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The Companies of Tomorrow: Pharma and Life Sciences

DEEPMIND HEALTH

Industry/sector: Medical research/data

Founded: 2010 (DeepMind), 2016 (DeepMind Health)

Founders (DeepMind): Demis Hassabis (pictured), Shane Legg, Mustafa Suleyman

General counsel: Trevor Callaghan (DeepMind)

Based: London

In early 2016, Google-owned artificial intelligence (AI) specialist DeepMind announced it would create a healthcare division. DeepMind has chalked up some notable successes in advanced AI – including creating AlphaGo, the first programme to beat a human player at the game of Go – making the formation of DeepMind Health one of the most touted recent developments in the life sciences sector.

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GC Powerlist 2017: The Clients of Tomorrow

Comment and analysis

Sponsored

Rising Stars

The Companies of Tomorrow

(more…)

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Game on – consolidation and tougher regulation raise the odds for betting industry GCs

Increased regulation and high-level consolidation have raised the odds for in-house lawyers playing in the gaming and betting industry

When Edward Traynor took the general counsel (GC) position at Paddy Power in April 2015, he arrived in the middle of a £400m return of capital to the business’s shareholders. Once that was completed, he planned to settle in, restructure the legal team and take a holiday after the company’s annual general meeting (AGM). That holiday never happened. Instead Paddy Power agreed a £7bn merger with Betfair to create one of the world’s largest online gambling businesses with more than 7,000 staff and £1.2bn in sales. Even the best-laid plans often go awry.

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Hogan Lovells’ marriage has settled down but can the union blossom into global power couple?

As the Hogan Lovells union matures, Matthew Field and Victoria Young assess the global challenger’s prospects

As partners in a 2010 transatlantic marriage, the first few years of Hogan Lovells’ nuptials were not without issues. The proposition that a merger-of-equals between a major UK and a US law firm would fire growth and renew ambition was found wanting as the pair became caught up in complex integration. It also soon became apparent that – despite being initially billed as two institutions with much in common – a substantial cultural gap between Lovells and the more thrusting Washington DC-bred Hogan & Hartson was complicating its post-merger relaunch.

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The blueprint – clients and advisers scramble as the UK kicks off Brexit

While the outcomes are far from clear, Legal Business asks how advisers and clients can best tackle Brexit

 

‘There are known knowns… There are known unknowns… but there are also unknown unknowns.’

 

Former US Secretary of State for Defence, Donald Rumsfeld, took a lot of flak when he famously uttered these words in 2002, used with regard to weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Today, they would not sound out of place coming from a lawyer speculating on the impact of Brexit.

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To the hilt – Meet the US firms going all in to dominate the City’s leveraged finance scene

Neel Sachdev, Kirkland & Ellis

Nowhere has the battle for City legal talent been more intense than in leveraged finance. Will the Americanisation of Europe’s credit markets drive on the advance of US firms or has the bubble burst?

‘It’s a shrinking universe in terms of those playing in the top tier,’ says one partner. ‘Two years ago there were about 15 firms which were completely capable and honest when they said: “We’re a leveraged finance house.” I don’t think that’s the case anymore. It’s a very, very small community and there are so many more clients concentrated with fewer firms.’

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Client profile: Ruwan De Soyza, Worldpay

Promoted to group GC at the start of the year, the experienced M&A lawyer on why he wants to stay hands-on

When Ruwan De Soyza arrived for his interview with former Worldpay general counsel (GC) Mark Chambers in 2011, he thought he was being considered for the role of GC for corporate services. Unbeknown to De Soyza, Chambers had a different path in mind, which ultimately led to him taking the group GC role in January this year.

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The last word: American dreams

‘We will continue to hire lawyers we see as adding something. That continues to be the mantra: hire great lawyers and your practice will grow.’

Richard East, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan

As our Global London report hits desks, the leadership at US law firms in the City weigh up the challenges ahead

MISSION STATEMENT

‘The firm has a clearly defined strategy for where and how we will grow. We will continue to build our top-ranked transactional, regulatory, litigation and trial practices and focus on the industries that are driving the global economy. Mission drift can happen if you take your eye off the strategy. The investments we make are for the long term and are key to ensuring we stay focused on what we need to do to serve our clients’ needs today, and in the future.’

Richard Trobman, vice chair, Latham & Watkins

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Clients and rookie lawyers – some awkward truths

Ah, despite the changing fashions, technology and economic realities of the day, in law you can always rely on that curious mix of mutual hypocrisy, miscommunication, mistrust and conflicting agendas between clients and law firms to endure.

