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Wall Street in London: Weil Gotshal and Davis Polk lead on $1.6bn takeover of UK’s Edwards Group

As British industrial technology firm Edwards Group is today (19 August) bought out for $1.6bn by Swedish engineering group Atlas Copco, it is notably being advised by the London office of Wall Street firms Weil, Gotshal & Manges and Davis Polk & Wardwell.

The Weil Gotshal team, which represented Edwards Group on its initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange last May, is being led by London-based corporate partner Peter King, assisted by New York corporate partners David Blittner and Jackie Cohen. Continue reading “Wall Street in London: Weil Gotshal and Davis Polk lead on $1.6bn takeover of UK’s Edwards Group”

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Against the grain: Kent CC’s legal arm introduces trainee programme as it unveils 20% rise in profits

As private practice firms including Allen & Overy downsize their trainee intakes the successful legal arm of Kent County Council has introduced its first trainee programme as it also unveils a significant increase in profitability.

As of September, Kent Legal Services (KLS) will take on five trainees as it moves to grow its business. The legal arm, which is unique among in-house departments for generating income as a result of offering its services to external county councils, yesterday announced a rise in 2012/13 profits of 20% from £2m to £2.4m and a 9% increase in turnover from £11m to £12m. This represents an improvement on last year’s performance, when profit increased by 18% to £2m while turnover was up 10% to £11m. Continue reading “Against the grain: Kent CC’s legal arm introduces trainee programme as it unveils 20% rise in profits”

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Personal injury: Slater & Gordon in talks to acquire Fentons

Further consolidation in the personal injury market looks set to take place next week after it emerged that acquisitive Australian-listed firm Slater & Gordon (S&G) is in talks with London and Manchester personal injury firm Fentons.

As first reported by RollOnFriday, S&G is expected to announce the deal on Tuesday (20 August). If the acquisition goes through it will nearly double S&G’s 146-lawyer UK arm, adding 120 lawyers, including 36 partners and 30 fee-earners. Continue reading “Personal injury: Slater & Gordon in talks to acquire Fentons”

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Private equity: CVC gifts Clifford Chance and Cleary Gottlieb with two major European mandates

Clifford Chance

Followers of the tussle between UK and US private equity practices for European mandates were this week rewarded with an instruction to both camps by leading buyout house CVC in its acquisitions of Domestic & General and Campbell Soup.

Advent International agreed earlier this week to sell extended warranty company Domestic & General (D&G) to CVC in a deal thought to be worth about $1.2bn, according to The New York Times, although this sum has not been officially disclosed.

Clifford Chance (CC) advised CVC, with a team led by Kem Ihenacho, co-head of the firm’s Africa practice and one of its private equity stars. He was assisted by M&A partner Brendan Moylan and insurance partner Hilary Evenett. Continue reading “Private equity: CVC gifts Clifford Chance and Cleary Gottlieb with two major European mandates”

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Asia round-up: DLA loses former Singapore head..again.. as Hill Dicks launches in Hong Kong

With all eyes trained on Asia the office fall outs and launches have been throw into far sharper relief. Losing one former office head could be said to be an accident but DLA Piper’s loss in Singapore of its second former managing partner (MP), Matthew Glynn, is starting to look like trouble, after ex MP Martin David left in May to join Ince & Co. The departure also follows the resignation last August of disputes partner Justyn Jagger for local firm Stamford law.

Glynn, who led the Singapore office for a relatively short period between June 2011 and February this year, was also head of the firm’s Asia intellectual property and technology group. Continue reading “Asia round-up: DLA loses former Singapore head..again.. as Hill Dicks launches in Hong Kong”

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Training contracts: A&O cuts 2015 intake by 15% and reveals retention rates alongside HFW and Olswang

Allen & Overy’s (A&O) decision today (15 August) to reduce its trainee intake by 15% in 2015 will be closely watched by City rivals, many of which are also considering whether to cut their trainee numbers in light of diminishing newly-qualified (NQ) roles in the medium term.

The top five LB100 firm, which achieved a modest turnover growth of 1% this year to £1,189m, is cutting its trainee numbers from 100 to 90 in 2014, followed by a further drop to 85 in 2015. A statement from the firm said the decision was taken in order to ‘match [its] expectations of NQ jobs in the medium-term.’ Continue reading “Training contracts: A&O cuts 2015 intake by 15% and reveals retention rates alongside HFW and Olswang”

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Guest post: Topline heroin – how global law became addicted to the wrong measure of success

One lens through which to view a large part of the corpus of business and management literature is that of metrics. Simply consider how much of what’s written consists of discussions about what to measure, what to optimize, and how to enhance all those numbers.

