London Boroughs of Barnet and Harrow
Hugh Peart joined the London Borough of Harrow almost 20 years ago as a principal solicitor in the borough’s childcare law team. In October 2012, Barnet and Harrow officially merged their legal teams under Hugh’s leadership to form ‘HB Public Law’ with an aim to slash the councils’ legal spend by over £3m.
Continue reading “Hugh Peart – London Boroughs of Barnet and Harrow”
Worcestershire County Council
Praised by one private practice partner for his ‘deep-rooted desire’ to help his organisation deliver for the residents and businesses of Worcestershire, Simon Mallinson has always worked in the public sector and says he enjoys the large variety of work the Council offers, which takes him back to the days when he was a trainee solicitor doing different seats. ‘The difference is the buck now stops with me,’ he says.
Continue reading “Simon Mallinson – Worcestershire County Council”
Kent County Council
With 130 lawyers, Geoff Wild heads up one of the largest teams of local authority lawyers in the UK operating as an in-house trading practice. He looks for proactive dynamic entrepreneurial lawyers in his team that can demonstrate local government lawyers are not second rate compared to the private sector.
Birmingham City Council
David Tatlow heads the largest local government legal department in Europe, comprising 235 individuals, including 126 lawyers. It’s the equivalent of a medium-sized law firm and returns around £12m in turnover on average.
London Borough of Lambeth
Mark Hynes is proud of his 40 lawyer-team; particularly the way he says it has embraced new technologies and cultural change, which has reduced costs, increased output and improved staff morale. He loves the political environment the public sector offers and enjoys working alongside politicians and council officers on a wide range of issues.
HM Revenue & Customs
Anthony Inglese oversees a large team of 400 staff, of which around half are lawyers. He has historically used private practice solicitors for litigation and commercial work but has reduced this considerably to cut costs over recent years. However, external legal spend at HM Revenue & Customs currently stands at around £20m, with any spend on law firms being first approved by the Attorney General.
The Treasury Solicitor’s Department
Much of The Treasury Solicitor’s Department’s work consists of highly specialised public law, legislative work and providing advice to ministers. Most of this is done within its huge in-house team of 1,000 individuals, including 800 lawyers. However Paul Jenkins QC, one of the most high-profile lawyers in the country, does use a wide range of external law firms for other work, from claims handling of personal injury through to major commercial projects. TSol is currently in the process of reviewing its 48-strong panel of law firms, which has been ongoing since the end of 2011.
Continue reading “Paul Jenkins QC – The Treasury Solicitor’s Department”
A lot of firms talk a lot of rubbish about cohesive, collegiate partnerships these days but the competitive spirit within law firms is alive and well. Politicking, back-stabbing and underhand, cut-throat tactics are all employed to help everyone ascend the greasy pole. But there is another way. Snubbing the hard-nosed approach can work: just look at Bristows.
Land Securities has appointed Herbert Smith Freehills and Hogan Lovells to its revamped legal panel following a year-long review that ended in January. The largest commercial property company in the UK now has nine external law firms on its roster.
Group general counsel and company secretary Adrian de Souza has organised his law firms into two main panels, with Berwin Leighton Paisner, Eversheds, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Hogan Lovells and Nabarro placed on panel A, while panel B comprises Dundas & Wilson and Herbert Smith Freehills. There is also an additional specialist panel that contains Allen & Overy for finance and Clifford Chance for corporate work.
Continue reading “Herbies and Hogan Lovells win places on Land Securities panel”
RPC has beefed up its corporate practice with the hire of three of Wragge & Co’s heavyweight partners as it targets more mid-sized deals for the largest FTSE 100 and 250 companies and multinational businesses.
The City Domestic firm hired Wragges’ former managing partner Richard Haywood and corporate head Maurice Dwyer. The duo joined fellow partner David Marshall at the beginning of the year.
Haywood was managing partner at Wragges from 2003 until 2006 and was also the firm’s corporate head. Most recently, he advised Premier Foods on the £182m sale of its canning division to Princes Foods. Continue reading “RPC expands corporate practice with partner hires”
With the Financial Services Authority (FSA) issuing a record £300m of total fines in the UK in 2012, up from £65.5m in 2011, litigation teams in the City are predicting a further surge in banking litigation in 2013 thanks to the Libor scandal.
