Global London – No stone unturned

LB ventures beyond the established elite to highlight five practices blazing a trail in the City.

The need to differentiate in the market is paramount. Some firms have always been good at it, while others have struggled and floundered.

There is a group of US firms in the City that has now established its strengths. Using the benefit of large US platforms, these firms have, over time, built impressive offerings in the City, be it in IP, energy, regulation or litigation.

These pockets of excellence are all over the City and, while the below list is by no means exhaustive or definitive, LB has picked just five from a possible list of 15 that are top performers. Having a smaller, high-quality practice serves as a competitive advantage in itself. These are the less obvious firms that live in the shadow of larger US counterparts. 

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Vinson & Elkins

London lawyer headcount growth 2004 to 2011: 18 to 51

Speciality: Energy

London office: 51 lawyers, including 14 partners

Office head: Alexander Msimang

Representative London work:

– Advised Tullow Oil on the sale of its Ugandan licences to China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) and Total for $2.9bn.

– Advised Statoil on the $3.1bn sale of a 40% share in a Brazilian oilfield to Sinochem.

 

Understated is rarely a term used in the same breath as Texas but Vinson & Elkins is a firm that has quietly built a City presence off the back of being one of the leading global energy firms.

Despite having a physical presence in the City since the early 1970s, the firm formed a multinational practice in 1994 to start practising English law. The real growth has accelerated during the last six years, with the office growing to over 50 lawyers from 18 in 2004.

At the firm’s core is an established energy practice. Office head Alexander Msimang, who joined the firm from Denton Hall in 1999, explains: ‘It is quite exciting for an energy lawyer to be right at the heart of a firm’s focus. I might be an energy specialist but I want to do all parts of energy from M&A to financing and project development.’

Vinsons has made some judicious hirings from the likes of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Dewey & LeBoeuf along the way. The firm has made six lateral hires in the last five years and promoted six associates to partner in the last five rounds of promotions, showing a good balance between organic and lateral growth.

‘We are able to focus on what we are best at and we do not need huge scale in London for that,’ says Msimang. ‘At the heart is energy and alongside are all those complementary areas like projects, infrastructure and telecoms.’

The real success of this firm is that, as a whole, it is far more powerful than any one individual. Although there are a number of leading individuals like Msimang, Mark Coker and Nick Henchie – the collective of the partners appears to be a far more potent force than a prima donna-ish heavyweight.

 

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Arnold & Porter

London lawyer headcount growth 2004 to 2011: 32 to 38

Speciality: Regulatory, competition, IP and life sciences

London office: 38 lawyers, including 17 partners

Office head: Tim Frazer

Representative London work:

– Advising News International’s management standards committee on criminal matters relating to the phone-hacking scandal.

– Advised food production group Danisco in a cross-border patent litigation against Novozymes.

 

Every once in a while a firm wins a mandate in the City that makes the market pay attention. Advising on competition aspects of the 2010 merger between Kraft Foods and Cadbury was one such moment for Arnold & Porter’s City office.

Although the team’s credentials in top-end competition work are no big secret, to advise the US food giant on its UK competition work when a handful of larger UK firms capable of doing the work were available is a real testament to its practice. Add to the mix competition work for tobacco giant Philip Morris and IPC Media, and Arnold & Porter is a genuine leader in the City.

On the global scene few firms can match Arnold & Porter’s pre-eminent IP and life sciences practice. Philip Morris has outsourced the majority of its worldwide trade mark filing and opposition work to the firm. In 2010 it successfully defended Sanofi in the foetal anticonvulsant litigation. The case was discontinued by all claimants in 2011.

The firm’s 17 London partners are class operators, with the majority mentioned in the latest edition of The Legal 500 UK, picking up recommendations in ten different practice area rankings. The firm has achieved a great deal in all these areas but without bowling the market over with growth. The firm has relied on lateral growth after making 11 hires since 2006. The last 12 months have seen the addition of life sciences partner Anna Buscall, who joined from Allen & Overy. She brings with her serious heft on the transactional side. Kathleen Harris, who previously headed the fraud business at the Serious Fraud Office, also joined in 2011.

Office head Tim Frazer is pleased with where the firm is in the City but wants more. ‘We are clearly not trying to be everything to all men; we are trying to be a true leader in the regulatory sphere. I understand more the importance of developing a strategy and identifying the right people. We do not like attrition, being small it would be damaging if someone leaves.’

 

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Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld

London lawyer headcount growth 2004 to 2011: 20 to 29

Speciality: Emerging markets, corporate, energy and telecoms, investment funds, arbitration and tax

London office: 29 lawyers, including 11 partners

Office head: Steve Blakeley

Representative London work:

– Represented LUKOIL on the offering of $1.5bn in convertible bonds and its listing on the London Stock Exchange.

– Acting for Petrobras in a $500m dispute currently before the Commercial Court. It has been described as the ‘world’s largest oil platform dispute’.

 

Cross-border, emerging markets and M&A: the holy trinity of a modern day corporate team. Outside of the elite, few have done as well in these areas as Akin Gump. One need only look to its work for VimpelCom on the 2011 mega-merger with Wind Telecom for which the firm picked up Corporate Team of the Year at the Legal Business Awards. The deal created the sixth-largest mobile telecommunications carrier globally, with net operating revenues of $21.5bn. In addition, the team acted as corporate counsel for Bridas Energy on its sale of 50% of Bridas Corporation to CNOOC for $3.1bn. With a small but potent team, the firm’s credentials are not in question.

