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Growth in Germany for HSF as it launches disputes practice in Frankfurt

Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) today (3 February) took a further step towards building up its German capability following the collapse of its alliance with Gleiss Lutz and Benelux firm Stibbe with the hire of former Baker & McKenzie partner Mathias Wittinghofer to launch its disputes practice in Frankfurt.

A specialist in banking and finance disputes, as well as post-merger and acquisition disputes, Wittinghofer will become part of HSF’s global banking litigation and investigations practice. The dual German and English-qualified attorney’s client base includes banks, private equity firms and major corporations. Continue reading “Growth in Germany for HSF as it launches disputes practice in Frankfurt”

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Homegrown BPO – Hogan Lovells puts South Africa at centre of new business support initiative

Transatlantic firm Hogan Lovells has put South Africa at the centre of its cost savings plans for clients, setting up a business support services function that will see new vacancies from Europe and Asia evaluated in terms of whether they could as easily be done from the lower cost site.

Announced today (3 February), the centre, which has been set up in the same building as recent South African merger partner Routledge Modise, follows a strategic view of how the firm provides business services support, and will initially provide a reasonably low-level range of services including conflict checking, client due diligence and research. Continue reading “Homegrown BPO – Hogan Lovells puts South Africa at centre of new business support initiative”

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Structural or cyclical change in the law? 2014 should answer the big question

It’s been obvious that something fundamental happened to the world economy during 2008, ushering in the worst relative trading conditions since the 1930s. It is, likewise, demonstrable that this shift has had a material impact on the legal profession in terms of reduced growth prospects, changing corporate buying habits and pressure on the conventional model of law.

The point that has yet to be resolved – and which has huge significance to the western legal industry – is whether that change represents a permanent structural shift underwritten by technology and the rise of non-law firm providers, or a severe cyclical depression from which the profession will in time recover. Continue reading “Structural or cyclical change in the law? 2014 should answer the big question”

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So what’s wrong with BigLaw anyway?

The term BigLaw has been around in the US for a while but in recent years this catch-all tag for corporate lawyering in the world’s biggest law market has taken on a decidedly pejorative tone. From the pages of The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal to prominent blogs and comments by industry observers, a popular view has taken hold to the effect that the US legal industry – in particular in New York – is a fundamentally broken model in a profession facing terminal decline.

Ultimately, this prognosis of doom remains unsatisfying for two reasons. Firstly, some of this analysis is based on attempts to bolt on the narrative of the supposedly humbled Wall Street banks on to Wall Street law firms. For all the parallels between banks and law firms, as much divides as unites them. Law still doesn’t attract risk-takers; law firms don’t need anything like the capital of modern investment banks and they have little ability to create the short-term illusion of profitability that played havoc in the securities industry post-2007. Continue reading “So what’s wrong with BigLaw anyway?”

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The rising stars in-house – bluechip legal teams are bursting with talent

The first Legal Business edition of the year coincides with a major project for us: the second edition of our popular GC Power List, which launched last year. The idea is straightforward: we research in-house and private practice to identify a list of outstanding individuals who demonstrate the influence and rising clout that has come to define the modern in-house profession.

While the first report focused on senior GCs, for the second edition we have taken on the challenge of addressing the best performers coming into their own during their 30s and early 40s – the GCs of tomorrow.

Continue reading “The rising stars in-house – bluechip legal teams are bursting with talent”

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Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Bank blame litigation for drop in Q4 profits

Financial institutions report multibillion-dollar effects of post-crisis costs

Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Bank have become the latest major financial institutions to declare that their earnings have been hit hard by litigation costs with Morgan Stanley in January reporting a fourth quarter 78% drop in net income to $192m, compared to $890m in its third quarter, due to legal costs and weak fixed income trading.

Revenue for the period rose from $7bn to $7.8bn since last year but pre-tax legal costs of $1.2bn meant that earnings for the quarter were almost wiped out, the FT reported in January.

