Having endured a difficult time in recent months with an exodus of partners from its London office, US law firm Edwards Wildman Palmer published its UK limited liability partnership (LLP) accounts in August, which recorded a 10% drop in UK turnover, alongside a 21% drop in profit.
The LLP accounts, dated to 31 December 2013, show revenue fell to £25.1m from £27.8m, operating profit decreased to £8m from £10.1m and net debt rose to £323,827 from £54,952.
Latest proposed changes by Magic Circle firm after recent overhaul of governance structure
Having taken the summer to vote through a substantive overhaul of its governance structure, the autumn agenda of Clifford Chance (CC) will see the partnership consider whether the firm should move to an all-equity model.
The Magic Circle firm currently deploys a single profit pool, lockstep system and partners spend three years as juniors before progressing onto the equity, which ranges between 40 and 100 units.
Ambrose Lam, president of the Hong Kong Law Society since May last year, was forced to resign on 19 August after a vote of no confidence was issued in response to his recent support of a Beijing white paper that raised issues over Hong Kong’s judicial independence. Hong Kong lawyers turned out in force on 14 August to an extraordinary general meeting (EGM), where 2,392 lawyers cast a vote of no confidence in the president. Just 1,478 lawyers voted against the motion, despite law firms reporting pressure from clients on the mainland not to pass the motion.
Mishcon de Reya is set to bring all partners into the equity and convert to a limited liability partnership at the end of autumn 2015. The proposed new model will constitute a marked shift from the firm’s current structure, which consists of legal directors, junior (or fixed-share) partners and senior (equity) partners.
The transformation will see every partner become a form of equity partner, the current 37 become ‘senior equity partners’ and junior partners will be ‘junior equity partners’.
Continue reading “Mishcons set to move to full-equity LLP in 2015”
Michael West finds mixed feelings on independence from Scotland’s bloodied legal profession
It’s long been a hoary cliché to say that uncertainty is good news for the legal profession but it is hard to escape the conclusion that the uncertain prospect of a momentous vote on Scottish independence this month would be very good news for local lawyers… in the short term.
The landmark Yukos decision has forced governments to consider the consequences of entering into international treaties that allow foreign investors to take disputes to arbitration. With the likes of Indonesia and South Africa having already torn up agreements, Russia having withdrawn from the Energy Charter Treaty that gave the Yukos shareholders jurisdiction and India mulling an exit from bilateral investment treaties, could the $50bn award lead more states to withdraw their consent to arbitration?
Ireland is breathing a little easier again. With more than five years of economic turbulence battering both businesses and reputations, the nation has finally managed to hoist itself out of recession. Having officially exited its €67.5bn bailout programme in December 2013 – a move described by finance minister Michael Noonan as Ireland being ‘handed back her purse’ – this summer also saw the Central Statistics Office announce economic growth of 2.7% for the first quarter of 2014.
While the situation is still deemed perilous in many parts, with a mammoth public deficit, a woeful property market and high unemployment, a sense of confidence is returning to Ireland’s legal elite. And such is the battle-hardened resilience of the young lawyers that made partner around the time the economy crumbled – including those at Arthur Cox, McCann FitzGerald, A&L Goodbody, William Fry, Matheson and others – that a crop of up-and-coming individuals are emerging as the next generation of stars to define Ireland’s legal market in the years ahead. Continue reading “Ireland: Tracking Dublin’s Young Tigers”
Tom Moore assesses the recent upheaval at Weil and talks to City head Francies about its ambitions
Life has never been dull at the City arm of Weil, Gotshal & Manges, but even those familiar with the firm’s eventful run since its launch in the mid-1990s turned their heads at the departure this summer of Stephen Lucas for Kirkland & Ellis. The former Linklaters partner, whose exit came shortly before his three-year guaranteed pay package expired, had been regarded as highly successful at building a deal finance team at Weil.
The insurance regime for law firms faces more upheaval amid reforms to rules on minimum cover. Legal Business assesses the latest controversy
In July, following a short consultation earlier this summer, the board of the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) announced a number of reforms, including proposals to reduce the minimum compulsory cover levels for professional indemnity insurance (PII) from £2m to £500,000 and the requirement that law firms assess the PII cover level appropriate for their work themselves.
US advisers take the lead on £5.6bn takeover of UK institution
The Walgreen Company has instructed New York law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz and Allen & Overy (A&O) to handle its acquisition of the remaining 55% of Nottingham-based chemist Alliance Boots in a £5.6bn deal.
