Fieldfisher’s Michael Chissick says progress on gay inclusion masks a wider diversity failure in law
‘Did you see the game at the weekend?’ is the type of question I am often asked at events. I know my answer, ‘no, I don’t really follow sport’ – will kill the conversation dead, and I don’t have the skills or required knowledge to blag my way through the small talk of the weekend’s fixture list.
In response to an opinion piece from Gibson Dunn’s Charlie Geffen in our last issue, we ask management if firms must decide whether they are advisory or legal process driven
US PITCH
‘Geffen is right, but I wonder if he would have said it if he’d been at his old firm [Ashurst] as it’s a pitch for US firms in London. Clients are increasingly separating what is strategic and what is process-driven. I don’t agree that the UK firms aren’t capable of giving both, and no client out there will go to law firm A for their strategic work then take it off them and give law firm B the process work. Clients are looking to us to ensure the process end is done efficiently.’
Colin Passmore, senior partner, Simmons & Simmons
Shearman, Reed Smith, Dentons and Eversheds among firms to win places
Shearman & Sterling, Reed Smith, Dentons and Eversheds are among the firms appointed to Nokia’s newly-created global legal panel.
FRESHFIELDS PLANS VANCOUVER HUB
After launching a nearshoring office in Manchester, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer is planning to open another outpost in Vancouver, Canada. The office is set to cover a range of business services roles. The firm is looking to hire at least 20 legal services employees to launch the office.
Tussle continues over lucrative work after K&E raid
After a high-profile tussle and one of the biggest team hires in the City, Sidley Austin has secured the corporate work of key Kirkland & Ellis client TowerBrook Capital Partners, amid claims that Sidley pushed aggressively to secure the work.
Continue reading “Sidley secures TowerBrook work despite K&E charm offensive”
FORSTERS AND SLAUGHTERS LEAD ON TATA STEEL SELL OFF
Forsters and Slaughter and May acted on Greybull Capital’s rescue deal to buy Tata Steel’s European long products business, which includes the Scunthorpe steel works employing 3,500 people. Slaughters advised Tata, while Forsters acted for family office Greybull.
Continue reading “Deal watch: Corporate activity in April 2016”
Changes include new board responsibility for strategic decision-making
Pinsent Masons has made a series of changes to its management structure, including the introduction of fixed terms for those in leadership positions, the formation of an operations committee and the cession of decision-making control to the board.
Continue reading “Pinsents scraps leadership for life amid top-down management restructure”
On the face of it, Cyprus has much to celebrate. In March, the country completed the three-year economic adjustment programme that followed 2013’s €10bn bailout package agreed with the European Commission, European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund. That the country has finally wrested back control of its finances was coupled with the Commission’s prediction of a 1.4% rise in GDP for Cyprus in 2015 – the first year of economic growth since 2011.
This good news provides a psychological boost following years of financial turmoil, but even the most ardent optimist would concede that Cyprus has a long way to go. The island is mired in debt and faces a lengthy period of post-programme surveillance (PPS) by the Commission, which will continue until it has paid at least 75% of the €7.25bn in loans it received from the bailout. The Commission estimates that, ‘barring any early repayments’, the PPS will continue till at least 2029. Alongside this are the €26.7bn of non-performing loans (NPLs) that the country’s banks must deal with. According to the World Bank, in 2015 these NPLs accounted for 44.8% of the country’s total gross loans, a figure much higher than Greece’s 34.4%. These factors will define Cyprus’s economic future for many years to come, both on a macro and micro level. Fundamental to this is how Cyprus positions itself in the global economy, particularly now that one of its key investment partners, Russia, can no longer be relied upon to generate previous levels of work. Continue reading “Cyprus: Picking up the pieces”
Clifford Chance, Allen & Overy, Baker & McKenzie and Norton Rose big winners
Royal Dutch Shell has cut its global panel from 11 firms to just six, as the company reorganises its legal arrangements following its merger with BG Group.
Continue reading “Shell global panel slashed from 11 to six”
A power shift towards Australia was seen at Ashurst last month when the firm announced its next global managing partner would be Sydney-based banking partner Paul Jenkins (pictured).
Jenkins will join chair and New Zealander Ben Tidswell at the helm, splitting his time between London and Sydney. Part of his role will include heading the executive committee, day-to-day management, partner performance and client management.
