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Regulatory: Embattled SFO requests £19m emergency funding for ‘blockbuster’ litigation

The Serious Fraud Office’s (SFO’s) somewhat fraught efforts to redefine itself by focusing on higher profile, higher risk complex fraud, bribery and corruption cases yesterday (30 January) led the organisation to ask the Government for emergency funding of £19m.

The request for ‘blockbuster funding’ is to help bankroll large international investigations including Libor, Barclays Qatar and Rolls Royce and in the defence of a multi-million pound damages claim brought by the Tchenguiz brothers. Continue reading “Regulatory: Embattled SFO requests £19m emergency funding for ‘blockbuster’ litigation”

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Senior hires: KPMG appoints DLA partner as Manchester legal head as A&O and NRF lose partners to HogLove and Vedder Price

As KPMG looks to expand its legal services practice the Big Four accountant has hired DLA Piper corporate partner Nick Roome to head its legal services arm in Manchester in what it says is the first of a series of hires planned over the course of this year.

Roome, who has broad corporate, private equity and commercial legal expertise with a focus on the north of England and international markets, qualified with Addleshaws in 2000 before moving to DLA Piper’s Manchester office in 2005. He will start his new role in the late Spring. Continue reading “Senior hires: KPMG appoints DLA partner as Manchester legal head as A&O and NRF lose partners to HogLove and Vedder Price”

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Leadership: Maclay Murray & Spens CEO Smylie to step down as Shand takes the reins

After a tough three years Maclay Murray & Spens’ (MMS) chief executive Chris Smylie is to step down from his role, with corporate head Kenneth Shand to take over the reins of a firm which has seen revenue drop 33% since its £61.1m high in 2008 but is now executing significant changes out of a root and branch strategic review.

Smylie, who has chosen not to stand for a second term, will return to his role as a partner in MMS’ planning team. In the interim, he will work with Shand to ensure a smooth transition to becoming CEO in June. Continue reading “Leadership: Maclay Murray & Spens CEO Smylie to step down as Shand takes the reins”

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Panel review: Addleshaws and Linklaters new appointments as Nationwide completes adviser reshuffle

Addleshaw Goddard and Linklaters will sit alongside incumbent advisers Allen & Overy and Eversheds on Nationwide‘s new legal panel as the building society today (31 January) concluded its first review since putting together its first-ever roster in 2009.

Burges Salmon, Nabarro and Olswang have all lost their place on the group-wide legal panel for the building society, which started its review process last summer, led by group general counsel Liz Kelly, after plans to start the review in early 2013 were delayed.

Continue reading “Panel review: Addleshaws and Linklaters new appointments as Nationwide completes adviser reshuffle”

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Game changer: PwC receives approval from regulator to become an ABS

In a potentially game-changing move for the legal market PwC has today (31 January) received approval from the Solicitors Regulation Authority to become an Alternative Business Structure, meaning that it can directly own limited liability partnership, PwC Legal, bringing together its circa 2,000 global lawyer network.

The only one of the Big Four accountants to maintain a serious legal offering since the withdrawal of the likes of KPMG shortly after the turn of the century, PwC said last year that it was looking at a number of different options in the legal sector including conversion to an ABS, which will allow it to offer a more joined up service with its, until now, entirely separate legal arm. Continue reading “Game changer: PwC receives approval from regulator to become an ABS”

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Rising Stars for 2014 – Introduction

Welcome to Legal Business’ second annual GC Power List, which follows up on our successful launch last year. While we already knew we wanted the Power List to be an ongoing strand for Legal Business and its sister title The In-House Lawyer, reflecting the growing clout of in-house lawyers, attentive readers will note a shift in format from 2013. Since we didn’t feel the most influential senior general counsel (GC) would materially change in the space of 12 months, we decided it would be more worthwhile to this year focus on the rising stars of in-house legal. Continue reading “Rising Stars for 2014 – Introduction”

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Rising Stars for 2014 – RPC

Twelve months ago, when Legal Business’s inaugural GC Power List landed, the global economic outlook was still decidedly bleak. Talk of a double-dip recession had started to feel like blind optimism, with global manufacturing output at its lowest level since 2009, unemployment in the eurozone at epidemic proportions and signs that the Chinese economic engine was beginning to falter.

A year on and there’s cause for cautious optimism, in the UK at least, with joblessness falling and it seems more reason for economists to be bullish about the strength of the recovery than for half a decade. Continue reading “Rising Stars for 2014 – RPC”

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In-house: National Grid conducts wholesale review of internal and external legal function

National Grid‘s group general counsel (GC) Alison Kay (pictured) 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.

Continue reading “In-house: National Grid conducts wholesale review of internal and external legal function”

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Guest comment: That legal big bang – still waiting for the Dyson moment

We are now a little over two years since the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) began accepting applications from would-be alternative business structures (ABSs), and a little under two years since it issued the first licences. I have a sense that some are disappointed and a little underwhelmed by what has happened since then.

In the main they shouldn’t be – the transient nature of news, has made people forget just how many interesting and different legal services providers have emerged in the last two years. But from one perspective, and I will come back to this later, I can see their point. Continue reading “Guest comment: That legal big bang – still waiting for the Dyson moment”

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LLP latest: Taylor Wessing posts 4% increase in UK fee income

Taylor Wessing has become the latest LB100 firm to post its limited liability partnership accounts via Companies House, which show its UK fee income increased by 4% to £102m. This compares to total revenues of international business reported as £228m for the 2012/13 financial year.

