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Guest post: Getting relationships right in-house

Juliet Oliver, general counsel of the Solicitors Regulation Authority

A panelist at our recent conference for in-house solicitors compared the client-lawyer relationship to a romantic one. If private practice is a fling, working in-house is a marriage.

As someone who has worked both in-house and in private practice, I can say that both rely on the ability to build and maintain strong long-term relationships, balancing the need for familiarity with independence, trust with due inquiry. Continue reading “Guest post: Getting relationships right in-house”

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Breaking: Allen & Overy and Shearman & Sterling announce merger

In what the firms describe as ‘the first fully integrated global elite law firm’ Allen & Overy and Shearman & Sterling today (21 May) announced a planned merger to create a ‘unique global law firm’ named Allen Overy Shearman Sterling – A&O Shearman for short.

In a statement, the firms said: ‘This merger will combine two of the world’s most prestigious law firms, leaders in their respective markets, to create an integrated global elite firm. Continue reading “Breaking: Allen & Overy and Shearman & Sterling announce merger”

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ClientEarth granted oral hearing to proceed with derivatives claim against Shell

ClientEarth has been granted an oral hearing to seek permission to proceed with its derivative action claim against Shell, the firm announced in a statement released today.

‘On Friday last week, the High Court of England and Wales refused permission for the lawsuit to proceed’, ClientEarth said in a 19 May statement. ‘An oral hearing has now been granted, at which ClientEarth will ask the Judge to reconsider his decision.’ Continue reading “ClientEarth granted oral hearing to proceed with derivatives claim against Shell”

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‘After Lehman collapsed, salaries still went up’: Magic Circle NQ pay rises as market cools

‘Law firms are stupid. They were stupid last time round. People forget but, after Lehman Brothers collapsed, salaries still went up. Almost automatically they still increased salaries.’ So commented Scott Gibson, director at legal recruitment consultancy Edwards Gibson, as he reflected on the recent round of NQ salary increases at the Magic Circle.

While the market may be cooling, the NQ pay war marches on with both Allen & Overy and Linklaters recently raising their NQ offerings. A&O, which last June froze NQ pay at £107,500, citing a ‘more challenging business environment’, said: ‘We have increased our NQ salaries to £125,000 p.a. in line with the market.’ Linklaters has also raised its NQ salary, from £107,500 to £125,00. Continue reading “‘After Lehman collapsed, salaries still went up’: Magic Circle NQ pay rises as market cools”

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Revolving Doors: Africa and Middle East focus for international firms as energy dominates agenda again 

Offshore oil rig with stock market overlay

 The energy sector was the focus again for a number of London firms amid a busy round of hires last week, as were the Middle East and Africa regions. 

International dispute resolution partner and chartered arbitrator Philip Norman has left Clyde & Co for CMS, where he will join the firm’s infrastructure, construction and energy (ICE) disputes team. He will work from the London office, and will maintain his focus on the Middle East and Africa.   Continue reading “Revolving Doors: Africa and Middle East focus for international firms as energy dominates agenda again “

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Dealwatch: Bakers and Weil cement €5.3bn MBCC deal as advisers see renewed energy in M&A

Shaking hands over briefcase

Amid a continued dearth of big-ticket deals, Sika’s €5.3bn acquisition of Master Builder Construction Chemicals (MBCC) Group has been the standout in recent weeks, landing lead mandates for Baker McKenzie and Weil.

The deal saw Swiss construction chemicals group Sika acquire MBCC from private equity firm Lone Star Funds, which acquired it in 2019 after BASF disposed of that part of its business. Continue reading “Dealwatch: Bakers and Weil cement €5.3bn MBCC deal as advisers see renewed energy in M&A”

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Steadying the ship: what’s next for Ince?

Ince & Co

‘Very much business as usual,’ Samantha Palmer replied when asked about Ince & Co’s future following its acquisition by Axiom. Palmer, a finance and projects partner at Pinsent Masons, is the appointed solicitor manager for Ince’s administration and is overseeing all regulatory aspects of the acquisition.

The sale was completed on 28 April, just over two weeks after the Ince Group, the listed parent company of Ince, was placed into administration following a tumultuous year. Continue reading “Steadying the ship: what’s next for Ince?”

