Looking for answers: Field Fisher considers near-shoring as part of strategy review

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Fieldfisher

After a turbulent year that has seen Field Fisher Waterhouse attempt a number of mergers and seen it unveil disappointing financial results, the firm is facing its issues head on, including looking at moving certain London support functions to Manchester as part of an ongoing strategy review initiated by managing partner Michael Chissick on his appointment in February this year.

If the move goes ahead, some non-legal roles such as IT and secretarial could be moved to Field Fisher’s seven-lawyer Manchester base in a bid to cut costs.

Freshfields and Linklaters take the lead on Schneider Electric’s £3.3bn Invensys bid

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Corporate Freshfields Bruckhaus DeringerLinklaters

Linklaters and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer have landed the leading roles on a takeover bid by France’s Schneider Electric for UK engineering firm Invensys in an offer that values the company at £3.3bn.

Linklaters led by London corporate partner Nick Rees is lead adviser to the French power equipment company, while Freshfields led by corporate head Barry O’Brien and City M&A co-head Ben Spiers is advising longstanding client Invensys. The deal comes just under a year after O’Brien and Spiers led on the company’s £1.74bn sale of its rail division to Siemens.

Full speed ahead – Ashurst puts in place joint corporate structure as full integration looms

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Leadership Ashurst

As Ashurst proceeds headlong towards its October vote on full financial integration with Asia Pac’s Blake Dawson the firm has put in place a democratic corporate structure that sees current managing partner (MP) James Collis confirmed as global MP of the merged entity.

Many of the appointments are expected; Ashurst Australia’s managing partner John Carrington will retain that role, although more of a surprise is the fact that the senior partner title currently held by Charlie Geffen will disappear, to be replaced on a new-look joint board by an elected chairman and vice chairman, who must come from different legacy firms (a betting person might suggest Geffen and Ashurst Australia’s chairman Mary Padbury are naturals for the roles.)

Comment: The Asian century maybe but not the Asian decade for the Global 100

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Asia

The market for the world’s largest law firms remains as reliably turbulent as ever. As this month’s edition of Legal Business shows, top 100 law firms in the world as a whole eked out a 4% hike in revenues to generate $84.9bn, a figure slightly flattering underlying growth due to a handful of sizeable mergers – including the creation of Herbert Smith Freehills and King & Wood Mallesons. Revenue per lawyer was flat. In real terms, the world’s legal elite is once again flat or modestly shrinking and headline income growth slowed in comparison to the 2011/12 year. Conditions remain considerably better than seen during 2009/10 but are a long way from pre-2008 boom years.

Host of top 100 firms disclose increase in turnover as profit proves a more variable metric

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Financial results 2013 GateleyHolman Fenwick WillanSacker & PartnersShoosmithsWard Hadaway

A host of UK top 100 legal firms including Holman Fenwick Willan, Ward Hadaway, Gateley, Shoosmiths and Sacker & Partners have all reported revenue increases for 2012/13 amidst highly variable profit figures.

Top 30 UK firm Holman Fenwick Willan has seen its turnover increase by 13.8% at the 2012/13 year-end to £141m, while net profit jumped by 17% to £38m, up from £32.4m the previous year. However average profit per equity partner (PEP) at the 450-lawyer firm climbed by a modest 1% from £525,000 to £530,000, largely a result of the addition of 10 new equity partners over the past year, taking the total to 72.

Another senior departure for Shearman’s Euro practice as Links rebuilds French securities team with high profile hire

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Europe LinklatersShearman & Sterling

The revolving door at Shearman & Sterling’s European practice was spinning once again today (11 July) with news that capital markets partner Bertrand Sénéchal has quit the US law firm to join the Paris arm of Linklaters.

Sénéchal’s practice covers a broad range of debt and equity securities work. The high profile partner has handled the French and US aspects of several large high-yield and Yankee bond transactions, and has advised major companies like Danone and Schneider Electric, as well as prominent underwriters.

More claims but fewer settlements – McDermott becomes the latest major law firm to face an employment dispute

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Litigation McDermott Will & Emery

McDermott Will & Emery yesterday became the latest law firm to stand accused of unfair dismissal and discrimination in the Central London Employment Tribunal (CLET) as experts say the days of settling claims simply to avoid potentially negative publicity are coming to an end.

Former City lawyer Cheng Tan has alleged that she was made redundant after asking to extend her maternity leave, having suffered complications during child birth.

And the most upwardly mobile law firm is? Client feedback pushes Latham to the top of Legal 500’s US edition

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US firms Latham & Watkins

Often hailed as one of the greatest US success stories of the last 25 years, new research underlines the elevated position Latham & Watkins has attained in the world’s largest legal market.

The Legal 500 United States 2013 edition shows Latham as the highest ranked law firm judged by the total number of recommendations, putting the Los Angeles-bred giant ahead of a string of top Wall Street firms.

Litigation heads from Lloyds Banking and Pinsent Masons leave for US and South African LPO providers

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Litigation Lloyds Banking GroupPinsent Masons

US legal process outsourcing (LPO) provider Clutch has signalled its intentions to expand its UK presence with the hire of Lloyds Banking Group retail and wealth dispute resolution head Aamir Khan as its general counsel and senior director for the UK and Europe.

The move comes as South African LPO rival Exigent today announced it has hired Pinsent Masons head of litigation Nigel Kissack to join its board as global strategy consultant.

Deal Watch: Slaughters, Dentons, Taylor Wessing and Nabarro act on high profile European deals

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Corporate CMS UKSlaughter and MayTaylor Wessing

Europe and particularly the UK has thrown up a number of high profile mandates from the nationally significant restructuring of UK Coal through to the solid £500m private equity buyout of Chesapeake by the Carlyle Group.

Nabarro has led for UK Coal on the corporate, insolvency and pension elements of a second restructuring following a devastating fire at the company’s Daw Mill in February. The company accounts for 5% of the UK’s energy needs and as a result of the restructuring over 2,000 jobs and the pensions of 7,000 members have been protected.