So, in retailing, we have such yardsticks as sales per square foot, same-store sales, sales per employee, inventory turn, store traffic, percent average markdown, and so forth. For mobile phone providers it would be customer churn, net customer growth/decline, network reach/coverage and network speed, cost per customer acquisition, and much more. Continue reading “Guest post: Topline heroin – how global law became addicted to the wrong measure of success”

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Finance: Slaughters, Cravath and De Brauw secure Shell DCM work as Irwin Mitchell wins Wells Fargo as new client

European corporates are showing greater reluctance than last year to tap into the debt capital markets but Royal Dutch Shell this week issued a triple-tranche $3.75bn bond with Slaughter and May; Cravath, Swaine & Moore and De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek at the helm.

Slaughter and May’s finance partner Matthew Tobin and tax partner William Watson led a team advising on the issue of five-year, ten-year and 30-year fixed rate notes, which were issued by Shell International Finance and guaranteed by Royal Dutch Shell, which plans to use the funds for general corporate purposes. Continue reading “Finance: Slaughters, Cravath and De Brauw secure Shell DCM work as Irwin Mitchell wins Wells Fargo as new client”

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Revolving Doors: Macfarlanes, LG and Howes Percival boost commercial real estate as CMS takes on RPC reinsurance head

A resurgence in commercial real estate work has seen heightened lateral activity in the sector with hires by Macfarlanes, Lawrence Graham (LG) and Howes Percival in a week that has also seen CMS Cameron McKenna boosts its reinsurance capability with the hire of RPC head Simon Kilgour.

Macfarlanes continues to focus on growing its non-contentious construction and real estate practices with the hire of Ashurst’s head of construction, Ann Minogue. Continue reading “Revolving Doors: Macfarlanes, LG and Howes Percival boost commercial real estate as CMS takes on RPC reinsurance head”

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NQ retention and pay: Good news for NRF and Bird & Bird but FFW puts 5 trainees on extended contract

If you see a rabble of trainees at the pub this lunchtime they may well be from Norton Rose Fulbright (NRF), which today (13 August) announced it has increased its newly-qualified (NQ) salary by £1,500 and offered in excess of 90% of its trainees a permanent position.

The newly merged, 3,800-lawyer firm has announced a trainee retention rate of 92% after offering 24 of its 26 trainees a NQ role, up from 89% in its last round in May. It has also increased its NQ salary from £61,500 to £63,000, effective 1 July (and backdated to 1 May this year). First and second year trainees will remain constant at £38,000 and £43,000 respectively. Continue reading “NQ retention and pay: Good news for NRF and Bird & Bird but FFW puts 5 trainees on extended contract”

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Deal Watch: Dentons & King & Spalding act on HR Owen hostile takeover bid as Freshfields and Skadden secure Asian M&A roles

While the traditional August lull in corporate work may have seen Asia relax, the giant is far from asleep and has gifted a number of transatlantic and Magic Circle firms with eye-catching international M&A deals.

Dentons led by corporate partner Jeremy Cohen is advising luxury car dealer HR Owen on the £32.5m hostile takeover bid by Malaysian billionaire Vincent Tan’s Berjaya Philippines, which HR Owen last week rejected as ‘derisory’. Continue reading “Deal Watch: Dentons & King & Spalding act on HR Owen hostile takeover bid as Freshfields and Skadden secure Asian M&A roles”

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Trainee Retention: Hogan Lovells, Travers and RPC reveal numbers

The trainee retention rates rollercoaster continues to bring with it good news and bad as today firms including Hogan Lovells, Reynolds Porter Chamberlain (RPC) and Travers Smith are on something of a high.

Top 50 UK firm Travers Smith has posted a 95% retention rate while at transatlantic firm Hogan Lovells – where out of a total of 33 trainees, 28 offers were made and 25 were accepted – the firm achieved a retention rate of 76%. Continue reading “Trainee Retention: Hogan Lovells, Travers and RPC reveal numbers”

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We’ll take that: BPP’s university status welcome news amidst challenging times for education providers

With the Legal Education and Training Review (LETR) having just last month thrown down some spiky if not unexpected challenges to education providers, yesterday’s (8 August) news that BPP has been awarded university status was a welcome boost.

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 the law finance and tax space and is the sole provider of the Legal Practice Course 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, 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 onto the LLB and the vocational legal training practice. Continue reading “We’ll take that: BPP’s university status welcome news amidst challenging times for education providers”

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UK legal services regulation ‘steals a competitive march’ as Jacoby & Meyers launches European venture

Jacoby & Meyers is to establish a new joint venture in the UK as the major US consumer law firm says the UK’s external funding and ownership regulation has ‘stolen a competitive march from the other key legal jurisdictions, including the U.S’ that will see Jacoby now focus much of its growth in London.

