Debt finance rainmaker Neel Sachdev (pictured) has led a team defecting from Kirkland & Ellis to Paul Weiss, in what will be seen as a major coup for the Wall Street firm’s City ambitions.
The hire of Sachdev is arguably the most influential transfer in the City’s history since buyout star David Higgins left Freshfields for Kirkland in 2017. It is a serious show of intent for Paul Weiss in London, establishing as it does an English law offering for the first time.
Amid the typical August recruitment slowdown, one of the most notable moves of the past week saw Allen & Overy appoint Kfir Abutbul as the head of its energy private equity team in the US. Abutbul joins the firm from Paul Hastings, where he spent nearly five years as co-chair and vice-chair of its energy and infrastructure team, before which he was also a partner at Kirkland and Willkie Farr.
Chair of A&O’s US corporate practice, Bill Schwitter, said in a statement: ‘The addition of Kfir is an opportunity to continue the expansion of our US private equity and M&A practice.’
Lawyers adhering to a minimum of four days in the office a week policy is gaining traction among US firms, with Vinson & Elkins now joining the trend, while UK firms appear less inclined to follow suit just yet.
Vinson & Elkins announced on 9 August that it will adopt a four-day in-office schedule from 11 September, allowing the choice of remote work on either Monday or Friday, marking a change from their previous three-day hybrid policy introduced in March last year.
CMS has reported a 6% uptick from last year’s €1.746bn to €1.862bn in global revenue growth in its recent set of financial results this week, with UK turnover also up by 6% to £686m from FY21/22’s £644m.
Despite the continued financial growth, revenue has slowed considerably since last year, which saw an 18% spike to the global top line and a 14% increase in UK turnover.
Kirkland & Ellis was at the centre of not one but two of the biggest stories in the London lateral hiring market last week . First, the news broke that former Linklaters private equity star Roger Johnson was set to leave. Then, the firm announced its hire of Paul Weiss London managing partner Alvaro Membrillera.
Membrillera’s departure leaves Paul Weiss with only three partners in London, according to the firm’s website: David Carmona and Adam Wollstein, who made partner in December 2018 and January 2021, respectively, and David Lakhdhir, who cofounded the office in 2001 with Mark Bergman, of counsel in Washington DC since 2021.
Kingsley Napley has reported an 11% rise in revenue to £61.2m from £55.2m, an all-time high for the firm. However, profit per equity partner (PEP) fell dramatically by 33% to £226,000 from £337,000 last year.
Speaking to Legal Business about the reasons behind the fall in PEP, managing partner Linda Woolley (pictured) said: ‘We brought in eight partners during the year and promoted four to partner internally. This was quite a big investment on our behalf but a planned investment. Also, you do not just recruit a partner, you recruit other people to support them.
Litigation specialist firm Stewarts today posted financial results that saw revenue fall by 25% to £85.1m. Net profit and PEP both fell by 56%, with profit down to £25.6m and PEP down to £1.2m, its lowest figure since 2019.
The firm also reported its equity spread, which shows that its highest earner took home £1.7m, while payouts at the bottom of the ladder were just over £592,000. This is down from £3.4m at the top end and £1.2m at the bottom last year. The number of equity partners was steady at 21.
Addleshaw Goddard has repeated last year’s outstanding performance in another set of promising financial results today (3 August), reporting a 18% increase in revenue growth from £377m to £443m, matched by an 18% rise in total profit from £155m to £184m.
PEP is estimated to be £909,000 by Legal Business, an increase of 5%.
Bird & Bird today (3 August) posted a strong set of financial results showing growth in revenue, profit, and PEP. Turnover went up by 10% to hit £495m. This is in line with last year’s growth, though currency fluctuations mean the increase is less impressive in euros: up 9% to hit €573m, compared to euro growth of 15% last year.
Net profit increased by 8% when measured in sterling and 7% in euros, to £108.4m/€125.4m. PEP, too, ticked up slightly, increasing by 2% in sterling to £669,000 (1% in euros, to €774,000).
TLT has reported a 9% rise in revenue to £157m from £144m last year. This follows a standout year in 2021/2022, which saw turnover rocket by 30%.
However, the firm has seen profit per equity partner take a dramatic dip, falling 27% to £600,000 from last year’s £826,000, while equity partner headcount has increased marginally from 39 to 42.
