Month: February 2012

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Corporate review – Welcome back to the new normal

The overall success of M&A in 2012 hinges on the eurozone but there is much to be positive about, you just have to be prepared for a scrap

Confidence is a funny thing. During the first eight working days of this year, there was a sense that 2012 was going to be different. Deals had to be done, investors had to get their hands out of their pockets. Renewed optimism or even hope seemed to be a welcome antidote to the relentless doom and gloom that dominated the media for much of 2011. But then on Friday the 13th of January, talks collapsed over the restructuring of the Greek government’s debt and the ratings agency Standard & Poor’s downgraded the debt of nine eurozone countries, including France. The new-year optimism vanished overnight.

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Gold Standard

Mishcon de Reya was a standout performer in the 2011 LB100, jumping 11 places on the back of a 37% leap in turnover. LB charts the firm’s recent success and asks senior management where it is heading.

Kevin Gold, Mishcon de Reya’s managing partner, leads the way to a meeting room clutching a walking stick, the result of a motorcycle accident in June 2008. He broke his leg and encountered a number of complications while recovering, including contracting MRSA in hospital. For almost two years, as he underwent 19 operations restoring him to mobility and health, Gold was not always around. But such was the strength of the firm he had shaped over the preceding ten years that Mishcons went from strength to strength during that time becoming, as Gold puts it, ‘pretty unique’.

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Taking over

Corporate trends were the talk of the hour at the third annual LB round table discussion in conjunction with McCann FitzGerald. But what does 2012 have in store for the corporate lawyer?

Creativity levels among global corporate lawyers appear to be at an all time high. With the eurozone crisis looming over the global M&A market, the new Takeover Code and the huge swathes of restructuring and refinancing work still to come through to the marketplace, never before have corporate lawyers had to think so differently.

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Renaissance Man

Mark Dembovsky joined Howard Kennedy as chief executive in January 2011, charged with turning around the fortunes of a West End firm widely considered to be on shaky ground. A year on, LB assesses his progress.

Sitting in on one of the newly established management meetings in Howard Kennedy’s West End offices, it is initially hard to work out exactly who is in charge. Head of corporate Michael Harris, property finance chief Jason Lewis, and dispute resolution head Craig Emden all chip in to answer questions about the firm and its new strategy, while one member of the group sits watching quietly. Suddenly one of the partners falters, unsure of how to answer a question about what the firm’s new ‘Aiming for Excellence’ scheme entails, and the quiet man springs into action.

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Offshore Part 1 – Search for El Dorado

Offshore firms are increasingly building Brazil, as well as other Latin American destinations, into their emerging markets portfolio. LB assesses the varying strategies in tackling the New World.

The opportunities in Brazil for offshore legal advisers are increasingly on the rise. In December 2010, Conyers Dill & Pearman’s São Paulo office managing partner Alan Dickson provided Bermuda law advice to Brazilian investment bank BTG Pactual on its sale of a $1.6bn stake to a consortium of international investors, marking the biggest eversovereign wealth fund commitment in Brazil. Again led by Dickson, in July 2011 Conyers, alongside Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy in New York and Arias, Fabrega & Fabrega in Panama, advised Queiroz Galvão Óleo e Gás (QGOG) – a Brazilian conglomerate involved in developing large-scale projects in various sectors – on a $700m bond issue to refinance the drilling rigs Atlantic Star and Alaskan Star.

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Offshore Part 2 – The Bounty Hunt

Madoff-related claims in the BVI and the Saad litigation in the Cayman Islands are keeping the Caribbean’s litigators busier than ever. LB analyses the key cases and speaks to the main players to find out what is likely to happen next

Following Bernie Madoff’s arrest on 11 December 2008, Fairfield Sentry, the fund said to have had the largest exposure to Madoff’s multibillion-dollar fraud, was placed into liquidation in the British Virgin Islands (BVI) in July 2009. Consequently Fairfield’s liquidators, KRyS Global, issued over 175 claims in the BVI against investors that had redeemed their investments out of Fairfield. Forbes Hare acted for KRyS Global, led by founding partner William Hare.

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Offshore Part 3 – Jewels in the crown

One case has put litigation funding on the map in Jersey, while the Crown Dependencies are each bringing in vital new legislation, meaning fresh streams of work for their legal markets. LB reviews the latest developments

Third-party litigation funders have operated in the UK for some time, but not in the Channel Islands, as the legality and enforceability of funding agreements in Jersey remained untested. This is set to change following a court judgment that could allow islanders access to external funding if they cannot afford to pursue a legal claim.

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Austria part 1 – staying out of trouble

Austria has proven to be an economic safe haven in the past few years, but the troublesome CEE countries are still playing on lawyers’ minds.

A favourite topic of conversation around the dinner table for wealthy Viennese is the astronomical price of apartments in the centre of town. They bemoan how rich Russians are coming in and snapping up the grand, high-ceilinged apartments on the imposing avenue that circles the centre of town, the Ringstraße. The Russians, they say, like the climate and the genteel lifestyle that Vienna offers, and will pay almost anything to get these apartments.

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Austria part 2 – competitive spirit

Austria’s competition authority is one of the smallest enforcers in Europe, but recently it hasn’t shied away from taking on tough cases against major companies

What do beer, sugar, lifts, freight forwarders and plumbers all have in common? They were all industries subject to big cartel cases in Austria in the past few years. The once-sleepy Bundeswettbewerbsbehorde, or Austrian Federal Cartel Authority (FCA), has displayed new bite: it’s taken on several big new investigations against major companies and is keen to issue some hefty fines. It has caused consternation in the market with its tough new approach, knocking on the doors of major corporates in dawn raids, and has even started issuing press releases while cases are ongoing. All of this has meant an interesting, and very busy, few years for Austria’s select band of specialist cartel lawyers.

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