Predictions of a pay war have proved correct after four US firms followed Cravath, Swaine & Moore into bumping up their associate pay.
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Financials 2015/16: Disputes drive Fieldfisher’s 7% revenue growth
Fieldfisher, which recently released new a strategy homing on in three sectors, has posted a 7% increase in firmwide revenues for 2015/16, up to £121.5m from £113.3m. The result comes after the firm posted an 8% rise in revenue at the half-year point in November.
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Olswang silent as inquiry reveals Linklaters billed £1.2m to Arcadia in BHS sale
After MPs in the BHS inquiry called on the law firms involved to disclose further details of their dealings, Olswang has failed to provide details of its fees, while Linklaters and Nabarro have released what they billed.
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Revealed: SFO records £2.1m spend on Forex investigation
Having closed its investigation earlier this year due to ‘lack of evidence’, it has emerged that the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) spent £2.1m investigating alleged rigging of the foreign exchange (forex) market in less than two years.
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Elite indies carve out role as the one-stop shop shuts in Europe
Much like British voters ahead of this month’s vote on EU membership, City law firms have been shaped in recent decades by mainland Europe, even as they have become increasingly ambivalent about that mingled destiny. It was the huge bet on European integration that gave birth to the global law firm as pioneered by London’s legal elite through the 1990s. At the turn of the millennium, the key strategic battles among City law firms were as likely to be fought in Frankfurt or Milan as London.
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Not ‘looming’, the judiciary is already in crisis
If there was much to celebrate amid the continued rise of London as an international disputes centre at Legal Business‘ second Commercial Litigation Summit on 24 May, the cloud on the horizon was apparent: the mounting conviction that the UK judiciary is near crisis.
Growing administrative burdens, earlier retirements, cuts to judges’ pensions and court funding – not to mention far higher earnings on offer for commercial silks. Chairing our debate on the state of the judiciary, Sir Bernard Eder remarked: ’80-100-hour working weeks are nothing to commercial judges.’ Ashurst partner Ed Sparrow picked up the theme, highlighting terrible morale in the 2014 judicial attitudes survey – a report which the veteran litigator branded a ‘terrifying document’ for those concerned with the reputation of the London courts. Sparrow added that thanks to the loss of kudos for judges in austerity Britain: ‘Judges feel that they are treated like assets and I would say sweated like assets.’
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The Legal 500 view on EMEA – more ways than ever to skin a cat
The shifting interests of international business are echoed in recent law firm moves across Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) and reflected in the recently published 2016 The Legal 500 EMEA, which added 15 countries to its coverage over the past two years to address growing interest in Africa, as well as the return of international work to jurisdictions such as Iran and Iraq.
Looking at EMEA results, two core themes emerge: a realignment of priorities among international practices and an emergence of firms positioned as the go-to contender for regional work.
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The last word – Eurovision
To mark our inaugural Euro Elite report, management at leading independent firms give us their market views
CO-OPERATION IS KEY
‘Some international firms have been more open to co-operating with domestic Italian firms; others have not. The first category has been more successful.’
Francesco Gianni, founding partner, Gianni, Origoni, Grippo, Cappelli & Partners
Lloyds offers bonus for help filling senior legal roles amid shake-up
Unease over department restructuring continues
Lloyds Banking Group is pushing an incentive scheme to its lawyers to secure new recruits into senior legal roles following a string of exits. The move comes after the bank made multiple redundancies as part of an ongoing restructure.
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Eversheds, Hogan Lovells and Bakers secure spots on defence multinational’s first panel
Eversheds, Hogan Lovells and Baker & McKenzie are among nine firms to have won places on French multinational aerospace, defence and security firm Safran’s inaugural global legal panel.
Weil, Gotshal & Manges, as well as Fieldfisher and Osborne Clarke (OC) have also made the roster, alongside domestic French boutiques Betto Seraglini, Brunswick Société d’Avocats and Courrégé Foreman.
Revealed: SFO records £2.1m spend on Forex investigation
External legal spend hits £330k on dropped inquiry
Having closed its investigation earlier this year due to ‘lack of evidence’, it has emerged that the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) spent £2.1m investigating alleged rigging of the foreign exchange (forex) market in less than two years.
