Roger Johnson, among the first wave private equity stars to defect to Kirkland & Ellis from the Magic Circle, has left the Chicago powerhouse’s London office.
The move was quickly followed by news that Kirkland has hired the well-respected private equity partner Alvaro Membrillera from Paul Weiss in the City, where he was London managing partner.
Dentons has released its financial results for its UK, Ireland and Middle East business, reporting a significant decrease in the rate of revenue growth from last year’s 14% spike to a modest 2% increase from £260.4m to £265.1m this year.
In an interview with Legal Business, chief executive for the UK and the Middle East, Paul Jarvis (pictured), spoke about the significant deceleration in the rate of revenue growth: ‘Our financials are following a trend that we are seeing across the industry. Last year was a record performance for us, but we are not disappointed with our results this year. We are in a high-inflation environment, and we are clear that our strategy is not about growing revenue for revenue’s sake, but to ensure that we continue to grow in a sustainable way.’
Charles Russell Speechlys today (2 August) posted financial results that saw revenue tick up by 9% to hit £193.7m, while profit dipped by 8% to £37.1m. PEP also fell very slightly, from £524,000 to £521,000. The firm reported a total of 73 equity partners, down from 77 last year, while total lawyer headcount increased from 546 to 603.
Revenue from outside the UK was up 18%, after increasing by 24% last year. Overall growth across the UK’s sector teams was just below 7%, with the higher increase in the business advisory and transactions and dispute resolution divisions, which each grew by 9%. The private client division, meanwhile, saw revenue increase by 4%.
Clyde & Co today (1 August) reported a 22% increase in revenue to £786.6m – a combination of 6% organic growth and the impact of its merger with BLM, which finalised last July. This marks the firm’s 25th consecutive year of growth, with revenue up 115% over the decade.
Profit was also up 6% to £169.2m, while PEP held steady at £708,000.
Leading the high-profile moves last week, Paul Hastings has expanded its energy and infrastructure practice with the hire of Alistair McKechnie after a string of recent prominent hires that include Jessamy Gallagher and Stuart Rowson. McKechnie specialises in infrastructure finance and acquisition finance.
Speaking to Legal Business about the move, McKechnie he said: ‘There is undeniable momentum at Paul Hastings right now, and it’s clear the firm is on an upward trajectory both on a global level and in London. I watched with interest the hires of Jessamy and Stuart at the start of the year: it was clear they were building something unique in the sense that they go to market as a fully integrated energy and infrastructure practice, combining specialist capability across disciplines, and, crucially, covering both M&A and finance.’
A turbulent year of partner losses has culminated in disappointing financials for Travers Smith as revenue edged up only 1% to £197.5m from £195m in 2021/22.
Profit per equity partner (PEP) too was flat at £1.1m compared to last year’s £1.105m after a 9% drop in 2021/22 from £1.22m.
The UK litigation funding industry has been left scrambling to renegotiate contracts in the wake of a Supreme Court judgment earlier this week (26 July) which ruled that many of the funding agreements used for group action competition cases are unenforceable.
The judgment, which relates to the high-profile cartel case brought against DAF and other truck-makers, ruled that litigation funding agreements (LFAs) allowing funders to recover a percentage of damages awarded constitute damage-based agreements (DBAs), which are not allowed in collective actions in the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT).
The board of Allen & Overy has chosen Abu Dhabi capital markets partner Khalid Garousha (pictured) as interim global managing partner as the dust has started to settle on the shock resignation of Gareth Price.
The move, announced today (27 July), came after senior partner Wim Dejonghe covered the role since the firm on 13 July announced Price’s departure for ‘personal reasons’ at the same time as releasing its financial results.
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer today (26 July) announced its 2022/23 financial results, marking a seventh consecutive year of revenue growth for the firm.
Its revenue has increased by 8% to £1.84bn from £1.7bn in the previous financial year, a similar increase to last year’s 10% rise. Freshfields is the last of the four international magic circle firms to reveal its results. However, unlike Allen & Overy and Clifford Chance, Freshfields is yet to break the £2bn barrier. In its recently released financials, A&O’s revenue increased by 8% from £1.94bn to £2.1bn, while CC achieved a revenue increase of 5% from £1.969bn to £2.062bn.
Freshfields’ profit per equity partner (PEP) has remained flat with a 1% increase to £2.09m from £2.07m last year, in contrast to last year’s solid 8% growth.
Following the announcement last week that Eversheds Sutherland has entered into a formal cooperation agreement with Chinese firm King & Wood Mallesons (KWM), Legal Business spoke to Eversheds’ chief executive officer Lee Ranson about the arrangement and the implications for both firms.
Under the terms of the deal, KWM will exclusively refer all its clients requiring legal advice in the UK, Europe, Middle East, Africa and South America to Eversheds, while Eversheds will refer all its international clients in need of PRC legal counsel solely to KWM.