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Revolving Doors: energy hires dominate as Global London firms bolster ranks in London and Asia

City of London

Leading the high-profile moves this week, Dentons has expanded its finance practice in London with the hire of partner John Inglis from a depleted Shearman & Sterling.

He brings with him more than 30 years’ experience in energy and infrastructure project development and finance across multiple jurisdictions. He was previously a partner at Shearman, where he spent over a decade and received recognition in the Legal 500’s Hall of Fame. Inglis has also served as a partner at Ashurst and Norton Rose Fulbright. Continue reading “Revolving Doors: energy hires dominate as Global London firms bolster ranks in London and Asia”

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Russ to step down as Travers Smith senior partner

Kathleen Russ has taken the decision to step down as senior partner of Travers Smith, following a leave of absence for ‘exceptional family reasons’.

Russ (pictured) will return to her role as senior partner in a part time capacity, sharing responsibilities with Siân Keall, who has been acting senior partner since January. Russ will stand down as a partner and senior partner on 30th June, after which she will remain as a consultant at Travers, focusing on areas of strategic importance such as ESG, D&I and client listening. Continue reading “Russ to step down as Travers Smith senior partner”

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Pallas Partners files suits against Swiss regulator over Credit Suisse bond write-down

Pallas Partners is coordinating proceedings in the Swiss courts on behalf of around 800 Credit Suisse AT1 bondholders who held securities valued at $1.7bn. The bondholders have filed claims against Swiss regulator the Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA), alleging that FINMA’s decision to write down the value of the bonds to zero as part of UBS’s acquisition of Credit Suisse should be considered invalid and the value of the bonds reinstated.

Pallas explained in a statement that the first claim was filed on 18 April on behalf of two groups of bondholders: one comprised of ‘over 90 global institutional investors and asset managers’, with holdings valued at $1.35bn, and another of ‘more than 700 retail and family office clients’, with holdings valued at over $300m. Continue reading “Pallas Partners files suits against Swiss regulator over Credit Suisse bond write-down”

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Sponsored briefing: Brought to you by Virtual Vaults

In March, Virtual Vaults attended the Corporate and M&A Summit 2023. If we learnt something from this event, it is that dealmaking in today’s volatile market brings a bunch of challenges. Virtual Vaults delivers a Virtual dealmaking platform, from due diligence preparation, to Data Room, and closing archive. We are about the here and the now in dealmaking.

As Jeroen Kruithof emphasised during the Summit, Virtual Vaults strives to lead the market rather than being the market leader. Everyone is familiar with the necessity of a VDR, but developing the right features is key for an efficient Due Diligence process. VV has always focussed on developing the best process solutions. This in combination with our intuitive User Interface, has resulted in an excellent client experience thus becoming the market leader in the Benelux. Continue reading “Sponsored briefing: Brought to you by Virtual Vaults”

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Sponsored briefing: M&A in troubled waters? Bridging the value gap

Dentons’ James Vernon reflects on how difficult economic conditions are impacting the M&A market

Geopolitical and economic volatility continues to impact the global M&A market, driving uncertainty around asset valuations. In brokering deals against this backdrop, there is an increased emphasis on the need for parties to navigate valuation gaps. In response to this, we are seeing the use of contingent consideration structures, as well as elements of non-cash consideration, feature more prevalently in M&A transactions. Continue reading “Sponsored briefing: M&A in troubled waters? Bridging the value gap”

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Oversharing? Navigating social media can be fraught but there is much to admire

It’s surprising how much conversations around social media have shifted over the last three years. There used to be a tacit understanding that LinkedIn was for professional posts only, deal announcements, partner moves, conferences, market commentary and the like, while Facebook (and Twitter, if you really must) was for everything else. Hilarious memes and posts about your children/pet/culinary experiment/exercise humblebrag had no place on a professional networking platform.

