The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has decided to relax the Separate Business Rule, allowing law firms to own outside businesses which are not regulated by the SRA and provide accounting services, and making it easier for them to compete with alternative business structures (ABSs).
Freshfields’ Pugh and Braham form unity ticket as teams assemble in leadership election
After Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer veterans Edward Braham and Christopher Pugh (pictured) canvassed separately and were set to go head-to-head for the firm’s senior partner elections, the duo have united on a single platform and are campaigning to lead the firm together.
Enyo hires Eversheds partner and intelligence duo to tackle business in ‘unusual jurisdictions’
In a sign of the travails facing law firms doing business in ‘unusual jurisdictions’, Enyo Law has established an in-house business intelligence unit to help conduct due diligence and build business while it has also bolstered its ranks after partner Annabel Thomas exited for Mishcon de Reya earlier this week, hiring Eversheds partner Jonathan Brook.
DLA Piper enters booming contract lawyer market with Peerpoint-style alumni venture
DLA Piper is to launch a flexible working unit to rival Allen & Overy’s (A&O) Peerpoint and other alumni-based ventures following criticism over the lack of flexibility within the firm’s remuneration structure.
Clifford Chance’s New York office loses corporate duo to Greenberg Traurig
Clifford Chance’s (CC) ambition to build its New York office have suffered a setback with the loss of M&A duo Ivan Presant and Joseph Cosentino to US firm Greenberg Traurig.
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Financials 2014/15: Taylor Wessing’s UK operations see revenues rise 8% and PEP reach £767k
Taylor Wessing has released its financials for 2014/15 with UK revenues increasing by 8.2% to £121m from £112m last year and stated plans to make ‘significant further investments’ particularly in its international network.
CC matches peers in associate salary race – both Slaughters’ £70k NQs and Links’ 3 year PQE pay
Clifford Chance has revealed its 2015 pay bands for newly-qualified (NQ) lawyers, matching the £70,000 NQ rates of Slaughter and May while also meeting Linklaters’ higher salaries for those with two and three year post-qualified experience (PQE).
Kirkland exits continue as high-yield heavyweight McKimm set to join Freshfields
Reversing the trend of partners departing Magic Circle firms for US rivals, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, subject to a partnership vote, is set to hire high-yield heavyweight Ward McKimm from Kirkland & Ellis.
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Addleshaws launches AG Consulting ahead of contract lawyer offering
As it looks to return to its pre-financial crisis form Addleshaw Goddard is set to launch AG Consulting, which will provide a range of new services to general counsel and in-house legal teams, including panel and risk management.
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DLA builds LatAm presence with Colombia pact as firm hopes to leverage Spanish relationships
Just three months after sealing its entry into Canada by combining with local firm Davis, DLA Piper has continued its march across the Americas by signing a cooperation agreement that will see it launch in Colombia.
Financials 2014/15: Fieldfisher revenues rise 9% while PEP jumps 22% to pass £500,000
A year since it edged past the £100m barrier, revenue at tech-heavy law firm Fieldfisher rose by 9% to reach £113m in the last financial year and put its spate of flat results following the financial crisis behind it.
News in brief – June 2015
CLYDES AND SIMPSON & MARWICK IN ANGLO/SCOTS MERGER BID
Clyde & Co is in merger talks with former Kennedys target, Scottish firm Simpson & Marwick. Simpson’s five Scottish offices plus outposts in Newcastle, Leeds and London could be added on to Clydes’ office network, although its 15-strong family law team exited the firm last month for Brodies.
EY LAW HIRES FINREG LAUNCH TEAM AND SENIOR ADDLESHAWS DUO
Accountancy giant EY made a further push into legal services in May, hiring Baker & McKenzie financial services partner Steven Francis, plus a 12-strong team of lawyers to launch a financial regulatory business. It also announced the hire of former Addleshaw Goddard managing partner Paul Devitt and corporate partner Richard Thomas to its Manchester office with plans to grow a team servicing the North West.
DAC Beachcroft set for defining post-merger management election
DAC Beachcroft is gearing up for a management election this summer between both insurance and non-insurance partners as the firm looks to select its first new executive team since the merger of Davies Arnold Cooper and Beachcroft in October 2011.
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Gateways – the lawyer’s view on gaining access to North Africa
While Morocco stands apart as a portal into Africa for foreign investors, neighbour Algeria starts to open up. We ask international law firms to share their experiences of working in the region.
