With the Jackson reforms recently instigated, the market is divided about how the introduction of damages-based agreements (DBAs) will impact the litigation market.
Under the reforms, which came into effect on 1 April, litigators will be allowed to accept cases under DBAs for the first time. However, litigators say the lack of clarity about how the new rules work will inhibit their use.
Continue reading “Litigation market polarised as Jackson reforms take effect”
The initial numbers to emerge from the US reporting season indicate a relatively resilient performance in 2012 for the world’s largest legal market.
A series of firms have so far posted headline financial results, including Latham & Watkins, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan and White & Case, with the majority achieving growth in profits and fee income.
Latham reported growth of 3.4% with the top five US firm’s revenue hitting $2.23bn, up from $2.15bn for the 2011 year. PEP also grew 7.4% to $2.44m and the firm reported an increase of 2.4% in revenue per lawyer, which hit $1.1m in 2012.
Continue reading “Latest US profits show positive early signs”
With HMV, Jessops and Blockbuster all entering into administration in the first few weeks of 2013, leading City firms have scored significant instructions.
Linklaters is involved in the administration of HMV, with restructuring and insolvency partners Richard Hodgson and Richard Bussell taking the lead. Linklaters had also been advising the lenders, The Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group, to HMV Group since the beginning of 2011 and banking partner Chris Howard continues to advise the lenders. Continue reading “Insolvency teams line up on high-profile failures”
DWF is set to acquire Cobbetts in a pre-pack deal, after the struggling Manchester-based firm called in administrators KPMG last month.
The top 40 UK firm announced its intentions to acquire Cobbetts almost a year after merger attempts by the two firms failed. At the time, a joint statement said talks had finished because of ‘continuing uncertain market conditions’.
Under the agreement, DWF will take on 419 staff, including partners, from the fallen firm in Leeds, Manchester, London and Birmingham. The DWF deal does not include Cobbetts’ debt recovery team, Incasso, while Walker Morris has taken the firm’s 24-strong financial litigation team.
Continue reading “DWF looks to acquire a stricken Cobbetts in pre-pack deal”
Barclays, one of the UK’s largest banks, has started its hunt for a new general counsel (GC) following the retirement of Mark Harding.
Harding’s decision to step down was announced in early February and comes after ten years at the bank. In a statement, the bank’s chief executive Antony Jenkins said that the rationale behind the move was ‘grounded in wanting to do what is best for the bank’.
Barclays is now looking for someone to replace Harding and to head up its group in-house department, which has over 200 lawyers. Because of the seniority of the role, Barclays said the process could take a considerable amount of time, however speculation is already rising over where the bank will find its next recruit. Continue reading “Barclays begins search for new general counsel”
Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) has been hit by a string of key departures from its lucrative disputes practice.
Simon Bushell, who co-chaired the corporate fraud and asset tracing group at HSF, is set to join Latham & Watkins’ City office imminently. His departure marks the fourth high-profile litigation exit since the start of the year after Martyn Hopper, who was head of the firm’s successful financial services regulation practice, and Nikunj Kiri both left for Linklaters in January.
Continue reading “HSF sees more City departures but secures German launch”
City firms Field Fisher Waterhouse (FFW) and Travers Smith have overhauled senior management, with each seeing new appointments to the top roles.
Head of technology and outsourcing Michael Chissick has been named FFW’s new managing partner, replacing Matthew Lohn, who will take up the re-introduced role of senior partner.
Chissick said: ‘I am leading the firm through a transformation. We want to move away from the negative market perception and create a firm culture that is modern and forward thinking.’
Continue reading “FFW and Travers Smith shake up senior roles”
Pinsent Masons is set to launch a contract lawyer service that will provide clients with access to lawyers on a temporary basis as and when they are needed.
‘Vario’ will offer in-house teams a group of freelance lawyers with a variety of experience to cover anything from fixed-term projects to maternity leave. The move follows clients’ increased demand for flexible lawyers and addresses the core issues of resource, cost and skills that often affect the in-house legal teams.
Pinsents partner Alison Bond, who heads Vario, said: ‘Clients are increasingly asking for access to flexible resources. However, we wanted to take the idea a step further and launch the next generation of this type of service. Continue reading “Pinsents launches flexi-lawyer service for clients”
Liberty Global’s $23.3bn acquisition of Virgin Media and Dell’s proposed $24.4bn leveraged buyout have deal finance advisers asking whether this is a signal that leveraged buyout deals are making a comeback.
The pair of mega deals were announced last month within weeks of each other and have handed roles to a raft of advisers on both sides of the Atlantic.
Virgin Media turned to New York firm Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson for M&A advice, with senior counsel Arthur Fleischer Jr on the US corporate side and London corporate partner Richard May on the UK aspects.
Continue reading “Leverage starts to resurface in dormant market”
Dundas & Wilson has confirmed the departure of three more partners from the firm’s London arm. Corporate partners Julian Mathews and Simon Sale, along with banking and finance partner Michael Wrigley, have decided to leave the Scots leader, which has faced a difficult few years by any yardstick.