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National Grid conducts wholesale review of internal and external legal function

Energy giant to analyse in-house team and links with UK and US counsel National Grid’s group general counsel (GC) Alison Kay has launched a wholesale review of the FTSE 100 energy giant’s in-house and external legal function, which will look at whether the internal legal team is delivering the right services and adding value to the business, as well as a potential shake-up of both its UK and US external law firm panel.

The current UK panel, which was put together in 2011 when National Grid cut its roster of firms by 25% to 16, includes Allen & Overy, Linklaters, DLA Piper, Eversheds, CMS Cameron McKenna, Berwin Leighton Paisner and Field Fisher Waterhouse.

Kay, who has been with National Grid since 1996 and was promoted to her current role in January 2013 when Helen Mahy left to pursue outside interests, said she is responding to rate pressures across the business and the energy sector as a whole.

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Clyde & Co loses 15-strong US litigation team to LeClairRyan

Latest exits add to departures of two partners from City headquarters

The expiry of Clyde & Co’s three-year post-merger partner lock-in appeared to pass almost unnoticed last April, but the UK top-20 firm has lost two London partners in recent months as its established US practice was hit in January with a 15-strong team walk out, which included three litigation partners.

London commercial partner Alan Meneghetti, who joined the firm five years ago as a legal director and became an aviation partner in 2010, left the firm on 31 December 2013 for Locke Lord’s corporate practice in London. Meneghetti’s experience within the aviation and aerospace sector includes handling regulatory issues surrounding procurement, data protection and privacy, intellectual property, information technology and the drafting and negotiating of commercial agreements.

Continue reading “Clyde & Co loses 15-strong US litigation team to LeClairRyan”

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DLA Piper expands Africa group across the continent

DLA Piper’s Africa group last month announced it had expanded in north, southern and eastern Africa with the addition of three new member firms.

Algerian firm B L & Associés, Rubeya & Co Advocates of Burundi and Namibian firm Ellis Shilengudwa joined the 4,200-lawyer firm’s Africa group as of 1 October 2013. The firm now has members in 14 countries in Africa and is located in 30 countries around the world.

B L & Associés is run by Algerian-based partner Fatima Zohar Bouchemla and Paris-based partner Mohamed Lanouar. The firm also comprises eight associates, all of whom are admitted to practise in either Algeria or France.

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Latest LLP filings show increased borrowing

BLP bank debt up sharply as 2012/13 annual reports filter through

Growing debt was a recurring theme in the limited liability partnership (LLP) accounts filed in January, led by Legal Business 100 top-20 UK firm Berwin Leighton Paisner, which, after a year of partner departures and a significant drop in profit per equity partner, revealed a 223.7% increase in bank borrowing in the 2012/13 financial year.

The 790-lawyer firm’s borrowing ballooned to £45m from £13.9m in the previous year, on the back of new bank loans totalling £31.1m.

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Hogan Lovells expands Latin America footprint with hire of Clifford Chance partner for São Paulo launch

Hogan Lovells has expanded its Latin America offering by launching a second office in Brazil, hiring former Clifford Chance (CC) partner Isabel Costa Carvalho.

Its new São Paulo office will operate as a foreign legal consultancy, offering services to local and international companies and banks after the Brazilian Bar Association awarded the global law firm a licence to practise in the region in July 2013.

Continue reading “Hogan Lovells expands Latin America footprint with hire of Clifford Chance partner for São Paulo launch”

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More in-fighting as Law Society contests SRA attempts to gain greater fining powers

SRA aims to bring maximum fines for law firms closer to the much higher figures for ABSs

Further tensions in the Law Society’s already strained relationship with the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) emerged in January as the representative body prepares to contest its regulatory arm’s attempt to increase its fining powers over law firms.

In a consultation that ends this month, the SRA has invited views on its proposal to increase the current level of fining powers over City and regional firms to as much as £100,000. However, the Law Society said it has ‘concerns over the functioning of the enforcement team within the SRA’.

