Posted on

‘A treasure trove for potential claimants’ – forex scandal to bring windfall of instructions to UK firms

US class action filed ahead of DoJ findings targets more than a dozen investors

UK financial disputes partners are gearing up to take on lucrative ‘break the bank’ instructions in the now global investigation into foreign exchange manipulation, as the US class action against a host of investment banks continues to grow, gifting Allen & Overy (A&O) with a lucrative New York mandate.

The class action, which has been filed ahead of any findings by the Department of Justice (DoJ) over whether traders colluded to manipulate the estimated $5.3trn a day foreign exchange market (forex), most recently saw over a dozen investors, including several large US pension funds sign up to an antitrust lawsuit filed in the Southern District of New York.

Continue reading “‘A treasure trove for potential claimants’ – forex scandal to bring windfall of instructions to UK firms”

Posted on

CMS junior partners to pay up to £50k in response to HMRC shake-up

CMS Cameron McKenna has called on its fixed-share partners (FSPs) to make a substantial contribution of capital in light of HM Revenue & Customs’ (HMRC) recent overhaul of the way partnerships are taxed.

Members of the junior partnership that fall into band one of the firm’s four-tiered remuneration structure have been asked to contribute around £35,000 to £50,000 each. With 90 partners in this bracket, this means a total capital investment of up to £4.5m.

A partner at the firm told Legal Business: ‘The firm doesn’t necessarily need the money – it’s not a call for borrowings or to meet debt requirements. It’s a call to even out the capital positions across the various levels of the partnership. People were not necessarily happy taking on more borrowings but it hasn’t caused any ructions across the junior partnership.’

Continue reading “CMS junior partners to pay up to £50k in response to HMRC shake-up”

Posted on

HSF shakes off post-merger politics in favour of sole global corporate head as Ferraro takes over

Setting aside the notoriously difficult post-merger politics of selecting one partner to run a core practice area, Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) in mid-April announced that joint global head of corporate Mike Ferraro will this month take over as sole head.

Fellow co-head Patrick Mitchell will, after four years as head of corporate, take up a new role as head of the firm’s infrastructure practice in both the UK and EMEA. Mitchell will work closely with Andrew Clark, head of projects for Australia and Asia, in the continued development of what the firm describes as ‘this strategically important practice’. Mitchell will also maintain his role in developing the firm’s presence in Germany.

Continue reading “HSF shakes off post-merger politics in favour of sole global corporate head as Ferraro takes over”

Posted on

European deal wave anticipated amid growing market confidence

Holcim/Lafarge merger and Vivendi’s SFR acquisition lead the way

Corporate partners are forecasting the next big European M&A wave after deal values this quarter shot up, partly on the back of ready debt finance and growing market confidence. Such conditions have supported a run of lucrative mandates, including the €40bn merger in April of cement companies Holcim and Lafarge and the acquisition of Vivendi’s phone unit SFR by cable group Altice for a total value in excess of €17bn.

Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, Linklaters and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer were among a host of firms advising on Holcim’s combination with Lafarge, a deal that, subject to regulatory approval, will create LafargeHolcim, the world’s biggest cement maker.

Continue reading “European deal wave anticipated amid growing market confidence”

Posted on

Whose money making machine? Not all law firms will be richer in a bank-lite world

Cov-lite, cov-loose and even now cov-lame – in some pockets of the finance market we are back to the boom days. All we need is a couple of headstrong private equity partners to quit Linklaters for a more sponsor-facing platform and we’ll be right back to 2006. On second thoughts…

As our cover feature this month makes clear, the debt markets are going through not only a substantive revival but the non-investment sector is rapidly being dragged towards a US-style dynamic. This means European borrowers increasingly tapping capital markets and the role of banks reducing amid competition from other debt providers. The related vogue for upper mid-market and larger buyouts to be backed by high-yield bonds and US loans has obvious implications for City advisers since it tilts the playing field heavily in favour of New York law and US advisers.

