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Takeover potential – Linklaters & Simmons lead on Amec’s £700m bid for Kentz

Linklaters and
Simmons & Simmons‘ longstanding corporate relationships with Amec and Kentz have gifted them with a potentially lucrative takeover bid instruction as Kentz this week announced it had rejected a £700m offer from its larger engineering rival.

Linklaters corporate partners Shane Griffin and Aedamar Comiskey are leading the team for Amec, which it has advised on corporate matters for well over a decade. Simmons corporate partner Edward Baker is advising Kentz on the offer, which the FTSE 250 engineering company said it had rejected, together with an earlier offer in July from Germany’s M+W Group, on the basis that it undervalued the company.
Continue reading “Takeover potential – Linklaters & Simmons lead on Amec’s £700m bid for Kentz”

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Revolving Doors: Ashurst makes key energy hire in New York as Gibson Dunn and Squire Sanders expand in London

Ashurst this week announced the hire of Allen & Overy (A&O) energy partner Charles Williams in a bid to boost its New York energy, resources and infrastructure practice.

The move strengthens the firm’s position within the US public-private partnership (PPP) space – dubbed P3 in the US – an area Williams focussed on at A&O. He brings with him experience of representing the public sector, sponsors and lenders within the transportation sector and advising on renewables projects in the North, Central and South America. Continue reading “Revolving Doors: Ashurst makes key energy hire in New York as Gibson Dunn and Squire Sanders expand in London”

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UK PI bandwagon – Slater & Gordon buys Fentons and reveals 2012/13 results

Slater & Gordon today (21 August) made further inroads into the UK personal injury (PI) market as it formally announced to the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) the acquisition of leading claimant firm Fentons, although discussions with earlier merger talks partner Simpson Millar have been deferred until early 2014.

The Australian-listed firm confirmed that due diligence on 120-lawyer Fentons, which has an annual revenue of £27.7m, is substantially completed and formal business sale agreements have been executed with the London and Manchester firm. Macfarlanes advised on the deal, led by corporate partners John Dodsworth and Jessica Adam, opposite Pinsent Masons for Fentons, led by corporate partner Gregg Davison. Continue reading “UK PI bandwagon – Slater & Gordon buys Fentons and reveals 2012/13 results”

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Guest post: Could David Miranda be a “terrorist”?

There’s understandably been a great deal of reaction to the nine-hour detention at Heathrow airport of David Miranda, who was travelling as part of his work with Guardian journalists covering Edward Snowden’s disclosures, and whose laptop and memory stick were seized as a result of his detention and questioning under paragraphs 2 and 6 of Schedule 7 to the Terrorism Act 2000.

Paragraph 2(1) of Schedule 7 says that:

An examining officer may question a person to whom this paragraph applies for the purpose of determining whether he appears to be a person falling within section 40(1)(b)

and section 40(1) provides that a

“terrorist” means a person who …

(b) is or has been concerned in the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism.

So there’s no doubt: the purpose of Schedule 7 is clear. Continue reading “Guest post: Could David Miranda be a “terrorist”?”

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BLP loses head of private equity Raymond McKeeve to Jones Day

With all eyes on Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) the news that corporate finance partner and global head of private equity Raymond McKeeve has left to join US firm Jones Day’s London office could, in many ways, not have come at a worse time.

Acknowledged by Legal 500 as ‘a leading private equity specialist’ McKeeve advises many of the leading private equity houses, including Blackstone Private Equity, Darwin Private Equity and KKR. Continue reading “BLP loses head of private equity Raymond McKeeve to Jones Day”

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BAE international: defence giant rolls out UK cab rank model to Asia and ME

With the UK’s investment in defence broadly flat British defence giant BAE Systems is looking increasingly to the international markets for growth and its legal team is morphing with it.

This month, BAE’s 250-strong legal team, which counts the company’s 100,000-plus employees as its clients, rolled out its UK cab rank model – under which a pool of lawyers is available on a first-come-first-served basis – to Asia and the Middle East. Continue reading “BAE international: defence giant rolls out UK cab rank model to Asia and ME”

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Challinors administration: SGI Legal acquires personal injury work of ailing Midlands firm

The keenly-watched administration of Midlands firm Challinors this evening (20 August) led to a first sale of its personal injury caseload to Liverpool-based SGI Legal.

Birmingham-headquartered Challinors in July became the latest sizeable law firm to call in administrators, having filed a notice of intention to appoint Eric Walls and Wayne Harrison from KSA Group as administrators, who were then replaced by RSM Tenon. Continue reading “Challinors administration: SGI Legal acquires personal injury work of ailing Midlands firm”

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Revolving Doors: Linklaters hires former Herbert Smith Asia head as Clayton Utz and Norton Rose make key hires

Herbert Smith Freehills recent internal confidence that its run of post-merger exits had come to an end has been dashed after Friday (16 August) saw former Asia disputes head Gavin Lewis leave to join Linklaters.

A ‘solid and experienced litigator’, Lewis is ‘among the best in Hong Kong’ according to The Legal 500 and his departure is a blow to the firm in the wake of the exodus of other high profile litigators such as Ted Greeno to Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan earlier this year and Kevin Lloyd to Debevoise & Plimpton last year. Continue reading “Revolving Doors: Linklaters hires former Herbert Smith Asia head as Clayton Utz and Norton Rose make key hires”

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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”