Osborne Clarke (OC) has promoted five associate directors to its UK partnership, taking its total number of partners past the 200 mark for the first time.
Electoral maths: Partners at top firms to pay £42k more under Labour tax plans while associates are set to gain whoever wins
Law firm partners at major City firms are facing the prospect of a substantive hike in tax if the Labour Party forms a government in this month’s general election with current manifesto pledges expected to see many partners at LB100 firms with a five-figure increase in their annual tax bill.
Keeping the talent: Clifford Chance votes through changes to lockstep in bid to stem flow of star partners
The partnership at Clifford Chance (CC) has voted through proposed changes to its remuneration system which will see the firm deploy a more flexible lockstep by stretching the top of the ladder in a bid to retain star partners.
Targeting Russia: Kennedys launches in Moscow with former Clyde & Co Russian insurance head
Following troubled markets in Russia across 2014, a handful of firms have signalled a renewed interest in the region, with Kennedys being the most recent to set up a Russian base.
Legal boutiques: unheralded, thriving and coming after your lunch
The rise of boutiques has been yet another development shaping the legal industry that no-one predicted. Conventional wisdom for years held that law firms should go global or specialise but that was largely in the context of mid-tier players becoming more tightly defined around a handful of profitable practice areas (which pretty much hasn’t happened either).
What we have seen instead – as we address this month – is a flourishing of highly specialised and lean law firms launched or expanded since the financial crisis reshaped the market. Obviously, much of this is due to the post-
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Going native – ethics and the modern GC
The in-house profession has doubled in size in the UK over the last 15 years and gained once unthinkable levels of influence in delivering legal services to corporate Britain. And what have the profession and its watchdogs done to recognise that seismic shift in the legal industry, with all its far-reaching ethical implications? Pretty much nothing.
As Legal Business reported last month, a band of academics and in-house veterans are trying to fill this void with the report, ‘Legal Risk: Definition, Management and Ethics’, billed as the start of a wider conversation around the ethical standards and framework that in-house counsel employ.
Politics has changed – a high-stakes election for the nation and the City
On 7 May the nation faces one of the most unpredictable elections in recent history and one with high stakes given the issues on the table, including a potential EU exit, the break-up of the UK, big decisions on austerity and public finances and fundamental electoral reform.
The profession – like the City, like the electorate – largely doesn’t know what to make of it. But that doesn’t mean we won’t be wrestling with the implications of the 30-year journey of the UK from dual-party elective dictatorship to multi-party horse-trading and a series of disruptions to the UK’s constitutional arrangements since the early 1990s – disruptions that have often had unintended consequences.
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ITV launches panel review with plans to extend roster by 50%
New panel to broaden international reach
The legal team at ITV, led by general counsel (GC) and company secretary Andrew Garard, has launched a panel review with plans to extend its current roster of eight law firms by up to four more.
For the first time the panel will be expanded to include more of an international element, with local firms in countries such as the Netherlands – where the British company recently acquired Talpa Media – expected to be among the new additions.
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Partners at top firms to pay £42k more under Labour tax plans
Associates are set to gain whoever wins
Law firm partners at major City firms are facing the prospect of a substantive hike in tax if the Labour Party forms a government in this month’s general election with current manifesto pledges expected to see many partners at Legal Business 100 firms with a five-figure increase in their annual tax bill.
Under Labour’s policy, the 45p rate of income tax will be raised to 50p for people earning over £150,000. According to numbers produced by Baker Tilly, this means that a partner earning £1m will pay £500,590 in income tax and national insurance – £42,060 more than the 2015/16 tax rate that currently stands at £458,530.
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‘Phase two’: AIG reviews UK panel and establishes 64-strong European roster
American insurance giant AIG has carried out a review of its UK-based legal panel and established a new 64-member roster to cover the company’s European operations across 12 countries.
Both reviews were carried out at the same time by the company’s Legal Operations Center. The UK panel review, which was primarily a housekeeping exercise around the 25-firm panel established in 2013, took three months, while the Continental roster took a year due to the size and volume of firms and the administration involved.
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US firms step up in the City with new practices
Goodwin Procter and Ropes & Gray launch in PE and ComLit
International firms in the City maintained their expansive form in April with three US-bred advisers unveiling UK law practice launches. The moves saw Boston’s Goodwin Procter launch a UK practice in private equity, New York’s Cahill Gordon & Reindel hire its first English-qualified partner and Ropes & Gray move into UK disputes work.
Goodwin Procter set up shop in London seven years ago looking to emulate the success of the firm’s property team in the States. But the firm recently announced its intention to compete in London’s private equity space, with the hire of King & Wood Mallesons co-head of corporate Richard Lever.
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‘There is no end point’: Dentons’ expansion continues with US outfit McKenna Long and White & Case Budapest team
Having already announced a mammoth combination with Chinese firm Dacheng under a Swiss verein structure this year, Dentons bolstered both its US and CEE capabilities last month by combining with Atlanta-based McKenna Long & Aldridge and hiring a 50-strong team from the Budapest office of White & Case.
