Kennedys is the latest UK firm to announce its 2013/14 turnover, unveiling double digit growth with revenue up by 10% to £128.5m.
The lion’s share of revenue at the top 30 firm came from its UK activity, which generated £98.3m. Continue reading “Financial Results 2013/14: Kennedys unveils a double digit hike in turnover to £128.5m”
As co-CEOs David Harris and Warren Gorrell enter their final weeks leading the partnership at transatlantic firm Hogan Lovells, newly-elected sole CEO Steve Immelt is putting relationship building high on his list of priorities, alongside harder objectives such as further global expansion and fine-tuning the firm’s remuneration system. Continue reading “‘We’ve got to complete the unification process’: Hogan Lovells incoming CEO and deputy talk strategy”
Shearman & Sterling’s London office has taken the lead advising New York-listed global exchange and clearing house operator IntercontinentalExchange (ICE) on its initial public offering (IPO) of pan-European exchange group Euronext on Euronext Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam, for what ICE says is likely to be valued at in excess of $2bn. Continue reading “Shearman London and Linklaters Paris lead on circa $2bn Euronext float”
Mishcon de Reya has today (11 June) announced it is set to launch an independent, private client advisory business entitled ‘Mayfair Private’ with offshore fiduciary firm Opus Private to provide ‘discreet professional solutions’ to wealthy individuals, families and private offices. Continue reading “Mishcon de Reya to launch independent private client business with offshore fiduciary firm”
Alexander ‘Sandy’ Thomas has been elected as global managing partner at Reed Smith after John Martini, vice-chair of the firm’s global business and finance department, challenged his position less than a year into the role.
Clifford Chance (CC), Covington & Burling and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom are advising on the £930m flotation of over two thirds of vehicle breakdown group the AA to City investors. Continue reading “Clifford Chance, Covington and Skadden lead on £930m AA IPO”
As Linklaters yesterday (9 June) became the second Magic Circle firm after Allen & Overy to put in place gender diversity targets, senior partner Robert Elliott explained to Legal Business why partners have voted to set a target of 30% of all partner promotions to be made up of women and how they plan to double their female management figure to that ratio by 2018. Continue reading “‘Hundreds of thousands of pounds are earmarked’: Linklaters’ senior partner Robert Elliott talks new diversity targets”
Following the return of Tom Kilroy to Misys, Genus, a leading provider of bovine genetics and reproduction services yesterday (June 9) announced the appointment of Dan Hartley as group general counsel (GC) and company secretary. Continue reading “Genus turns to Shire Pharmaceuticals to fill GC and company secretary role”
Big six energy giant SSE has set up an inaugural seven-strong law firm panel following an ‘extensive selection process’.
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Addleshaw Goddard, CMS, Osborne Clarke, Gillespie Macandrew, Thorntons and Kennedys have been appointed to advise across various legal disciplines, including but not limited to construction, property, finance, litigation and corporate. Continue reading “UK big six energy giant SSE announces seven-strong inaugural legal panel”
Ashurst’s corporate partner Nigel Stacey has quit the firm to join the London office of Los Angeles-founded firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.
Stacey, who focuses on mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance and general corporate matters, follows in the footsteps of fellow corporate partner Jonathan Earle, who left Ashurst in April after being with the firm for 16 years. Continue reading “Ashurst corporate partner Nigel Stacey quits for Gibson Dunn’s City office”
Pinsent Masons senior partner Chris Mullen will next month face construction head challenger Richard Foley in the first contested elections at the top 20 firm since David Ryan was voted in as managing partner in 1998. Continue reading “Contested senior partner elections at Pinsent Masons as Chris Mullen challenged by head of construction”
The latest standout lateral moves have seen Herbert Smith Freehills’ (HSF) former advocacy chief Murray Rosen QC return to the Bar, as Weil Gotshal & Manges boosts its City finance practice, Simmons & Simmons expands in Bristol, with further partner hires at Rosenblatt Solicitors and Payne Hicks Beach.
Clyde & Co announced today (9 June) that it is expanding its West Coast US practice, opening an office in southern California led by Joe Walsh, formerly a partner at local firm Keesal, Young & Logan.
Continue reading “California dreaming: Clyde & Co expands US practice”
Addleshaw Goddard today (9 June) unveiled mixed financial results for the 2013/14 period, with turnover up by 3% to £171.4m but net profit down 11% from £44.9m to £39.8m. Continue reading “Financial results 2013/14: Addleshaws posts mixed results as profit down 11% after partner restructuring and CFA write-off”
Deloitte has become the last of the Big Four accountancy firms to announce plans to re-enter the legal market with the appointment of Rotterdam-based Piet Hein Meeter as global managing director of Deloitte Legal. Continue reading “Deloitte plots legal market assault with appointment of global managing director”
The head of Eversheds’ international real estate group, William Naunton, is to leave the firm alongside tax partner Clive Jones to set up a high-end real estate boutique, after both have served a one-year notice period. Continue reading “Eversheds real estate head and tax partner to form high-end boutique”
Given that I get paid to poke around law firms’ inner workings, it’s not that often that I find it hard to get my head around a law firm but CMS Cameron McKenna in its 2014 form is one such creature.
The clichéd view of the firm is of a slow-moving practice struggling with a hard-to-sell international alliance and a classic case of chasing pack malaise – too close to the Magic Circle for comfort, but too big to have the lean focus of a quality mid-tier. Like most clichés there is more than a grain of truth in this view but, as Camerons absorbs Scotland’s most storied law firm Dundas & Wilson, at closer glance the truth looks far more complex and interesting.
Continue reading “Cameronics redux: a hard-to-grasp institution that looks set to surprise”
If the oxymoronic notion of partner recruitment didn’t exist who would invent it? On one level, of course, its emergence in the legal profession was inevitable given wider changes in careers and attitudes to work. Without some form of partner mobility law firms would become inflexibly segmented and partners effectively bound to a single employer.
But, as has been noted with increasing frequency in recent years, the returns on partner recruitment can be wildly uneven and often deliver only moderate or poor benefits. The emergence over the last 15 years of a sideways recruitment market for so-so partners moving between similar law firms – as opposed to a start-up or better platform – is also a challenge for law firms in retaining their own partners. No wonder one prominent legal consultant recently wrote of the lateral ‘arms race’ – denoting a contest fraught with difficulty and danger that parties still feel they have no choice but to enter.
In our focus on Nabarro this month the firm comes in for some criticism at the hands of an important client for its failure to engage, to make the client aware of its strategy, or simply to make the general counsel (GC) feel sufficient love.
While this is just one client and Nabarro could undoubtedly rustle up on the spot a dozen others that have a different take on their client service levels, this prestigious client legal head says: ‘I’ve spoken to other GCs about it and they have similar issues, it’s bewildering.’
Continue reading “A bit of hustle, a bit of love – GCs expect attention and pitching from advisers”
William Naunton and Clive Jones to depart after year-long notice period.
The head of Eversheds’ international real estate group, William Naunton, is to leave the firm alongside tax partner Clive Jones to set up a high-end real estate boutique, after both have served a one-year notice period.
Jones and Naunton, who was a main board member until he stepped down in 2011, made their intentions clear when they handed in their notices in January, meaning they will be free to set up on their own in the New Year of 2015, with the unusually long notice period understood to reflect Naunton’s significant book of business.
Continue reading “Eversheds real estate head and tax partner to form high-end boutique”
