The success of litigation-focused firms is again in evidence today (3 July) as Stewarts Law announced an increase in turnover of 29.5% to £45.2m for 2012/13 and average profits per equity partner of £1.1m.
The litigation boutique has seen its turnover almost quadruple from £11.9m in 2007/08 while net profit has hit £20.5m, following a year of key lateral hires and international expansion. Continue reading “Litigation drives growth as Stewarts Law sees PEP break the £1m barrier”
A high profile Court of Appeal decision has today (3 July) seen Weil Gotshal & Manges and Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan see off a challenge against the Barclay brothers and their associated companies over the ownership of three iconic London hotels.
Sir Frederick and Sir David Barclay, represented by Weil Gotshal’s head of litigation Matthew Shankland, successfully defended an appeal by Irish developer Patrick McKillen in a long running dispute over the ownership and control of Claridges, the Berkeley and the Connaught. Continue reading “Litigation watch: Weil and Quinn Emanuel successful in high profile Barclay brothers Court of Appeal case”
Having been the stand-out City player in its weight class since the 2008 banking crisis re-shaped the global legal market, Allen & Overy (A&O) has this year seen a relative slow-down in growth as the firm becomes the first Magic Circle practice to unveil its 2012/13 results.
The 525-partner law firm saw a 0.6% increase in revenues for its year to April 2013, with income hitting £1.19bn. Profit per equity partner was also flat at £1.1m while total profits before tax were up 2% to £496.7m. Continue reading “After the surge a pause – expansive A&O sees a lull in growth as first Magic Circle player confirms 2013 results”
Tough new proposed sentencing guidelines for bribery have been published in a consultation which closes in early October.
The proposals are contained in a document running to 130 pages which deals with proposed sentencing guidelines for fraud, bribery and money laundering offences. Continue reading “Guest post: Criminalising corporate law – proposed UK fraud penalties take a leaf out of the US sentencing guidelines”
White & Case has made no secret of its strategic objective to boost its global capital markets capability and last week saw a debt capital markets (DCM) team join in Milan from Magic Circle rival Allen & Overy (A&O).
A&O’s DCM and regulatory partner Paola Leocani (pictured) joins the Milan office alongside counsel Elena Radicella Chiaramonte, two senior associates, an associate and two trainees.
Rated by Legal 500 as third-tier for ECM and DCM in Italy, White & Case claims that it is now one of the only firms in the region with a full spectrum of capital markets and regulatory services across products, at a time when Italy has seen a decrease in bank lending and a corresponding growth in DCM. Continue reading “White & Case continues capital markets drive as Milan boasts full DCM suite”
SJ Berwin has scored a significant victory in the important tech area of intellectual property rights in cloud data storage, successfully representing broadcaster Sky on its successful trade mark infringement claim against US software giant Microsoft.
In a dispute dating back to 2011, the High Court ruled last week that the IT giant’s ‘SkyDrive’ cloud service infringed Sky’s brand in the UK and Europe. Sky had filed a claim over a breach of UK and Community trade marks following Microsoft’s use of ‘SkyDrive’ for cloud storage solution. Continue reading “Litigation watch: SJ Berwin wins IP battle for Sky against Microsoft”
Magic Circle firm shines with 7% revenue spike in flat market
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has led the Magic Circle for 2012/13 financial results in a year that has seen the UK’s elite turn out flat annual turnover and profits, while many of the UK’s top 50 reveal spikes in revenue largely generated by international expansion.
Freshfields has revealed a 7% revenue increase from £1.139bn to £1.22bn, with profit per equity partner (PEP) rising by 11% to £1,439,000.
Headline deals for the firm have included its role advising the government on the long-running IPO of Royal Mail, and advising Betfair on CVC Capital Partners’ £910m takeover bid. For Q1 of 2013, Freshfields was ranked by mergermarket in third place for global M&A behind US firms Davis Polk & Wardwell and Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, and second for global buyouts behind Kirkland & Ellis.
Continue reading “Financial results round-up: Freshfields tops UK elite firms”
Hogan Lovells’ senior management has begun discussions over whether to retain the firm’s dual US-UK chief executive (CEO) structure or continue with a single head if UK CEO David Harris steps down as expected next year.
Harris (pictured) and US counterpart Warren Gorrell have opened the discussion on succession plans with the transatlantic firm’s board, which in turn will canvass the appetite of partners to move to a single leader now the merger of UK firm Lovells and Washington DC’s Hogan & Hartson is three years down the line.
The ten-strong board includes longstanding legacy Lovells City partners Nicholas Cheffings, who also acts as global chair, and finance partner Emily Reid. US members include new appointees Cole Finegan (Denver) and Dan González (Miami), who replaced New York-based Marc Gottridge and Hamburg-based Andreas Meyer respectively in May.
BT has begun an extensive legal process outsourcing (LPO) tender for its work in India and the US and is expecting to introduce a new provider for UK work as the telecoms giant moves to outsource over 30% of its UK global services legal work.
