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After major acquisitions, Cofely set to create first legal panel

Cofely, a subsidiary of French energy giant GDF Suez, is to establish its first legal panel in a bid to reduce legal fees and the number of firms it deals with.

In what will be a mass reorganisation of the company’s legal services expenditure, which currently involves business managers in selecting law firms, general counsel Simone Tudor is hoping to reduce the company’s go-to law firms down to just three after a review found that Cofely had instructed 25 law firms so far this year.

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Hogan Lovells hires ten-strong associate team and acquires new office space for Birmingham nearshoring venture

Having confirmed in early spring the launch of a new cost-efficient legal services centre in Birmingham, Hogan Lovells has hired a ten-strong associate team across multiple practice areas and from national firms, including Pinsent Masons, Clarke Willmott and Shoosmiths, to spearhead the venture as well as acquiring new office space within Birmingham’s central business district.

The nearshoring venture, dubbed the Legal Service Centre and led by London partner Alan Greenough, who will relocate to Birmingham to manage the office, will now house teams comprising three associates within the practice areas of corporate, disputes and real estate, and a tenth specialist in real estate finance. Hires include the real estate lawyers, Shoosmiths’ senior associate Mark Saunders, Clarke Willmott associate Balraj Kaur and Pinsent Masons associate Abigail Gisbourne, who are all set to join in early November. The trio will initially start working out of the London office before relocating in order to integrate with the real estate team. All associates are expected to join by January at the latest.

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‘A step backwards’: Home Secretary weighs in on SFO’s future with proposal to abolish

When Legal Business queried in September whether the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) was finally turning a corner after a year of embarrassing lows – including misplacing investigation documents and the chaotic collapse of the Victor Dahdaleh trial – the agency appeared to still be mired in controversy and questions over its future. Last month, the Home Secretary Theresa May appeared to provide an answer, as it was revealed she was considering abolishing the SFO and rolling it into the National Crime Agency (NCA), a move that some consider will ultimately dilute the attempts by the body to project a tougher image.

‘It’s not a good idea,’ said Stephenson Harwood commercial litigation partner Tony Woodcock. ‘The focus has got to be on serious and complex fraud, and properly resourcing that. I fear putting it into a far bigger organisation with a number of different responsibilities could dilute that, both as a matter of perception and as a matter of resourcing.’

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Focus: Charlie and the deal factory: can Geffen help Gibson Dunn reach new heights in the City?

Jaishree Kalia reports on the Los Angeles firm’s recent London hiring spree

Although relatively late to the game, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher is the latest US firm with aggressive expansion plans in London, with its recently announced hire of former Ashurst senior partner Charlie Geffen attracting much attention last month.

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Linklaters, Freshfields and Travers Smith fix RAC deal with Singapore’s GIC

Carlyle abandons flotation to sell half of its majority stake

Since the summer, London’s IPO market has seen postponements, cancellations and low pricings as confidence ebbed. Feeling the effects, US private equity giant Carlyle, advised by Linklaters corporate partners Charlie Jacobs and Alex Woodward, recently abandoned plans to exit roadside recovery service company RAC through a flotation, in favour of a sale to Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC.

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Top firms help Heathrow’s £1bn airport sale take off

Last month, Allen & Overy (A&O), Hogan Lovells and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer led on Heathrow Airport Holdings’ final airport disposal as Aberdeen, Glasgow and Southampton airports were sold to a consortium formed by Ferrovial and Macquarie for £1.05bn.

Heathrow Airport Holdings (formerly BAA) agreed to sell its 100% stake in all three airports, though the deal is still subject to EU approval. Closing is expected before the end of January 2015, with the consideration expected to increase to compensate Heathrow for the delay.

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Allen & Overy becomes the first Magic Circle firm to set up in South Africa

Firm opens Johannesburg office after hire of Bowman Gilfillan finance team

Allen & Overy (A&O) finally put its stamp on South Africa with the launch of office number 45 in Johannesburg last month. The move sees A&O become the first Magic Circle firm to establish a presence on the ground, with the hire of a banking and finance team from local firm Bowman Gilfillan.

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The Last Word – Hot property

Renewed interest from international investors leading to increased deal flow means real estate practices are back in favour again. We ask leading practitioners about the future of this volatile market

 

Solemn vows

‘We’ve treated real estate like a marriage – in sickness and in health, for richer, for poorer. We haven’t reneged on our responsibilities, so when potential new clients talk to existing ones about our relationship, they hear the same thing – that we’re a committed and consistent team that has continued to deliver.’

Leona Ahmed, real estate divisional managing partner, Addleshaw Goddard

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Consumed – Can burning ambition from Down Under recast Herbert Smith for the global stage?

