Month: May 2010

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Out of the shadows

Michael Greville is the leader of Watson, Farley & Williams, an under-the-radar UK mid-market firm that has been going through an identity crisis. The last few years have seen merger talks aplenty – both transatlantic and domestic – but organic growth is now firmly on the agenda

Some law firms have the ability to hog the media spotlight with a mere stub of a press release – think PR-savvy brands like DLA Piper and Eversheds. Other City stalwarts pride themselves on following a deliberately low-profile path, to the extent that by looking at its website you would never know that Slaughter and May even has a PR function.

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Shop around

Kraft Foods’ hostile takeover of Cadbury sparked renewed hysteria about foreign takeovers of the UK’s FTSE 350. For the Magic Circle, it means a client base under threat. LB reveals the winners and losers in the great British sell-off

Slaughter and May has acted for the target in more foreign takeovers of British household names than any other law firm in the past five years. Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer is the only Magic Circle firm to have seen its FTSE 350 client base shrink over the same period. And it is Freshfields, Clifford Chance and Allen & Overy that most often get the call from bidders as foreign direct investment changes the face of the elite corporate client base in the UK.

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Safety net

As the number of international arbitrations has grown, so too have calls for a speedier and more cost-effective process. However, the apparatus of international arbitration remains strong in the face of criticism

International arbitration, with the twin props of the New York Convention and the Panama Convention, is the safety net above which the daredevils of cross-border business perform. Its integrity and proper functioning are fundamental. But as international arbitration has grown and evolved, so too have a few of its imperfections.

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Stepping up

With the departure of high-profile practice head Jonathan Kelly, the Simmons financial services litigation team has lost a leader in investment banking disputes work. New chief Robert Turner will have a fight on his hands if the firm is to remain a Magic Circle rival

To say that Robert Turner has big boots to fill is to underestimate the size of the task ahead of him. Turner took over as head of financial services litigation at Simmons & Simmons on 1 April, with a background of acting in disputes on behalf of hedge fund managers. But for all his strengths, he enjoys nothing like the profile and reputation of his predecessor Jonathan Kelly – nor indeed his predecessor’s predecessor, now firmwide managing partner Mark Dawkins.

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A new cut

Private wealth has changed. No longer the sole reserve of the moneyed upper classes, LB finds firms cashing in on a new breed of international entrepreneur

Picture the scene. Tarquin Huntersley-Cooper, an ageing member of the landed gentry, needs some trust planning to secure the future of his dilapidated 70-acre country estate. Dressed from head to toe in Prince of Wales tweed, he pays a visit to his lawyers, Reginald Hurley & Sons, a two-partner provincial firm that has acted for his family for generations. Settling down on an antique leather Chesterfield in the dusty study, they quickly knock out a draft before retiring to a wood-panelled smoking room for a snifter of fine cognac and some Cuban cigars.

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Shaking it up

As more global law firms establish offices in Brazil, some have tied-up with local firms while others remain unattached. Legal Business finds out who has the right mix

The big news in the Brazilian legal market has been the surge in the number of international players joining the party. UK and US firms, including Squire, Sanders & Dempsey, DLA Piper, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett and Mayer Brown, have all set up shop in São Paulo in the past two years (see box, ‘International office launches in Brazil’). The new arrivals join those who have been resident for some time, including Allen & Overy, Linklaters, White & Case and Clifford Chance. The number of Global 100 firms in São Paulo, Brazil’s key commercial and financial centre, has grown from six to 12 since 2007.

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