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NHSLA looks to control growing legal spend in panel review

Newly appointed NHS Litigation Authority (NHSLA) chief executive Catherine Dixon’s priority will be getting value for money and using law firms to engage with NHS trusts as she prepares for a legal panel review later this year.

Dixon joined the NHSLA in April from the NSPCC where she was general counsel and company secretary. She was previously head of legal at Bupa and in private practice at Eversheds. She replaces outgoing NHSLA chief executive Steve Walker.

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IP review: No quarter given

In-house teams are generally cutting back on legal spend with law firms but IP is a trend buster. As budgets continue to be squeezed, how can law firms run profitable IP businesses that offer good value?

According to his biography, published late last year, the late Steve Jobs was so incensed by Android’s alleged similarities to his beloved iPhone that he vowed to spend every cent of the $40bn Apple had in the bank defeating its rivals in court if he had to. And given the persistent arms race between Apple and the likes of Nokia, HTC, Samsung and Motorola, it seems no-one embroiled in the high-stakes smartphone and tablet wars is particularly concerned about cutting back on legal spend anytime soon.

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The College of Law – For Sale

 

LB meets Nigel Savage, the man responsible for turning around the fortunes of the College of Law

Professor Nigel Savage, chief executive of The College of Law (CoL), is eating his second breakfast of the day, Marmite on toast. ‘I’ve got an incredible metabolism,’ he says as he takes the lift up to a third-floor classroom at the CoL’s smart campus in London’s Moorgate. He finishes his toast, and settles in for our interview with a huge cup of tea. Over the course of the hour he stands up, paces the room, puts his feet up on a chair and bangs his hand on the table when he needs to emphasise a point.

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Real estate – In The House

 

In the first of a series of looks at the UK’s top in-house lawyers, LB profiles a few GCs who are turning heads in the property market

There was a time when private practice lawyers looked down their noses at their in-house counterparts. The logic went that in-housers had swapped the fat fees of private practice for an easier life that would let them get home in time for tea. But not anymore. Over the past few years, the role of the in-house lawyer has grown from taking a back seat to outside counsel to becoming the true powerbrokers in their respective fields. 

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The glue that binds

As the Swiss Verein legal structure becomes increasingly popular among global law firms, the debate hots up over whether its use is a true representation of global expansion. But what is a Verein and who does it benefit?

The Swiss Verein is all the rage. Law firms have turned to the legal structure to help co-ordinate large international mergers, modelling their expansive structures after the Big Four accounting firms: KPMG, PwC, Deloitte and Ernst & Young. With the appetite for mergers continuing unabated in 2012, as seen recently with the March collaboration of King & Wood Mallesons, the Verein seems to be the structure of choice for law firms.

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Middle East: New order

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There is something momentous unfolding in the Gulf. The wave of protests and general revolutionary feeling that has swept through the Middle East since December 2010, otherwise known as the Arab Spring, has seen governments ousted in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen, while civil unrest has even battered the traditionally stable reputations of financial centres such as Bahrain and Kuwait.

Law firms have been just as affected by the tide of uncertainty as any other business and the dramatic extent of regional turmoil has seen international law firms downsize in their droves across the Middle East. As traditional thinking goes, any degree of change creates opportunities; however, the sheer scale and velocity of the market disruption makes this particular situation uncharted territory. Generally speaking, firms remain optimistic about economic growth across the region’s hotspots and recruiters are already starting to see the market look towards replenishing those areas that were the first to be cut back in 2009 and early 2010. So it seems that the outlook for the main financial centres is one of subdued growth following a few lean years. How are the region’s law firms poised to meet demand? Continue reading “Middle East: New order”

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Portugal – Going Private

Despite its worst recession in decades, Portugal’s recent privatisation programme has sparked renewed investment interest. LB asks whether selling off the country’s prized assets can cure the woes of its legal market

With Portugal’s GDP expected to fall by 4.5% in 2012 and a series of hikes on VAT, corporate and individual income tax included in the 2012 Portuguese state budget, the country’s economy hardly appears inviting. Following its 2011 €78bn bailout (the Troika Memorandum) by the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund, Portugal has been forced to introduce a comprehensive privatisation programme that includes the energy and airports sectors, as well as the insurance and media industries.

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Portugal – Getting Away

In response to a struggling domestic market, Portugal’s leading law firms are increasingly seeking opportunities in former Portuguese colonies. LB assesses the different international strategies being employed by the country’s top legal practices

Aside from a spate of short-term privatisation work (see ‘Going private’), Portugal’s transactional lawyers continue to bemoan the demise of their national M&A pipelines. In order to bolster growth, the country’s major law firms are venturing to Portuguese-speaking jurisdictions where the legal systems are similar and investment is flowing.