Barclays’ fine of £59.9m in June was dwarfed by UBS’ £160m fine in December. Clifford Chance and Sullivan & Cromwell were brought in to advise Barclays, while Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher advised UBS in both the US and the UK.
Continue reading “No let up for Libor claims as FSA issues record fines”
The bonus, not the pay rise, was how companies rewarded the efforts of their general counsel (GC) in 2012. This reflects a changing rewards system for GCs, and caution from the managers who employ them.
These are the findings from two recent studies on wages for in-house lawyers. The first survey from UK employment research organisation, Incomes Data Services (IDS), showed average pay increases fell below the retail prices index last year.
Continue reading “General counsel pay still bolstered by bonus culture”
The ongoing battle over what was to become of Russian oil joint venture (JV) TNK-BP finally concluded at the end of 2012, in one of the largest M&A deals of the year. Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton and Linklaters all played lead roles on TNK-BP’s multibillion-dollar sale to Russian state-owned oil giant Rosneft in December.
The deal has made Rosneft, advised by Cleary, the largest listed oil company in the world. However BP, represented by Linklaters, still has an almost 20% stake in the company after negotiating a cash plus shares sale worth $27bn. Continue reading “TNK-BP takeover saga ends in largest Russian deal ever”
SJ Berwin announced the opening of its twelth office in Luxembourg at the start of the year, in what was described as an ‘obvious’ choice of jurisdiction for the firm given the strength of its European fund formation practice.
The firm launched its office through the hire of two new partners: former Allen & Overy (A&O) lawyer Alexandrine Armstrong-Cerfontaine and tax specialist Geoffrey Scardoni, from Benelux firm Loyens & Loeff. Armstrong-Cerfontaine said the new office would focus on corporate, finance, private equity, funds and tax, and concentrate on building its relationships across the region.
Continue reading “SJ Berwin is latest international arrival in Luxembourg”
Two features this month focus on firms that have dusted themselves down and have come back fighting. For markedly different reasons, both Clifford Chance and Bristows have returned from positions of perceived weakness to enjoy something of a renaissance post-economic crisis.
In 2012 Clifford Chance was one of the stronger performers in a UK Global Elite that has been pretty beleaguered of late. Its performance in the most recent LB100 outstripped its rivals, posting a 7% growth in turnover and a 9% rise in profit per lawyer. But in particular, its corporate practice enjoyed a very strong 2012, topping mergermarket’s M&A tables for deals by value right up until the end of the year until Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom posted a trio of high-value deals in December. Continue reading “All hail the comeback kings”
Panel reviews are a cut-throat business these days, even for firms like SNR Denton and Slaughter and May. The duo was recently evicted from the Land Securities legal panel after a year-long review by group general counsel and company secretary Adrian de Souza. It seems not even the big hitters are immune to facing the chop.
After a year of significant legal market consolidation in 2012, do you think we will see more mergers involving UK law firms this year? If so, what kind of deals are most likely, and why?
AXA UK
Edward Davis has made his mark at AXA UK. He established the French insurer’s first global legal panel as part of its ‘Ambition 2012’ strategy launched back in 2004. This panel comprises 12 firms fighting over the £3m AXA spends on law firms every year.
Davis has grown his legal in-house team to 40 lawyers and manages the group legal department, group secretariat and the UK compliance team.
Legal & General Group
Geoffrey Timms considers himself an unconventional manager of a highly qualified team. He hates bureaucracy and regimentation and above all, babysitting. He likes proactive individuals who strengthen relationships, work independently and exceed targets. This also applies to the external firms he uses. ‘I like working with lawyers who understand how we work and approach issues, who go the extra mile bearing in mind all risk factors,’ he says.
Direct Line Insurance Group, RBS Insurance
With 20 years’ experience advising on legal risk management, corporate governance and commercial issues, and noted for his ‘calm good sense and his tremendous judgement’, Humphrey Tomlinson knows his stuff. He heads a legal team of 40 and a company secretariat team of about six at Direct Line.
Continue reading “Humphrey Tomlinson – Direct Line Insurance Group, RBS Insurance”
