Gowling WLG and Fieldfisher are to begin training solicitor apprentices with the University of Law (ULaw) as part of a training course designed to create new pathways to becoming a qualified lawyer.
The new course from ULaw, which officially launched on 25 September, will see 28 apprentices this autumn begin the six-year process in a programme aimed at encouraging a wider pool of candidates to enter the profession.
A little more light has emerged on the going rate for junior lawyers at the Magic Circle, with Allen & Overy (A&O) and Clifford Chance (CC) this week confirming more details on their new pay scales.
A&O confirmed that it has increased its pay bands for junior lawyers, with newly-qualified (NQ) solicitors earning £81,000 in salary, a 3% rise on the previous rate of £78,500. As a result of the revamp, first-year trainees will earn £44,000, rising to £49,000 in year two. The City giant has disclosed no details on bonus awards. Continue reading “Squaring the Circle: A&O and CC confirm more details as associate pay is stoked higher”
This week in buy-side news saw in-house teams respond to some of the biggest issues facing clients: bank ring-fencing and smaller panel arrangements. Energy giant National Grid renewed its current legal panel until 2019, while Barclays appointed Paul Loftus as head of legal for banking products and propositions in response to ring-fencing requirements.
National Grid, which carried out its last full panel review in 2015, reappointed 12 firms to its roster including Norton Rose Fulbright, Addleshaw Goddard, Irwin Mitchell and Herbert Smith Freehills. These firms, which were newly appointed in 2015, join CMS Cameron McKenna, DLA Piper, Eversheds, Linklaters, Berwin Leighton Paisner, Bircham Dyson Bell, Dentons and Shakespeare Martineau on the panel. Continue reading “In-house wrap: National Grid renews roster as Barclays responds to ring-fencing demands with new appointment “
While there hasn’t been the anticipated rush of City firms into alternative European financial centres since the UK voted for Brexit, Simmons & Simmons has become the third international firm to plan a launch in Dublin since last June as the referendum result continues to boost the Irish capital as a professional service hub.
Mason Hayes & Curran’s head of investment funds and financial regulation Fionán Breathnach will leave the Irish firm to lead the Simmons’ new office as it follows Covington & Burling and Pinsent Masons to make moves to launch practices in Dublin. Continue reading “Simmons & Simmons becomes third international firm to launch in Ireland since Brexit vote with key local hire”
Revenue at Dentons’ continental European arm grew 11% to €275.8m in the year to 31 December 2016, according to LLP accounts published this week.
In a year marked by five office launches and 32 lateral hires, the global giant’s continental operations also saw profits increase 13% to €72.3m, up from €64.2m in 2015. Continue reading “‘The idea is working’: Dentons Europe recorded double-digit revenue growth, LLPs show”
The headline of the last lengthy piece Legal Business carried on Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer said it all: The Last Champions. While there is no doubt that the Magic Circle has faced huge challenges asserting itself since the banking crisis, for many Freshfields was the member of the club with the best prospect of securing its place in the global elite.
But the City giant will be faring much worse on the profession’s saloon bar test if it keeps generating headlines like this summer, notably the news in July that co-managing partner Chris Pugh was stepping down less than halfway through his term. This surprise announcement came in the same month as financial results showed Freshfields being comprehensively outclassed by its City peers. Freshfields’ revenues have grown by just 17% in five years and the firm has been a fitful performer for nearly a decade now. While the metrics look better in profitability and revenue-per-lawyer terms, Freshfields has certainly not outpaced London rivals even on its core targets. Continue reading “Comment: What ails Freshfields? Time is running out for ‘The Last Champions’”
For listed law firms, recent months have been a period of brutally mixed fortunes. While Slater and Gordon has suffered a string of high-profile reverses, select partners at fellow pioneer Gateley have taken home almost £500,000 after a stake in the top 50 UK law firm was sold for nearly £10m.
Documents at the London Stock Exchange (LSE) show a sale of 6.21% of the firm’s equity, or 6,641,333 aggregate ordinary shares. Continue reading “In the money: Gateley veterans reap six figures in £10m share sale”
A month after recruiting former DLA Piper leader Sir Nigel Knowles, DWF has brought in a senior hand again with the hire of Addleshaw Goddard heavyweight Andrew Carpenter, who leaves a year after losing a contested election for senior partner .
Carpenter, who was latterly international divisional managing partner for Addleshaws after leading its private equity practice joins Mel Sims, formerly at DLA Piper, to beef up DWF’s London corporate offering. The hires follow the appointment of London head of corporate Matthew Doughty from Squire Patton Boggs in June 2016 and partner Alistair Hogarth from PwC Legal earlier this year. Continue reading “DWF adds to senior ranks once more as Addleshaws heavyweight Carpenter jumps ship”
In contrast to the majority of the top 25 of the Legal Business 100, DWF has been a latecomer to well-served international markets but it has nonetheless continued its rapid international push by securing an exclusive association with a six-partner outfit in another market long familiar with English arrivals – Australia. The deal, which the firm says ‘will shortly lead to merger’, follows its launch in Singapore in June.
As part of the deal, DWF will take on six partners and 20 associates based in Melbourne and Brisbane specialising in insurance, occupational health and safety and industrial relations as well as a commercial practice focused mainly on the construction, hospitality and real estate sectors. The practice, which was originally formed eight years ago as boutique insurance firm MVM Legal, is run by partners Jamie McPherson and Damien van Brunschot and prior to the deal traded as part of the international network of firms Kaden Boriss. Continue reading “Australia latest stop on DWF’s belated world tour as it announces local tie-up”
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Kirkland & Ellis have won advisory roles as Monarch Airlines filed for administration in the early hours of Monday (2 October).
