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Clifford Chance handed a major role for the Co-operative Bank as A&O faces conflict

Clifford Chance (CC) has been handed a role advising the ailing Co-operative Bank on its recapitalisation due to a conflict of interest at Allen & Overy (A&O) as the bank prepares to float next year.

CC capital markets partner Iain Hunter and insurance and corporate partner Hillary Evenett are advising the bank on its recapitalisation after A&O’s dual role as adviser to the Co-operative Group and its banking arm came under question in light of bondholder action that will now see a group of hedge funds take over a 70% stake in the bank.

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Game changers – the AA enters legal services market via Lyons Davidson tie-up

Touted as one of the potential game changers likely to enter the post Legal Services Act arena, the AA has fulfilled market expectation – albeit a little later than its closest rivals – by securing alternative business structure (ABS) status and entering into a joint venture with Bristol-based Lyons Davidson.

AA Law, which will initially handle personal injury (PI) work and other litigation associated with car accidents suffered by AA members and customers, will start trading on 1 December, with employment and contract services likely to be added in the future. Continue reading “Game changers – the AA enters legal services market via Lyons Davidson tie-up”

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Ashurst leadership elections draw to a close as board and ExCo unveiled

Ashurst’s lengthy governance elections have come to a close as the top 15 firm announces the results of its final board elections and unveils the members of its executive committee (ExCo).

The 1006-lawyer firm’s new board comprises fourteen members from Ashurst and Big Six Australian merger partner Blake Dawson, with the eight newly-elected members announced today (5 November) including competition partner Peter Armitage and corporate partner Ian Williams in Sydney; London corporate partner Simon Beddow; Madrid real estate partner Cristina Calvo; Perth corporate partner Roger Davies; Frankfurt corporate partner Reinhard Eyring; Hong Kong corporate partner Robert Ogilvy Watson and London banking partner Mark Vickers. Continue reading “Ashurst leadership elections draw to a close as board and ExCo unveiled”

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Hogan Lovells’ ambitious capital expansion draws in second HSF partner

As Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) continues to lose London partners so Hogan Lovells is in the midst of aggressively bulking up in the capital and today (5 November) announced internally that HSF environmental partner Louise Moore will re-join the firm.

Moore – who focuses on M&A and private equity and has advised high profile clients including Energy Capital Partners, Chevron, BP and EDF – will re-join the transatlantic firm’s London office in early 2014, having trained with legacy Lovells and become an environmental partner before moving to HSF in 2007. Continue reading “Hogan Lovells’ ambitious capital expansion draws in second HSF partner”

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Closer scrutiny for the Bar as BSB introduces tougher supervision measures

Undeterred by the Bar’s reaction to its recent grading scheme for criminal advocates, the Bar Standards Board (BSB) today (5 October) announced new, more rigorous supervision arrangements for Chambers, aimed at curbing ‘ineffective governance and inadequate pupillage training.’

From January 2014, all Chambers will be required to participate in the new process, which will see the BSB assess how efficiently sets and sole practitioners are managing potential risks, while those identified as ‘high risk’ will be targeted by the BSB for remedial measures. Continue reading “Closer scrutiny for the Bar as BSB introduces tougher supervision measures”

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Bristol tussle over Simmons’ hire of Mahrie Webb from Burges Salmon

Negotiations are still underway between Burges Salmon and Simmons & Simmons over the start date of funds partners Mahrie Webb, who in May became the City practice’s fourth hire to its low-cost Bristol office.

Simmons launched the South West base in September last year with the hire of financial services litigation partners Tim Boyce and Ed Crosse from Osborne Clarke.

However, Webb has yet to join and it is understood that Burges Salmon initially tried to hold the highly regarded funds lawyer to two years gardening leave but that figure may be reduced to a year.

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Administrators give behind-the-scenes insight into Manches takeover by Penningtons

Penningtons’ takeover of troubled Manches last month says almost as much about the state of the legal market as it does of the firms involved, although, Manches’ administrators say, there are clear lessons to be learned.

On 15 October, 265 Manches employees, including 46 partners officially moved to Penningtons in a pre-pack deal brokered by PwC.

Manches had been earmarked for a merger by the LB100 this summer, after its revenues dropped by 13% to £26.3m – a drop of 11 places to 93 – and its profits per equity partner slid by 43% to £134,000.

