It was once Scotland’s most revered firm but Dundas & Wilson continues to experience misery heaped upon misery, rounding off a second annus horribilis by announcing a successive double-digit drop in turnover today (19 July).
Turnover was down 11% at the end 2012/13 to £48.7m from £54.5m, with profit down 21% to £12.8m from £16.2m the previous year. Profits per equity partner have also fallen significantly, down to £164,000 from £210,000 – a fall of 22%.
Media law firms have long received a profile far outranking their small size thanks to their close proximity to celebrity clients and headline-friendly stories. For once, that brand visibility has disastrously back-fired as it emerged this week that entertainment boutique Russells Solicitors was responsible for revealing the fact that its client JK Rowling had penned the crime novel The Cuckoo’s Calling under a pseudonym.
Commercial and corporate partner Chris Gossage disclosed the crime novelist’s true identity to his wife’s best friend Judith Callegari. It is understood that Callegari then disclosed the information to a Sunday Times journalist through Twitter earlier this month.
The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) is an organisation under pressure. Pressure from MPs over the severance packages of former executives, pressure after its annual report this week revealed that it has taken on and won fewer trials, and pressure to redefine itself within a highly politicised arena where it is an easy scapegoat for any number of financial ills.
First, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Wednesday published its 10th report in relation to the SFO’s redundancy and severance arrangements, finding that former director Richard Alderman had undermined the reputation of the SFO while he was director between 2008-2012.
If the financial results of 2013 are useful for one thing, it will be to remind us of the sheer volume of transcontinental mergers, nearly-ran mergers, and the growth in popularity of the Swiss verein model.
The tail end of the financial reporting season has seen Dentons post its first, broadly flat set of results since the three-way merger of SNR Denton, Salans and Fraser Milner Casgrain, while Withers and Travers Smith (which stands out all the more for its fierce independence) have both seen a small increase in turnover.
Good strategy is rarely dictated by old wives’ tales but the adage ‘if you can’t beat them join them’ certainly rings truer than ever in the regions and this week has seen the merger between two of Kent’s best-known law firms, Cripps Harries Hall and Vertex Law, as Midlands firm Geldards also pushes its public law brand in the City with the acquisition of TPP Law.
Property specialist Cripps, which the Legal 500 gives top-tier recommendations for commercial property and property litigation in the South East, will combine with corporate and commercial-focused Vertex Law to strengthen its position in Kent and extend its reach across the region and into London.
The merger will create a firm of 45 partners and 260 staff and is said by the firms to create ‘an enhanced joint client offering across core areas.’
Despite speculation that the UK could be set for the first woman Lord Chief Justice, it was this week confirmed that Queen’s Bench Division president Sir John Thomas has been appointed to replace retiring Lord Judge, who steps down at the end of September after completing five years in the role.
Thomas, who was recently involved in the high profile cases of Abu Hamza and Julian Assange, will take up his role on 1 October following his 66th birthday.
In many ways it is a curious time to be building up corporate and finance capability in the depressed Spanish market but Baker & McKenzie has significantly bolstered its strength in its largely third-tier Madrid office with the hire a local team of 20 lawyers from Mayer Brown’s former Spanish ally, Ramón y Cajal, including five partners.
Two of the founding members of the Spanish firm; Alberto Ureba, co-head of Ramón y Cajal’s corporate team, and Francisco Bauzá, co-head of the firm’s finance practice, are leaving to join the global behemoth by the end of the month.
Pity the reporters covering the legal industry as the rash of international mergers and differing profit structures has seen law firms increasingly attempt an ad hoc approach to disclosing their financial performance.
Very much in this spirit, Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) today (17 July) took the unusual step of releasing its financial performance for just seven months – the period since the union between Herbert Smith and Australian leader Freehills went live on 1 October – but refused to disclose the proceeding five months of the legacy City firm’s financial year.
Arguably the most ambitious deal to hit the global legal market since the 2010 tie-up between Hogan & Hartson and Lovells looks set to go ahead as it emerges that SJ Berwin is to vote next week on its proposed merger with Asia-Pacific giant King & Wood Mallesons.
Legal Business understands that SJ Berwin partners were given a week’s notice this morning of the vote, which will close at the end of the month.
Reed Smith has received nearly a million pounds in legal fees as a result of assisting in the BBC’s investigation into the Jimmy Savile sex abuse scandal as the corporation comes under criticism for spending a total of £5m of licence fee payers’ money on three reviews.
The BBC’s annual report today (17 July) revealed that the cost of the Pollard Review – one of three reviews set up in the wake of the Savile scandal – was £2.8m, of which £893,500 went to Reed Smith.