With the fall-out from the merger of Herbert Smith and Freehills subsiding, the emerging global challenger needs to galvanise its business under new leadership. Will the Australian suitor’s ambition provide the jolt needed or has Herbert Smith been absorbed?

‘I couldn’t talk about this over the phone,’ said one senior partner at Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF), with a glance over his shoulder. What could not be recounted electronically was the surprising news that HSF veteran James Palmer – widely regarded as the firm’s top City deal lawyer – had recently missed out on a place on its partnership council, the firm’s main oversight body.

(more…)

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Back in the game – revival at last for real estate but the players have changed

As investors place their bets on London’s property market, battered real estate teams are finally seeing a revival after the bleak post-Crunch years. Legal Business talks to the property lawyers who are back at the table.

Any Londoner will tell you that the Capital resembles a mass construction site these days. Around Victoria, for example, the noise of jackhammers perpetually fills the air, the result of a £2bn Land Securities redevelopment project to provide new luxury homes, shops, offices and improved transport facilities. This development has seen City real estate heavyweights Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP), Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Nabarro, CMS Cameron McKenna, Hogan Lovells and Eversheds lead on the legal side.

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The Knowledge Management Report – 20 standout teams in the know

Knowledge in law firms remains crucial but hard to capture. In a special report, we assess the standout KM teams aiming to give their lawyers an edge and clients the intelligence they crave.

Not so long ago, access to the knowledge management (KM) function at a law firm meant running the gauntlet to avoid confrontation with a law librarian or wrestling with a ridiculous microfiche machine. Thankfully, the service has evolved a lot since then. The sophisticated technology, the experienced and professional staff and the sheer volume of instantly available knowhow means that KM is an integral part of a law firm’s arsenal, and one that is increasingly being harnessed directly by the firm’s lawyers and clients.

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The Knowledge Management Report – Knowledge meet client

Increasingly mobile knowhow in law firms is not only being more flexibly deployed at law firms, it’s being packaged up for clients. We chart the evolution of KM from library to GC’s office.

Lisa Smith, head of knowledge services at DWF, provides a small but telling insight into how far knowledge management (KM) services have come in delivering value through business intelligence to their lawyers. She recalls a recent occasion where a partner had a key client meeting one morning, but there was a major development the night before involving a fire at one of the client’s premises. ‘We were able to alert the partner well in advance so that he was prepared,’ says Smith.

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The future of knowledge management: out of the library into the front line

Ian Mason and Rob Martin of Thomson Reuters explore the new KM landscape.

What is knowledge management?

In its early days, some may have viewed knowledge management (KM) as a dry, back-office function. It was often confined to the law library (and predominantly practised there, away from the fee-earning frontline). Lawyers kept their precedents safely locked away in their files or drawers. They might be incentivised to share precedents in an annual precedent hunt with a bottle of champagne or similar prize for the best template produced. But that was as exciting as it got. Continue reading “The future of knowledge management: out of the library into the front line”

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Are sanctions affecting workloads in legal services? What are the expectations for 2015?

Andrei Gusev of Borenius looks at the effects of the latest EU/US measures.

There was a lot of speculation, stress and tension among foreign investors in Russia when the EU, the US and several other countries imposed their two latest rounds of sanctions against Russia, leading to Russia responding with its own counter-sanctions, including the so-called ‘food embargo’. A few weeks after the introduction of these measures, certain trends have already surfaced. What are these trends? Continue reading “Are sanctions affecting workloads in legal services? What are the expectations for 2015?”

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Interim injunctions for the freezing of assets and disclosure of documents and information

Michael Kyprianou’s Christos Galanos looks at recent caselaw.

The availability of interim relief is often crucial in ensuring satisfaction of any final court judgment or arbitral award. An interim injunction can ensure that property is not alienated while a case is still pending. In other cases it can level the playing field if one party (or even non-party) is restricting access to information material to the case. The ability to apply for interim relief is a vital tool for any legal jurisdiction. Continue reading “Interim injunctions for the freezing of assets and disclosure of documents and information”

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Sanctions: an unprecedented moment for doing business in Russia

YUST’s Evgeny Zhilin outlines the benefits.

2014 has brought many challenges to the Russian economy. The already modest growth rates that were demonstrated in the previous year were targeted even more by various sanctions imposed against Russia by the US, EU and some other jurisdictions. As a reaction to these, Russia has installed counter-sanctions in the food sector, hitting some of the European food producers hard. Continue reading “Sanctions: an unprecedented moment for doing business in Russia”

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Guest post: The West Lothian Question – a few thoughts

The so-called West Lothian question is a political and not legal question. It was asked as long ago as 1977 by Tam Dalyell MP who represented West Lothian from 1962 to 1983 and Linlithgow from 1983 to 2005. The question asks whether MPs from Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, sitting in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, should be able to vote on matters that affect only England.

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