rules of the escalator: stand still on the right or keep moving on the left. The risk with changing your mind is you can land flat on your face.

For Eversheds Sutherland, the consensus view is that its corporate team has stood on the right for years, moving along but hardly dashing. And why not? You still get where you are going. Continue reading “Deal view: Eversheds deal team – so much promise but so much steady”

13 February 2018

Carillion collapse: Global 100 firms take centre stage as construction giant enters liquidation

Freshfields is acting for the official receiver

One of the largest UK insolvencies for years, the collapse of construction giant Carillion is poised to have a wide-ranging impact on a number of industries, not least among the most prominent restructuring and insolvency advisers in the City. Continue reading “Carillion collapse: Global 100 firms take centre stage as construction giant enters liquidation”

13 February 2018

Dealwatch: the Magic Circle players kicking off 2018

Clifford Chance (CC) and Linklaters advised as media company Informa entered talks to acquire events organiser UBM. Corporate partners Katherine Moir and Steven Fox led the CC team advising Informa on the deal, which would create a company worth £9bn. Linklaters corporate partners Michael Honan and Iain Fenn acted for UBM.

Linklaters also joined Kirkland & Ellis on the restructuring of South African retail holding company Steinhoff International reported to have €2.7bn in convertible bonds and debts of €10.7bn. Restructuring partners Sean Lacey and Kon Asimacopoulos led the Kirkland team advising the convertible bonds alongside Munich restructuring partner Sacha Lürken, while Linklaters’ Richard Bussell advised Steinhoff.

Continue reading “Dealwatch: the Magic Circle players kicking off 2018”

13 February 2018

Letter from… Milan: Living in style yet still playing the generation game

‘All the top people in this country have grey hair,’ notes one Milan playmaker. It is a truth Italians know all too well: those pulling the strings of the country’s politics and economy are often years past the average European age of retirement. And law is no exception.

The country’s top firms still owe their success to a few veteran rainmakers and their decade-old connections. Individuals like Sergio Erede, Michele Carpinelli and Francesco Gianni, all past 65, still define Italy’s legal market more than 20 years since foreign advisers first arrived in scale. The three largest independents – BonelliErede, Chiomenti and Gianni, Origoni, Grippo, Cappelli & Partners – all generate comfortably over €100m (exact figures must be taken with a pinch of salt).

Continue reading “Letter from… Milan: Living in style yet still playing the generation game”