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Product liability and nanotechnology: an update

While the use of nanomaterials continues to grow, for some, concerns remain regarding the potential risks of using these materials and whether there is an adequate regulatory framework. Following up on an article published in The In-House Lawyer in May 2012, Sarah Croft, of Shook Hardy & Bacon International, assesses developments in the regulatory environment for nanomaterials and considers the product liability implications for manufacturers using them.

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Dewey needs to take its head out of the sand

As LB was going to press, news emerged that Dewey & LeBoeuf was set to lose its recently acquired London private equity team, which includes two partners and nine associates, to McDermott Will & Emery. So another two partners have jumped ship, bringing the total number of partner exits close to 70 since the turn of the year. It is entirely possible that by the time you read this, further departures will have occurred.

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Dewey management in denial as exits continue

Management at Dewey & LeBoeuf has reacted defensively to widespread partner exits in 2012, contending the firm’s position is ‘strong’ and that it will ‘meet its financial targets for the year’.

Dewey has already seen a mass exodus of partners from its business since the start of the year, with almost 70 partners having departed – one of the highest number of partner departures in such a short timeframe.

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Clydes outlines global strategy following Hong Kong exits

Clyde & Co saw seven partners leave its Hong Kong arm in April. Significantly, the departures were all former Barlow Lyde & Gilbert (BLG) partners that Clydes inherited following the two firms’ merger last year.

‘Our strategy in Hong Kong has been to focus on corporate insurance,’ said Peter Hasson, chief executive at Clydes. ‘The loss of our more generalist insurance team in Hong Kong is not an issue for us.’

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Brazilian Bar expected to vote to end foreign associations

With the International Relations Committee of the Brazilian Bar Association (OAB) due to vote on suggested changes to the country’s Bar rules, LB has obtained a copy of the proposals up for discussion.

Drafted by attorney Carlos Roberto Siqueira Castro, partner in Rio de Janeiro-headquartered litigation outfit Siqueira Castro Advogados, the report pushes for a major reinforcement of the existing rules governing international law firms practising in the country.

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Jones Day keen to boost London headcount after departures

Jones Day, one of the largest law firms in the Global 100 by headcount, is most commonly recognised for its US strengths, but John Phillips, partner-in-charge of the London office, says the firm is keen to expand its UK offering: ‘We have to develop in London and turn it into a main office. The plan is to recruit more people, more lateral hires.’

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24% of large UK firms earn more than half of revenues overseas

Nearly a quarter of UK law firms with revenues over £50m derive more than half of their turnover from overseas, according to a recent survey by Barclays.

Three quarters of firms surveyed by the bank, of which 73% have a presence in more than five countries, pull in more than 10% of their revenues from outside the UK.

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Scams driving another bumper year for insurance firms

Leading insurance firms that reported unprecedented revenue and headcount growth in their counter-fraud teams in 2011 expect this trend to continue in 2012.

Many firms have some capability in insurance fraud, however the biggest reported growth in the sector is undoubtedly within motor fraud. This is a practice area dominated by regional and national firms such as Keoghs, Hill Dickinson, DWF, Berrymans Lace Mawer, Weightmans and DAC Beachcroft. All saw sizeable increases within their teams in 2011.

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Breaking the Circle

In 2002 LB made the bold move of placing Herbert Smith into the Magic Circle. But ten years on, has the firm kept up the pace?

What a difference a decade makes. In the April 2002 edition of LB, we sparked widespread debate when we placed Herbert Smith into the Magic Circle (see ‘Fellowship of the Circle’, LB123). We called it the ‘biggest change at the very top of the legal market since the merger of Clifford Turner and Coward Chance’ and praised the UK firm for its leading European corporate practice, its stellar financial performance and its successful challenge to the perception that it was a litigation-only firm.

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Qatari Diar Panel – The In Crowd

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Qatari Diar is a trophy client for any firm with property or Middle East pretensions: being in the property company’s good books means working on some of the most prestigious real estate and finance deals across the world. Since it began life seven years ago, The Qatari Diar Real Estate Investment Company (known to panel firms simply as ‘QD’) has battled with the Candy brothers, financed London’s newest skyscraper the ‘Shard’ and even purchased the US Embassy’s old building in Mayfair. It now has 49 projects with a combined value of $35bn under development or planning in 20 countries around the world.

And to the delight of a handpicked few, the real estate investment company finalised its first-ever law firm panel in March, with 13 different firms making the cut onto one of the six sub-panels (see box, ‘The chosen ones, page 2). Continue reading “Qatari Diar Panel – The In Crowd”

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Bevan Brittan – Don’t Look Back

Bevan Brittan’s new managing partner began work on 1 May, taking over a firm in a much stronger position than in 2008. While Duncan Weir is keen to move on and face up to future challenges, he will ensure his recent experience in helping turn the firm around will not be wasted.

Bevan Brittan wasn’t ready to participate in this feature initially. When we asked to speak to outgoing chief executive Andrew Manning and new managing partner Duncan Weir for our April issue, we were asked to hold off for a few weeks.

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