The 29-lawyer team has had a City presence in investment funds for a decade and this year was boosted by the double partner hire of Tim Pearce and Ian Meade from Simmons & Simmons, marking the firm’s third and fourth laterals since 2006. The firm could never be accused of being meteoric in its rise, but its singular and determined desire to be a leader in its core areas without having huge teams of lawyers has marked out the firm’s progress in recent years.

‘We want to reflect what the firm is good at but only where we can see a clear rationale strategically and for the client,’ says office head Steve Blakeley.

The quality of recent deals has made it easier for the team to sell its City story and Blakeley is a man who knows the legal industry inside and out, having overseen the merger between Denton Hall and Wilde Sapte in 2000 and filled a number of management positions.

‘We are now seeing more quality on the market than we ever have before. Some firms think they need an office everywhere but we don’t see that as a long-term sustainable business,’ says Blakeley. ‘It is imperative that we are not diverted from our strategy by trying to pursue superficial objectives.’

Akin Gump is currently going through one of those blue patches that firms have once in a generation. The team will hope to capitalise on that to attract the sort of lawyers it needs to make the next step of its evolution a success.

 

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Bingham McCutchen

London lawyer headcount growth 2004 to 2011: 27 to 47

Speciality: Finance, restructuring and litigation

London office: 47 lawyers, including 17 partners

Office head: James Roome

Representative London work:

– Advising the ad hoc committee of bondholders of Petroplus, a Swiss oil refinery group, following insolvency filings in multiple European jurisdictions. Total outstanding bond debt of $1.75bn.

– Representing holders of more than $23bn in bonds issued by three major Icelandic commercial banks: Glitnir, Landsbanki and Kaupthing.

 

Bingham has stormed through the recession in the City. This culminated in 2011 when the firm’s London office posted $49.1m in fees, equating to revenue per lawyer of $1.2m.

What stands the firm apart from other finance outfits in the City is the specialist knowledge that it provides to a mainly financial institutions client base. From last year’s $1.3bn restructuring of the Quinn Group to Gala Coral’s and Wind Hellas’ own restructuring, the firm is the go-to outfit for bondholders, mezzanine lenders and noteholders looking for a result.

Office head James Roome admits the firm didn’t necessarily get it right on a couple of occasions but feels the London office is now pretty complete. Initial hires into the finance practice were more transactional and it was quickly realised that the firm’s clients didn’t want that capability, rather they needed an advisory practice.

The hire of former Simmons & Simmons managing partner Mark Dawkins last year into its financial litigation group is symptomatic of a firm that’s stock is at an all time high. Not afraid to pay for the right people, newly qualified lawyers can expect to earn £100,000 upon qualification.

‘We have sought to grow our London office deliberately over a number of years. As a largely advisory practice, it is all about the quality of the individual lawyers we have brought in,’ explains Roome.

He says: ‘We have a reasonably tight focus in London, acting mostly for financial institution clients who are looking for specialist knowledge and advice rather than a full-service practice.’

 

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Covington & Burling

London lawyer headcount growth 2004 to 2011: 53 to 66

Speciality: IP/IT, life sciences (transactional and regulatory), and litigation (fraud and arbitration)

London office: 66 lawyers, including 18 partners

Office head: Roger Enock

Representative London work:

– Acted for Vernalis, a life sciences company, on its recent £68.5m fundraising.

– Representing Ryanair in proceedings before the Court of Appeal against the Office of Fair Trading and Aer Lingus, concerning the Office of Fair Trading’s investigation of the competition implications of Ryanair’s shareholding in Aer Lingus.

 

Since the launch of its last global strategic review in 2008, aptly called Project 2012, Covington’s City practice has stopped at little to achieve its goals. The review set out growing its pre-eminent life sciences and regulatory team in London as well as technology and media as important steps.

Hires from competitors such as Herbert Smith and Debevoise & Plimpton have been strategically targeted and are beginning to pay off. This year the firm hired six partners, bringing total lateral hires since 2006 to 11. The highlight of this spree was the hire of a highly regarded life sciences corporate team from Morrison & Foerster, which included Paul Claydon, Natalie Diep, James Gubbins and James Halstead. Additionally litigation partner Casey Cooper joined its white-collar crime team from Baker Botts in February.

Louise Nash, deputy managing partner of the London office, says: ‘What we are seeing now are the fruits of the 2008 strategy. We achieved significant European and other international growth and our 2016 plan calls for continuing that growth, especially in London, Europe, Asia and the Middle East.’

An impressive roster of clients includes Microsoft, Merck Pharmaceuticals, Samsung Electronics and Giorgio Armani. The team advised Axis-Shield on its £235m all-cash public takeover offer from Alere. The standout deal of 2011 was the London office’s role advising, as part of a larger cross-border team, Microsoft on its $8.5bn takeover of Skype. The large mandate really brought its core expertise to the fore.

‘It kept our attention focused on the strategic goals, the big picture,’ reckons Nash. ‘It became easy for us to stay on course during a time when many other firms panicked.’ LB

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