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Pannone presses for S&G deal in wake of failed Cobbetts bid

Having previously pursued a merger with the now defunct Cobbetts (as it turned out, a lucky reprieve), Pannone’s current discussions with Australian-listed Slater & Gordon (S&G) are seeing talks over which parts of the Manchester-based firm’s diverse business will be included in any deal.

With the firm effectively split into four limbs: its commercial arm; the private client, clinical negligence and personal injury business; its white label service Affinity; and Connect2Law network, discussions are ongoing as to whether the latter two divisions fit with S&G’s model.

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Ashurst says ‘no’ to Geffen for chairman in surprise election result

A popular long-term board member with the social skills needed to pull together a newly-merged transcontinental firm, Ashurst’s October announcement that dispute resolution partner Ben Tidswell has been elected chairman, is nonetheless a shock defeat for incumbent firm head Charlie Geffen.

In a simple ‘one partner, one vote’ election, the emergence of Ashurst Australia’s competition and consumer protection partner Peter Armitage as a contender for the top job had turned the election into a three-horse race.

However, Geffen, whose current senior partner title was subsumed by the new chairman role after newly-merged Ashurst Australia revised its corporate strategy in July, was widely expected to be re-elected.

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Linklaters’ private equity ambitions dealt a blow by departures

Linklaters’ now decade-long effort to carve a credible position in the private equity market has been dealt a serious blow as co-heads Ian Bagshaw and Richard Youle leave to join White & Case.

The long-term friends, having started their careers together at Eversheds, had to build the Magic Circle firm’s private equity practice largely from scratch after the departure of Graham White and Raymond McKeeve in 2006 for Kirkland & Ellis.

Youle, who joined the firm in 2001 from SJ Berwin (becoming a partner in 2006), and Bagshaw, who moved across from Clifford Chance in 2007, are credited with building a dedicated team of lawyers whose buyout expertise is supplemented by strong banking, restructuring and high-yield capabilities.

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Strategy review sets expansive course as Mayer Brown aims to galvanise its business

Eight months in the making, Mayer Brown’s revamped international strategy will now see the US law firm re-group around its large international clients and allocate significant resource to providing a more joined up global service in which London is forecast to be key.

The new strategy, put together by the 1,536-lawyer firm’s 12-strong partnership board and eight-member management committee, will see Mayer Brown focus on strengthening its US strongholds in Washington DC, New York and Chicago, as well as its 85-partner London site and Hong Kong office, which launched in 2006 and now houses 170 lawyers, of which 60 are partners. Continue reading “Strategy review sets expansive course as Mayer Brown aims to galvanise its business”

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Homeward bound: Burke hands Freshfields’ reins to Aitman as he leaves for Boston-based ArcLight Capital

‘I’ve held a number of management roles in the firm, which, together with having recently chaired our supervisory body, should help me take on the new role and ensure a smooth transition,’ says Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer’s new global managing partner David Aitman, as he steps into the sizeable shoes of veteran Ted Burke, following his recent decision to stand down.

Aitman was said to be the standout candidate, having previously chaired Freshfields’ partnership election committee and currently acting as senior elected member of the partnership council.

The competition partner, who will stand as managing partner until the role goes to a vote in 2015, will come off the council to avoid a conflict of interest as a vote on his replacement takes place at the end of this year.

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IT departments a wasted resource in City firms, senior figures say

City law firms are being challenged to revise the way they view their information technology (IT) teams and elevate them to a far more strategic level.

As examined in this month’s special legal tech feature, the role of individuals who manage IT teams is now acknowledged as critical but firms’ thinking about where those departments fit into their hierarchy is often out of touch when compared with new entrants.

At the Innovators in Law ‘By Invitation Only’ (BIO) conference for IT directors in September, speaker Richard Tapp, company secretary and director of legal services for Carillion, told delegates: ‘I don’t think all is lost and the demand for legal services will continue but what will change is the way those services will be delivered and that will involve a greater use of technology.’

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Gordons and A&O on Morrisons panel as L&G cuts roster

One of the UK’s largest supermarket chains, Morrisons, last month finalised its first-ever legal panel, with Allen & Overy (A&O), Ashurst, DAC Beachcroft and Eversheds among the firms selected. Selection was overseen by the company’s recently appointed general counsel Mark Amsden.

