‘My career has been a tale of reinvention and creativity.
I have been very lucky in that I have worked on three continents. I started in New York as a corporate finance lawyer in the traditional sense, then transferred to Singapore where younger lawyers did a bit of everything: investment funds, LBOs, JV finance, capital markets. Continue reading “Women deal stars: perspectives – Tamara Box, Reed Smith”
‘Compared to ten years ago, in some ways it’s easier for women and in some it’s more difficult. It is easier because there is a lot of support for gender equality and initiatives to support women. For example, the 30% Club to support them particularly at senior level and at board positions.
Attitudes have changed, we have a lot of policies now around helping many women but also men who want to work in a more agile fashion. This helps women have their career and also a family – but they are also popular with men. Continue reading “Women deal stars: perspectives – Penelope Warne, CMS”
In a blow for traditionalists, our latest cover feature eschews profiling a group of hard-working, smart, highly-confident men who are talented lawyers to instead profile a group of hard-working, smart, variably-confident women who are talented lawyers. Radical stuff.
But then the career cycle for too many ambitious female deal lawyers remains nasty, brutish and short. While women increasingly advance into senior roles in advisory practice areas and even more so among the ranks of senior general counsel, in the upper reaches of transactional law, it is still a boys’ club and anyone claiming differently does not know many corporate lawyers. Continue reading “Comment: Law firms will never just hand status to City women – they’ll have to take it”
Continuing the strong showing from US firms in London recently, Sidley Austin and Morrison & Foerster (MoFo)’s City offices recorded a convincing performance in 2017, each posting double-digit percentage growth in their top line.
Expansive global giant Sidley posted a 14% City revenue hike to £85.7m in a year marked by five headline lateral hires for the firm’s M&A, restructuring and capital markets teams. Continue reading “Global London: Sidley and MoFo City outposts record double-digit revenue growth”
A court in Munich has sentenced a former Linklaters partner to three years and three months in prison for sexual assaulting a student at a firm party several years ago.
Tax partner Thomas Elser assaulted an intern after Linklaters’ Oktoberfest party in September 2014 before a former litigation partner of the firm, Laurenz Schmitt, intervened and punched him in the face. Continue reading “#MeToo spotlight still shines on law as former Linklaters partner jailed for sexual assault”
Revenues at Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft dropped by a striking 10% in 2017 as the firm persists with retrenching in a bid to concentrate its efforts on a more focused client roster.
Global revenue at the Manhattan firm fell for the third consecutive year to $408.1m against a 15% dip in the firm’s lawyer headcount to 373. Continue reading “More bad news for Cadwalader – global revenue dips 10% in 2017 as 10-year slide continues”
Hogan Lovells is the latest firm to venture into flexible lawyering after agreeing a partnership with New Law pioneer Elevate.
The deal announced today (15 February) will give the transatlantic giant access to a pool of 1,500 self-employed professionals worldwide to support its UK business. Elevate will provide a group of pre-vetted lawyers to choose from for specific projects, with Hogan Lovells’ paying Elevate for the cover. Hogan Lovells expects to use between 30 and 50 lawyers from the pool every year and will be looking at four to ten-year qualified lawyers across all practice areas. Continue reading “Let’s be friends – Hogan Lovells hooks up with NewLaw darling Elevate for flexi-lawyer service”
Network Rail has begun its longest-ever panel review process for external adviser work, which could be worth up to £70m over five years from next April.
The rail company’s review will be the first under new group general counsel Stuart Kelly, who was promoted from deputy group GC following the departure of Suzanne Wise in March last year for a non-legal role as senior vice-president for corporate development at Japan Tobacco International . The review will be led by Network Rail route businesses GC Dan Kayne. Continue reading “‘A wonderful opportunity’: Network Rail begins long journey to new £70m adviser panel”
Those of you in the UK with fond memories of the hefty The Legal 500 books dropping onto your desks are in for a change. The publication later this year of the latest research will be environmentally-friendly and move to a wholly digital platform via legal500.com. Our ambition is to create the best possible exposure for law firms’ practices via our online rankings. We want to ensure the most relevant information on law firms and sets is readily available to clients, creating the most comprehensive and user-friendly research service available anywhere online.
Moving The Legal 500 to a digital platform gives legal500.com the flexibility to offer that expanded service. As we seek to improve and expand our published information on the market, we want to work in partnership with law firms and sets, so that our evolving research reflects what you need to convey to clients seeking your firm’s help. Continue reading “Guest post: The Legal 500 United Kingdom is changing – and it starts with the submissions”
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has enhanced its US antitrust bench with the hire of veteran Eric Mahr from the Department of Justice (DoJ), while White & Case has established its seventh American office in Houston.
Mahr, who joins Freshfields after serving as director of the well-respected antitrust division at the DoJ, has multiple decades’ worth of experience in antitrust litigation, including cartel follow-on litigation and merger disputes. Continue reading “US moves: Freshfields hires DoJ heavyweight while White & Case opens Houston office”
Get your Magic Circle-meets-Geordie Shore quips ready as Clifford Chance (CC) has made a surprise acquisition of Carillion’s pioneering in-house legal arm.
