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RPC abolishes flat-rate salary for newly-qualified solicitors

City firm to move junior lawyers to structure based on merit and market rates.

RPC has taken the final steps to adopting an entirely merit-driven pay model as it last month announced that it will abolish the traditional flat-rate salary for newly-qualified solicitors (NQs) in the UK and move to a system linked to merit and market rates from September 2014.

In a move said to take into account what is happening in other sectors and the pressures that clients are under to achieve value, the firm will operate a variable pay scale where the strongest NQs entering their careers ‘in the most competitive areas of the profession’, will be eligible to earn salaries above those currently offered by major City firms, a firm statement said. Continue reading “RPC abolishes flat-rate salary for newly-qualified solicitors”

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If the shoe just about fits – Wragges in merger talks with Lawrence Graham

Proposed merger promises Birmingham firm significant City presence.

The announcement last month that Wragge & Co and Lawrence Graham (LG) are in merger talks makes a lot of sense on many levels, although competitors have inevitably been quick to point out obvious pitfalls.

Both firms have been hunting for suitors for a long time and for Wragges, the talks could provide the serious London foothold that has so long eluded it, despite a series of high-profile Birmingham transfers and London hires.

Continue reading “If the shoe just about fits – Wragges in merger talks with Lawrence Graham”

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Gateway to Africa: Hogan Lovells ties-up with Routledge Modise

The queue of international firms looking to enter the South African market became one shorter in November, as transatlantic giant Hogan Lovells announced it had tied up with Routledge Modise after ten months of talks.

The 40-partner South African firm, an ally of Eversheds until October last year, will operate under the Hogan Lovells banner, but will not share the same profit pool, as local regulations prohibit it.

Current Routledge chairman Lavery Modise will retain his title in South Africa, while the directors of the firm will now be referred to as partners. The new team is not expected to take up any positions on Hogan Lovells’ board. Continue reading “Gateway to Africa: Hogan Lovells ties-up with Routledge Modise”

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Ashurst faces senior departures after key merger goes live

It’s not been the ideal launch after the final phase of its high-stakes global merger. Within days of the union between Ashurst and its Australian ally going live on 1 November, the combined firm has seen a run of senior departures and barely concealed dismay in some quarters at the surprise leadership defeat of Charlie Geffen.

Global head of corporate Stephen Lloyd resigned at the start of November, within weeks of Ashurst voting with an overwhelming 97% majority in favour of full financial integration with Australian big six firm Blake Dawson, and shortly after litigator Ben Tidswell won the vote for the firm’s new chairman role.

Continue reading “Ashurst faces senior departures after key merger goes live”

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Shearman settles controlling stake in Co-operative Bank for US hedge funds

Behind the scenes of the first-ever creditor bail-in of a bank in the UK.

Last month The Co-operative Group’s £1.5bn recapitalisation plan for its beleaguered banking arm unravelled as subordinated bondholder activists advised by Shearman & Sterling negotiated hard and settled on a controlling stake of 70% of the shares of the bank.

Under the agreement, bondholders including US hedge funds led by Aurelius Capital Management and Silver Point Capital – dubbed the LT2 Group as they hold subordinated bonds – will receive 70% of the shares in The Co-operative Bank plus £100m in newly-issued securities. They will also inject £125m of fresh capital into the bank while parent company The Co-operative Group will retain a 30% stake. Continue reading “Shearman settles controlling stake in Co-operative Bank for US hedge funds”

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Life During Law: Marco Compagnoni

I’m a forward-looking type of guy. Looking back on your career is something you do when you’re retiring. At the bright chickeny age of 50 it’s not the right time to be looking back. In a traditional English law firm, when you come to 50 there’s this unspoken thing of ‘when are you going to go?’ It’s sort of like granny sitting in the corner. In a US firm nobody thinks you know anything until you’re at least 50.

Management is not my thing. I’m more interested in the clients and doing the work. Triangulating complicated personalities and mucking about in committees is not my thing. Continue reading “Life During Law: Marco Compagnoni”

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Bond Dickinson wins AIG tender for volume contract work

Merged regional giant beats four rivals for out-of-London mandates

Following a competitive tender process between five of its panel law firms, AIG has awarded its bulk contract work to Bond Dickinson, as the insurance giant’s general counsel for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Chris Newby focuses his team on more strategic, higher level legal work.