That all changed dramatically with the onset of Covid and nothing to do but use social media as the main means of communicating with the outside world. One contact, who is rather more Gen X than Millennial, bemoaned an internal memo instructing people to show more of a human side in the curation of their Zoom backgrounds and on LinkedIn. Wasn’t this a bit awkward? Do I really want my clients knowing (horror of horrors) the ins and outs of my domestic life? It was a particularly British quandary, a cultural aversion to oversharing; the online equivalent of maintaining a professional stiff upper lip. Continue reading “Oversharing? Navigating social media can be fraught but there is much to admire”

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Cautionary tales: The downfall of Ince – a lesson in how not to run your law firm

Ince & Co Office Photo

‘In the event of a recession, the lawyers will be fine. They always are. Unless you work at Ince.’

Reflecting now on this remark made by a senior contact last August, it is clear that the writing has been on the wall for Ince for quite some time and that its parent company, Ince Group, going into administration was probably the only realistic outcome of this sorry saga. Continue reading “Cautionary tales: The downfall of Ince – a lesson in how not to run your law firm”

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‘A black hole is not formed overnight’: Ince Group administration marks the demise of a storied shipping firm

Ince & Co Office Photo

For many, the collapse into administration of the Ince Group, the listed parent company of storied shipping firm Ince, was inevitable. A procession of public mishaps and falling revenue, combined with a string of high-profile partner departures, had left the future of the firm hanging in the balance for several months.

In April, following a drawn-out audit process for the financial year ended 31 March 2022, The Ince Group cited in a statement to the London Stock Exchange ‘increasing pressure on the cash flows of the business’, due to the length of the auditing process, as the push factor for entering administration. The audit is incomplete. Continue reading “‘A black hole is not formed overnight’: Ince Group administration marks the demise of a storied shipping firm”

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Particularly egregious? Market reacts over Credit Suisse buyout as bondholder litigation looms large

As the fall of Credit Suisse mobilises swathes of advisers, Legal Business asks whether the collapse will yield an influx of work for the litigation community

In March, the collapse of US-based Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) was among the biggest tremors in the banking world since 2008. However, there are weeks in which the events of decades happen, as has been the case since SVB’s demise. Continue reading “Particularly egregious? Market reacts over Credit Suisse buyout as bondholder litigation looms large”

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The Client Profile: Terra Potter, Hexcel Corporation

Terra Potter (whose middle name is Cotta – LB has seen the proof) proudly proclaims on LinkedIn that she originally hails from a cornfield outside Chicago and, while many lawyers claim to have had an unconventional path into a legal career, hers has been more so than most. Growing up in Rochelle, Illinois, she started working in kitchens, first as a dishwasher at the age of 14, before working her way up the cooking ladder, and so set her sights on a culinary career. A move to Hyde Park, New York and The Culinary Institute of America at the age of 17 had the unexpected consequence of a passion for the law.

‘The penultimate class was restaurant law, which is actually just like contract law’, Potter recalls. ‘It was so cool and the world made sense through it. That sparked the joy for law in me.’ Continue reading “The Client Profile: Terra Potter, Hexcel Corporation”

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A wholly subjective (but nonetheless definitive) guide to law firms from a $300m client on how to make a successful pitch*

David Burgess, publishing director of The Legal 500, asks David Stark, chief legal officer at Teva Pharmaceuticals, and Trevor Faure (pictured), chief executive of Smarter Law Solutions, for their views. Warning – this may make for uncomfortable reading

In 2020, Teva Pharmaceuticals conducted a law firm selection process unprecedented in scale and sophistication within the profession (see ‘On notice: Teva’s entire $330m legal spend could go to one law firm’, The Legal 500, Summer 2019). Despite deploying ground-breaking quality vs cost correlation analysis, selection also involved the traditional panel interview meetings when two dozen of the world’s top law firms met Teva’s legal management team to pitch their propositions, with surprising and salutary results. The cutting-edge, data-driven selection methodology Teva used is well-founded (see ‘Harvard Law The Practice – Smarter Relationships in Legal Services’, November/December 2019) so instead, here are a dozen entirely unscientific but equally compelling approaches for winning business at the face-to-face selection stage. These findings are not the result of rigorous research, merely the bemused observations about what actually took place in these decisive meetings, ie, this stuff really happens. Continue reading “A wholly subjective (but nonetheless definitive) guide to law firms from a $300m client on how to make a successful pitch*”