Insurance specialist Kennedys is the latest in line of large English firms conducting raids north of the border over the last year-and-half, sealing a merger with Scotland’s Simpson & Marwick after over a year of negotiations.
The 220-partner firm will be initially be known as Kennedys worldwide and Kennedys Simpson & Marwick in Scotland and is the most significant Anglo-Scottish tie-up since McGrigors was acquired by Pinsent Masons in May 2012.
We’ve had five years of unforgiving conditions for law firms, everyone agrees. And in many respects that squeeze has had predictable results on the upper echelons and lower half of the LB100. But this year it’s the mid-tier which has had the most interesting 12 months. This group should by rights and conventional wisdom be on its knees, yet judged on 2012/13 results they aren’t. Looking at organic growth, plenty of firms in the 26-50 range out-shone larger rivals and many of the stand-out performances this year – among them Mishcon de Reya, Holman Fenwick Willan, Macfarlanes and RPC – hail from this segment. Neither is this a one-year deal – there are plenty of firms in this weight class that have maintained a robust five-year growth track, powered by strong niches in areas like private client, TMT and insurance and a general affinity for contentious work.
It is a reminder that there is nothing inherently wrong with a domestic or mid-market focus. It is just one model with its own strengths and weaknesses. Executed with a genuine feel for those strengths it delivers not just well but sometimes spectacularly.
Continue reading “If the mid-tier’s days are numbered why do they keep doing so well?”
We take a sizeable step in the evolution of Legal Business today with the launch of a new iPad edition, which we will be rolling out to our subscribers.
The app launches after months of development to coincide with our September edition, traditionally the largest of the year in which we publish our annual LB 100 coverage of the financial results of the UK’s largest law firms.
It’s been a week for the traditional corporate bluebloods to shine in real estate-related work, with Macfarlanes, Slaughter and May and German royalty Hengeler Mueller individually winning significant transactions.
Macfarlanes secured a key role advising CBRE Britannica on the sale of its shopping centre portfolio for £250m to US investor Kennedy Wilson, advised by Herbert Smith Freehills.
Following Monday’s $130bn deal between Vodafone and Verizon, yet another blockbuster telecoms transaction has emerged to keep M&A lawyers enthralled, with US firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett taking the lead in Microsoft’s $7bn acquisition of Nokia’s Devices & Services business along with a ten-year patent licensing agreement. Continue reading “Deal watch: telecoms stays on front pages as Skadden and Simpson Thacher lead on Microsoft’s acquisition of Nokia’s mobile business”
With news that Co-operative Legal Services (CLS) has posted a £3.4m loss in the for first half of 2013, the group’s recently installed general counsel Alistair Asher says the business is still in its infancy and will flourish, provided it has the appropriate levels of investment. The loss comes despite turnover in the Co-op’s legal arm growing by 5.8% on last year to £18.1m.
GC to the board of The Co-operative Group, Asher said: ‘The top line is growing so the bottom line will improve. CLS is still a start-up business so it is not a case of turning anything around, it’s actually about developing the business and moving forward. CLS is one of the biggest business opportunities for The Co-operative Group right now. We have got the business model we need, we just need to give it support and investment so it can grow.’ Continue reading “ABS growing pains: Co-op Legal Service’s losses simply teething troubles, says GC”
It may be one of its signature practice areas but progressive insurance giant DAC Beachcroft last week (30 August) confirmed five Leeds-based partners will be leaving its market-leading health team for rival specialist Capsticks.
Although departure dates are yet to be finalised, Ian Cooper, Rachael Heenan, Robert McGough, Ron Simms and Claire Reynolds will all make the move to Capsticks next year.