These moves, which were confirmed in February, compound an unsettled time for the firm’s London office. The City practice last year saw Martin Thomas, one of its top litigators, leave for Wragge & Co, along with banking partner John Pike, who quit for Osborne Clarke. More recent senior departures include TMT partner Paul Graham, who left for Field Fisher Waterhouse, while real estate partner Nick Padget left for Osborne Clarke. The latest departures have raised familiar questions about the firm’s London ambitions.
Continue reading “Dundas departures reflect pressure on Scots firms”
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer is launching a scholarship with the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust (SLCT) to help students from black and ethnic minorities gain access to the profession.
The scholarship will allow four successful male candidates committed to pursuing a career in the legal profession to receive a £3,500 annual contribution towards living expenses, as well as training, mentoring, work experience at Freshfields and a guaranteed interview for a training contract.
Continue reading “Freshfields to provide scholarships for aspiring black lawyers”
Oxymoronic as it sounds, news that Barclays general counsel (GC) Mark Harding is to depart has been received as startling and yet not entirely a surprise. Barclays had been engulfed in a series of escalating controversies in recent years spanning mis-selling, tax advice, and – most damagingly – allegations of rigging institutional interest rates. While there has been no suggestion that Harding or Barclays’ legal team shoulders any blame, incoming chief executive Antony Jenkins has gone out of his way to signal a total break with the culture under predecessor Bob Diamond, who last year stood down as the Libor investigation generated a record fine against the bank.
Continue reading “Rising clout means a new kind of corporate politics for GCs”
With Cobbetts entering into administration, are we likely to see more law firms in trouble this year? Why?/Why not?
If there’s one thing the last 20 years have taught us at LB, it’s that the legal profession carries on regardless. The UK may have entered into a double-dip recession despite quantitative easing; the US and a number of European countries may have seen their credit ratings downgraded; M&A may have dried up and the global debt markets may be in stasis, but the UK’s top 100 law firms continue to post record growth and trend-busting profits. The industry has again showed its remarkable resilience and stability.
Continue reading “Legal Business 100 2012: Interactive main table”
Clifford Chance’s corporate practice had a stonking year in 2012, rocketing up the league tables and scoring roles on four of the ten largest M&A deals globally. Little wonder Matthew Layton was handed a second four-year term at the helm. Vive la revolution.
By anyone’s measure, Clifford Chance (CC) had a stupendous year for M&A work in 2012, appearing on four of the ten largest deals that took place worldwide and ranking second at year-end by deal value, up from 22nd two years ago. According to mergermarket, CC worked on 197 announced deals with a combined value of £156bn, nudging ahead of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and relegating Linklaters to fifth in the league tables.
Continue reading “Stepping Up – Clifford Chance’s corporate revolution”
White-collar crime work was once the comfy preserve of niche London law firms that knew their way around the inside of a police station. Not any more. But as the big international players stake a claim, the boutiques are standing their ground.
When the Bribery Act came into force in July 2011, it shook the world of white-collar crime to its core. In one fell swoop the UK became home to the most stringent legislation combating corruption in the world, going beyond the scope of America’s Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). Its strict measures created a worldwide trend of amplified anti-corruption enforcement, which is now booming in a similar fashion to competition law in the nineties, and the established legal market players found themselves with a fight on their hands.
Continue reading “Committed to Crime – boutique firms and White-collar Crime”
Home to more well-mannered boffins in its all-equity partnership than you can shake a stick at and with no international offices, Bristows is an unconventional LB100 hero. LB meets the co-managing partners of the firm that has outclassed many in the last five years.
You know you’re at a different kind of law firm when you discover that every meeting room in Bristows’ offices is named after a famous scientist. On a miserable, wet December morning, co-managing partners Iain Redford (left) and Mark Watts (right) are sitting in a room named after Michael Faraday, who discovered how magnetic forces could affect the flow of an electrical current. It’s appropriate because there’s no denying that the forces at play at Bristows these days are compelling.
With litigation funders having established their own industry regulator and starting to move into arbitration cases, there are more reasons to believe that third-party funding is here in a big way
Leslie Perrin, chairman of litigation funder Calunius Capital, remembers the atmosphere in New York during the autumn of 2008 when he was attempting to raise money for Calunius’s inaugural litigation fund. Tumbleweed was rolling down Wall Street and Citigroup’s share price was plunging by the second. It was an inauspicious time for raising capital.
4-5 Gray’s Inn Square has merged with Public law set Atlas Chambers in a bid to boost headcount following a swathe of barrister exits late last year.
The tie-up will see Atlas director John Lister and his team of eight barristers move in with 4-5 Gray’s Inn Square, which was hit by the exit of 24 members including seven QCs, in November last year (See: 39 Essex Street takeover heralds new dawn) and a further four clerks earlier this year. Both groups joined 39 Essex Street.
Continue reading “4-5 Gray’s Inn Square merges with public law specialists Atlas Chambers”
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer is launching a scholarship with the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust (SLCT) to help students from black and ethnic minorities gain access to the profession, in the latest of a string of diversity initiatives in law.
The scholarship will allow four successful male candidates committed to pursuing a career in the legal profession to receive a £3,500 annual contribution towards living expenses, training, mentoring, work experience at Freshfields and a guaranteed interview for a training contract.
