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Clifford Chance avoids nearshoring with plans for low-cost hub in Canary Wharf

400 support staff to be housed five minutes away from HQ

While peers have chosen low-cost hubs farther afield in the UK, Clifford Chance (CC) is moving its back-office staff from its Canary Wharf headquarters to a new location five minutes’ walk away.

The firm will transfer 400 operational staff to an open-plan office in a building occupied by State Street Bank & Trust at Churchill Place in a bid to cut back on costs.

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The panel that refreshes: Ashurst, RPC and Devereux take spots on Coke’s national roster

Ashurst and RPC are among a quartet of firms that have won places on Coca-Cola Enterprises (CCE)’s UK legal panel, with the drinks company also selecting Devereux Chambers as its preferred barristers’ set ahead of a review of its internal legal function.

CCE vice president for legal, Paul van Reesch, said after conducting a ‘deep review’ of its external counsel, Ashurst, RPC, Lewis Silkin and Shoosmiths have been allocated spots, following a competitive tender process between an estimated 35 law firms.

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Snooper’s charter offers ‘unsatisfactory’ protection for legal professional privilege

Both The Law Society and The Bar Council have called for legal professional privilege (LPP) to receive statutory protection in the forthcoming Investigatory Powers Bill.

The draft law, dubbed the ‘snooper’s charter’, will govern all of the powers available to law enforcement, the security and intelligence agencies and the armed forces to acquire the content of communications or communications data. While this has sparked debate about privacy, critics also say for lawyers, professional privilege is under threat.

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‘A straight shooter’: Linklaters partners vote in Gideon Moore

Banking head takes over as Davies departs for Lloyds

Linklaters global banking head Gideon Moore defeated five other candidates to be appointed as the firm’s new managing partner in November, ending a four-month search.

Having been selected by Linklaters’ 13-strong partnership board as its next leader earlier in the month, the Magic Circle firm’s 450 partners gathered at the Jumeirah Carlton Tower in London to endorse his appointment on 17 November.

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Parabis carved up in £50m pre-pack administration

One of the first firms to benefit from sweeping liberalisation of the legal services market in 2012, Parabis Group has been placed into a pre-pack administration in a move expected to save ‘all but a handful’ of the 2,000 jobs at the company.

Peter Saville, Ben Browne and Anne O’Keefe of AlixPartners were appointed joint administrators over a number of entities within Parabis Group. Immediately following the appointment, a series of sales of the group’s legal services, rehabilitation and field services divisions took place.

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DLA strikes landmark deal to offer contract lawyering through LOD

Putting aside the rivalries that result in little collaboration or innovation within the legal market, DLA Piper has struck a highly unusual deal to provide contract services to its clients via Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP)-owned Lawyers On Demand (LOD).

The move sees DLA team up with LOD to create and manage a contract lawyer business. DLA alumni will be the catalyst for the launch, with around 50 lawyers expected to join LOD by the end of 2016 to service the global law firm when it requires extra resources. LOD’s current pool of 400 lawyers will also be available to DLA.

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‘Do what we think is right’: Eversheds continues search for US deal as Foley & Lardner ends merger discussions

Eversheds will continue to search for a US deal after the firm’s top target, Milwaukee-based Foley & Lardner, ended merger discussions last month via a leaked internal memo.

In the memo, Foley chair and chief executive Jay Rothman said that while there had been preliminary conversations around exploring a more formal affiliation between the two firms, ‘no decision was ever made by Foley to pursue such an affiliation’.

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City firms line up on £13bn sale of Northern Rock mortgages

Linklaters, Slaughter and May, Allen & Overy (A&O) and Hogan Lovells landed major roles in November advising on the government’s record-breaking £13bn sale of former Northern Rock mortgages, acquired during the financial crisis.

In what was the largest-ever financial asset sale by a government in Europe, the mortgages originally owned by Northern Rock were sold by the Treasury-owned UK Asset Resolution (UKAR) – set up to look after the mortgages nationalised when Northern Rock and Bradford & Bingley ran into difficulty in 2008 – to Cerberus Capital Management.

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China’s offshore push: Linklaters picks up high-profile mandates

Linklaters continues to leverage its relationships with Chinese banks and corporates, winning four high-profile capital markets mandates as the country internationalises its economy.

With China looking to open up an offshore renminbi debt market, Linklaters won the race to handle the People’s Bank of China debut international bond sale, a move that will act as a calling card for Chinese mandates in the future.