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Bankrupted Russian oligarch wins injunction barring Dechert from acting in $180m dispute
A High Court judge has ruled Dechert was wrong on the law relating to legal privilege, barring it from acting for its client in a $180m dispute.
Russian businessman Mikhail Shlosberg last month secured an injunction against Dechert acting for creditor Avonwick in the case, which has set a precedent on legal privilege.
Barclays to extend value accounts framework as part of latest panel review
More firms set to repay bank if targets missed
Barclays is planning to extend the value account system it introduced in 2014, where law firms are required to pay a rebate if they fail to hit their value targets, to all external advisers as part of its current panel review.
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Pearson kicks off second US panel review after finalising litigation roster
Launch of US corporate review follows UK panel selection
Pearson, the largest education company and book publisher in the world, has launched its US corporate panel review after finalising spots on its litigation roster for the region. The US changes come after Pearson finalised its UK roster in recent months with the help of Accenture.
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Client-facing pitch sees corporate star Jacobs take Linklaters senior partner role
Pitching himself as an outward-facing leader has paid off for Linklaters M&A heavyweight Charlie Jacobs (pictured), who won the firm’s senior partner election last month.
Jacobs defeated competition from corporate colleagues Jean-Pierre Blumberg and Aedamar Comiskey to be elected the new senior partner at the Magic Circle firm.
Jacobs will replace Robert Elliott when he finishes a five-year term at the end of September.
Financial reporting season kicks off: strong growth for OC, Forsters, TLT and Browne Jacobson
The fashion is for UK firms to announce good results early and first out of the blocks this year have been Osborne
Clarke (OC), Forsters, TLT and Browne Jacobson all posting robust results for the financial year 2015/16.
OC was the first of the Legal Business 100 to release figures this year, with a 23% rise in global revenues to €236.3m. As the firm posted a UK revenue rise of 17% from £96.5m in 2015 to £112.9m, managing partner Ray Berg identified OC’s sector focus as a factor in its continued success.
DLA to cut 200 UK jobs as global firms trim support roles
Norton Rose and Dentons follow suit as offshoring takes flight
DLA Piper is to cut 200 business support jobs in the UK in a move that will see the firm make one of the largest law firm redundancies since the aftermath of the financial crisis. The restructuring comes as other Legal Business 100 firms, including Norton Rose Fulbright (NRF) and Dentons, decided last month to also cut back-office jobs.
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Associate pay up across Magic Circle as Freshfields wraps bonuses into base salaries
NQs at Freshfields receiving £17.5k extra
Newly-qualified (NQ) solicitors at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer have received the largest bump in pay of the Magic Circle so far this year, taking home around 25% more than last year.
At Freshfields, NQ pay packets have been boosted by an extra £17,500 after the firm announced it would be folding in its discretionary bonuses, with pay set to rise 26% to £85,000 on last year’s figure of £67,500. The move follows a freeze last year.
Focal points – Law boutiques and the art of focus
The recent rise of the high-end boutique has redefined the legal industry. We chart the last 12 months for the UK’s leading speciality shops
‘I’ve always thought the future of the disputes market would be prosperous for two camps: very big, full-service firms and boutiques,’ says Royal Dutch Shell general counsel (GC) for global litigation Richard Hill. ‘It’s the firms in the middle that will increasingly lose out. We use Norton Rose Fulbright, Clifford Chance or Baker & McKenzie but then we will also go to Quinn Emanuel for alternative pricing… they can be creative and are freer with their model. Boutiques have a bright future.’
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The rise of the lawyer statesman – A new vision for general counsel
In the closing address of the 2016 Enterprise GC summit, GE veteran Ben Heineman laid out his vision for general counsel as lawyer statesman and charted the revolution remaking global law
I want to give you an overview of my theory about the inside counsel revolution. It is clear it has happened in the US. It is happening to a degree in Europe and in Asia. General counsel (GCs) have become much more sophisticated, capable and influential, transforming law and business in two ways. Inside the company, the GC has become the primary counsellor to the chief executive and board, replacing the law firm senior partner. He or she leads corporate units beyond the law. The role has become comparable in importance to the chief financial officer (CFO) due to the increased global complexity and the rising importance of ‘business in society’ issues. There has been a dramatic change in the skill, the experience, the breadth and the compensation of the GC.
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