The job – one of the most high profile corporate failures of the year – has attracted two of the City’s top insolvency teams, with Freshfields fielding a team under its veteran restructuring chief Ken Baird. Continue reading “Freshfields and Kirkland land roles in biggest ever UK airline collapse”
Underlining the meteoric rise of a group of elite US law firms, Kirkland & Ellis has unveiled one of the largest promotion rounds ever seen from a single legal partnership, minting 97 new partners, including 13 in the firm’s fast-growing City arm.
The number of London promotions is more than double last year’s round, when six lawyers were made up, and up on last year’s total tally of 81. It is also larger than the entire partnership of top 50 UK law firm Travers Smith. Continue reading “Lucky 13 in London as Kirkland unveils mammoth partner round and taps City rival for restructuring hire”
The pace of lateral hiring has picked up during the past week with a number of appointments in the UK and internationally.
Dechert has made an ambitious double hire in the City from US firm Kirkland & Ellis, bringing in corporate partner Christopher Field and tax partner Jane Scobie. Continue reading “Revolving doors: Dechert makes London play with Kirkland duo as firms strengthen abroad”
Top-50 insurance specialist Kennedys has made an ambitious bid to further increase its global footprint, today (2 October) announcing the opening of new offices in Paris and Bangkok.
With the launches in France and Thailand, Kennedys has brought its tally of new international offices opened this year to nine. Continue reading “International moves: Kennedys in double office launch as Bird & Bird plans San Francisco base”
In another blow to the flagging UK arm of Slater and Gordon (S&G), 33 of the firm’s lawyers have departed to staff insurance specialist BLM’s new commercial advisory practice.
The team, which includes 11 partners, has joined BLM today (2 October) to run the new practice which will be spread across the firm’s Manchester and London offices.
Continue reading “BLM takes 30-lawyer team from Slater and Gordon to launch commercial practice”
Latham & Watkins has secured a senior hire from a Magic Circle competitor in New York, recruiting Allen & Overy (A&O) corporate veteran Peter Harwich.
Harwich specialises in advising public companies on complex public and private M&A transactions. He was established as one of A&O’s leading US deal advisers having handled $1bn-plus deals for Thomson Reuters, SAP, Deutsche Börse, Misys and GE. Continue reading “Latham hires New York playmaker to bolster M&A team in significant loss for A&O”
In the wake of the banking crisis, some commentators claimed the legal industry was set for a bloodbath that would sweep away 10,000 solicitors’ jobs from a flabby trade. As so often, the profession defied the critics, handling its post-Lehman reboot with assurance. Now, after posting on the face of it impressive numbers for 2016/17 in the shadow of Brexit and two major electoral upsets, there is talk of the resilience of the industry. The Legal Business 100 (LB100) has, after all, grown from £12.25bn to £22.06bn over the last decade and this year the group at long last surpassed its record PEP of £703,000 set way back in 2008.
And yet scratch the surface and there is much cause for unease. A good chunk of the long-term growth of the UK’s largest firms is due to consolidation, while the 2016/17 results have been hugely flattered by currency movements. Taken as one year, the numbers are respectable, but the long-term view is ominous, particularly for the City’s traditional leaders. Continue reading “Bangs and whimpers – LB100 performance is a lot weaker than it looks”
A future of individual lawyers being as easy to flag down for the public as a cab has taken a step forward with the UK’s main law watchdog this week issuing plans to make it easier for solicitors to practise on their own.
Proposals this week from the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) would make it easier for solicitors to provide reserved legal services including litigation without being employed by a law firm or registered as sole practitioners.
Associate pay used to be simple. Lockstepped and transparent to the nth degree on both sides of the Atlantic, you knew exactly where you stood and exactly when the legal market was overheating.
There were obvious downsides to such transparency. Back in the late 1990s/2000s boom, a salary war triggered by Palo Alto law firms within weeks translated into huge hikes in New York. Soon enough London followed when SJ Berwin announced 25% pay hikes that spread through the market like wildfire. This was the first age of the online message boards, which further stoked the inflationary pay cycle. Continue reading “Comment: The associate pay smoke screen is fooling no-one”
Bristows has become the latest Legal Business 100 firm to elect a female leader, today (20 September) appointing life sciences co-head Liz Cohen as its new joint managing partner.
The appointment of Cohen (pictured), who joined the firm as a trainee in 1999 and made partner in 2008, follows the passing of the hugely popular Theo Savvides in a cycling accident in July and sees her link-up with joint managing partner and corporate specialist Marek Petecki. Despite her promotion, she will continue to advise her clients on patent litigation in the English courts, for which she has a leading reputation. Continue reading “‘Big shoes to fill’: Bristows appoints Cohen as new joint managing partner”
After the Magic Circle, this week it was time for the US players to kick off the autumn deal season, as Global 100 firms acted on two headline-grabbing deals in Europe and Asia.
Latham & Watkins and Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton advised on the €15bn (£13.1bn) Franco-German merger between Siemens’ and Alstom’s railway operations, while Ropes & Gray and Morrison & Foerster led on the $18bn (£13.4bn) sale of Toshiba’s chip business, reportedly the largest-ever private equity deal in Asia. From the Magic Circle, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer had roles in both deals. Continue reading “Deal watch: US giants line up on European rail mega-merger and largest-ever Asia PE deal”