Forty firms made the long list, which was whittled down to a shortlist of 22. There are 14 firms on the panels. Amsden divided the panel into six categories: employment, property, personal injury, licensing and regulatory as well as one panel covering ‘everything else’ – corporate, commercial, litigation, pensions and intellectual property. One more panel covers Scotland, with DWF and MacRoberts selected.

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Corporate caution as private equity acquisitions and IPOs trickle in

A wary optimism was the prevailing mood of private equity partners in October, as deals such as the $2.2bn acquisition of Vion Food Group’s gelatine-making subsidiary, Vion Ingredients by private equity house Darling International demonstrated that there is appetite, and funds, for the right kind of asset.

Texas-based Darling used K&L Gates and Clifford Chance (CC), while the Netherlands’ Vion was advised by leading Benelux independent De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek.

K&L Gates fielded an international team, led by Dallas corporate partner Mary Korby and including Frankfurt-based corporate partner Mathias Schulze Steinen and London competition partner Scott Megregian. Continue reading “Corporate caution as private equity acquisitions and IPOs trickle in”

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Burns to maintain Clydes’ expansive form as he takes charge of insurance giant

Jaishree Kalia talks to Clyde & Co’s new senior partner as veteran head Payton hands over the baton after 29 years

There are succession issues and succession issues. James Burns, the incoming senior partner at Clyde & Co, is facing the latter category as he takes the helm of the world’s largest legal insurance specialist, which has been one of the most successful UK practices of the last decade and run by a respected figure for nearly three decades.

Two years on from the top-15 firm’s merger with Barlow Lyde & Gilbert (BLG), its strategy is to grow its disputes practice, expand internationally (on the back of significant expansion this year) and gear up for its next global management board election.

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Deal watch: Corporate activity in October

Arrow Global IPO

Debevoise & Plimpton and Slaughter and May landed roles on Arrow Global’s initial public offering (IPO). Slaughters was the primary adviser to Arrow Global and its primary shareholder RBS Special Opportunities Fund (RBS), led by corporate partners David Johnson and Richard Smith. The London office of Debevoise, led by David Innes, advised members of the executive committee and other shareholders on its successful IPO last month, which valued the company at £357m. The successful IPO marks a partial exit for RBS, which acquired the company in 2009.

Cleary advises Inter Milan on equity sale

Inter Milan has turned to Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton on the sale of equity to International Sports Capital (ISC), which will give ISC a controlling 70% stake in the club. Cleary’s team was led by  Continue reading “Deal watch: Corporate activity in October”

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Life During Law: Maurice Allen

In 1980 I went from doing conveyancing in Manchester to international finance at Coward Chance (CC). The banking practice at that time had around five partners and we were left to our own devices. I got to spend a lot of time with clients, one of which was Citibank, where I went on secondment in 1984 – there were no in-house teams at that time so I was the only lawyer there. At that time, Chase Manhattan Bank was one of Allen & Overy (A&O)’s key clients. I remember going back to my senior partner at CC and saying I thought we could get a lot of work from Chase, and I was told not to bother. But I gave it a go and, eventually, they became one of CC’s biggest clients.

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High yield, high stakes – DLA Piper makes key investment in deal finance with hire of ex-CC partner

It’s historically proved one of the hardest practice areas for City firms to break, proving often impenetrable for even elite London players, but DLA Piper is hoping its Anglo/American reach can help it make a mark in one of the most lucrative areas of deal finance.

In a major investment in its City finance team, DLA Piper has recruited former Clifford Chance (CC) high yield and leveraged finance specialist Tony Lopez, who joins the firm’s eight-partner London structured finance team today (4 November).

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SJ Berwin star David Ryland moves to Paul Hastings as US firms reap benefit of UK vets

Only four days after its merger went live with King & Wood Mallesons and SJ Berwin has lost leading real estate partner David Ryland to Paul Hastings in London, as US firms also continue to reap the benefit of offering better later life partner opportunities than their UK counterparts.

Ryland, who was the relationship partner for clients including Hilton and private equity fund Evans Randell, specialises in commercial real estate with a focus on UK and European property funds. Continue reading “SJ Berwin star David Ryland moves to Paul Hastings as US firms reap benefit of UK vets”