UK members’ profit for the financial year fell slightly to £29.4m from £30.3m, while operating profit also dropped marginally at £38.2m compared to £38.9m in 2011/12.

Continue reading “LLP latest: Taylor Wessing posts 4% increase in UK fee income”

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Offshore: Mourant Ozannes opts for experience with hire of former Farrer private client head

Global offshore firm Mourant Ozannes has made a significant hire to its City office, recruiting Farrer & Co’s former head of private client, Jim Edmondson. He will lead the firm’s international trusts and private client practice from 1 September when current head Douglas Close steps down.

Edmondson, who was head of Farrer’s client practice and joint senior partner until May 2013 and has been acting as a consultant since then, will officially join Mourant Ozannes in May this year.

Acknowledged as a ‘leading individual’ for personal tax, trusts and probate in The Legal 500, Edmondson acts as a solicitor to the trustees of a substantial London estate and is an experienced speaker at conferences in the Channel Islands and Caribbean on corporate and trust-related themes.

Continue reading “Offshore: Mourant Ozannes opts for experience with hire of former Farrer private client head”

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Insurance matters – SRA launches consultation on rated insurers as it releases market share figures

Professional indemnity insurance (PII) continues to dominate the legal agenda after the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) yesterday (28 January) released figures revealing the market share of participating law firm insurers and separately launched a consultation that could see only rated insurers able to provide PII cover.

The regulatory body kick-started an eight-week consultation over whether all those applying to be added to a participating insurers list should have a financial strength rating of at least B from a recognised rating agency, representing a u-turn on its earlier policy to allow an open market. Continue reading “Insurance matters – SRA launches consultation on rated insurers as it releases market share figures”

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Breaking new ground – advisers hope shale revolution can restart CEE market

gas rig

While most of central and eastern Europe (CEE) predictably remains in recovery mode from the global financial crisis, the buoyant energy sector has led to a steady stream of foreign investment and some prized mandates for law firms active in the region.

Anything that can galvanize the region’s economy is to be welcomed. While the CEE’s major countries have generally avoided the kind of economic contraction seen in western Europe since the 2008 banking crisis, the rise of more potent rival emerging economies has drained away much of the foreign investment that would have once gone to the region. The mood has been further darkened by persistent concerns over cronyism and the quality of political governance in some states – a factor not helped by an increasingly difficult balancing act between the competing influences of the European Union (EU) and Russia. Continue reading “Breaking new ground – advisers hope shale revolution can restart CEE market”

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Staying on top – inside the 10 firms aiming to dominate the global offshore market

Offshore jurisdictions have responded proactively to recent global initiatives affecting how they operate. Legal Business assesses recent developments and profiles the top offshore law firms

Law firms are noted for their ability to turn difficult situations to their advantage and the global offshore giants have certainly demonstrated this quality in recent years. While the vast majority of these firms are more opaque about their financial performance than even the offshore tax arrangements that have come under global scrutiny in recent years, some report double-digit growth in revenues and in the main it appears, despite the general economic malaise, they are well insulated against a crisis.

Continue reading “Staying on top – inside the 10 firms aiming to dominate the global offshore market”

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Rising Stars for 2014 – Getting there

As the in-house profession has swelled in size and status in recent years the competition to secure a small number of high status senior roles has intensified. Legal Business asks what it takes to become a Rising Star when the bar keeps rising

What does it take to get ahead in the legal team of a major company? It seems an obvious enough question but despite the well-documented expansion of the in-house profession over the last 20 years, there is relatively little material on the career track for the ambitious in-house counsel.

Continue reading “Rising Stars for 2014 – Getting there”

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Leadership: Norman enters the fray as CC takes soundings for new global corporate chief

Clifford Chance (CC) has begun its nominations process for a potential successor to the role of global corporate chief following the promotion of incumbent Matthew Layton to global managing partner.

Layton will succeed the firm’s current global chief David Childs on 1 May and with the Magic Circle firm currently canvassing names for his replacement as head of the practice group, it is understood that corporate partner Guy Norman is set to enter the race.

Continue reading “Leadership: Norman enters the fray as CC takes soundings for new global corporate chief”

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Deal watch – Norton Rose Fulbright and Freshfields lead on BMO’s $1.2bn takeover of F&C

Norton Rose Fulbright (NRF) is advising one of its oldest clients, Edinburgh-based UK and European asset manager F&C Asset Management on its $1.2bn acquisition by Bank of Montreal (BMO Financial Group) led by Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer.

The NRF team is being led by London corporate partners Chris Randall and Paul Whitelock, with BMO’s former senior vice president, deputy general counsel and chief compliance officer John Jason, who joined the top 10 LB100 firm’s Toronto office as of counsel earlier this month, also involved on the deal. Continue reading “Deal watch – Norton Rose Fulbright and Freshfields lead on BMO’s $1.2bn takeover of F&C”

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In-house: Aon appoints Michael Wolf as global head of corporate as Prash Naik takes over as GC of Channel 4

Insurance giant Aon has appointed Jenner & Block partner Michael Wolf as vice president and chief counsel, corporate, in a role that will see him assume global responsibility for all corporate transactions including M&A, divestures, joint ventures, partnerships and strategic alliances.

At Aon, which in January 2012 moved its corporate headquarters to London and has 65,000 staff across 120 countries providing risk management, insurance and reinsurance brokerage, Wolf will report to executive vice president and general counsel Peter Lieb. Continue reading “In-house: Aon appoints Michael Wolf as global head of corporate as Prash Naik takes over as GC of Channel 4”