The move comes as the FTSE 100 company’s alternative business structure (ABS) arm, BT Law, has won three new contracts and looks to be used as a platform to turn the legal department from a cost to a profit centre, including potentially offering employment law advice.
BT general counsel (GC) Dan Fitz and new director of compliance Gareth Tipton say they are midway through the tender with providers including incumbent UnitedLex – which already takes on 30% of the global services division’s legal work in the UK. The process will take up to three months to complete.
Continue reading “BT moves to extend its use of legal outsourcing in the UK”
Law firms look outside City to meet client cost expectations
It is a sign of the times that the majority of City partners can’t understand the fuss around Ashurst’s new low-cost base in Scotland.
The top-15 UK firm announced in mid-June that it is to create a 150-strong unit in Glasgow, headed by former Dundas & Wilson partner Michael Polson, which will cover back office support and volume legal work, initially document review in litigation and corporate.
The move echoes earlier initiatives, launched to more fanfare, by Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) (then just Herbert Smith) and Allen & Overy (A&O), which set up volume support operations in Belfast in 2011 and 2012 respectively as a means of lowering client costs.
Continue reading “Ashurst’s new Glasgow unit ‘part of a continuing trend’”
Last month court staff across the country took the unusual step of going on strike in a rare show of solidarity among all strands of the legal profession against the Ministry of Justice (MoJ)’s controversial proposals to slice £220m off the £1.2bn annual criminal legal aid budget.
The strike, while said by lawyers and court officials alike to have caused little disruption, stands out for being part of a series of measures taken by the ordinarily fragmented profession to emphasise its profound disapproval of reforms proposed by justice secretary Chris Grayling, including the introduction of price competitive tendering (PCT), the removal of the automatic right to legal aid for defendants with disposable income of more than £37,500 and the restriction of the right for defendants to choose their own solicitor.
Continue reading “Legal profession forms united front on proposed cuts to legal aid”
IPO market set for best year since 2007
While corporate partners continue to protest about the lack of large mandates this year, when it comes to the IPO market, conditions are undoubtedly looking up – for now. The London Stock Exchange has had the best year to date for UK company floats since 2007, with nine flotations to date totalling $4.5bn (£2.86bn), according to Dealogic.
This time last year there had been just one float, raising $48m (£31m).
Stock market volatility remains an issue, with deal lawyers including Norton Rose Fulbright equity capital markets (ECM) partner Mark Lloyd Williams – who advised on the February float of house builder Crest Nicholson Holdings (£553m) – referring to conditions as ‘choppy’ and indicating that the position is kept under review from week to week.
David Stevenson surveys a fast-changing buyout landscape to find US ‘barbarians’ once again pressing in on City leaders
Unfortunately for top City firms looking to defend their position in private equity, it takes more than a five-year freeze in credit markets and a sustained downturn in leveraged buyouts to stop foreign rivals trying to move in on their patch.
Such a dynamic has once again thrown scrutiny on Linklaters’ now decade-long effort to carve a credible position in the private equity market and the position of Clifford Chance (CC), by contrast traditionally established as the market leader in Europe’s buyout scene.
In the former case, the debate continues among peers (and some internally at Silk Street) over the extent to which Linklaters has forged a practice worthy of its much-vaunted general corporate team. In CC’s case, a purple patch in public M&A last year arguably did not extend to private equity, while the firm has had to contend with the resignation in April of global head of private equity David Walker for Latham & Watkins.
Alistair Asher takes on GC role as firm acts on major bank rescue
Securing a major deal and having one of your partners take a senior role with the same client is a nice trick to pull off but Allen & Overy (A&O) appeared to have managed that last month after securing a lead role on the Co-op’s rescue plan and ‘donating’ a veteran partner to the lender’s management team.
On 18 June, A&O confirmed that global financial institutions head Alistair Asher is leaving to join the Co-operative Bank as its new general counsel.
Asher will advise on the restructuring of the mutually owned lender and help speed up its management overhaul under its new chief executive Euan Sutherland. Asher retired on 1 July after 34 years with the Magic Circle firm and took on the new role immediately. The veteran partner had previously advised the Co-op on its 2009 merger with Britannia Building Society.
Longstanding Magic Circle client warns creditors that it could face administration
Slaughter and May is advising Punch Taverns on its £2.4bn securitised debt restructuring as the UK’s largest pub company warns creditors it could face administration.
On 10 June a powerful group of lenders rejected plans to reduce the pub group’s interest payments to £32m a year. Slaughters, led by corporate partner David Johnson is advising longstanding client Punch, which owns around 5,000 pubs across the UK.
Under the revised plans, Punch asked senior bondholders to approve a reduction in debt service payments of £600m over five years. However, a special committee set up by the Association of British Insurers to represent lenders rejected the plans last month, dismissing them as ‘vague’ and only a marginal improvement on proposals submitted in March.