Dentons had been scoping the market for a US combination for some time, and previously attempted to tie-up with McKenna Long in 2013 – though that was unsuccessful after partners at both firms rejected the move. This time, Dentons chief executive Elliott Portnoy said events ran more smoothly than had been widely reported. ‘The conversation moved with substantial speed; in 2013 we weren’t able to bring it to a final closure. It’s common for them to begin and unfold over a number of years but fade before a deal can be done. You need a high level of alignment around strategy.’
Q&A: Dechert’s Miriam González Durántez on how City firms missed a trick on EU law, the WTO legacy and ‘Inspiring Women’
Miriam González Durántez’s profile is sky-high. She’s one of the most successful EU lawyers in the City, has persuaded over 15,000 women to volunteer for her Inspiring Women campaign and is the wife of Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg. In an interview with Tom Moore she argues that the EU is undervalued in the City and how law can smash its glass ceilings.
Your practice is something of a rarity outside Brussels. Why have City law firms neglected EU law?
Clifford Chance German practice suffers further partner exits
Magic Circle firm Clifford Chance (CC) has seen multiple partner exits from its German operations in recent weeks with longstanding capital markets partner Markus Pfüller and trademark head Thorsten Vormann becoming the latest, leaving for SZA Schilling, Zutt & Anschütz and K&L Gates respectively.
Reasons suggested for the exodus, which has already seen at least nine lawyers leave including eight partners, point towards a long-term cultural and strategic divide between CC and the German firm it merged with in 2000, Pünder, Volhard, Weber & Axster. One partner at the firm says: ‘The majority of partners came from the 2000 merger with Pünder. There was a difference in culture and since the merger, things improved day-to-day but not on the general standing of what kind of clients we want to advise and where they come from. That has never been solved or overcome.’
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The £637m bet – Slater & Gordon on its daring play in UK’s personal injury market
Michael West talks to the Australian PI giant about its eventful Quindell acquisition
After over three months of intensive due diligence that saw Slater & Gordon (S&G) reconstruct the accounts of Quindell’s Professional Services Division (PSD) following accusations of dubious accounting, both sides agreed a £637m deal, which is expected to close this month, that will see S&G acquire the division and bolster its share of the UK’s highly competitive £2.5bn personal injury (PI) market.
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A&O, Freshfields and Slaughters land key roles on biggest-ever all-UK deal
Shell offers £47bn for BG Group
The proposed £47bn acquisition of BG Group by fellow energy major Shell saw a trio of Magic Circle firms land leading roles, as Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Slaughter and May and Allen & Overy (A&O) advising on what constitutes the largest UK-to-UK deal ever.
Slaughters is acting for Shell, supported by Cravath, Swaine & Moore on US corporate law and allied firm De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek on Dutch aspects of the deal. Corporate partners Roland Turnill, Hywel Davies and Rebecca Cousin are leading Slaughters’ team, which Turnill told Legal Business started ‘working in earnest’ on the transaction as far back as Christmas. Finance partner Matthew Tobin is also working on the deal alongside tax specialist Steve Edge, competition partners Bertrand Louveaux and Jordan Ellison and pensions and employment partners Jonathan Fenn and Roland Doughty.
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Heavyweight US trio advises on €15.6bn Alcatel takeover
Three US law firms – Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, Latham & Watkins and Sullivan & Cromwell – leveraged long-term relationships with key corporate clients last month, seeing them land lead roles on Nokia’s bid to take over Alcatel-Lucent.
Skadden is advising longstanding client Nokia on the tie-up that values its French rival at €15.6bn and will create a technology giant worth more than €40bn. The team is led by London-based global transactions co-head Scott Simpson; Paris-based Armand Grumberg, who heads the firm’s European M&A practice; and London corporate partner Michal Berkner.
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Deal watch: Corporate activity in April 2015
GE RESTRUCTURING BRINGS IN RAFT OF ADVISERS
A host of firms picked up work on General Electric (GE)’s restructuring, fielding large cross-border teams as the industrial giant sold $26.5bn of real estate assets and announced it would divest most of GE Capital’s other holdings. Hogan Lovells led for GE on the real estate sale, with buyers The Blackstone Group and Wells Fargo represented by Simpson Thacher & Bartlett and Dechert respectively.
Weil, Gotshal & Manges is advising GE on the wider restructuring, which will return up to $90bn to shareholders, alongside Sullivan & Cromwell and Davis Polk & Wardwell.
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Headlines and hype but less substance despite foreign firms’ push into Asia disputes market
Tony Lin argues that Asia’s small and politicised litigation market won’t deliver on the hopes many international law firms are pinning on it
Asia dispute resolution is happening. At least that’s what one might surmise from recent moves in the market out here in Hong Kong. In the past few months, New York’s Debevoise & Plimpton recruited litigation heavyweight Mark Johnson from Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF), while O’Melveny & Myers hired Denis Brock from King & Wood Mallesons. Several other UK and American law firms have relocated experienced disputes partners to the region.
Bakers to practise Chinese law through Shanghai joint venture
Baker & McKenzie last month gained permission to practise local law in China through a joint operation with FenXun Partners.
The firm achieved the entry through a first-of-its-kind joint venture with local firm FenXun in the Shanghai free trade zone. Founded in 2009, FenXun, which is focused on providing corporate and finance advice, currently has offices in both Beijing and Shanghai, and has around 20 lawyers, including five partners.
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