The Newcastle-based business Carillion Advice Services (CAS) was put up for sale following the collapse of its Wolverhampton-headquartered parent in January in one of the largest UK insolvencies for years. Carillion filed for liquidation after talks with its creditors and the government failed to reach a deal on Carillion’s £1.5bn liabilities. Continue reading “CC hits Newcastle for surprise takeover of Carillion’s volume legal arm”
Given that it has been so well telegraphed that the $10m lateral was coming to the Square Mile, the shock among City peers at the hire of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer private equity veteran David Higgins (pictured) has been, well, shocking. ‘Outrageous’, ‘obscene’ and ‘mildly appalling’ are among the reactions from peers. One hopeful partner at a US firm notes: ‘The clients won’t be impressed with that number splashed all over the news.’
But such sentiments are a naive reading of how the industry is evolving. Yes, if you think of a lateral as wrangling an immediate book of business, such a package suggests needing to preside over $30m within three years to be called a success on a conventional yardstick. That would certainly be a stretch – though not impossible given what some of the strongest City laterals have managed – but that is not the benchmark. Kirkland & Ellis has been stuffed with leveraged finance talent for years while lacking an unquestioned corporate A-lister. The hyper-productive Matthew Elliott delivered that when he joined from Linklaters in 2016, but his practice has a very precise real estate slant. Continue reading “A shock to the system as Freshfields heavyweight departs”
In a blow for traditionalists, our latest cover feature eschews profiling a group of hard-working, smart, highly-confident men who are talented lawyers to instead profile a group of hard-working, smart, variably-confident women who are talented lawyers. Radical stuff.
But then the career cycle for too many ambitious female deal lawyers remains nasty, brutish and short. While women increasingly advance into senior roles in advisory practice areas and even more so among the ranks of senior general counsel, in the upper reaches of transactional law, it is still a boys’ club and anyone claiming differently does not know many corporate lawyers. Continue reading “Women deal stars: plenty to celebrate so ditch the understatement”
‘Turnover for vanity, profit for sanity.’ How many times have you heard that phrase or variations of the theme espoused in the legal industry? A lot since the banking crisis recast the profession.
Commercial firms are forever chasing the grail of higher profitability to the extent of fashioning strategy around the notion of slashing the business to achieve it. People used to forecast consolidation and the dawn of the $10bn law firm – now it is as common for law firm leaders to talk of City-bred institutions getting smaller. Continue reading “Slashing to victory – the most dangerous myth”
National insurance and shipping specialist Hill Dickinson has completed the sale of part of its insurance business group to fellow LB100 firm Keoghs.
The sale involves the transfer of 17 partners and 311 staff, giving Keoghs a new presence in Liverpool, where it will sublet premises from Hill Dickinson, as well as adding staff to its offices in London and Manchester. No sale price was disclosed for the deal, which excludes Hill Dickinson’s marine insurance and clinical negligence work. Continue reading “Hill Dickinson cites focus on growth areas as it ships off insurance business to Keoghs”
A standout performance in Europe helped Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) boost global revenues by 11% in 2016/17, according to the firm’s latest filings with Companies House, although increased overhead saw operating profit barely move.
Global revenues rose from £832.2m to £920.8m, with the firm claiming that its EMEA region ‘generated exceptional revenue growth’. The accounts cited in particular ‘excellent performances in Paris, Moscow and Madrid’ as well as a robust showing from its Asia practices. Mark Rigotti (pictured), chief executive of HSF, commented: ‘It is very encouraging to see another year of growth as our brand continues to strengthen across markets and regions.’ Continue reading “LLP accounts: HSF records ‘exceptional’ revenue growth in Europe as profit holds steady”
Latham & Watkins, Baker McKenzie, Clifford Chance (CC) and Allen & Overy (A&O) have lined up alongside a group of top independents in two multi-billion euro deals as Europe’s M&A scene maintains its brisk 2018 form.
Latham advised Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) on the €1.94bn acquisition of Italian railway operator Italo – Nuovo Trasporto Viaggiatori (Ntv). The deal means the only privately-owned high-speed rail operator in Europe has shifted to American control after shelving plans to float on the Milan stock exchange. The Rome-based group is the country’s second-largest railway operator after state-backed Ferrovie dello Stato. Continue reading “Deal Watch: European acquisitions generate big-ticket roles for Latham, Bakers and Bonelli”
2017 ended with surprising confidence in a rebounding market. Here we ask the City’s leading corporate players for their prognosis on 2018
‘We have come back from the holidays to a whirlwind of deal activity. I’m expecting to see financial investors looking to reduce the competition on deals by pursuing transactions where only a limited number can compete. For example, I expect the large-cap financial investors will look for multibillion-enterprise-value businesses to acquire either on their own or as part of a consortium. Also, financial investors will look to specialise further in certain key sectors so that they can differentiate from their competitors and create that all important auction-winning angle.’
Adrian Maguire, co-head of global financial investors group, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer Continue reading “The last word: Deals or no deals”
Hamish McNicol looks at the frontrunners amid a bumper season of senior leadership changes
DLA Piper is making up for lost time in its first senior partner election in a decade. The month-long process, which initially involved eight candidates, two voting stages and ten days of hustings, has been heralded by the firm as showing its breadth and depth, but has also raised eyebrows. Continue reading “DLA whittles senior partner race to three-way contest as elections grip the City”
Arbitrators dominate solicitor appointments amid creation of 119 new silks as Latham does double
Red Lion Chambers and Garden Court Chambers saw six and five of their respective barristers take silk in this year’s QC appointments round, while the number of successful solicitors becoming QCs dipped from last year. Continue reading “Latham and SH cheer as latest silk round bountiful for Red Lion and Garden Court”