DAC Beachcroft, which has advised the NHS since its inception 65 years ago, has the largest health practice of any UK law firm with 487-strong firmwide team comprising 50 partners and 200 fee earners operating across the independent and public sector, according to the firm. Continue reading “Healthy competition: Capsticks takes five partners from DAC Beachcroft”
It was a busy football transfer window for some of the UK’s leading law firms, with Berwin Leighton Paisner’s Graham Shear and a host of Fladgate partners advising Premier League footballer Gareth Bale on his record-breaking transfer to Real Madrid from Tottenham Hotspur for (€100m) £85m. Slaughter and May and Charles Russell were also both very active on deadline day yesterday (2 September). Continue reading “Back of the net: BLP and Fladgate advise on Gareth Bale’s £85m transfer to Real Madrid”
The latest Legal Business 100 results show the total revenue of the UK’s top 100 law firms has topped £19bn for the first time, while the number of lawyers across those firms has passed the 60,000 mark, also a first. However, this top-line growth is largely the result of another year of fervent merger activity, masking the fact that on a granular level many firms are struggling to achieve revenue and profit growth. Total revenue for the LB100 for 2012/13 is £19.1bn, an increase of 8%, while total lawyer headcount swelled 10% to 61,299. Continue reading “Merger frenzy hikes Legal Business 100 income but growth masks another tough year”
Intense speculation over Vodafone’s $130bn disposal of its US group, whose principal asset is its 45% interest in Verizon Wireless, to Verizon Communications this evening (2 September) came to an end after the deal announced, with Macfarlanes revealed as acting for Verizon and Slaughter and May for Vodafone. Slaughter and May corporate partner Roland Turnill led for the telecoms giant on one of the largest corporate deals in history, along with Simpson Thacher in the US. Continue reading “The guessing game is over as Vodafone’s $130bn Verizon sell off sees Slaughters acting opposite Macfarlanes and Wachtell”
With mounting pressure on legal teams to up productivity, a handful of pioneering GCs have attempted the fundamental shift towards becoming a commercial centre
‘A lot of people like to be seen to be innovative,’ says Richard Susskind, author of Tomorrow’s Lawyers, ‘but one shouldn’t pursue innovation in and of itself, it’s got to be relevant.’
While this means different things to different industries at different times, within the context of the in-house legal community in the grip of an enduring economic malaise, there can be little more relevant than the innovations of departments that have turned themselves from traditional cost centres into profit-generating or business development limbs of the overall enterprise.
In 2011 Stefano Simontacchi, then head of tax at the Italian legal giant Bonelli Erede Pappalardo, made a high-stakes presentation at the firm’s general partners’ meeting. The increasingly disastrous economic climate in Italy was forcing the firm to reappraise its strategy and Simontacchi, as part of a three-partner committee, had been approved by the firm’s board to find a solution.
‘We needed strategic thinking about whether we wanted to be a very small boutique or whether we wanted to remain at the size we were,’ recalls Simontacchi. ‘In which case, how could we survive when overall spending capacity of the market is decreasing?’
Continue reading “Renaissance style – the battle to modernise Italy’s legal elite”
It’s been a bumpy ride for many of the UK’s largest firms, fighting battered profits with consolidation and increased global expansion. Welcome to the Legal Business 100, where headline revenue increases hide a tougher reality
When the UK’s 62nd largest law firm by revenue is suddenly wiped off the face of the earth, despite posting a 2% revenue increase in 2011/12, you’d expect a little nervousness within the profession. Cobbetts, which went into administration in March, posted a profit per equity partner (PEP) increase of 16% in its last-ever LB100 appearance, something that many of the firms occupying the list today would gladly take. But, as it would turn out – as has been the case ever since the 2008 collapse of Lehman Brothers – when it comes to law firm financials, all is not what it seems. And, as the demise of Halliwells proved in 2010, it takes more than the collapse of a regional stalwart to seriously unhinge the market.
Continue reading “LB100 – The top 25: The age of turbulence”
Mid-pack advisers faced contrasting fortunes over the year, with many generalists seeing margins under continued pressure, while a sizeable band of confident City and insurance players rode the winds
With a combined total of 9,859 lawyers, 1,416 equity partners, £2.46bn in revenue and profits of £578.7m, the firms ranked 26-50 in the LB100 lag significantly behind the top 25 as a group.
