Page 570 – Legal Business

Management overhaul for KWM SJ Berwin as dual corporate heads replace Davis

As King & Wood Mallesons SJ Berwin beds down its $1bn merger the Sino-Australian and UK giant has announced further changes to its management line up, with the news that Steven Davis will step down as City head of corporate to be replaced by dual heads Michael Goldberg (pictured) and Richard Lever.

With indications that further leadership changes are yet to come, the firm also announced yesterday (11 December) that Paris-based global partnership board member Maxence Bloch has been appointed as international head of corporate for the UK, continental Europe and the Middle East and will support both Goldberg and Lever in London. Continue reading “Management overhaul for KWM SJ Berwin as dual corporate heads replace Davis”

In-house hires – TSB appoints Post Office GC as legal head as Mercedes-Benz fills top spot

Following its split from Lloyds, TSB Bank has announced the appointment of former Post Office general counsel (GC) Susan Crichton as its new legal chief, leading the newly separated bank’s legal function in the New Year as it moves towards an initial public offering (IPO).

Crichton played a key role in the Post Office’s separation from Royal Mail, before which she was legal, governance and risk director at Skandia International between 2008 and 2010, and GC at General Electric (GE) Money and Consumer Finance between 1999 and 2008. Continue reading “In-house hires – TSB appoints Post Office GC as legal head as Mercedes-Benz fills top spot”

Guest post: A cannon fodder shortage looms as LPC and trainee numbers head for market over-correction

Nigel Hudson has written an interesting post on LPC numbers. He says (among other things):

‘The number of students enrolled on full-time LPCs has shrunk by 8.4% this year. In 2012/13 enrolments fell 4%, so the trend is downward and falling fast.

In all, 5,198 students enrolled with the 27 LPC providers for 2013/2014, according to data from the Central Applications Board, the admissions service for full-time LPC and Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL) applicants.’ Continue reading “Guest post: A cannon fodder shortage looms as LPC and trainee numbers head for market over-correction”

Continue reading “Updated merger watch – CMS completes successful tie-up with Dundas & Wilson”

Updated merger watch – CMS completes successful tie-up with Dundas & Wilson

CMS Cameron McKenna and beleaguered Scottish firm Dundas & Wilson have merged, the firms announced this evening (12 December), creating a firm of 830 partners and 5,600 employees operating in 57 offices in 31 countries across the world with revenues of around €900m.

The tie-up – led for CMS by managing partner Duncan Weston, senior partner elect Penelope Warne and energy partner Stephen Millar, and for Dundas by chairman Lawrence Ward and managing partners Caryn Penley and Allan Wernham – will give the CMS group additional strength in the UK, particularly in Scotland, where for many years Dundas was considered to have the premier corporate practice.

Revolving Doors: Strategic growth for A&O, Eversheds, Wiggin, Dentons, Field Fisher and Olswang

In the last major round of hires before 2013 draws to a close, Allen & Overy (A&O) has boosted its international competition capability while Eversheds has expanded its City tax team and firms including Wiggin, Dentons, Field Fisher Waterhouse and Olswang have this month made strategic lateral hires across the media, energy, real estate and insolvency space.

At the start of December, A&O hired Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) competition partner Peter McDonald to head its Australian antitrust and competition practice. Previously a senior officer at the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), at HSF McDonald advised clients in the energy, mining, industrial, retail and financial services sectors. Continue reading “Revolving Doors: Strategic growth for A&O, Eversheds, Wiggin, Dentons, Field Fisher and Olswang”

Continue reading “Adviser reviews: Surrey County Council puts out tender for external legal panel”

Adviser reviews: Surrey County Council puts out tender for external legal panel

Surrey County Council (SCC) and 11 local authorities have again teamed up to launch a tender for a four-year legal advisory panel as its first, put together in 2009, is due to expire.

The panel, which is worth between £6m to £20m, will be divided into three subsets: care and education; general commercial; and environment and infrastructure. It will be accessible by local authorities within Surrey, East Sussex and Berkshire.