The latest flashpoint is Deutsche Bank’s current panel review, which has pressed tendering law firms to write off time for trainees and newly-qualified lawyers handling its matters. Though it appears that not all have consented, for many this is the thin end of the wedge and a worrying sign that this US trend is making its way over here.

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Prepare for a bumpy Brexit ride and to be ignored

For months I’ve refrained from adding to the reams of pointless Brexit commentary given that until developments develop, not much can reasonably be said. But now article 50 has been triggered, there is a little more to work with.

Actually, I could have taken a break from banging on about King & Wood Mallesons a little earlier since by January it was clear that the UK government was tilting towards a hard Brexit and the UK losing access to the single market.

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Swoop to conquer – a turbulent year for US firms in London but no retreat

Legal Business‘s 15th annual Global London survey assesses the impact of a seismic year on the City’s leading US and foreign practices

The vultures have been circling. Partner hires hit new heights among the 50 firms that comprise our Global London table this year, but overall the City’s US shops have remained steady after a period that saw the UK economy rocked by last year’s Brexit vote and the legal market witness its largest European firm collapse.

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Life during law: Ray Berg, Osborne Clarke

My dad was a cab driver and my mum a factory worker. She was also a photographer’s assistant and met my dad at a wedding. After that she vowed to never drink again because she met my dad.

I went to a local state school in Wembley. I got into Oxford. There weren’t many people who went to university from that school. It was a very varied background; English wasn’t the first language for probably half of the kids at home. But it was a good school and I had teachers that cared.

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Global London: Has the City reached the end of its curious post-Lehman boom?

Will this year’s Global London report chronicle the high watermark for the Square Mile as a global hub for foreign law firms? The possibility has to be considered with the article 50 notice about to be delivered as I type these words, representing the biggest threat to London’s position since the 1990s’ run-up to the launch of the euro.

As it stands, foreign advisers continued to aggressively invest in London through 2016. The number of London-based lawyers employed at the 50 largest foreign firms, now numbers 6,033, an increase of 22% over the last two years despite a generally subdued UK legal services market. The elimination of King & Wood Mallesons (KWM) from our tables this year understates the growth through the last 12 months but in underlying terms, headcount probably grew at least 4% even allowing for the re-allocation of legacy SJ Berwin lawyers to US rivals. Given the KWM implosion, it was unsurprisingly a record year for partner recruitment, with nearly 200 laterals within the group. The overall pace of growth, however, slowed somewhat on 2015.

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Freshfields gives power to associates to pitch for fintech clients

While other Legal Business 100 firms such as Slaughter and May and Simmons & Simmons are giving free legal advice to win over fintech clients, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer associates have been given the opportunity to pitch and win client relationships as part of a growing bid to win new clients in this area.

Around 25 associates across Freshfields are part of the initiative, which began when a client invited associate Adam Ryan to pitch alongside another associate, Claire Harrop. The pair now lead the fintech associate initiative.

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City elite dominates again as Deutsche Bank nears conclusion of panel review

Panel firms resist attempts to remove junior lawyer fees from pricing

While more than a dozen firms – including the entire Magic Circle – have made it onto Deutsche Bank’s latest global legal panel, an attempt by the bank to remove fees for junior lawyers has proved controversial.

The review process, which is understood to be mostly complete, stemmed from a request for proposal sent out to help Deutsche analyse its current policies and processes for external legal counsel. The process, dubbed ‘Project Eagle’, was led by global chief operating officer of legal and compliance Rose Battaglia, with appointments expected to last two years.

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Consolidation continues as Browne Jacobson targets top 50 through Beale & Co talks

Midlands-based Browne Jacobson is in late-stage merger talks with London-based construction and insurance specialist Beale & Co to create a firm with eight offices and a turnover of £82m – putting the combined firm in the top 50 of the Legal Business 100.

In a joint statement, Iain Blatherwick, managing partner at Browne Jacobson, and Antony Smith, senior partner at Beale, said the combination, which would have over 1,000 staff and 137 partners, could offer clear strategic benefits.

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‘Reputation is catching up with reality’: White & Case and Bakers enjoy City revenues gains as rivals stall

London turnover down at Akin Gump, Debevoise and Reed Smith

The London outposts of leading international firms reported mixed results for 2016, with White & Case and Baker McKenzie reporting income growth while Reed Smith and Debevoise & Plimpton both struggled.

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Focus on quality and cost in government panel review sees Magic Circle take reduced roles

Roster reduced from 48 to 18 firms following Crown Commercial Services review

Eighteen firms have been appointed to the Crown Commercial Service (CCS)’s general legal advice panel in a two-year, £400m contract. The process, which splits firms between two tiers, had a significant focus on both cost and quality.

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