DLA Piper has hired King & Wood Mallesons SJ Berwin (KWMSJB) City private equity partner Tim Wright, whose resignation from the partnership was announced internally late yesterday (7 May). Continue reading “DLA Piper hires King & Wood Mallesons SJ Berwin private equity partner Tim Wright”
Barclays high profile Americas chief Michael Crowl set to join UBS
Barclays’ high-profile managing director and general counsel (GC) for the Americas, Michael Crowl, is leaving to head UBS’ US wealth management division, replacing former permanent head Jonathan Eisenberg, who returned to K&L Gates last year. Continue reading “Barclays high profile Americas chief Michael Crowl set to join UBS”
Worth the money: Barclays to introduce value accounts for upcoming legal panel
As Barclays’ long-awaited review of its global legal panel moves closer to completion, it has emerged that the bank is set to shake up how it interacts with its external advisers with the introduction of corporate value accounts.
Continue reading “Worth the money: Barclays to introduce value accounts for upcoming legal panel”
Updated: A&O freezes NQ and trainee pay as it ups associate salaries; Linklaters announces increases across board
Allen & Overy (A&O) revealed today (8 May) that it will hold trainee and newly-qualified (NQ) lawyers’ pay at 2013 levels, while Linklaters has unveiled pay increases for all associates and trainees.
In-house: Sainsbury’s unveils new panel; Lloyds brings in insurance GC; Ladbrokes promotes deputy to GC role
A trio of significant in-house moves and announcements yesterday (6 May) saw King & Wood Mallesons SJ Berwin and TLT awarded a first-time spot on Sainsbury’s latest panel, as Lloyds Banking Group appointed RSM Tenon’s former group general counsel (GC) Joanne Jolly to lead its insurance group and outgoing Ladbrokes GC Jonathan Adelman handed over the reins to his deputy. Continue reading “In-house: Sainsbury’s unveils new panel; Lloyds brings in insurance GC; Ladbrokes promotes deputy to GC role”
Bayer’s $14.2bn acquisition from Merck spins out roles for Sullivan, Fried Frank, Morgan Lewis and Cleary
The $14.2bn acquisition of Merck’s consumer care business by German pharmaceutical giant Bayer has spun out roles for a clutch of leading US law firms, as Sullivan & Cromwell advises longstanding client Bayer opposite Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson; Morgan, Lewis & Bockius; and Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton for Merck. Continue reading “Bayer’s $14.2bn acquisition from Merck spins out roles for Sullivan, Fried Frank, Morgan Lewis and Cleary”
Financial results 2013/14: Charles Russell’s revenue up by 7% as Weightmans posts record numbers
The first top 50 firms to unveil their 2013/14 financial results, Charles Russell and Weightmans this week each unveiled a healthy revenue increase of around 7%. Continue reading “Financial results 2013/14: Charles Russell’s revenue up by 7% as Weightmans posts record numbers”
Partner promotions: Watson Farley; RPC; TLT and McCann FitzGerald unveil numbers
Top 50 UK firms Watson, Farley & Williams (WFW) and RPC have unveiled their latest partner promotions, making up 13 and three lawyers respectively, as top 60 firm TLT and leading Irish firm McCann FitzGerald both announced today (7 May) that they have promoted four lawyers. Continue reading “Partner promotions: Watson Farley; RPC; TLT and McCann FitzGerald unveil numbers”
Bleak reading for all but the biggest law firms in latest Law Society statistics report
The squeeze on the legal profession is in evidence in the latest annual statistics report from the Law Society, which reveals the first decline for over 20 years in both the number of practising and non-practising solicitors across England and Wales; a decline in all but the largest private practice firms; and a further drop in the number of lawyers making partner. Continue reading “Bleak reading for all but the biggest law firms in latest Law Society statistics report”
Revolving Doors: White & Case disputes partner joins the Bar as McGuireWoods; Covington and Simmons make key hires
The latest standout lateral moves have seen White & Case litigator Paul Cowen return to the Bar as McGuireWoods expands its City restructuring offering with a hire from DLA Piper, and Covington & Burling and Simmons & Simmons boost their competition groups in Brussels with hires from Clifford Chance (CC) and Olswang respectively. Continue reading “Revolving Doors: White & Case disputes partner joins the Bar as McGuireWoods; Covington and Simmons make key hires”
Allen & Overy latest to launch in Myanmar despite ongoing risk factors
Allen & Overy (A&O) has become the first Magic Circle firm and the latest of the UK’s top 20 to launch in Myanmar, despite ongoing concerns over the risk factors for corporations looking to invest in a republic with a legacy of political instability and human rights atrocities. Continue reading “Allen & Overy latest to launch in Myanmar despite ongoing risk factors”
Partner promotions: Osborne Clarke makes up five in the UK after Stephenson Harwood promotes City duo