Continue reading “Slaughters leads on Punch Taverns £2.4bn debt restructuring”
RollOnFriday founder Matthew Rhodes argues it is education – not an increasingly meritocratic profession – that is to blame for lack of social mobility in law.
Earlier this year Westminster School offered a mini-pupillage at a barrister’s chambers as a lot in a charity auction. The story hit the national press – The Guardian fumed: ‘Fancy a career in the law? A mini-pupillage with a criminal barrister can be Freddie’s for offers over £650.’ The Social Mobility Foundation complained, the Bar Standards Board felt obliged to investigate. All hell broke loose, over a week’s work experience for a teenager.
A bit of an overreaction? Given the kicking the profession is currently getting for not providing sufficiently broad access, perhaps it’s an understandable one.
I declare an interest: I went to Westminster. A few weeks before this story broke I attended a dinner for lawyers who had been at the school. The 80-odd guests that turned up included five High Court judges, the Attorney General and the President of the Supreme Court. From just one school. Alan Milburn, whose 2012 ‘Fair Access to Professional Careers’ report castigated the profession for not doing enough to encourage social diversity, would have had a seizure.
Supreme Court decision hailed as end to ‘cheat’s charter’
The landmark divorce battle between Yasmin and Michael Prest came to an end last month as the Supreme Court on 12 June ruled Mr Prest should hand over properties held by companies under his control.
The ruling – the most significant divorce case to reach the UK’s highest court since the 2010 judgment in Radmacher v Granatino – has been touted as instrumental in establishing whether London remains a key forum for resolving big-money divorce cases. The case has also been watched for its impact on the court’s treatment of the corporate veil, which protects company assets.
The background to the long-running dispute – Prest v Petrodel Resources – is well trodden. In 2011, the High Court ruled that wealthy oil trader Mr Prest was worth at least £37.5m and should pay his ex-wife a £17.5m settlement. Included in that settlement was a £4m house in west London owned by one of Mr Prest’s companies, which Mr Justice Moylan ordered to be transferred in part payment of the settlement. However, last October Lord Justices Rimer and Patten allowed an appeal by the oil trader’s companies, ruling that on principle shareholders are not entitled to treat their companies’ assets as their own.
Continue reading “Landmark Prest v Petrodel Resources verdict reached”
The former BLP partner on taking the GC seat at a fast-growing online gaming firm
When David McLeish left Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) to become general counsel (GC) of the world’s largest publicly-traded gaming software company, he figured it would present a new challenge. The FTSE 250-listed Playtech has certainly not disappointed. A fast-paced Israeli company with a pronounced work ethic, acquisitive mind-set and cash burning a hole in its pockets, the company is also operating in jurisdictions around the world where the licensing rules surrounding gambling are far from black and white.
McLeish left BLP in May 2012 to join Playtech, a client of four years, which was about to list on the main market of the London Stock Exchange. Describing his specialism at BLP as ‘corporate, gaming, hotels and leisure’, he says ‘the opportunity to become the GC of a FTSE 250 company was too good to turn down’. Like many private practice lawyers who have worked for a client for many years, he was also attracted to the idea of seeing deals through to the end and being part of a business.
Two months after his arrival, then AIM-listed Playtech – which provides branded software for online casinos, poker rooms, bingo games and sports betting for the likes of bet365, William Hill and Ladbrokes – floated with a market capitalisation of around £1bn. That figure is now £2bn and the company’s revenue has risen from €111.5m in 2008 to €317.6m in 2012.
If you are going to finally do a global merger, it would be fitting for one of the most distinctive City practices to hook up with the great outlier of the Global 100. That is what is on the agenda for SJ Berwin as it this summer mulls an outline deal to combine with King & Wood Mallesons (KWM), the ground-breaking union between the top commercial law firms in China and Australia.
And what an outlier KWM is. When large mergers happen in the profession, a received wisdom among clients and peers soon takes hold. But since KWM was formed in March 2012, creating a 2,100-lawyer Asia-Pacific giant, consensus has resolutely failed to emerge. For some, it is a world-beater with an unmatchable position in the most powerful economic region of the 21st century. For others, it is a desperate act by two firms who had saturated their domestic markets and faced the awkward reality that their businesses won’t easily go global. After all, Australian and People’s Republic of China law travels badly and the increasingly heavily-lawyered and fee-sensitive Asia-Pacific region is currently struggling to live up to expectations.
It’s been three years since the trailblazing transatlantic pairing of Hogan & Hartson and Lovells. Legal Business assesses if the much-touted marriage is living up to expectations
Rarely for a June evening in London, the sun was shining on the rooftop bar as the Legal Business journalist by chance ran into a senior partner at Hogan Lovells. ‘I have to ask, as we’re doing a piece on the firm, three years on, how do you think it’s going?’ The reply was to the point: ‘I saw the e-mail telling us not to talk to your journalists. Well, what do you want to know?’