The joint venture with City-based private equity and corporate law firm MJ Hudson – founded by heavyweight ex-Proskauer Rose London head and former SJ Berwin partner Matthew Hudson – is called Jacoby & Meyers Europe and the group is likely to seek Alternative Business Structure (ABS) status in the UK, allowing it to attract non-lawyer equity ownership and funding. Continue reading “UK legal services regulation ‘steals a competitive march’ as Jacoby & Meyers launches European venture”

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Redundancy 2013: Watson Farley latest top 40 firm to review secretarial jobs

With 2013 offering all the dubious promise of being the toughest legal labour market since 2013, Watson, Farley & Williams has become the latest top 40 firm to announce it is to review its secretarial support function in its London office.

A firm spokesperson said: ‘Secretaries in WFW’s London office were recently advised that a review of our secretarial support function will be taking place over the next five weeks, following which the team may be restructured if required.

‘This aims to ensure that we have highly skilled and specialised roles that meet the needs of our fee earners.’ Continue reading “Redundancy 2013: Watson Farley latest top 40 firm to review secretarial jobs”

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Retention round up: mixed bag as Shoosmiths, Dentons, Taylor Wessing record reduced rates

Following last week’s round of positive trainee retention rates within a mix of Magic Circle, international and regional firms; the latest batch of results has revealed a substantial reduction in the number of newly qualified lawyers offered a position at their respective firms.

It’s bad news for the junior lawyer at Shoosmiths as the national firm announced yesterday (7 July) that it will only retain 41% of NQ trainees. Out of a cohort 22, nine out of 11 trainees have so far accepted jobs while out of the remaining 13 newly qualifieds (NQs), seven have been offered jobs at other law firms, and one will return to a non-legal career. Continue reading “Retention round up: mixed bag as Shoosmiths, Dentons, Taylor Wessing record reduced rates”

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Hong Kong drive: Addleshaws makes foray into local law two months after HK launch

Addleshaw Goddard’s objective to offer capability across the major disputes and arbitration centres has been given a boost by its launch today (8 August) of a local law practice in Hong Kong through a formal tie up with a newly established local firm led by partners from Minter Ellison and DLA Piper.

The new office will be led by former head of litigation and employment at Minter Ellison, Nigel Francis, and DLA Piper corporate partner Brett Stewien, who have practiced in Hong Kong for 25 and 14 years respectively. Continue reading “Hong Kong drive: Addleshaws makes foray into local law two months after HK launch”

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Investment costs: Hill Dickinson partners vote through £2.8m cash call

It’s been a tough year for national firm Hill Dickinson. With both profit per lawyer and profit per equity partner taking a tumble of 15% – each at £33,000 and £264,000 respectively – and recent partner and staff redundancies matching others struggling in a turbulent market, the 200-year old firm has confirmed that it has issued a £2.8m cash call to partners to boost the balance sheet due to what managing partner Peter Jackson says was down to a year of heavy investment. Continue reading “Investment costs: Hill Dickinson partners vote through £2.8m cash call”

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Financial results 2013: Burness Paull (minus the Williamsons) outstrips Scottish rivals with post-merger results

In the first few months since its eye-catching merger at the beginning of December last year, Burness Paull has climbed the ranks to post revenue and profit growth that contrasts starkly with the fortunes of the traditionally elite Scottish firms in recent years.

The 57-partner firm, formed following the union of Burness in Edinburgh and Glasgow and Aberdeen’s Paull & Williamsons, recorded a turnover of £38.7m, up 59% on legacy firm Burness’ turnover last year of £24.3m. The firm has also rebranded as Burness Paull, dropping the Williamsons part of its post-merger name. Continue reading “Financial results 2013: Burness Paull (minus the Williamsons) outstrips Scottish rivals with post-merger results”

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Real estate round up: Hogan Lovells, BLP and Nabarro show credentials while Mishcons makes key hire

Unsurprisingly, what little major real estate work that is around has found its way to the usual trio of law firms – Berwin Leighton Paisner, Hogan Lovells and Nabarro. And while the usual suspects continued to do what they do best, 2012 Legal Business real estate team of the year, Mishcon de Reya, has strengthened its team with a key lateral hire.

Hogan Lovells is representing fellow international firm CMS Cameron McKenna over plans to move its entire London operation to the newly developed Cannon Place site above Cannon Street station, where it has agreed to take a 25-year lease, when it vacates its existing premises at Mitre House in 2015. The scheme is a joint venture between international real estate firm Hines and Network Rail. Continue reading “Real estate round up: Hogan Lovells, BLP and Nabarro show credentials while Mishcons makes key hire”