Continue reading “Whose money making machine? Not all law firms will be richer in a bank-lite world”

Posted on

Behind the veil – Can Islamic finance live up to the sales pitch?

man walking through decorative archway

‘You can’t be a credible financial centre without having a credible Islamic finance programme,’ says Qudeer Latif, head of Clifford Chance’s global Islamic practice. With studies expecting the Muslim population to grow twice as fast as the non-Muslim demographic over the next 20 years global financial institutions and governments are falling over themselves to offer Islamic finance products.

According to EY’s latest study of the global Islamic finance market, the total amount of Islamic assets held by commercial banks was expected to have grown by around 40% from 2011 to 2013, from $1.3trn to $1.8trn. 78% of international Islamic assets are held in Qatar, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, UAE and Turkey. In Qatar, for example, Georges Racine, director of Swiss firm Lalive’s Doha operation, says that Islamic banking has grown quicker than the banking sector as a whole over the past few years as a result of its government’s supportive measures.

Continue reading “Behind the veil – Can Islamic finance live up to the sales pitch?”

Posted on

ITV pulls in panel firms in new development programme

ITV is taking steps to embed its law firms in the fabric of the organisation by involving them in a new programme of training and development with its lawyers.

The initiative, spearheaded by ITV’s director of legal affairs and third-party sales relationships, Barry Matthews, together with general counsel (GC) Andrew Garard, will see ITV roll out a four-prong development programme this year that will see it work closely with panel firms to help them understand its strategy and commercial imperatives.

For lawyers with more than two years’ PQE, ITV has partnered with Olswang to run a ‘peer partnership programme’, in which private practice and in-house lawyers research and write together a piece of management consultancy to present to Garard and Olswang chief executive David Stewart.

Continue reading “ITV pulls in panel firms in new development programme”

Posted on

Davenport Lyons goes into administration as Gordon Dadds takes on business

After two rounds of failed merger talks Davenport Lyons went into administration at the end of April, with Mayfair firm Gordon Dadds confirming that it had taken on the client database, the majority of assets and secured nearly all of the partners of the West End firm.

The terms of the sale were agreed the week before by joint administrator Baker Tilly. A spokesman from Davenport Lyons said: ‘As of close of business on Friday 25 April, the legal entity known as Davenport Lyons ceased trading and the majority of the company’s client balances, work in progress and client files have been transferred to Gordon Dadds, who will also be collecting debtor balances on behalf of the administrator.

Continue reading “Davenport Lyons goes into administration as Gordon Dadds takes on business”

Posted on

The last word – the state of law firm leadership

With a spate of executive elections taking place recently, we ask the c-suite at leading City firms how management has changed over the last five years


CONSENSUS APPROACH

‘The command and control structure doesn’t generally work in law firms. Nonetheless, the last five years have seen a greater acceptance from partners for the need to operate more tightly and collectively. Partnerships will always have mixed feelings about their leadership. Leading a law firm is about managing ambiguity, ambivalence and disparate viewpoints.

Continue reading “The last word – the state of law firm leadership”

Posted on

Not reached the bottom yet – sanctions on Russia begin to bite for law firms

Jaishree Kalia reports on the anticipated fall-off in deal work in the wake of Ukraine crisis

Russia’s volatile political environment has begun to impact the business of international and domestic law firms in Moscow as M&A activity falls, new capital markets work dries up and expanding sanctions cause increasing concern.

Western targeted sanctions imposed largely on individuals in Russia over its handling of the crisis in Ukraine have already had a crippling effect on corporate activity. However, it is the looming threat of yet tougher, broader-based sanctions as the situation escalates, with measures potentially targeting the Russian financial and energy sectors specifically, which could cause advisers even deeper problems.

