Rising Stars for 2014 – Technology, Media and Sport
Rising Stars for 2014 – Telecoms
Rising Stars for 2014 – Transport, Logistics and Industrial
LLP latest – Herbert Smith Freehills sees its overdraft rise by 140% as borrowing totals £111m
Significantly increased debt has been a recurring theme for many of the latest limited liability partnership (LLP) accounts filed at Companies House and Herbert Smith Freehills is no exception, with its overdraft up over 140% from £26m to £62.7m and total bank borrowing up by 28% to £110.7m.
In the first accounts filed since Herbert Smith’s June 2012 merger with Australia’s Freehills, the global LLP accounts reveal that revenue is slightly down on last summer’s unaudited figure of £471.2m, standing at £469m. The accounts, which do not include the Australian side of the business, further show a LLP cash position of £29m. Continue reading “LLP latest – Herbert Smith Freehills sees its overdraft rise by 140% as borrowing totals £111m”
41 jobs at risk at Keoghs as top 60 insurance firm blames legal services reforms
Legal services market reforms are being blamed for job losses at Bolton-based UK top 60 insurance firm Keoghs, which has put 41 people at risk of redundancy including fee earners and support staff.
The redundancies will mainly affect the firm’s Coventry office and particularly its counter-fraud services (CFS) division, as it looks to consolidate its offering for low-value fraud work in the North West.
Last year, the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act banished referral fees for personal injury claims and a spokesman for Keoghs said: ‘The post-reforms market environment has yet to stabilise but it is clear that insurers’ ongoing counter-fraud requirements are going to be significantly different to what they were 12 to 18 months ago. Continue reading “41 jobs at risk at Keoghs as top 60 insurance firm blames legal services reforms”
Deal watch: Taylor Wessing and Freshfields advise on HSBC Jordan bank deal
HSBC’s steps to streamline its business by disposing of non-core global assets has gifted Taylor Wessing and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer with a significant Middle East mandate, as Arab Jordan Investment Bank (AJIB) acquires the international retail bank’s local assets.
Taylor Wessing’s City-based corporate partner Ronald Graham advised AJIB on the deal, which constitutes one of the biggest banking agreements that Jordan has ever seen, with support from local firm Dajani & Associates. Continue reading “Deal watch: Taylor Wessing and Freshfields advise on HSBC Jordan bank deal”
MoJ’s court fee proposals criticised by internal government review
The Ministry of Justice‘s plans to levy sizeable court fees in commercial claims have encountered a setback after the Government’s own watchdog accused the department of being unclear in its cost objectives.
The Regulatory Policy Committee (RPC), a body set up to provide the government with external independent scrutiny of regulatory proposals, this week said in an impact assessment that the MoJ’s plans were ‘not fit for purpose’ and that the department ‘needs to make clear whether the proposals will result in the Court Service raising more funds than is necessary to cover their costs’.
Continue reading “MoJ’s court fee proposals criticised by internal government review”
Norton Rose takes pole position as McLaren drops Bakers as global legal adviser
Baker & McKenzie has lost its role as global legal adviser to British automotive group McLaren, which has opted for fellow Global 100 firm Norton Rose Fulbright (NRF).
NRF will work closely with McLaren’s in-house legal team, providing services on corporate and M&A work, as well as contractual, IP, real estate and employment law. The firm has also formed a corporate partnership with the McLaren Mercedes Formula 1 team, although the firm refused to comment on how much this tie-up would cost the firm.
Baker & McKenzie has advised McLaren since the 1980s, with annual legal fees said to be worth around £1m.
Continue reading “Norton Rose takes pole position as McLaren drops Bakers as global legal adviser”
LLP Latest – Freshfields sees drop in equity partners and highest paid earner as Clydes grows across the board
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has become the second Magic Circle firm to release its 2012/13 limited liability partnership (LLP) filings with Companies House, revealing a drop of 5% in average equity partner numbers and a reduction in the pay packet of its highest paid member.
The LLP, which saw its 2012/13 profits fall to £312.3m from £329.1m in the previous year, while overall revenues increased by 4% to £1.23bn, saw the average number of members fall from 350 to 332. Continue reading “LLP Latest – Freshfields sees drop in equity partners and highest paid earner as Clydes grows across the board”
LLP filings 2012/13 – DAC Beachcroft, Dentons, Olswang and Ince & Co reveal numbers
DAC Beachcroft, Dentons, Olswang and Ince & Co have joined the ranks of leading UK law firms to have filed their limited liability partnership (LLP) accounts on Companies House, with the former three all seeing an increase in their bank debt.
Dentons UKMEA LLP saw its bank loans increase by around £3m in the 2012/13 year, while profit was down 10% to £28.3m, which the firm attributed to increased marketing and administration costs stemming from its tripartite merger with Salans and Fraser Milner Casgrain.
Revenue at the top-10 firm dropped 1.5% from £144.8m to £142.8m. Continue reading “LLP filings 2012/13 – DAC Beachcroft, Dentons, Olswang and Ince & Co reveal numbers”
Freshfields supports BITC campaign by removing criminal history question from application forms
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has opted to remove questions relating to criminal history from its job application forms in a bid to assess job seekers for its business services and support services functions on the basis of merit.
The Magic Circle firm says it is the first law firm to remove the criminal-record disclosure box from its preliminary application forms so job seekers are not excluded because of unrelated criminal convictions.
Former Paul Hastings litigator disbarred following Bar Standards Board appeal
A former Paul Hastings consultant and barrister has been disbarred after it emerged that he had lied about his education and qualifications, following a successful appeal by the Bar Standards Board (BSB) against the earlier decision of an independent disciplinary tribunal to suspend him.
