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Global 100 – Market Comment 2015: Word from the World

From an intensely competitive market in Asia to renewed fears of states breaking from the EU, law firm leaders give us the global perspective.

Done deals

‘It is encouraging that the factors contributing to a high level of dealmaking over the past year remain in place, and we are optimistic that these conditions will sustain robust M&A activity, particularly in the telecoms/media and energy sectors, and consolidating industries, such as pharma and healthcare. We may see increased interest in inbound M&A into Europe as its economic recovery continues.’

Eric Friedman, executive partner, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom

Asia struggle

‘Most people underestimate how competitive it is in Asia to win work against UK and US firms. Clients are very selective and it’s very price competitive, even for the complex cross-border work. Everyone is competing hard to get to know the client.’

Stuart Fuller, global managing partner, King & Wood Mallesons

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Global 100: New York report – City heat

Legal Business took a tour of New York for our Global 100 special and found Wall Street’s elite in a confident mood amid robust deal markets and the ongoing regulatory push.

New York, June 2015. Once the summer arrives in Manhattan, everyone wants to leave – to head upstate or to the Atlantic Coast. Anything to escape the oppressive heat. But among the city’s top-performing law firms, the mood is hot but not bothered. The nine months since Legal Business last visited the Big Apple have brought favourable conditions.

In 2014, the 20 firms in the LB100 that are predominately New York-based amassed $17.03bn at an average revenue per lawyer of $1.2m – well ahead of the Global 100 average and those of the first and second quartiles.

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Global 100: Clifford Chance – The shoulders of giants

The trailblazing global law firm has had more than its share of knocks since the banking crisis. Will a popular new leader and strategic shake-up help Clifford Chance regain the magic?

‘There seems to be a point at every lunch and every cocktail party where the conversation turns to Clifford Chance. It always happens with conspiratorial whispers and knowing laughter, lawyers in City firms recount the latest tittle-tattle about the second largest firm in the world…

‘Why are people so obsessed with Clifford Chance? Because it is big? Because the lawyers are aggressive? Because the firm challenges City convention? Or it is because they are pioneers? Whether competitors know it or not, Clifford Chance has become a marker by which they measure themselves.’

Legal Business, June 1993

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Global 100: The regional view – Stick and move

2014 saw US firms continue to build on a solid home base but extend their reach in Europe, Asia and Africa. As clients seek to consolidate their law firm panels internationally, the Global 100 continue to slug it out.

‘The last 18 months have seen clients increasingly want to internationalise panels – not just country panels, but want to review which firms they are using in each country and assess whether this can be streamlined to use [fewer] firms that can cover more jurisdictions,’ says Hogan Lovells chief executive Stephen Immelt. ‘Rather than have ten different firms, they want five, so they can have greater consistency and more leverage in terms of pricing.’

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Momentum – the little-discussed magic that can lead to legal success

Momentum versus quality. That’s the question for the upper reaches of the legal industry that is never on the lips of managing partners but probably should be. The industry likes to focus on partnership models, strategies, practices, geographic spread and culture. These are all fine up to a point but as major determinants of success, they get too much air time. But momentum – well, the impact of that is dramatically, empirically startling in law. When firms have it they are capable of achieving staggering levels of growth and market repositioning.

Momentum can come as focused application of a counter-intuitive playbook – Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, Latham & Watkins, Clyde & Co or Mishcon de Reya. It can come in the form of aggressive expansion via mergers and lateral recruitment, as seen in the emergence of DLA Piper. But look at what firms can achieve if they have it. Quinn Emanuel, for example, was the fastest-growing firm in the Global 100, with revenues growing by 163% in just five years. Continue reading “Momentum – the little-discussed magic that can lead to legal success”

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Can CC live up to the legacy?

Will the real Clifford Chance (CC) stand up? It is, after all, a key moment for what was not that long ago the world’s most influential law firm but working out what it stands for now can be a challenge.

Taking the long view post-2000, a chasm steadily opened up between its celebrated reputation for vision, meritocracy and entrepreneurialism and a reality that too often meant bureaucracy, strategic drift and an indulgent attitude towards individual contribution.

An excess of management would be one thing if CC was delivering operational excellence and rigour but in too many regards the firm did not. The last 15 years saw the disastrous non-integration of Rogers & Wells, an ill-fated move into California and a continual avoidance of important strategic issues on remuneration and performance management. This allowed others to steal its playbook and execute it more clearly. Continue reading “Can CC live up to the legacy?”

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Client Profile: John Davidson, SABMiller

The multinational drinks giant’s GC on balancing regulation with refreshment.

A pub crawl or alcoholic supermarket sweep is not typically on the agenda for the average general counsel (GC)’s business trip, but this is exactly what makes SABMiller’s GC and corporate affairs director John Davidson’s job so unusual.

‘When we are in a country, we always make sure we build in what we call a trade visit, but what my wife calls a paid pub crawl, to visit other premises and outlets,’ says Davidson. ‘I spent Wednesday morning last week in Warsaw visiting four different supermarkets. Imagine doing that and getting paid for it.’ Continue reading “Client Profile: John Davidson, SABMiller”

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The Global 100: so much for the City comeback as US leaders land the big blows

Having spent a reasonable chunk of my pundit duties over the last three years noting significant shifts against London’s elite on the global stage, I confess I had expected financial results this year to break that pattern with City leaders managing a more confident showing.