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UK elite firms defy the transactional gloom of 2013

New Year surge in high-value deals after subdued year

While deal activity was down again in 2013, last year’s growth in confidence in the corporate sector, together with fundraising activity among a number of large private equity houses, has seen some of the UK’s elite firms advise on high-value deals announced in January, including Amec’s $3.2bn acquisition of Swiss rival Foster Wheeler.

The Linklaters team advising Amec was led by corporate finance partner Shane Griffin, alongside fellow corporate partner Aedamar Comiskey. Scott Sonnenblick and Tom Shropshire are advising on US law aspects of the deal from New York and London respectively, while John Tucker and Simon Pritchard are leading on finance and antitrust issues.

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Big data and AI will come to the fore as law firms expect tech to drive their businesses

Year-long study by legal technology body identifies future challenges

Artificial intelligence (AI) and big data analytics will play a game-changing role within the legal sector as law firms emerge from a decade where they began to understand the power of technology, and to recognise they now have to put it at the heart of their business.

These are key findings of the Legal Technology Future Horizons study, a report into how global advances in technology could impact the legal industry over the next decade. Commissioned by the International Legal Technology Association (ILTA), the report is based on research conducted between January and November 2013 and was released last month.

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RFU rejigs legal team as deputy head joins sports firm

Bujalski promoted to head of legal as Handford joins Couchmans

The Rugby Football Union (RFU) has reconfigured its in-house legal team, promoting in-house lawyer Angus Bujalski (pictured) to head of legal following the recent departure of Polly Handford to become a partner at sports law firm Couchmans.

Former Slaughter and May lawyer Bujalski will report directly to the organisation’s legal and governance director, Karena Vleck. While Vleck has oversight of legal as well as other sports-related areas such as player discipline, Bujalski will have specific responsibility for the legal function. Continue reading “RFU rejigs legal team as deputy head joins sports firm”

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Revolving doors – Weil, Latham, Freshfields and Dentons among the firms opening 2014 with senior recruits

Increasing confidence in the transactional market has contributed to a rash of senior partner moves at the start of 2014, with the UK’s leading firms bolstering both their London and international practices.

In the City, upwardly mobile US practices continued to boost their capability with Weil, Gotshal & Manges hiring Hogan Lovells banking and finance partner Chris McLaughlin, who has extensive experience of cross-border private equity buyouts and European real estate acquisitions and restructuring. His hire came a week after Latham & Watkins hired Weil Gotshal funds partner Nick Benson, its fifth City hire within the past 12 months.

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DISSENT: Where do you want your firm to be in 2020?

Adam Smith, Esq’s Bruce MacEwen argues that short-termism and a lack of stewardship has come to define the modern law firm

To judge from the way law firms behave – it’s helpfully instructive to ignore what they say – the answer to the rhetorical question of the above headline is: ‘Who gives a fig?’

Consider the following facts and ask yourself what philosophy of management underlies and ties all law firms together:

Continue reading “DISSENT: Where do you want your firm to be in 2020?”

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Life During Law – David Childs

It’s been an amazing career. I’ve been with Clifford Chance (CC) for 40 years. People had just stopped wearing bowler hats when I started, I was relieved to notice. What I remember was being in Royex House at Coward Chance. No air conditioning – we used to bake in the summer. People used to go out for lunches and have a bottle of wine a head and work in the afternoons.

I remember watching then senior partners walking in at ten in the morning. They’d go for a long lunch with clients and go home at three. I thought one day that might be my life. Of course, it never has been my life. The City has changed completely.

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High Street gloom as SRA publishes full list of uninsured firms forced to close

The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) last month confirmed the names of the 136 firms which have been forced to close since 29 December, having not secured professional indemnity insurance (PII).

The list of firms, which the SRA said it published in the interests of protecting consumers and third parties, includes Alastair J Brett, the London-based firm set up by the former legal director of The Times newspaper, who was recently suspended over the Nightjack case.

Continue reading “High Street gloom as SRA publishes full list of uninsured firms forced to close”