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‘Challenging to maintain’: German market has volatile November

Germany saw a flurry of activity last month, with Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and White & Case pulling out of several markets and consolidating their operations, while Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) went the other way and set up shop in Düsseldorf.

Freshfields announced plans to cut one of its six offices in the region, with its Cologne and Düsseldorf bases set to merge in 2016. The cut means 240 fee-earners will be located in one office – which is yet to be decided, though Cologne is regarded as more likely to shut – as the Magic Circle reconfigures its German operations. A spokesperson at the firm said the merger is ‘not driven by cost or a requirement to downsize’, but to create ‘greater efficiency’ and have ‘more lawyers in a single location to offer a stronger and more specialist platform’.

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Client profile: Paul van Reesch, Coca-Cola Enterprises

The soft drink giant’s top European lawyer talks about value and facing pressure from the sugar lobby.

As a young man six months into his European travels, Coca-Cola Enterprises (CCE) legal chief Paul van Reesch realised he literally had a cent to his name.

Fortunately he was offered a job as a temporary lawyer at CCE and never needed the funds to move back home to Australia. Now he’s worked for the soft drink giant’s UK manufacturing and distribution business for more than a decade.

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Breeding cynicism – a call to move past the money-driven culture afflicting law

NRF’s Peter Martyr argues senior lawyers need to speak out for a more responsible vision of the profession

Our profession is facing a growing tension between the drive for profit – the resurgent guiding principle of the 2000s – and the increasing demand for more social responsibility among businesses. Post-recession, we can add increased competition, the scrutiny of the business press and a growing focus on efficiency into the mix, all of which amounts to a potential recipe for trouble.

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UK’s fintech boom is set to dazzle but advisers are still struggling to respond

Simmons & Simmons’ Angus McLean argues the profession is missing a unique opportunity in the City’s fintech revolution

Unless you have been too busy reconciling your cheque book stubs against your monthly paper bank statements, you may have heard that the financial technology (fintech) sector is white hot right now.

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Life During Law: Stephen Wilkinson, Herbert Smith Freehills

My summer holidays were spent licking envelopes at my parents printing factory in Hemel Hempstead. My parents were an odd mix, my mum an Italian immigrant and my father as English as they come. They were very keen that I have a profession as they wanted something better for their kids. The business is still in the family.

I learnt classical guitar as a kid. Every time I got to the next grade, a bit like a dog getting a treat, I got a guitar. I had a room full of guitars in my late teens. My Fender Stratocaster is one of my most prized possessions. They end up getting used more by my daughter now.

I was crazy about basketball as a kid and toured with the England youth teams. Nowadays I wouldn’t get anywhere near a team – I’d need to be twice as big.

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The last champions – meet the leaders intent on sealing Freshfields’ place in the global elite

Freshfields remains the most potent of the City’s big four but modernising the 270-year-old institution has always been a delicate business. Legal Business meets the leadership team tasked with sealing its place in the global elite.

A City veteran, previously a partner at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, sums up the task ahead for the firm’s incoming leadership. ‘The biggest challenge it faces is how it will retain its leading position in an increasingly competitive market. They are running a few initiatives to tackle this and have been reasonably creative. They are willing to challenge a few taboos but are taking their time. Time they don’t have.’

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Price of debt – austerity and the plight of a project finance partner

The Magic Circle has so far been able to hold off the advance of US firms in project finance, but how are teams faring in a market hit by European austerity and falling commodities prices?

‘Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.’
Ralph Waldo Emerson

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A safe bet – charting the rise of private equity in Africa

Africa gambling table

Africa’s economic transformation has made it a key target for globe-trotting private equity houses. Can the continent pay out for the lengthening queue of investors?

For the private equity (PE) community, where risk and return are uneasy bedfellows, Africa represents less of a gamble. Given the continent’s increasing political stability and steady economic growth, the stakes are becoming stacked progressively in the sponsors’ favour. Not so long ago, investors’ bets were as safe as buying a handful of lottery tickets.

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The end of the tunnel – litigation and regulatory challenges in financial services

Legal Business teamed up with Simmons & Simmons to discover how financial institutions are coping with the twin threats of regulation and litigation, and assess whether the end is in sight.

If there was ever any doubt about what might be in store for the Volkswagen Group following its recent emissions scandal, a glance at the banking industry over the last five years offers a sobering clue.

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