Revenue at the average firm in the upper quartile of firms is up 9%, inflated by the wave of mergers that has boosted the income at firms such as Dentons and Herbert Smith Freehills, while firms ranked 26-50 managed average revenue growth of 7%.
The gulf between success and failure among the firms occupying the second half of the LB100 is as pronounced as ever. From highly profitable boutiques to ravaged regionals desperate for a merger, we chart the haves and the have-nots
Collectively making up just a tenth of the LB100 firms’ total 2012/13 revenue for 2012/13 of £19.1bn, law firms ranked between 51 to 100 in the table can be polar opposites. The gap between high and low performing firms in these two quartiles is as startling, with profit per lawyer (PPL) varying from £177,000 at ascendant litigation specialist Stewarts Law to just £15,000 at the beleaguered Manches.
Continue reading “LB 100 – The second 50: Scattered in the wind”
A five-year view of the LB100 underlines the profound impact globalisation has had on the UK’s top firms but also the soaring success of the best mid-pack players. Legal Business analyses the winners and losers since Lehman unleashed a storm
The five years that have passed since 2008, when the previous year’s credit crunch morphed into full economic meltdown, have been, in relative terms, the bleakest period economically in the UK since the Second World War. Yet despite this, with the exception of 2009/10, when total revenues tumbled 14%, collectively the UK legal profession has grown remarkably during that period. In our 2008 report, total turnover of the top 100 firms was £13.96bn. This year, those top 100 firms have amassed revenues of £19.1bn, an increase of 37%. Continue reading “LB 100 – The Five Year View: Riders on the Storm”
The firms that appear in the LB100 are the top 100 firms in the UK, ranked by gross fee income generated over the financial year 2012/13 – usually 1 May 2012 to 30 April 2013. We call these the 2013 results. Where firms have identical fee incomes, the firms are ranked according to the highest profits per equity partner (PEP). Continue reading “LB 100 – Methodology”
For 20 years now the (mainly) thankless role of the legal PR has put the comms professional between demanding and sometimes deluded partners and a restless media. Legal Business canvasses the men and women trying to bring order to the chaos
He had been pacing the streets for hours, his path taking him from an unglamorous enclave of the City to Farringdon. Not aimless pacing – it was anything but – the PR man knew there was a prominent story appearing the following day regarding the large City law firm that he worked for. Knowing this, he was sick to his stomach about the slant put on the news, and what sort of reception he would get from the many partners he had to answer to. His hope was to locate the journalist that had written the story, buy him a drink and hopefully glean some details on the story to gauge how bad the damage would be.
Continue reading “The thick of it – a brief history of legal PR”
Sarah Downey assesses the much-touted review of legal education
It promised so much and delivered so little. The Legal Education and Training Review (LETR) published its recommendations on 25 June, concluding what was dubbed as the most comprehensive assessment of legal education since the Ormrod report of 1971. Yet the 350-page report has proved an underwhelming end to a process that was supposed to address fundamental problems. Continue reading “LETR of the day: education review opts for mum ‘n’ apple pie over radical change”
LPC provider follows arch rival to win university status
It has been a long time coming, but in August BPP finally succeeded in its long quest to secure full university status, furthering the ambitions of the UK’s top law schools.
The decision by the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills (BIS) to award the university title to BPP – which provides undergraduate and graduate business degrees across law, finance and tax and is the sole provider of the legal practice course (LPC) to many of the top City firms – will elevate its standing globally, dean and chief executive Peter Crisp told Legal Business. ‘Firstly, it’s the recognition, the reputation and the standing it gives us worldwide,’ said Crisp. ‘So obviously in terms of our appeal to students both in this country and internationally. It puts us on a par with other universities who also recruit on to the LLB and the vocational legal training practice. Continue reading “BPP awarded university status after ‘rigorous’ review”
