London headcount: 144 lawyers, 28 partners
Lawyer headcount change since 2014: 15% (-7% partners)
London head: Pranav Trivedi
Office specialities: M&A, arbitration, litigation and white collar
Representative matters:
- Acting for FTSE 100 life insurer Phoenix Group on its acquisition of ReAssure from Swiss Re for £3.2bn.
- Castik Capital on the M&A and financing of its acquisition of AddSecure.
- Nightstar Therapeutics on its acquisition by Biogen.
- Two Dutch subsidiaries of NextEra Energy in an investment treaty claim against Spain over the axing of renewable energy feed-in tariffs.
‘It is interesting to see firms continuing to invest at a rate that some in the market view as unsustainable, while others appear to be engaging in essentially a no-growth strategy,’ muses Pranav Trivedi, the head of Skadden’s London office. Until recently, many felt the Wall Street giant’s approach in the City had slipped into the latter camp.
That said, few observers could fail to notice Skadden’s recent deviation from such conservatism, with the hire of restructuring partner Peter Newman from Milbank in February, building on the announced recruitment of Allen & Overy (A&O) corporate duo George Knighton and Simon Toms. The A&O moves in particular made waves as Skadden’s first substantial play in London since the hire of high-profile dealmaker Richard Youle from White & Case in 2017 and have been viewed as a serious statement of intent on the ambitions of Skadden’s City corporate practice.
For many, the key question is how transportable clients will be from A&O. ‘Partners sell themselves hard and, while firms are more sophisticated at doing that now, it is so difficult to do an analysis on the profitability of a book of business,’ notes one M&A partner at a rival US firm.
‘US firms continue to be disruptors and are able to attract the best talent, including from the Magic Circle.’
Pranav Trivedi, Skadden
Regardless, the hires are a huge win in Skadden’s oft-cited rivalry with the Magic Circle, especially when it comes to taking elusive market share in UK plc work. ‘Magic Circle firms drive the agenda here to some extent, but US firms continue to be disruptors and are able to attract the best talent, including from the Magic Circle,’ says Trivedi. Few would argue that Youle has not been a significant boon for Skadden, with the buyout star proving a draw for repeat and prolific private equity clients, including Hg and Castik Capital.
There has also been some headway in organic growth, with Skadden promoting four in the last five rounds in London, most recently M&A partner Denis Klimentchenko. Trivedi also points to the promotion of Riley Graebner to counsel in the corporate team, as well as the move to London from New York of counsel Andrew Good to bolster its City white-collar crime practice.
Trivedi has no trouble reeling off a list of high-end mandates across key practice areas, highlighting a ‘transformational’ deal advising FTSE 100 life insurer and repeat customer Phoenix Group on its acquisition of ReAssure. Another Magic Circle lateral that paid off (from Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in 2014), insurance partner Robert Stirling led on this deal, after advising Phoenix on its £3.2bn buyout of Standard Life Aberdeen’s insurance business in 2018.
Trivedi is bullish on the UK market: ‘After last December’s general election, matters that had been put on hold due to uncertainty have generally restarted and, as a result, the new year has started out strong.’
Brexit or no Brexit, the message is clear that London is still indivisible from a Europe-wide investment plan. Trivedi highlights Jan Bauer’s appointment last year, ‘the biggest name in German private equity, hot on the heels of the internal promotions of Holger Hofmeister in Frankfurt and Arash Attar-Rezvani in Paris’. He points to its role advising LVMH on its proposed $16.2bn acquisition of Tiffany & Co and SCOR in its successful defence against shareholder activist CIAM.
Detractors may question the longevity of a ‘relative hiring spree’: ‘I anticipate a Gibson [Dunn] – a massive push and let’s see where it really is in four to five years,’ predicts one rival partner.
Trivedi responds that Skadden is planning for the long-term: ‘We have a single global equity structure and we don’t add lawyers if there is no business case to support the investment. We will continue to promote internally and make lateral hires in areas where it makes strategic sense to do so.’
It has been a strategy that fits with Skadden’s prized culture, borne out by the relative scarcity with which it loses partners to rivals. It is a confident message, but in the age of disruptors, it could be convincingly argued that it is better to run the risk of investing ‘unsustainably’ than fall too far behind more daring rivals.