In the globalisation race, Casablanca has established an early lead as one of the primary entry points into Africa, along with Johannesburg. It is akin to the emergence in the last decade of Hong Kong and Singapore as the key finance centres for Asia. But can Morocco and neighbouring Algeria achieve a position of genuine global influence, when Paris, London and also Dubai remain places where many African transactions are executed?
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Lockstep has to go for Magic Circle to enter new global elite
Conservatism and intransigence are qualities often bemoaned in the legal industry, in many cases beyond their manifestation. But there is one aspect in which the upper reaches of City law have shown a resistance to change verging on the surreal: the desperate embrace of a highly restrictive model of lockstep.
As we argue in our Future of Law special this month, the Magic Circle model is under intense pressure after seven years in which big changes in the industry and global economy have shifted against the group. Under the bonnet, these firms – which are well-run institutions that have been a British success story for very good reasons – have been through substantial restructuring in response. With a better global economy, strong international networks and transactional and contentious activity currently robust – a leaner and more productive big four are positioned for dramatic increases in profitability as their core markets pick up. And 2014/15 should be a very respectable year for the group.
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2025: a vision of Big Law
It is 2025 and the view from the nominal head office of the leading City law firm remains as uncertain as it has for the last 15 years. Not that there hasn’t been progress at what would once have been called a Magic Circle firm. With revenues of £2.5bn, the firm now generates only 30% of its income from the UK. That isn’t much more than it earns from its US practice, which was bolstered four years ago by a takeover of an AmLaw 200 practice, and the decision to reshape its executive and partnership to put London and New York at its heart. The notion that it needed to become a true Anglo-American institution was a culture shock but few seriously question it now.
The old lockstep is long gone – top earners in London, New York and Asia earn five times that of junior partners or those working in less profitable jurisdictions and there are two gateways to negotiate, though it’s still a long way from eat-what-you-kill. Profit per equity partner at £1.9m isn’t that much higher than a decade before but top earners take home well over £3m a year.
Be wary of vaulting ambition as competition ramps up in Scotland
An interesting battle is raging in Scotland on levels large and small. In early May, the Scottish National Party (SNP) swept to victory in 56 of the 59 seats available to it in the General Election and party leader Nicola Sturgeon pressed prime minister David Cameron to revisit the draft legislation on devolving more powers to Holyrood. Bolstered by a suddenly soaring national profile, the SNP leader claimed the proposed reforms were not in the spirit of the Smith Commission’s recommendations following the referendum on independence last year. Entente cordiale persists, but there’s an undercurrent of tension on both sides as the 300-year-old union has never looked under more pressure.
This tussle will continue for some time yet as, although the SNP hasn’t pushed for a second independence referendum, that threat will never be far from the table. The UK government might take a more phlegmatic approach and give the SNP exactly what it is asking for… and more. Cameron has been reportedly pressed by some senior Tories to call Sturgeon’s bluff and put full fiscal autonomy on the table, believing the SNP may baulk as that would leave the Scots on the hook for budget collection and cuts as well as spending, potentially leaving the Scots government with an £8bn hole in its budget.
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DAC Beachcroft set for defining post-merger management election
DAC Beachcroft is gearing up for a management election this summer between both insurance and non-insurance partners as the firm looks to select its first new executive team since the merger of Davies Arnold Cooper and Beachcroft in October 2011.
Current senior partner Simon Hodson and managing partner Paul Murray have been in place since 2005 when they were elected to the roles at legacy Beachcroft and then re-elected for a second term in 2010. Neither will stand again this time around.
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The proposition – what you always wanted to know about adding value (but were afraid to ask)
For years general counsel have professed their commitment to ‘adding value’. Is there any substance to the jargon?
Most general counsel (GCs) don’t think much of the term ‘adding value’ – a surprising revelation considering how frequently those two banal words crop up in conversation with in-house counsel.
When the hurlyburly’s done – nationalism, devolution and another turbulent period for Scots law firms
Devolution, nationalism and the dramatic shake-up in its political landscape – it’s been another turbulent period for Scots law firms.
In the early hours of 8 May, Alex Salmond, the former leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP), delivered his victory speech after being returned to Westminster as MP for the constituency of Gordon, Aberdeenshire, ousting the Liberal Democrats from the seat.
‘There’s going to be a lion roaring tonight, a Scottish lion, and it’s going to roar with a voice that no government of whatever political complexion is going to be able to ignore,’ he declared.