Announced today (22 January), the BSB appealed against a disciplinary tribunal, held in late September, which ordered that litigator Dennis O’Riordan be suspended from practice for three years after it was proved he had falsified a range of qualifications and achievements, including degrees from Harvard and Oxford University.
Continue reading “Former Paul Hastings litigator disbarred following Bar Standards Board appeal”
Guest Post: See Talent. Liberate it.
It’s been viewed online nearly seven million times. Sheryl Sandberg calls it one of the most important documents ever to come out of Silicon Valley. And it was created by the company whose stock increased in 2013 more than any other’s in the S&P 500—up nearly 350%.
“It” is a 126-slide PowerPoint called ‘Netflix Culture: Freedom & Responsibility,’ and it outlines Netflix’s approach to just that—culture—although it has primarily been interpreted as a ‘reinvention” of HR,’ as this Harvard Business Review article puts it.
Going through the entire PowerPoint (I have) is valuable in and of itself; if nothing else, you’ll see how very well done PowerPoints can be, for a change. But the HBR article, written by the former head of HR at Netflix itself, distills their approach to talent into five tenets based on two key insights into how people actually feel about performing their jobs.
Expansion for Global 100 giants as Bakers plans new offshoring centre and Reed Smith launches in Kazakhstan
Baker & McKenzie and Reed Smith will further extend their global footprints, with Bakers looking at another low-cost offshore base after its success in Manila while Reed Smith has today (21 January) announced a new launch in Kazakhstan with the hire of one partner each from Morgan Lewis and White & Case.
Bakers, which launched its captive offshore support centre in Manila in at the turn of the millennium, is ‘exploring options for replicating the model in other jurisdictions’ but at this time has no set timetable.
DAC Beachcroft launches New York base as part of transatlantic alliance
Its international expansion has been extensive in recent years but UK insurance firm DAC Beachcroft has complemented its push in the Americas by opening a representative office in New York to build relationships in the US.
Located at One Battery Park Plaza in Manhattan, the new office forms part of a strategic alliance with specialist New York insurance law firm, Abrams Gorelick Friedman & Jacobson (AGF&J), to work more closely together in New York and London to better serve the interests of their insurance clients.
The 1,000-lawyer, top 25 UK firm, which already has a widespread presence in Latin America, says the new Manhattan base, which opened on Monday 20 January, will promote its multi-jurisdictional insurance capabilities, especially in Latin America, and its international commercial litigation and arbitration in North America.
Continue reading “DAC Beachcroft launches New York base as part of transatlantic alliance”
Cyber warfare – Norton Rose Fulbright hires global chief information security officer
Top ten LB100 firm Norton Rose Fulbright (NRF) has moved to further protect client information with the hire the former head of cyber security for National Air Traffic Services (NATS) Paul Swarbrick as its global chief information security officer (CISO) in the London office.
Announced today (21 January), Swarbrick will join the senior management team, and work closely with IT and the business internationally to ‘strengthen proactively, and develop, a consistent approach to information assurance and cyber security worldwide,’ a firm statement said. Continue reading “Cyber warfare – Norton Rose Fulbright hires global chief information security officer”
Financial squeeze – Morgan Stanley declares a hit to net income due to $1.2bn in legal costs
Morgan Stanley is the latest major financial institution to declare that it has been hard hit by litigation and the ripple effect of the financial crisis after it reported a fourth quarter 78% drop in net income to $192m due to legal costs and weak fixed income trading.
Revenue for the period rose from $7bn to $7.8bn but legal costs of $1.2bn meant that earnings for the quarter were almost wiped out, the FT reported on Friday (17 January).
In its report the US investment bank declared that ‘the current quarter includes $1.2 billion of additions to legal reserves for mortgage-related matters, specifically litigation and investigations related to residential mortgage-backed securities and the credit crisis.’ Continue reading “Financial squeeze – Morgan Stanley declares a hit to net income due to $1.2bn in legal costs”
Deutsche Bank pinpoints litigation costs for wiping out its fourth quarter profits
Frankfurt-headquartered Deutsche Bank yesterday (19 January) partially blamed its full-year litigation expenses of €2.5bn for a fourth quarter pre-tax loss of €1.2bn, shortly after Morgan Stanley blamed legal costs of $1.2bn for its drop in net income during the same period.
Deutsche Bank’s litigation fees amounted to €528m for the fourth quarter.
The bank – Germany’s largest lender – in December agreed to settle its mortgage-backed securities litigation with the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) as conservator for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, with a pay-out of €1.4bn. Deutsche Bank was one of 17 financial institutions the FHFA made claims against in relation to residential mortgage-backed securities.
All grown up – HSF’s Belfast volume disputes centre pilots post-merger Australian litigation
When legacy Herbert Smith set up its volume disputes support centre in Belfast in 2011 it was, despite or perhaps because of the fact that it was at the vanguard of this kind of move, a conservatively promoted step, with initial plans to train only around 20 fee earners, including a mix of solicitors and legal assistants.
Post its merger with Freehills, the growth of this successful centre is evident as its latest pilot to roll out the use of the Belfast centre to its Australian merger partner for Australian litigation gets underway, and the fact that it has, three years later, blown its initial growth targets out of the water with 120 permanent employees, almost evenly split between qualified lawyers and legal assistants. Continue reading “All grown up – HSF’s Belfast volume disputes centre pilots post-merger Australian litigation”