The pharmacy giant already has a 45% stake in the group, which owns UK high-street favourite Boots, which it acquired in August 2012. This new deal will create the combined entity of Walgreens Boots Alliance, with more than 11,000 stores in ten countries and a portfolio of retail and business brands.
Continue reading “A&O joins US firms on Walgreens’ acquisition of Alliance Boots”
Dechert and PwC step into Singapore as global players sustain push into key Asian hub
This summer saw continued interest by advisers in the Asian legal market, as top-50 US firm Dechert finally received the green light to open an office in Singapore eight months after applying for a Foreign Legal Practice licence. Meanwhile, Big Four accountancy giant PwC made a move to enhance its legal offering in the Asia-Pacific region, having entered into a tie-up in Singapore with local firm Camford Law.
Political tension and economic turbulence have seen more law firms retrench in the wider European region, with Chadbourne & Parke and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer both confirming office closures. US firm Chadbourne last month confirmed that it was closing its Kiev office, a move which saw Dentons benefit as it snapped up Kiev-based corporate partner Adam Mycyk. Meanwhile, a pair of Freshfields lawyers have established an IP/IT specialist boutique following the closure of the Magic Circle firm’s Barcelona office in April this year.
Mycyk, who is also the former managing partner for CMS Cameron McKenna’s Kiev office, will join Dentons as a partner in its corporate practice just 18 months after moving to Chadbourne.
Continue reading “Chadbourne closes Kiev arm as Freshfields duo set up in Barcelona”
Michael West assesses the prospects for the agency after settlement of the Tchenguiz claims
He was always going to have a painfully full in-tray on taking over as head of the troubled Serious Fraud Office (SFO) a little over two years ago, but even against that context, the previous 12 months must have looked something like an annus horribilis to David Green QC. Lows during this period saw the Public Accounts Committee issue trenchant criticism of the body, important investigation documents misplaced and the chaotic collapse of the trial against Victor Dahdaleh.
Faced with dire rates of female retention, law firms have abandoned previous resistance to public gender targets for their partnerships. Will it work?
It had been a fairly dry debate at the 2013 Georgetown Law panel discussion in London, covering a number of worthy issues facing the profession. Dry at least until near the end, when a Legal Business journalist on the panel told the sizeable audience of lawyers that law firms were perfectly able to function commercially while haemorrhaging female lawyers, the caveat being that if the profession was waiting for economic drivers to solve the gender diversity dilemma, it would be a long wait. The journalist then mentioned that the profession may want to consider more drastic measures.
Continue reading “The Target – will tougher measures finally boost gender diversity in the City?”
LB100 LAW FIRMS
The firms that appear in the LB100 are the top 100 firms in the UK, ranked by gross fee income generated over the financial year 2013/14 – usually 1 May 2013 to 30 April 2014. We call these the 2014 results. Where firms have identical fee incomes, the firms are ranked according to the highest profit per equity partner (PEP).
Core Stats from the LB100 2014.
Includes; Ten fastest growing firms by revenue, Ten fastest shrinking firms by revenue, LB100 Averages (RPL, PPL, PPE), Ten fastest growing firms by PPE and Ten fastest shrinking firms by PPE.
Which firms are the most profitable?
In this table we blend together all of our profitability measures, including PEP, profit per lawyer and profit margin to discover which of the top 100 firms are the most profitable. The 100 firms have been ranked according to their mean rank across all three measurements. Continue reading “LB100 2014: Behind the Numbers – Profitability Revealed”
Top 50 firms ranked by highest top of equity.
As some seasoned campaigners of the second half of the LB100 prepare to move up a class through mergers, a few City-based specialists continue to defy the tide of consolidation.
Of the merger activity that has swept through the Legal Business 100 (LB100) this year, it is the mid-market City players and national heavyweights that occupy the second 50 of the LB100 that have been most affected.
I had training offers from a couple of Magic Circle firms, but I chose SJ Berwin because at that time they were at the forefront of private equity – it was a dynamic firm then. On qualification I wanted to be a finance lawyer and felt I would have got strong technical training in a firm like Freshfields.
I moved to Kirkland as a fourth year to develop business. I felt there would be more freedom to develop client-winning skills as well as doing deals. I am happy with my choices. It wasn’t a conscious decision that private equity would be such a prominent area – I’ve enjoyed a lot of luck.
Continue reading “Life During Law: Neel Sachdev, Kirkland & Ellis”
