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.
Continue reading “Kirkland exits continue as high-yield heavyweight McKimm set to join Freshfields”
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.
Continue reading “Be wary of vaulting ambition as competition ramps up in Scotland”
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.
Reed Smith launches in Frankfurt with raid on US rivals
Nearly a year in the offing, Reed Smith has opened its second German office with a bang, hiring a total of seven partners from Mayer Brown; Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe; Willkie Farr & Gallagher; and Jones Day to launch the firm in Frankfurt.
Ten years after first arriving in Germany with an office in Munich, Reed Smith has opened in one of Europe’s largest financial centres with partners in finance, corporate, regulatory, private equity and real estate.
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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.
The consultancy falls within the firm’s existing client development centre (CDC) which was established in 2005. The focus will be on seven business lines: spend analytics, legal process analysis, legal risk management and horizon scanning, knowledge management, legal project management, legal needs analysis and panel management.
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Clifford Chance votes through changes to lockstep in bid to retain heavyweights
City giant’s remuneration review comes after recent key departures
In a move considered overdue by some, Clifford Chance (CC) voted through proposed changes to its remuneration system in late April, creating a more flexible lockstep by stretching the top of the ladder in a bid to retain star partners.
The firm traditionally operated a lockstep system with a single profit pool, where partners spent three years as juniors before progressing on to the equity ladder, which ranges between 40 and 100 points. Under the changes voted through, leading partners can be moved from 100 points up to either 115 or 130, while others may be brought down from the 100-point plateau to 70 points. While billed by management as a fairly comprehensive review intended to look at performance across all geographies, it remains unclear which criteria will be used to determine how partners will move up or down the ladder.
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An all-Tory cabinet: what does the new Conservative majority mean for lawyers?
The surprising Conservative majority revealed on the morning of 8 May was generally seen as a favourable outcome for City lawyers. However, David Cameron’s appointment of controversial political heavyweight Michael Gove as the new Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice a few days later has ruffled some feathers in the legal profession.
Gove, who is the second non-lawyer to hold the post after his predecessor Chris Grayling, will be supported by ex-Linklaters corporate lawyer Dominic Raab as new Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Justice, while both the Attorney General Jeremy Wright QC and Solicitor General Robert Buckland QC were reappointed.
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The prize – is team recruitment all it’s cracked up to be?
For many ambitious law firms the holy grail of partner recruitment is the team hire. Legal Business asks if hiring en masse is all it’s cracked up to be.
A little over a decade ago structured finance partner Jonathan Walsh had reached the moment of truth after months of discussions. Walsh told his firm, Norton Rose, he was resigning along with fellow partners Vincent Keaveny, Bruce Somer and Simon Porter for Baker & McKenzie, taking a sizeable chunk of the firm’s City securitisation practice with it.
Continue reading “The prize – is team recruitment all it’s cracked up to be?”