Continue reading “Ashurst’s next global head right for the role despite challenges”
Magic Circle firms have taken a ‘disappointing’ approach to the government-backed scheme, the Trailblazers Apprenticeship in Law initiative, with both Slaughter and May and Clifford Chance ruling apprentices out completely, while Allen & Overy (A&O) and Linklaters have been non-committal.
The only firm to announce any willingness to offer apprenticeships is Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, with a spokesperson confirming last month it was ‘looking at a number of ways to attract talented people in Manchester and the apprenticeship model is one that we are hoping to be able to offer later this year’. It is understood the firm is currently mulling over paralegal apprenticeships with no decision on whether this will be offered in conjunction with Trailblazers.
Continue reading “Magic Circle’s ‘disappointing’ approach to apprenticeships”
Oil price volatility is a fact of life in the Middle East. At below or around $40 a barrel, the region has been dealt a hard dose of realism. Developing economic models that rely less on oil and gas revenues is now the order of the day, while national governments have had to rein in notoriously lavish spending programmes.
Law firms that rushed into the Middle East as it became a significant driver of global economic activity amid soaring oil prices a decade ago, now have to review their strategies. Continue reading “Running on empty – how to survive in the Middle East in the era of cheap oil”
Tom Moore argues profession must deal with changing attitudes on tax and reputation
The offshore market is being redrawn following the leak on 3 April of 11 million documents from Panama law firm Mossack Fonseca & Co, which led to a public outcry about tax evasion. The leak revealed some 12 world leaders, including close associates of Russian president Vladimir Putin and 143 politicians, used the firm to avoid tax in developed countries.
Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) and Jones Day were among a raft of firms that advised the investors behind residential schemes at the Olympic Park in Stratford and Elephant and Castle on a joint venture (JV) to combine the developments and create a £1.4bn JV vehicle for rented housing. Amid a booming London real estate market, intensified by supply not keeping up with housing demand, the firms were instructed by Qatari Diar Real Estate Investment Company, property firm Delancey’s flagship fund DV4 and Dutch pension fund asset manager APG, combining to create 4,000 London homes. Olswang, Mishcon de Reya, Simmons & Simmons and London firm Michael Conn Goldsobel also won instructions on the deal.
Continue reading “HSF and Jones Day lead firms on £1.4bn London housing JV”
Foreword
The rate of change affecting litigation costs is alarming when the rumours and policy proposals are conflated with the concrete developments. If Sir Rupert Jackson had his way, the burden of court-mandated budgeting in cases up to £10m, itself relatively new, would soon be alleviated at the lower end by fixed costs. That lower end could be in cases worth up to £250,000 – which to the wider world is not low at all.
Meanwhile, budgeting is said to be clogging up the court lists; hence only skeletal budget submissions are now needed for cases worth up to £50,000. There is an updated court form for compiling and presenting budgets but it remains user-hostile. The design of this ‘Precedent H’ continues to veer towards data obfuscation and is not easy on the eye. Continue reading “Sophisticated spending – Managing the costs of high-stakes litigation”
JLegal’s Richard McLerie discusses the region’s legal market.
Over the past 12 months, the region has endured a period punctuated by numerous challenges, principle among which is arguably the depression in oil prices and the ongoing danger posed by militant groups destabilising significant areas of the region. The wider ramifications of these factors cannot be covered exhaustively here. However, of notable importance in the context of the legal market is how some of the more stable jurisdictions, notably that of the UAE, which continues to stand out as the hub from which firms operate their regional offering, have benefited from the migration of wealth into the more stable, internationally-underpinned markets from wider areas of the Middle East deemed, at least for the time being, unacceptably risky locations in which to invest.
Afridi & Angell’s James Bowden highlights four of the latest legal updates.
In the past year the UAE saw an unusual number of important legislative developments. For this feature, we have picked a few of the key developments to summarise briefly. This is by no means exhaustive.
Having landed Travers Smith private equity veteran Phil Sanderson in 2014, top 50 US law firm Ropes & Gray has returned to the leading private equity shop to recruit rising star Helen Croke.
Continue reading “Ropes continues City buyout push with hire of Travers star Helen Croke”
Shearman & Sterling, Reed Smith, Dentons and Eversheds are among the firms appointed to Nokia’s newly-created global legal panel.
Continue reading “Ringing the changes – Nokia appoints first global legal panel”
After a high-profile tussle and one of the biggest team hires in the City, Sidley Austin has secured the corporate work of key Kirkland & Ellis client TowerBrook Capital Partners, amid claims that Sidley pushed aggressively to secure the work.
Continue reading “Sidley secures TowerBrook work despite K&E charm offensive”