Osborne Clarke (OC) has made up five new partners in its 2014 promotion round across the UK, constituting the firm’s highest-ever UK figures in three years, following Stephenson Harwood’s announcement last week that it has made up just two City associates to partner this year. Continue reading “Partner promotions: Osborne Clarke makes up five in the UK after Stephenson Harwood promotes City duo”
‘It is now the strain will show on firms’: Gordon Dadds MP talks takeovers and strategy after the fall of Davenport Lyons
After a series of failed merger talks, the surprise takeover of beleaguered West End firm Davenport Lyons by Gordon Dadds is, according to Gordon Dadds’ managing partner Adrian Biles, indicative of the wider strain that firms will start to feel as the recovery kicks in. Continue reading “‘It is now the strain will show on firms’: Gordon Dadds MP talks takeovers and strategy after the fall of Davenport Lyons”
‘Self-interested’ Law Society stripped of power to appoint SRA chair
Just days after the Legal Services Board (LSB) chairman delivered a scathing speech accusing the Law Society of being entirely self-interested, the representative body has been stripped of its power to appoint the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s new chair, in a move designed to give the regulator greater independence. Continue reading “‘Self-interested’ Law Society stripped of power to appoint SRA chair”
Channel 5’s £450m sale to Viacom sees Rosenblatt, Shearman, Olswang and Lewis Silkin acting
Channel 5’s £450m sale to Viacom has thrown up roles for Rosenblatt Solicitors; a London-based Shearman & Sterling team; Olswang and Lewis Silkin as the US broadcasting giant snaps up the UK’s only privately owned commercial television channel. Continue reading “Channel 5’s £450m sale to Viacom sees Rosenblatt, Shearman, Olswang and Lewis Silkin acting”
Shock horror: economic revival makes it as impossible as ever to make partner
It’s not going to come as a huge shock to our readership of jaded veterans to hear this but the 2014 promotion rounds from the UK’s top law firms have confirmed that the striking revival in business confidence over the last 12 months has made pretty much no improvement in partnership prospects.
Yes – my back-of-the-envelope calculations are that the Magic Circle plus Herbert Smith Freehills, Norton Rose Fulbright, Hogan Lovells and Ashurst have added only 193 individuals to the club despite fielding between them partnerships of well over 5,000. The 2014 promotions round at these firms is equivalent on average to less than 4% of their partnerships – well below the replacement rate needed to sustain their ranks.
Continue reading “Shock horror: economic revival makes it as impossible as ever to make partner”
Worth the money: Barclays to introduce value accounts for upcoming legal panel
Failure to meet value targets set to result in firms partially refunding banking giant
As Barclays’ long-awaited review of its global legal panel moves closer to completion, it has emerged that the bank is set to shake up how it interacts with its external advisers with the introduction of corporate value accounts.
Continue reading “Worth the money: Barclays to introduce value accounts for upcoming legal panel”
The Crown Estate’s Peeke to join Land Securities in legal head role
Land Securities, the UK’s largest listed property company, has hired The Crown Estate’s deputy head of legal Alex Peeke as head of legal, taking over the day-to-day conduct of the legal function and operations and reporting to group general counsel (GC) and company secretary Adrian de Souza.
Peeke has been with The Crown Estate, which owns an £8bn-plus portfolio of commercial property, since 2009. He is responsible for the day-to-day management of legal risk and is the legal lead on joint ventures, which have become the most important feature of the implementation of The Crown Estate’s redevelopment strategy for its prestigious Central London estate.
Continue reading “The Crown Estate’s Peeke to join Land Securities in legal head role”
DISSENT: A precarious professionalism
UCL’s Richard Moorhead argues the integrity and professionalism that City lawyers take for granted is all too easily swayed
The practice of law has flipped from vocation to business. Law firms and individual lawyers are measured explicitly in predominantly economic terms. Profit per equity partner (PEP) and other indicators trickle down firms through targets and bonuses. Hourly rates are the oil that greases this engine. Alongside that is the somewhat servile claim that lawyers are not deal breakers or pettifoggers, but business-focused advisers, and business-focused advisers for whom the client comes first.
Latest partnership rounds confirm another tough year to make the grade at City leaders
Partnership promotion figures unveiled in April saw a slight improvement on the dwindling numbers seen in earlier announcements, although still fall largely short of the 5% estimated to be needed to maintain partnerships at their current levels.
Linklaters and Clifford Chance (CC) made up 21 partners apiece and Herbert Smith Freehills 23, as Norton Rose Fulbright unveiled a post-merger figure of 46, and Ashurst similarly revealed it will make up 15 partners in the first round since its merger last year with Australia’s Blake Dawson.