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”
CMS Cameron McKenna plans to utilise the Scottish offices and personnel of new merger partner Dundas & Wilson as a form of northshoring as the top-ten firm unveiled its real estate ‘deal of the century’ with its move into its new Cannon Place offices next year.
The Dundas cost-saving initiative, spearheaded by Camerons energy partner Stephen Millar, who alongside managing partner Duncan Weston and senior partner Penelope Warne led the merger negotiations between the two firms, will see Camerons split the pricing of City-generated deals into work done in London and that which is hived off to Scottish lawyers under the supervision of a partner.
As Washington DC-based Steve Immelt next month takes over the reins from Hogan Lovells co-chief executives David Harris and Warren Gorrell, the disputes lawyer talks to Legal Business about the strategy going forward and partner ambition.
How did your appointment come about?
I wasn’t a part of the soundings process, but the board had talked to practically every partner in the firm to get their views – it was a comprehensive effort to get a sense of the partnership, which was invaluable.The board asked a number of people if they would consider the position. I was asked and decided I would. Continue reading “Q&A with Hogan Lovells new chief executive Steve Immelt”
Energy giant seeks increased transparency in bidding process with new online element
BP has introduced a reverse auction into its latest panel tender process, an announcement which came in the same week the energy giant lost an appeal to restrict access to its $20bn compensation fund for the Deepwater Horizon disaster. The FTSE 100 company confirmed on 22 May that it has issued invites to existing and potential panel member firms, and revamped the process with the introduction of an online reverse auction element to make the bidding process more transparent, quicker and efficient.
Continue reading “BP brings in reverse auction as it pushes ahead with panel review”
In one of the most anticipated sets of financial results of the 2013/14 financial reporting season, Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) last month unveiled its latest figures, with the top-20 firm’s revenue and profits per equity partner (PEP) up by 6% and 35% respectively, to £246m and £542,000.
As one of the earliest top City firms to unveil its financial results, these numbers, and the timing of their release are in marked contrast with last year, when the firm became the last to disclose that its PEP was down by 39% and its revenues were flat.
Continue reading “Financial results 2013/14: BLP’s PEP up 35% and revenue 6%”
Trainees, NQs and PQEs to receive salary boost.
Setting the bar for trainee, newly-qualified (NQ) and associate pay last month were early Magic Circle movers Slaughter and May, Allen & Overy (A&O) and Linklaters, as Ashurst, Hogan Lovells and Shearman & Sterling were among other firms to announce changes.
Linklaters’ decision to increase pay pushes it ahead of the Magic Circle pack, with first-year trainees’ pay up by £500 to £40,000, and NQ salaries by £1,000 to £65,000. One-year post-qualified experience (PQE) associates also took home an extra £1,000 to £70,500, while two and three-years PQE saw more substantial increases, up by £3,750 and £4,500 to £82,000 and £93,500 respectively. These increases are significantly higher than last year, when pay rose by £2,250 and £1,000 respectively for two and three-year PQE associates.
Continue reading “Slaughters, A&O and Linklaters announce associate pay increases”
One of the best-known names in the leverage buyout market, Stephen Lucas, is set to join Kirkland & Ellis from Weil, Gotshal & Manges, where he heads the Wall Street firm’s City banking practice.
Lucas handed in his resignation last month and leaves Weil Gotshal just three years after he joined in June 2011 from Linklaters, where he was a banking partner. Prior to that, he was a partner at Magic Circle rival Clifford Chance.
He will be replaced as banking head at Weil by former Hogan Lovells partner Mark Donald.
Continue reading “Weil’s City banking head Stephen Lucas joins Kirkland”
Jaishree Kalia assesses A&O’s latest attempt to break into the buyout game.
There was never any obvious reason for Allen & Overy (A&O) to largely ignore private equity. While a circular debate simmered in the City about the problems of combining deal finance and corporate, its arch rival Clifford Chance (CC) had long made hay in both leverage finance and private equity. A finance-centric law firm should on paper be in tune with private equity houses, while the lack of a public M&A heritage to rival a Linklaters would suggest the buyout barons would have made good clients to build its corporate brand.
Sarah Downey reports on the property leader’s attempts to position itself.
With its five-year financial performance standing out as one of the worst of the top 50 in last year’s LB100 and at least one abandoned merger talk under its belt, Nabarro is perceived by a number of clients and rivals as a firm in need of change.
Heavily dependent on a mixture of high-end but also commoditised property work, the firm has dropped down the UK legal rankings from its 2008 high, when it stood in 23rd place on the back of a revenue increase of 16% to £142.4m.
Continue reading “Always a bridesmaid: can Nabarro revive itself post-Lehman without a partner?”
