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Irwin Mitchell promotes four non-lawyers in record partnership round

Irwin Mitchell announced yesterday (17 April) that it is to promote to partnership four non-lawyers in a bumper round of promotions.

The four will be promoted to rank of associate director, which is the equivalent of partner at the Major UK firm. They are: Manchester-based head of communications, Mark Duffell; head of talent and resourcing, Janet Sandford, and two from the operations team, David Robinson and Danny Varhalamas.

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BHP Billiton swaps Ashurst for Herbert Smith Freehills with new legal chief

BHP Billiton senior executive David Williamson is set to rejoin Ashurst in Australia, where he was a lawyer at legacy firm Blake Dawson for 28 years. It is understood that he will return in June as a partner after spending three years at the mining giant.

Williamson joined the company as head of group legal in 2010 and for almost the last two years also served as chief compliance officer.

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Clydes opens in Madrid with DAC Beachcroft insurance team

Clyde & Co yesterday (16 April) confirmed it is to open a Madrid office following the appointment of a four-partner insurance team from DAC Beachcroft’s local office.

The team of nine lawyers, including insurance partners Ignacio Figuerol, Ricardo Garrido, Pablo Guillen and Miguel Relano, have resigned to establish the office for Clyde & Co, extending the firm’s international footprint to 18 locations across Europe, America and Asia.

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Bar Council launches nursery service following six-year campaign

The Bar Council yesterday (16 April) launched the first ever Bar nursery at Smithfield House, in a bid to support working parents.

The central London childcare facility is the result of a campaign by the Bar Nursery Association, which was established in 2007 with the aim of promoting a family-friendly working environment and to retain female professionals after having children.

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Clifford Chance partner takes up governance role at Deutsche Bank

Deutsche Bank today (17 April) announced the appointment of Clifford Chance partner Daniela Weber-Rey as chief governance officer and deputy global head compliance in its Frankfurt office.

Weber-Rey, who is a long-serving corporate partner at Clifford Chance, will join Europe’s biggest bank by assets in June, overseeing corporate governance globally and acting as adviser to the management board on the governance structures and processes of the bank.

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Freshfields makes high-profile lateral hire with Shearman’s Pick

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has scored a significant coup in hiring respected Shearman & Sterling partner and head of global project development and finance Tim Pick to boost its energy and natural resources capability.

Pick, described as ‘outstanding in all respects’ in the latest edition of The Legal 500, will join as a finance partner in London and will focus on advising clients in the energy and natural resources sector in Europe, Africa and the Middle East.

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CMS Cameron McKenna overhauls partnership structure

CMS Cameron McKenna will reform its partnership remuneration model on 1 May, enabling salaried partners to become equity partners quicker but increasing management scrutiny on performance.

After 18 months of deliberation, the firm voted in favour of discontinuing its salaried partner level recently, achieving the required 80% majority needed to push the reforms through.

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Taylor Wessing snares Harbottles IP head Owen

Taylor Wessing (TW) has secured a prominent lateral hire to its intellectual property team, recruiting the head of Harbottle & Lewis’ IP Group Mark Owen.

The arrival of Owen will add further strength to TW’s leading soft IP practice. The former Clifford Chance lawyer has advised significant media and entertainment clients on copyright, designs, trade mark, database rights and data privacy issues for the last 25 years.

‘Mark’s focus on new media clients and digital convergence issues aligns perfectly with Taylor Wessing’s TMT offering, while his excellent contacts and experience in Silicon Valley will be a real asset to our international practice,’ said Tim Eyles, Taylor Wessing’s UK managing partner.

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Trophy US hire for Freshfields as it lures former head of DoJ’s crime division

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has recruited former acting head of the criminal division at the Department of Justice (DoJ) to bolster its US white-collar practice.

Matthew Friedrich joins from US litigation firm Boies, Schiller & Flexner, where he had a partner since 2009. Prior to this, he spent 13 years at the DoJ in various leadership roles including the assistant attorney general for the criminal department, where he managed a team of 740 individuals on fraud, intellectual property and cross-border transactions by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS).

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Capital ideas – the law firm model is as stable as you make it

It’s a sobering sign of what we’ve been reduced to when we’re praising firms for doing the obvious. This time it’s the pioneering technique of holding a little cash back to cover investment, working capital and future partner drawings, rather than doling it all out to equity partners almost as soon as it comes through the door.

Field Fisher Waterhouse (FFW) and Dentons are the latest proponents of the dark art of prudence – FFW confirming it would hold back its ‘special’ profit distribution in March, while Dentons has delayed some payments over the last 18 months from the 2011/12 financial year.

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Consolidation update: Thomas Eggar secures takeover of City boutique Pritchard Englefield

South East stalwart Thomas Eggar is to absorb City boutique Pritchard Englefield as the run of consolidation within the UK top 100 continues.

The merger, which will go live on 1 May and roughly doubles the size of Thomas Eggar’s City arm, will see the 58-partner firm increase its revenue from £36m to £42m. The duo will unite under the Thomas Eggar brand.

The acquisition of the 30-lawyer City practice has been billed as substantially bolstering Thomas Eggar’s profile as an institutional adviser.

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Redundancies: Pinsent Masons to lose 13 fee-earners in employment reshuffle

Pinsent Masons is to cut 13 fee-earners from its employment practice in a third round of redundancies since the firm’s merger with McGrigors last May.

The firm was keen to emphasise that this latest round of cuts was unrelated to the 62 support roles lost last year but instead come as a result of department restructuring.

In a statement, Pinsents said: ‘As a firm we continue to grow and have made a number of strategic investments over the past 12 months in those sectors and markets where we see most potential for growth.

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Dundas & Wilson woes continue as it loses private equity duo to Mishcons

Dundas & Wilson has lost private equity partners Simon Sale and Nadim Meer to Mishcon de Reya, the latest in a series of partner exits from the Scottish firm.

Sale and Meer will move to 300-lawyer Mishcon, along with senior associate Allison Keyse, once the terms of their exits have been agreed. They will join current Mishcon private equity partners Kevin McCarthy and Andrew Rimmington and the intention is that they will bring clients with them. Before joining Dundas, both worked at Hammonds (now Squire Sanders).

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Stewart steps out of Goldstein shadow as Olswang hands popular head another term

TMT specialist Olswang has re-elected long-time head David Stewart as chief executive for another three years.

Before being elected chief executive, Stewart was the firm’s managing partner since 2007. He has been a driving force behind the corporate media specialist’s attempt to refashion itself as a credible international player. As important, Stewart was charged with becoming the public face of Olswang when thrusting and high profile chief executive Jonathan Goldstein announced his departure six years ago.

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Global London top 50

The firms that appear in Global London are the 50 largest non-UK originated firms in London, ranked by headcount.

Partner and lawyer numbers were all requested as full-time equivalent averages for 2012. All partner hires were up to and including February 2013. Total lawyer numbers include partners, associates, assistants and trainees but not paralegals. An average exchange rate for the year 2012 was used for Global London. This was £1=$1.58474. Full table follows…

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