Continue reading “Not reached the bottom yet – sanctions on Russia begin to bite for law firms”

Posted on

King & Wood Mallesons SJ Berwin hires A&O competition partner as globally KWM unveils promotions

King & Wood Mallesons SJ Berwin (KWMSJB) yesterday (30 April) announced the hire of former Allen & Overy antitrust and competition partner Martin Bechtold to its Frankfurt office, as globally the Sino-Pacific-UK giant promoted a total of 26 lawyers to partner, including nine in Europe. Continue reading “King & Wood Mallesons SJ Berwin hires A&O competition partner as globally KWM unveils promotions”

Posted on

Profile: Graeme Colquhoun, Heineken UK

Global brewer’s UK head of legal on his no-nonsense approach

It’s a terrible cliché to invoke the plain-speaking Scot, but Heineken’s UK head of legal Graeme Colquhoun does rather fit the bill. The intellectual property (IP) and antitrust specialist turned in-house counsel is certainly candid about his strengths and how a legal team in a major global company should operate.

‘My skills are broad but shallow. I am much better qualified to be the lawyer for a corporate than provide corporate/property/litigation advice in a law firm. I’m direct – I don’t like to flannel around the issue.’

Continue reading “Profile: Graeme Colquhoun, Heineken UK”

Posted on

Great expectations – Neuberger speaks

Lauded as the outstanding jurist of his generation, Lord Neuberger carried huge weight of expectation on assuming the leadership of the Supreme Court. Eighteen months in, Legal Business caught up with the UK’s most high-profile judge

Given that the Bar has remained in mourning for the golden generation of the Bingham-era House of Lords, viewed by many advocates and academics as the UK’s finest post-War judicial line-up, Lord David Neuberger had a lot to live up to.

Continue reading “Great expectations – Neuberger speaks”

Posted on

Unleashing talent – highlights from The Legal 500’s Corporate Counsel 100: Latin America

bridge

As Latin America increasingly becomes a global economic force, the role of the in-house lawyer in the region has evolved to produce some of the most impressive names in the legal industry.

Below are selected highlights taken from the debut edition of The Legal 500’s Corporate Counsel 100: Latin America, which identifies an array of the region’s most influential in-house counsel.

Continue reading “Unleashing talent – highlights from The Legal 500’s Corporate Counsel 100: Latin America”

Posted on

Risk and resilience – a booming insurance industry in Latin America

Christ the Redeemer silhouette with life ring

Bristol-based DAC Beachcroft insurance partner David Pollitt is a regular visitor to Miami. But while tourists may be lured by the tropical climate and art deco architecture, his frequent trips from West Country to East Coast are all about his practice. The emergence of Miami as an operational and service centre for Latin America means its importance to major international insurance players cannot be underestimated.

Miami is fast becoming a gateway to Latin America for the insurance and reinsurance industry, in the same way that Singapore operates as an insurance hub for Asia. Swiss Re established a Miami office in 2011 to service Latin America and the Spanish-speaking Caribbean islands. Back in 2007, Zurich (a key client of DAC Beachcroft) moved its Latin American regional headquarters from Santiago, Chile, to Miami. The trend continues: Hiscox announced the expansion of its Miami branch in January this year. Continue reading “Risk and resilience – a booming insurance industry in Latin America”

Posted on

Taking the lead – the GCs striving for life without a law firm

A growing band of in-house counsel are taking on major projects with little or no support from outside advisers. How far can ambitious GCs push the envelope?

When asked why an in-house legal team would choose to handle the majority of its major projects in-house, head of legal at Marks & Spencer, Robert Ivens, turns the question on its head.

Continue reading “Taking the lead – the GCs striving for life without a law firm”

Posted on

Back in the machine – opportunity and threats amid much-changed debt markets

After years in the post-Lehman doldrums, the finance markets are springing back to life. Legal Business assesses the forces powering the upgraded ‘Doomsday machine’

‘Having gathered 100 different [sub-prime-backed bonds], they persuaded the ratings agencies that these weren’t, as they might appear, all exactly the same things. They were another diversified portfolio of assets! This was absurd. The 100 different buildings occupied the same flood plain; in the event of a flood, the ground floors of all of them were equally exposed… The CDO was, in effect, a credit laundering service for the residents of Lower Middle Class America. For Wall Street, it was a machine that turned lead into gold.’

Michael Lewis, The Big Short

Continue reading “Back in the machine – opportunity and threats amid much-changed debt markets”