SCC first joined forces with its surrounding boroughs in 2009, appointing 21 legal advisors including Davies Arnold Cooper (now DAC Beachcroft), DWF, Trowers & Hamlins, Weightmans, Blake Lapthorn and Freeth Cartwright. Barrister sets appointed included 14 Gray’s Inn Square, 12 College Place, 4 Brick Court, 1 King’s Bench Walk, and 1 Chancery Lane.

‘People were ready’ – Immelt to become sole Hogan Lovells CEO as Harris and Gorrell to stand down

The sensitive issue of governance has hung over Hogan Lovells since the 2010 merger that created the Anglo-American giant but the firm is to finally resolve the point in favour of a streamlined leadership model.

The dual UK-US leadership of Hogan Lovells is to come to an end with joint chief executives Warren Gorrell and David Harris set to stand down from their respective roles in June 2014. Harris is to retire from the firm, while Gorrell will return to full-time fee-earning.

In a move away from the UK/US joint leadership that has been in place since Hogan & Hartson and Lovells merged in 2010, Washington DC-based partner Stephen Immelt (pictured) has been chosen take the reins as sole CEO, while London-based partner David Hudd will become deputy CEO. Continue reading “‘People were ready’ – Immelt to become sole Hogan Lovells CEO as Harris and Gorrell to stand down”

Sealed at last – Wragges secures major City merger as vote backs LG tie-up to forge £171m practice

After years of rejecting the need for a City presence – and subsequent years hunting for a major London deal – Midlands giant Wragge & Co has finalised its tie-up with Lawrence Graham.

The proposed deal, which was confirmed last month, was backed in a partner vote earlier this week, with the combined firm set to unify as Wragge Lawrence Graham & Co from 1 May 2014.

With a majority of more than 75% required from both partnerships, the combination will create a £171m business with 1,300 staff, including 770 lawyers, operating from ten offices worldwide. Continue reading “Sealed at last – Wragges secures major City merger as vote backs LG tie-up to forge £171m practice”

Not everyone is getting hitched – Kennedys and Simpson & Marwick call off agreed merger

Getting a legal merger over the line is notoriously difficult but once the tie-up is agreed it usually goes through, happily or not. One rare exception to that rule has emerged today (11 December) with the announcement that the 153-partner Kennedys has abandoned its agreed takeover of Scots practice Simpson & Marwick.

The deal comes after 18 months of negotiations and a formal announcement of the union in the summer. Continue reading “Not everyone is getting hitched – Kennedys and Simpson & Marwick call off agreed merger”

10 December 2013

Guest post: My thoughts (as a citizen) on Lord Sumption’s Azlan Shah lecture

On 20 November, Lord Sumption (Justice of the Supreme Court) delivered the 27th Sultan Azlan Shah Lecture in Kuala Lumpur – The Limits of Law. This was followed by Lord Justice Laws on 27th November in the Hamlyn Lectures 2013 – see Lecture 3 Common Law and Europe. A further lecture on human rights was delivered in Warwick by Lady Hale (Deputy President of the Supreme Court) on 28th November – Lady Hale at the Warwick Law Lecture 2013 – What’s the point of human rights?

These speeches / lectures are not only legally informative but they reveal something of the personalities of the speakers and their attitudes to the vastly important topic of human rights protection as it applies both in Europe and in the UK. Continue reading “Guest post: My thoughts (as a citizen) on Lord Sumption’s Azlan Shah lecture”

10 December 2013

Moscow team hire: Goltsblat BLP take on real estate trio from Akin Gump

Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) has bolstered its global real estate capability with the hire of a rated three partner team from Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld’s Moscow office.

