Following the recent decision to relocate Ince & Co senior partner Jan Heuvels to Hong Kong, the firm has appointed HR director Andrew Jameson in the new role as head of the London office.
Heuvels, one of Ince’s batch of ‘superstar’ insurance partners who became senior partner in 2014, will depart for the firm’s Hong Kong office next month. Continue reading “Ince & Co creates London head role as senior partner Heuvels makes Hong Kong move”
In an unusual City move from a US firm to the Magic Circle, Latham & Watkins co-head of investment funds Tom Alabaster is to join Linklaters three years after joining Latham from Carlyle.
The hire comes a few months after Linklaters launched a refreshed strategy to focus on financial sponsors and fund formation and Alabaster, who starts next month, is a significant coup for a firm less known for fund formation work compared to rivals Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Clifford Chance. Continue reading “Linklaters throws down gauntlet as Latham funds co-head makes rare City switch”
Three UK partners at Eversheds Sutherland, including the Manchester senior partner, will vie for the role of chair after Leeds litigator Paul Smith’s four-year term comes to an end later this year.
The partners who plan to stand for election are joint head of energy and infrastructure Robert Pitcher, joint UK financial services head Pamela Thompson and Manchester senior partner Michael Clavell-Bate.
It is understood that the election is due to kick off within the next week although there are no official candidates at this stage. Continue reading “Hats in the ring: candidates emerge for Eversheds Sutherland chair contest”
In a brisk week for lateral hires, Global 100 firms have looked in-house to boost their senior ranks while private practice partners have gone the other way.
Hogan Lovells has boosted its London construction and engineering disputes practice, bringing in Angus Rankin as a partner from Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems Europe (MHPSE). Continue reading “Revolving doors: firms make key in-house hires as partners move in opposite direction”
Nineteen months to the day since its last attempt to forge a transatlantic union with Greenberg Traurig was abandoned, Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) has today (16 October) confirmed that it is in merger talks with Global 100 firm Bryan Cave.
Subject to a partnership vote later this year, the tie-up would create a firm comprising 1,500 lawyers spread across 32 offices in 12 countries, including St Louis-headquartered Bryan Cave’s 19 US outposts and with a combined revenue of around $975m. Continue reading “Back in the USA: BLP looks stateside again as merger talks with Bryan Cave confirmed”
Linklaters is following up on its recent investment in Germany by strengthening its finance practice with a lateral from Magic Circle rival Allen & Overy (A&O).
Neil George Weiand will join Linklaters’ Frankfurt arm, leaving A&O after 19 years, including 17 of them as a partner. Weiand, who has previously served as German senior partner for A&O, has worked on a series of major deals, including last year acting for Bayer on its $62bn bid to acquire agricultural group Monsanto. Weiand, whose practice covers restructuring, leveraged finance and general loans, worked at Deutsche Bank for seven years before joining A&O. Continue reading “As rivals retrench Linklaters retains expansive German form as A&O veteran becomes third lateral of 2017”
White & Case has promoted 31 lawyers to partner, three quarters of them in London and the US, as the firm continues its investment in the City and New York.
Evenly spread between US and EMEA, the promotions – effective on 1 January 2018 – represent a 29% drop on last year’s round, when the firm made up 40 . Continue reading “Partner promotions: White & Case latest round down almost a third as it continues NYLon focus”
Throwing a lifeline to the increasingly eroded principle of legal professional privilege (LPP), Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation (ENRC) has this week been granted the right to appeal against a controversial order to disclose documents in a Serious Fraud Office (SFO) investigation. Hogan Lovells is the latest in a series of firms to be instructed by ENRC over the SFO investigation.
In May, the High Court had ruled that documents prepared by the mining giant ENRC relating to an SFO probe into alleged fraud, bribery and corruption were not covered by LPP and therefore had to be disclosed. Continue reading “Quest to guard privilege begins as ENRC wins right to appeal SFO order”
If the accountants’ forays into the legal market have yet to challenge law firms in key markets, a concern in the profession is that the Big Four would make a major play with alternative service models. As such there will be some nervous glances cast as PwC this week confirmed that the accountancy giant is to launch a contract lawyering service, entering a fast-growing market so far dominated by firms like Axiom and Lawyers On Demand.
The service, called Flexible Legal Resources, will initially focus on the financial services sector but PwC’s pool of contract lawyers will eventually cover clients from all sectors providing support work for corporate, commercial and data protection. Continue reading “PwC aims to take bite out of contract lawyering market with new flexible resourcing arm”
Despite launching in 2013 after a six-year campaign effort to support working parents, the Bar Council has this week discontinued its Bar nursery service.
The facility was launched in April 2013 in conjunction with Smithfield House Children’s Nursery, and was open 7am to 7pm five days a week, available to children aged between eight weeks and five years. It offered special rates to members of the Bar, chambers staff and Bar Council employees. Continue reading “A retrograde step as Bar Council ends nursery scheme after four years”
Two Global 100 firms have made opposing international moves this week, with Linklaters signing a partnership with a local firm in Saudi Arabia while Hogan Lovells announced the closure of its Mongolia base.
Linklaters announced today (11 October) it has entered a formal agreement with 20-lawyer Zamakhchary & Co (Z & Co), meaning two lawyers from the Magic Circle firm will be based in the kingdom. Continue reading “Looking east: Linklaters cements Saudi partnership as Hogan Lovells shuts Mongolia base”
Having already been one of the longest-serving leaders at a major City law firm, Peter Martyr looks to be taking a crack at the industry’s record books after having been re-appointed for a sixth term as chief executive of Norton Rose Fulbright (NRF).
A spokesperson confirmed that Martyr will begin his new three-year term in January 2018, taking him until the end of 2020, by which point he will have had approaching 20 years at the head of the firm. Continue reading “Martyr closes in on 20 years at helm as Norton Rose Fulbright chief gets a sixth term”
Fieldfisher’s unrelenting international growth this year shows no sign of slowing, as the firm takes its alternative legal services platform Condor to South Africa through a partnership with Cognia Law.
Condor, headed by former Ashurst securities and derivatives chief Christopher Georgiou alongside derivatives partners Guy Usher and Luke Whitmore, is the firm’s platform combining document data management and technology solutions with low-cost legal expertise. The partnership with legal service outsourcing provider Cognia Law will see the launch of Condor South Africa, which will integrate into the wider Condor platform. Continue reading “Fieldfisher extends global reach as it launches alternative service Condor in South Africa”
It has been another busy seven days for senior recruitment, with a host of top 50 UK law firms making senior appointments in the Square Mile and beyond.
In London, Hogan Lovells has bolstered its finance practice with the recruitment of Norton Rose Fulbright (NRF) partner Arun Velusami, who leaves the City firm after 11 years, seven of them as a partner. Velusami joins Hogan Lovells’ Africa practice in London and will also be a member of the Anglo-American firm’s energy, infrastructure and projects team. Adrian Walker, global co-head of Hogan Lovells’ energy and projects team, described Velusami as a ‘class act’. Continue reading “Revolving Doors: Hogan Lovells and OC bolster City ranks while Kennedys ramps up US practice with three-partner hire”
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’”