Unfortunately for London’s finest and my own credibility, that expectation has proved plain wrong because the City’s big four have just posted their most indifferent collective performance since the wipe-out of 2008/09.

True, a weakening euro made the performance look a little softer than it actually was (though a rebound in sterling flattered their results in our Global 100 ranking) but it has still been a very subdued result given a firmer UK economy, masses of cheap debt sloshing around and robust levels of cross-border activity. Continue reading “The Global 100: so much for the City comeback as US leaders land the big blows”

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Candidates emerge as CMS gears up for autumn managing partner election

Four partners are tipped as potential successors as Weston prepares to step down

CMS Cameron McKenna is gearing up for its managing partner election this autumn as chief Duncan Weston prepares to stand down from the role after eight years, with potential successors across the firm’s corporate and disputes practices already coming to the fore.

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The ABS triangle – regulators, consumers and investors

Baker Tilly’s George Bull analyses the changing market.

The recent initial public offering (IPO) of full-service English law firm Gateley and its admission to AIM mark another significant step in the evolution of alternative business structures (ABSs) in England and Wales. While Gateley is the first UK law firm to achieve a public listing, it is not the world’s first listed law firm. That accolade belongs to Slater and Gordon, the Australian consumer law firm, which listed on the Australian stock exchange in May 2007. Continue reading “The ABS triangle – regulators, consumers and investors”

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Cost reduction = quality reduction

Cogence Search’s Mark Husband on the fallacy of cheap legal services

The respected legal commentator (and fan of mammals) Bruce MacEwen recently commented: ‘Of course, while hedgehogs know one big thing – that BigLaw hasn’t changed and hasn’t needed to so far – foxes know many things.

For example: a) 95% of the work on that indispensable “international M&A” deal consists of due diligence scutwork suitable for the skills of any conscientious team of $25/hour freelancers; b) IBM’s Watson is fast approaching the ability to understand language in context, and did we mention it has Moore’s Law on its side?; and c) pricing and efficiency pressure is actually not coming from the GCs [general counsel] and law departments of clients but from the CFOs [chief financial officers] and finance departments, who don’t give a fig about our noble profession and don’t consider it their problem to ensure the profitability, or even the existence, of the Global 50.’ Continue reading “Cost reduction = quality reduction”

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Jacobs frontrunner for next Linklaters senior partner

Slaughters’ senior partner race also underway

‘There’s no-one else,’ mused one ex-Linklaters partner. ‘If Charlie Jacobs isn’t the next senior partner at Linklaters, it would be a bigger upset than UKIP winning the next general election. If I was Ladbrokes, I’d give better odds for Farage for PM than any of Charlie’s rivals at Linklaters.’

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Re-elected Verrier shuffles the White & Case pack

White & Case announced last month the re-election of executive chair Hugh Verrier, who takes on the role for a third time at the US firm.

First elected in 2007, Verrier will start another four-year term on 1 September. Having won re-election, the project finance partner also made appointments to the firm’s executive committee, gifting places to London managing partner Oliver Brettle, São Paulo-based Donald Baker, and banking partner David Koschik in New York. The body is responsible for decision making for the 38-office firm and will see the trio also take up their positions on 1 September 2015.

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Momentous decisions: seeking the court’s blessing

Post-Cardigan analysis by 5 Stone Buildings’ Hugh Cumber

The recent decision of the English Court of Appeal in the Cardigan litigation illustrates the importance of applications by the trustees for the approval of ‘momentous’ decisions, as set out in the case of Public Trustee v Cooper [2001].

Such applications are widely used in offshore jurisdictions and have a number of advantages for trustees, who may prospectively insure that their decisions are insulated from challenge by dissatisfied beneficiaries. However, if this exercise is to be successful, the trustees will be required to give full evidence of their reasons. Continue reading “Momentous decisions: seeking the court’s blessing”

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Could trustee protection return post-Pitt and Futter?

Withers’ Steven Kempster and Sarah Aughwane on the doctrine of mistake.

Withers’ contentious trust and succession group is unrivalled in its size and the scope of its experience. Our team, based across Europe, Asia and the US, and consisting of 40 fee-earners, acts on the leading domestic and multi-jurisdictional trust disputes, as well as representing individuals, families and charities in every aspect of contentious trust and succession work. Continue reading “Could trustee protection return post-Pitt and Futter?”

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TTIP: Arbitration moves into the limelight

Tom Moore looks at the US-EU free trade pact’s potential for arbitration

The rise of international arbitration has gone unhindered and under the radar, despite the proliferation of investor-state disputes that has seen investors sue governments for changing tax regimes, introducing austerity measures and implementing plain packaging for cigarettes. But negotiations over the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) – a free-trade deal between the EU and US that will cover half of world trade – has changed that, throwing attention on a shift away from national courts and raising the potential for a boom in arbitration.

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