AIG concluded its main panel review in September, appointing a 25-strong list of advisers, including Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Berwin Leighton Paisner and DLA Piper.

A secondary tendering process was conducted among five panel firms for the job of updating and modernising hundreds of medium risk, high-volume but low-value contracts with AIG’s providers.

Continue reading “Bond Dickinson wins AIG tender for volume contract work”

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Half-year financial results point to relative revival at leading UK firms

Cyclical departments increasing contribution to bottom line

As an analytical tool half-year figures may be superficial but as a litmus test of performance they show, on the basis of the figures released by LB100 firms so far, that 2013/14 will be a much improved and more benign year.

Firms including Allen & Overy (A&O), Clyde & Co and Simmons & Simmons have disclosed increases in revenue, with signs that cyclical departments such as finance and real estate are beginning to increase their contribution to the bottom line again.

Continue reading “Half-year financial results point to relative revival at leading UK firms”

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The Last Word: A year in review

Aside from bad knitwear and excessive alcohol consumption, Christmas is a time for reflection as well as looking ahead. With this in mind, we asked some senior law firm figures for their thoughts. Rose-tinted spectacles are optional.

Striking the balance

‘Much of our focus this year has inevitably been on integration and on being instructed because of capabilities created as a result of our merger. We have done very well in both areas and the sheer number of so-called synergy mandates has been a real highlight. Against an improving but still uncertain economic backdrop in 2013, our financial performance has been satisfactory. Continue reading “The Last Word: A year in review”

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Consolidating pharma giants to drive global M&A as advisers secure major deals from Novartis and Shire

The pharmaceutical industry is the driving force behind a number of recent high-value M&A transactions as drugs companies look for new ways to consolidate, and address patent expiration in a trend forecast to continue.

In November, Novartis sold off part of its operation, its blood transfusion diagnostics unit, to Barcelona-based Grifols for an estimated $1.68bn, as the Swiss pharma giant conducts a wholesale review of its business.

Continue reading “Consolidating pharma giants to drive global M&A as advisers secure major deals from Novartis and Shire”

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Former Times head of legal Alastair Brett to face hearing for misleading court

The former head of legal for The Times newspaper, Alastair Brett, will appear before the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT) tomorrow (5 December) to face allegations that he allowed a court to be misled over the unveiling of anonymous Nightjack police blogger and Lancashire detective, Richard Horton in 2009.

Last year the Leveson inquiry into press standards heard from former Macfarlanes litigator Brett that, during an injunction brought by Horton to prevent The Times from revealing his identity, high court judge Mr Justice Eady was not informed that Horton’s identity had originally been discovered as a result of hacking his email. Continue reading “Former Times head of legal Alastair Brett to face hearing for misleading court”

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US bonus season: Cravath kicks off by holding bonuses at 2012 levels

The US bonus season has kick-started with elite New York firm Cravath, Swaine & Moore setting the tone by revealing it will pay its associates the same end-of-year bonuses as 2012, ranging from $10,000 to $60,000.

Lawyers who joined Cravath in September this year will receive a $10,000 bonus on Friday 20 December, identical to last year’s sum. First-year associates will also receive $10,000 while the most senior associates will receive $60,000. Continue reading “US bonus season: Cravath kicks off by holding bonuses at 2012 levels”

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Updated: Clifford Chance in line for windfall payment after PwC reaches European Lehman settlement

Clifford Chance is among the creditors of the European operations of Lehman Brothers set to receive a windfall after administrator PwC announced a total payout of $7.8bn, the latest in a series of payments made to creditors of the former US investment bank as it nears the end of its mammoth winding-up process.

According to one partner at the Magic Circle firm, the payment could be as much as £10m and a spokesperson for PwC said creditors are likely to receive payment before the end of the calendar year.

Lehman Brothers filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in September 2008, listing $639bn of assets against $613bn of outstanding debt but within days creditors filed claims of $1.2trn, double its assets.

Continue reading “Updated: Clifford Chance in line for windfall payment after PwC reaches European Lehman settlement”

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Hefty fines: Cleary, Slaughters and CC advise on banks’ €1.7bn rate-rigging settlement

A collection of some of Europe’s strongest antitrust practices have been advising some of the world’s largest global banks as they today (4 December) agreed fines with the European Commission for their participation in illegal cartels to rig interest rates.

Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, Slaughter and May and Clifford Chance were among the law firms advising a total of eight international financial institutions – including the Royal Bank of Scotland, Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan, and Citigroup – who have been fined a total of €1.7bn for their roles in the cartels.

Continue reading “Hefty fines: Cleary, Slaughters and CC advise on banks’ €1.7bn rate-rigging settlement”

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DISSENT: The battle for talent and other phoney wars

A false ‘war for talent’ has seen law firms create their own staff shortages, argue Laura Empson and Louise Ashley.

Since McKinsey & Co first coined the term in 1997, the ‘war for talent’ has been the focus of a stream of conferences, media articles and consulting assignments. It has spawned a new human resources specialism – talent management – and with that has come concepts such as ‘competency frameworks’ and ‘succession planning’.

One of the most hotly fought fronts in the war for talent is graduate recruitment. Professional service firms, including law firms, accountancy practices, banks and consultancies, pride themselves on battling with other firms, competing aggressively for a very limited number of ‘the brightest and the best’ graduates. As one banker told us: ‘All the banks are in competition, gunning for that small pool of talent.’ Continue reading “DISSENT: The battle for talent and other phoney wars”

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Hunting titans – the disputes outlook as watchdogs and claimants target banking giants

As banks remain in the crosshairs of regulators and claimants, Legal Business teamed up with Stephenson Harwood to seek the views of the in-house banking community on attitudes to disputes and risk.

If you needed confirmation of just how challenging the litigation climate is for many of the world’s banks, then JPMorgan Chase’s results for the third quarter provided it, in all their billion-dollar detail. Announcing a $400m loss for Q3 in October, the bank revealed that it had set aside $23bn for litigation costs arising from a series of regulatory investigations, resulting litigation and economic crisis-related suits.

Continue reading “Hunting titans – the disputes outlook as watchdogs and claimants target banking giants”

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H1 2013/14: Ashurst sees combined half year figures rise by 6%

Newly-merged Ashurst has joined the growing numbers of top 50 LB100 firms to report an increase in turnover during the first half (H1) of 2013/14, with its combined revenues up by 5.8% to £298m, thanks to improved prevailing economic conditions and an uptick in transactional work.

The 1,800-lawyer firm, which achieved full financial integration with big six Australian firm Blake Dawson in September this year, has disclosed combined revenues for the two firms during the period 1 May to 31 October 2013. Its 5.8% increase is set against a pre-merger combined revenue of £281.7m this time last year. Continue reading “H1 2013/14: Ashurst sees combined half year figures rise by 6%”

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Legal fees: QualitySolicitors to abandon hourly rates in favour of fixed fees

QualitySolicitors (QS) has unveiled plans to abandon the hourly rate across its network of firms, offering fixed fees for all legal services including litigation.

The group, which has around 120 members across 200 locations, is to roll out the next phase of a pilot scheme which will see 15 of its firms stop charging by the hour, with the intention to roll out the model across the network by early 2014. Continue reading “Legal fees: QualitySolicitors to abandon hourly rates in favour of fixed fees”

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H1 2013/14: Bird & Bird reveals revenue increase of 5%

Bird & Bird today (3 December) attributed a 5% increase in its half year (H1) 2013/14 revenues to the strengthening of its international offering, although the firm declined to disclose its underlying turnover figure.

The 960-lawyer firm, which operates its accounts in euros, estimated growth of 5% in euros, which it claims equates overall to 10% growth in sterling when currency fluctuations across H1 are taken into account.

Highlights in H1 include office openings in Dubai and Denmark, as well as lateral hires across corporate, intellectual property and media. Continue reading “H1 2013/14: Bird & Bird reveals revenue increase of 5%”

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H1 2013/14: Taylor Wessing reveals UK revenue increase of 10%

Taylor Wessing has joined a band of leading City firms to have turned out a double digit increase in revenue for the 2013/14 half year (H1), unveiling a 10% increase in its UK turnover.

The 960-lawyer firm has credited extensive investment, including international expansion and a series of lateral hires for the uptick in its performance, which internationally saw its H1 revenues increase by 9%. Continue reading “H1 2013/14: Taylor Wessing reveals UK revenue increase of 10%”