The team, which is set to join Goltsblat BLP in mid-January 2014, includes the current head of Akin Gump’s real estate practice in Russia, Vladislav Sourkov, who will be joined by his colleagues Rustam Aliev and Dmitry Maltsev. Sourkov is described by The Legal 500 as ‘dedicated, experienced, and very driven on client service’. Continue reading “Moscow team hire: Goltsblat BLP take on real estate trio from Akin Gump”

10 December 2013

LSB recommends patent and trademark firm regulator become ABS licensing authority

Increasing numbers of patent and trademark firms can be expected to join the swathes of legal entities becoming alternative business structures (ABS) after their regulatory body won the support of the Legal Services Board (LSB) to become an ABS licensing authority.

In one of three significant recommendations made this week by the LSB to the Lord Chancellor, the regulatory body recommended that the Intellectual Property Regulation Board (IPReg) – the joint regulatory body for the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys and Institute of Trade Mark Attorneys – be awarded ABS licensing authority status, meaning patent and trade mark firms will be able to operate as ABSs under IPReg’s governance. Continue reading “LSB recommends patent and trademark firm regulator become ABS licensing authority”

Updated deal watch: Hogan Lovells wins £40bn Student Loans Company debt sell off

Following a six-month tender process the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills (BIS) has appointed Hogan Lovells to advise on the sale of the £40bn Student Loans Company (SLC) debt portfolio.

In July BIS invited tenders for legal advice on the monetisation of the SLC’s loans portfolio, which is likely to take place either through a sale to the private sector or securitisation. Invited firms had until 23 August to submit their bids and BIS confirmed to Legal Business late on Friday 6 December that Hogan Lovells was ‘recently’ notified that it is the successful bidder. Continue reading “Updated deal watch: Hogan Lovells wins £40bn Student Loans Company debt sell off”

Continue reading “Comment: Victories, defeats and growing up – Ashurst faces up to life after Charlie”

Comment: Victories, defeats and growing up – Ashurst faces up to life after Charlie

Here’s one anecdote that didn’t make it into this month’s extended focus on Ashurst. Sometime soon after the firm had pulled back from its late-1990s dalliance with Clifford Chance (CC), the first of three public failed merger bids for the firm, at least one partner had second thoughts. An overture was made to the Magic Circle firm to enquire if the discussions were worth re-kindling. The response from CC: ‘The window of opportunity opens… and then it closes’.

And there you have it. Flatfooted and left behind by a thrusting Magic Circle firm.

Continue reading “Team hire: Pinsents boosts Paris practice with TMT hires from local boutique”

Team hire: Pinsents boosts Paris practice with TMT hires from local boutique

Pinsent Masons has launched a Paris TMT practice with a six-strong team from Paris-based boutique technology firm Ichay & Mullenex Avocats (IMA).

Led by partners Diane Mullenex and Frédéric Ichay, along with Annabelle Richards who joins as a legal director, the team will bolster Pinsents’ around 25-strong French base, which opened in September 2012 and includes 10 partners.

Since forming in 2004, IMA has focused on technology, telecoms, e-commerce transactions and in regulated online businesses, including gaming and gambling and is recommended in The Legal 500.

Continue reading “A carve-out before Christmas – HSF agrees compromise to (largely) unite post-merger partner pay”

A carve-out before Christmas – HSF agrees compromise to (largely) unite post-merger partner pay

It was a long time coming but Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) has finally agreed a compromise to unite equity partner pay just over a year after the union of Herbert Smith and Australian leader Freehills.

The deal will see the two firms combine their partnerships under a ‘global managed lockstep’, a break from previous attempts to usher in more radical performance-based rewards for the combined partnership.

As Legal Business reported three weeks ago, the firm has decided to allow legacy Freehills some latitude when it comes to how they pay their partners.

Continue reading “Redundancy watch: Pannone to make job cuts following Slater & Gordon takeover”

Redundancy watch: Pannone to make job cuts following Slater & Gordon takeover

Manchester’s Pannone is offering voluntary redundancies to around 100 staff as a result of its recently announced takeover by Slater & Gordon (S&G).

As reported by RollOnFriday today (9 December), there will be no compulsory redundancies but Pannone has informed around 100 individuals that it is unlikely that there will be positions waiting for them at S&G. Neither Pannone nor S&G would comment when contacted by Legal Business.