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Worldpay IPO to spark London fintech boom after £2.2bn float

Dealmakers predict end-of-season deal flourish in Q4

London’s goal of becoming a hub for tech companies to list took a further step in October, after payment processing company Worldpay floated on the London Stock Exchange in the largest City listing so far this year.

Allen & Overy (A&O), Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Weil, Gotshal & Manges all scored roles as City-headquartered Worldpay sold 51% of its outstanding shares, raising £2.16bn with Worldpay receiving about £947.8m.

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Moving on: homebuilder McCarthy & Stone turns to A&O for its November listing

Regular counsel Freshfields advises lead arrangers on £1bn IPO

Retirement home builder McCarthy & Stone has selected Allen & Overy (A&O) to advise on its £1bn initial public offering (IPO) as it prepares this month to return to public ownership almost a decade after the developer was taken private.

McCarthy & Stone’s appointment of A&O is a move away from Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, which was listed as the developer’s solicitor in its most recent annual report in 2014. However, Freshfields already has a lead role on the float, acting for underwriters Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs and Jefferies International, with partner Mark Austin leading the team.

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It’s a people game – what PE lawyers can teach global law firms

If a good chunk of the latest issue of Legal Business is focused on technology and machines replacing lawyers, our extended focus this month on private equity is an interesting contrast. After all, what good would a supercomputer be in the clubby, driven and entrepreneurial world of leveraged buyouts?

But then private equity has for years been an outlier in City law. Leading law firms built their businesses around banks and multinational clients, ushering in globalisation, one-stop-shopping and customer relationship management programmes.

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AI and law: mostly believe the hype

It’s a rarity for the great pre-occupations of our age to intersect so closely with that of the legal profession but artificial intelligence (AI) and the prospect of increasingly capable machines taking on swathes of work handled by people is a startling exception. While there has been much debate regarding the disorientating march of intelligent machines, the discussion is particularly potent in law, based as it is on the application of large, codified bodies of information that are freely available but very expensively applied via the legal profession.

And, as we address in our report on AI and automation this month, the hype looks largely justified. Advances in recent years in machine learning against a backdrop of increasingly powerful networked computers means automation has already driven considerable change in the legal industry in the last decade. Within five years that process will probably be at the level of reshaping the underlying business model of many industry leaders.

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In-house counsel: more to do and happy about it

There are familiar themes and a few mixed messages from this year’s in-house lawyer survey but one obvious point to take away: employed counsel like the day job. A lot.

The response to two quality of life questions added into the survey this year is perhaps the clearest indication I have seen of the extent to which working in-house has become an increasingly threatening competitor to private practice. Seventy-six percent of our respondents rated themselves as satisfied with their job, including 25% classing themselves as ‘extremely satisfied’. In contrast only 7% put themselves down in the lowest two marks on a five-point scale, with the remaining 17% in the middle. Furthermore, 74% definitely see themselves having a long-term career as an in-house lawyer, against only 6% ruling it out.

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City firms poised to ride fintech wave

Victoria Young reports on the diverse mix of law firms  looking to take advantage as finance meets technology

UK Economic Secretary Harriett Baldwin isn’t holding back on the government’s ambitions for the fintech industry in the UK.

‘We are already a major player in financial technology; our ambition is now to be the major player – the leading fintech centre in the world,’ she recently said, ahead of announcing reviews of so-called ‘robo-advisers’ – online wealth management services.

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Client profile: Sarah Davis, Guardian Media Group

The media lawyer talks about the diversity of London’s workforce and the handling of that Snowden story.

When interviewing for the client profile, in-house counsel will often list a slew of generic corporate M&A deals when citing what they consider ‘interesting work’. Guardian Media Group (GMG)’s longstanding group commercial legal director, Sarah Davis, is an exception to this.

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‘A watershed moment for enforcement’ – sizing up class action competition reforms

Cleary’s Sunil Gadhia and Paul Gilbert on the much-touted reforms of competition disputes

We have begun a journey into the unknown. The new collective action regime for competition litigation, which came into effect on 1 October, has set the market abuzz with speculation. For example, in the wake of the recent benchmark manipulation scandals, what impact will the new regime have for banks?

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The Last Word: The clients’ view

Interviewed for our annual in-house report, general counsel at leading companies give us their views on diversity, ethics and joining the c-suite

 

LOOKING GOOD

‘When I was a young lawyer, I remember working with an outside counsel and I said to him: “What’s your job versus my job?” He said: “My job is to make you look good.” My thoughts at the time were that there has to be more to it than that, but for firms that have focused on that mission, there’s been an upside for me and them. Those with no clue, who are just looking to build their book of business, have not fared well with me.’

Wanji Walcott, senior vice president, managing counsel, American Express

 

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Calling time at the Bar – Quality fears for English judges are growing as top QCs turn away from the bench

Disillusionment within the England and Wales judiciary was laid bare by the findings of the UK Judicial Attitude Survey in February this year. Pay freezes, pension cuts and increased workload have evidently soured the mood at the bench.

The survey, carried out by the UCL Judicial Institute, indicated that 86% of judges who had been in the post for at least five years believed that working conditions had worsened since 2010. And nearly a third of judges are considering leaving their positions early in the next five years. Perhaps even more worryingly, a high proportion of judges said that reduced pension benefits (76%) and a reduction in income in real terms (69%) would discourage people from joining the bench.

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Fine wine and classic cars don’t necessarily make vintage investments

Chris Cole at Towry advises on financial planning.

Knowing where to invest your money can be a challenge, especially if you don’t have the time to be on top of what’s happening in the financial markets. It can therefore be tempting to invest your savings in areas
where you have a keen interest, in things like wine, art, classic cars or even violins as I heard recently.

However, while mixing hobbies and investment together may seem like a good idea, it can actually involve quite a lot of risk and may not help you achieve your long-term financial goals. Continue reading “Fine wine and classic cars don’t necessarily make vintage investments”

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News in brief – November 2015

SLAUGHTER AND MAY WIPES £600M OFF BA SUIT

Litigators at Slaughter and May have successfully struck out around £600m from a claim against client British Airways. The airline is one of several airlines facing a cartel damages action from flower importer Emerald Supplies and 564 other shippers. In October the Court of Appeal disagreed with Justice Peter Smith’s decision to adjourn a strike-out application against the economic tort claims and reduced the £1bn claim to £400m.


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