As Donald Trump once said, ‘real estate is always good’. Nearly $700bn changed hands in the commercial real estate market last year, proving that in times of uncertainty the safe money is on bricks and mortar. Brexit aside, London was seen as the safest bet of all, attracting over $23bn of new investment – $10bn more than New York.
Continue reading “Real estate of the union”
The real estate market in the UK and in other key investment hotspots around the world is proving resilient in the face of economic and political uncertainties. An ever increasing range of organisations from across the globe are looking to participate – from US private equity funds, to Australian superannuation schemes, to Asian pension funds and Hong Kong investors. Global capital is particularly attracted to the UK because of the strong legal and regulatory framework, transaction transparency and the relative ease of doing business – as well as the reputation of UK real estate for holding value, and just a bit of post-Brexit currency arbitrage!
You wouldn’t mistake a lawyer for a designer. One is usually armed with a pen and a rulebook, the other with a Mac and a black turtleneck. Right? Wrong.
For UK business, 2018 will be dominated by one question: when do we push the button on Brexit? Months of scenario planning have given a sense of the possible outcomes, but there is little confidence that a decision will be taken in full possession of the facts.
Late last year, The In-House Lawyer ventured north of the border to highlight the community of commercial counsel flourishing in Scotland in an extended feature. To follow up, this autumn we teamed up with Addleshaw Goddard to gather a panel of senior general counsel at Edinburgh’s Signet Library in Parliament Square to debate a range of related issues to an audience of over 60 in-house counsel. With Brexit on the agenda, a changing legal profession and Scotland’s economy striving to reinvent itself for an increasingly-globalised age, there was plenty to talk about.
A decade ago workplace law was barely on a general counsel’s risk register. Today we see in-house lawyers specialising in it – with a GC expected to be knowledgeable enough to keep a company’s board briefed on any issues that could impact the value of its brand. Weinstein, historical sex abuse charges, the implication of failure to be prepared for GDPR and gender pay are among the issues to have helped thrust the subject firmly into the spotlight, and it’s not going away. Continue reading “Employment law: Doyle Clayton”
With increasing scrutiny of outside spend, general counsel 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. Continue reading “Precision instruments”
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. Continue reading “On borrowed time”
It is dominated by mid-sized firms while global players and City leaders lag far behind. Watson Farley & Williams (WFW) sits in the third spot. You must scroll down nearly 40 positions before finding the likes of Linklaters and Clifford Chance.
The growth in regulation has made compliance part of business as usual for companies and most in-house legal departments are fully occupied with the day to day.
Litigation finance is becoming an increasingly important part of the commercial litigation landscape: according to the 2017 Litigation Finance Survey conducted by Burford Capital, the number of lawyers in the US who said their firms had used litigation finance has risen 414% since 2013. Over half (54%) of UK lawyers who have not yet used litigation finance expect to do so within two years.
Continue reading “Five things general counsel should know about litigation finance”
Machine learning is everywhere you look, from customer service virtual agents to round-the-clock patient care in hospitals. Continue reading “Why lawyers care about machine learning”
It has been the question raised over wine by many seasoned litigators for months now: what’s going on at Enyo Law? At the beginning of last year, the litigation boutique hit the headlines thanks to surprise merger talks with fellow disputes specialist Stewarts Law, but since the discussion was abandoned the influential outfit has gone to ground.
Formed by ex-Addleshaw Goddard partners Simon Twigden (pictured), Pietro Marino and Michael Green, Enyo was launched in 2010 with a post-Lehman preoccupation of litigating against banks. The concept was simple: pick up the big-ticket work that larger firms were conflicted out of. Continue reading “Disputes Eye: Enyo goes to ground – what next for the pioneering disputes shop?”
Simmons & Simmons will conduct an independent review of how Baker McKenzie handled allegations that one of its partners sexually assaulted a junior lawyer several years ago.
Bakers confirmed today (21 February) it has appointed Simmons to review the incident, which resulted in the associate leaving the firm after reaching a settlement and signing a non-disclosure agreement. Continue reading “#MeToo latest: Bakers appoints Simmons to review handling of complaint against partner accused of sexual assault”
Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) today (21 February) announced that much-touted banking litigator Damien Byrne Hill will be replacing Mark Shillito as head of disputes for the UK and US on 1 May.
Unsurprisingly as one of the key names in what remains the City’s bellwether ComLit shop, Byrne Hill has acted on a string of marquee matters in his 27 years at HSF (by way of legacy Herbert Smith), including defending Goldman Sachs in a $1.2bn claim brought by the Libyan Investment Authority. Shillito, who had run the practice for ten years, including steering it through a turbulent period in the wake of its 2012 union with Australian leader Freehills, returns to full time fee earning. Continue reading “‘There’s scope for growth’: Damien Byrne Hill on taking over HSF’s disputes team”
West End firm Gordon Dadds has its sights set on becoming a ‘nine-figure’ business after making its fourth acquisition since its public float in August last year .
Gordon Dadds announced yesterday (19 February) it had acquired Cardiff-based Thomas Simon for £1.875m, paying £187,500 up front with 20 quarterly instalments to come thereafter, plus a further amount related to net assets. The vendors of Thomas Simon, which had a fee income of just over £2m for the year to 31 July 2016, have warranted fee income will be not less than £12.5m over the next five years as part of the deal. Continue reading “Firepower: £100m revenue a ‘natural target’ for acquisitive Gordon Dadds”
A trio of tax partners who joined Reed Smith in a 17-partner move from collapsed legacy SJ Berwin have moved on again after little more than a year, joining DLA Piper.
DLA has hired Sylvie Vansteenkiste, Fanny Combourieu and Raphaël Béra from Reed Smith. The three tax partners came to Reed Smith in January last year after the US firm hired 50 fee-earners, including 17 partners, three counsel, 22 associates, one jurist, seven trainees and nine other support staff from the failed European arm of King & Wood Mallesons (KWM). The hiring spree was understood to represent the largest group of lawyers taken on by a firm in the wake of the collapse. Continue reading “A long time in law: DLA Piper hires SJ Berwin tax escapees from Reed Smith”
In a week dominated by European and international partner hires, US firms Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld and King & Spalding were among four firms to add to their London benches with strategic additions in project finance and white-collar crime respectively.
After the coup of hiring former Financial Reporting Council (FRC) heavyweight Gareth Rees QC last September, King & Spalding has underscored its ambitions of being a serious corporate crime firm in London with the appointment of Aaron Stephens from Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP). Continue reading “Revolving Doors: Akin Gump and King & Spalding boost London benches while international lateral hiring continues apace”
Ashurst’s management took home £8m in 2016/17, 18% less than the previous year, according to the firm’s recently published LLP accounts.
The City firm’s turnover saw an 12% boost to £541m from £505m the previous year, showing a recovery after two consecutive years of decline following its merger with Australian firm Blake Dawson in 2013. Continue reading “LLP latest: Ashurst management pay drops 18% amid turnover recovery”
‘My career has been a tale of reinvention and creativity.
I have been very lucky in that I have worked on three continents. I started in New York as a corporate finance lawyer in the traditional sense, then transferred to Singapore where younger lawyers did a bit of everything: investment funds, LBOs, JV finance, capital markets. Continue reading “Women deal stars: perspectives – Tamara Box, Reed Smith”
