Moving slowly forwards – Eversheds seals another Tyco-style deal

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Innovation Eversheds Sutherland

While single service retainers appear unlikely to become a broad fixture of the legal market, Eversheds continues to push on with the model having sealed a multimillion-pound deal with valve manufacturer and Tyco spin-off Pentair Flow Control to take over all its routine legal work in the EMEA region.

In a two-year, fixed-fee contract, the UK top 10 law firm has secured the right to carry out all routine litigation, certain intellectual property (IP) and commercial work and some premium work including major litigation, M&A and antitrust work. Pentair merged with Tyco Flow Controls after the three-way split of Tyco in October last year.

Asia Round-up: Singapore in focus for Minter Ellison, Sidley Austin and Taylor Wessing

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Asia MinterEllisonSidley AustinTaylor Wessing

The decline in Singapore M&A has seemingly done little to dampen the enthusiasm of international firms to launch or build their practices in the region.

Sidley Austin – which despite having been in Singapore since 1982, has just 10 lawyers in the region and to date has not had the same impact as top-tier banking & finance and corporate Magic Circle rivals Allen & Overy, Clifford Chance and Linklaters Singapore – has benefited from Vinson & Elkins recent decision to close its office in Shanghai, by hiring energy partner Tju Liang Chua.

Kirkland’s trophy hire – Robert Khuzami to join the firm in Washington

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Strategic recruitment Kirkland & Ellis

If securing senior US regulatory agency lawyers can be compared to a highly competitive game of cards, then Kirkland & Ellis has just called poker with the hire of Wall Street’s top federal enforcer Robert Khuzami.

Khuzami (pictured, who, incidentally, has a Wikipedia listing running into several pages) joins as a partner in the top 10 Global 100 firm’s global government, regulatory and internal investigations practice group after leading the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC’s) enforcement division for four years.

Financial results 2013: Scottish elite numbers make grim reading as Maclay reveals results

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Financial results 2013 Maclay Murray & Spens

Following Dundas & Wilson’s announcement last week that its revenues and profits had tumbled dramatically for the second year running, the latest figures from Scotland’s two other elite firms shows it is not alone in suffering from poor financial performance.

Maclay Murray & Spens (MMS) has managed to outdo the beleaguered Dundas in terms of underperformance, with revenues down 13% to £40.9m from £46.9m last year, while profits have dropped by 24% to £9.7m, equating to a fall in PEP of £59,000 to £211,000 – down 22%. These figures are marginally worse than Dundas, which saw revenues dip 11% and profits fall 21%.

Guest post: ‘Culture’ wins yet another victory over business judgment (or how to actually have a law firm strategy)

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Guest blogs

Here’s Scenario One: you’re in an executive committee or practice group or departmental meeting at your law firm, and the question arises for discussion why one or a handful of your partners are engaging in activities which, from the firm’s overall perspective, are clearly marginal: the activities could be pursuing a particular client or lobbying to hire a lateral or continuing to devote all their energies to growing the marginal practice area.

One trick pony – BLP to retain MLS in wake of partner departures

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Leadership Berwin Leighton Paisner

‘Two people leaving doesn’t mean the whole business collapses,’ says Neville Eisenberg, Berwin Leighton Paisner’s (BLP) managing partner of 14 years, of the latest departures to hit the firm and, in particular, its Managed Legal Services (MLS) division.

MLS, which has struggled to make any headway in its model of absorbing in-house teams and effectively taking over the running of their legal function, has lost Patrick Somers, Thames Water’s relationship partner who helped to lead the project, as it also emerged that the firm’s star lateral hire Andrew Bamber, an acquisition finance partner who joined from Allen & Overy in 2009, has left the firm.

European expansion – Osborne Clarke continues international drive with Paris launch

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France Osborne Clarke

At the start of 2012 Osborne Clarke (OC) had little in the way of a direct international presence but the top 40 UK firm has continued its assault on Europe with a Paris launch, marking its fourth office opening in just over a year.

The office, which opened last Monday (15 July), is headed by Legal 500 recommended IT lawyer Béatrice Delmas-Linel, who joins the firm after four years as a partner at De Gaulle Flaurence, prior to which she was associate general counsel at Microsoft and before that managing partner at top-tier employment firm August & Debouzy.

In-house Round-up: Swiss Re GC to DAC, Co-op’s Gulliford to Pannone, FACT appoints first GC and Auction.com takes on senior legal team

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In-house Co-operative Legal ServicesDAC BeachcroftPannone Corporate

If it had seemed that the flow of UK hires between private practice and in-house was very much one-sided in the corporates’ favour a recent run of high profile moves has gone some way to evening out the score.

Co-operative Legal Services (CLS) co-founder Jonathan Gulliford has joined Pannone Affinity as a consultant as part of an ongoing growth drive at the Manchester firm’s white label legal arm.

Resurgence in debt and equity capital markets sees Allen & Overy claim top spot for issuer and manager roles

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Finance Allen & OveryClifford ChanceSimpson Thacher & Bartlett

Allen & Overy (A&O) has topped Thomson Reuters’ table of legal advisers on global debt and equity capital markets work for the first half of 2013, landing roles on 456 deals.

The Magic Circle firm came out in first place for both manager and issuer roles, advising on 350 and 106 deals respectively.

Clifford Chance, which held the top spot this time last year for issuer roles, has fallen into second position followed by US rivals Simpson Thacher & Bartlett in third, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom in fourth and Sidley Austin in fifth. Linklaters came in joint eighth position, down from fifth place at the half year in 2012, however for manager roles it claimed second place, advising on 234 deals.

Financial results 2013: BLP confirms bad year as revenues drop by 5%

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Financial results 2013 Berwin Leighton Paisner

It appears today (19 July) is a good day to try and bury bad news. With Dundas & Wilson earlier revealing significant falls in revenues and profit, Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) has confirmed suspicions that it has had a bad year: revenues are down 5% from £246m to £233m.

The firm has yet to announce profit figures but PEP is widely expected to be down substantially from last year’s figure of £660,000.