Global London debate: The eagle has landed

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Legal Business teamed up with Scottish Development International for a progress report on US law firms in the City. Has recent political and economic turbulence thwarted their advance at all?

While our 2016 Global London report – published before the Brexit vote on 23 June – identified the continuing rise of premium US advisers in the City, it also sounded a note of caution that 2016 – with Brexit and US presidential elections looming – could be a much bumpier ride for global legal services, conditions that not even the lean and slickly managed US outfits in the UK could avoid. With this in mind, we assembled a group of senior practitioners at some of the City’s most thrusting US firms for a progress report.

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The M&A Report: To have and to have not

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A frenetic 2015 has given way to a subdued deal market. LB assesses the outlook and asks which of the City’s deal teams have the individuals to win lucrative top-end work… and escape the squeezed mid-market

Amid a global economy experiencing considerable turbulence, 2015 was still a fantastic time to be an M&A partner at one of the City’s top law firms. A run of record-breaking deals. Check. Easy finance. Check. London strongly positioned as a finance hub, the UK economy moving back into recovery and a newly-elected pro-business Conservative government. Check, check and check.

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The M&A Report

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In a tough year for the deals market who will step up?

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The M&A Report: Postcards from the edge

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We canvassed M&A veterans for their reflections on a changing environment for advisers as Brexit and uncertainty loom over Europe’s deal markets

‘The competition aspects of these deals are becoming more involved. If the government were to throw some grit into the works it could slow things down here.’

Charles Martin, Macfarlanes

Takeovers to come

‘What you have seen over the past 18 months is a larger number of major deals fall over, such as alliburton/Baker Hughes. There is no doubt antitrust has become harder in mega M&A, due to the number of jurisdictions you now have to file in and increased scrutiny from regulators. Parties to these deals have to have the appetite to live with a long gap between announcement and closing and be prepared to make divestments of the type we have seen in AB InBev/SABMiller. There are only a handful of top global firms that can provide the EU, US and Chinese antitrust advice on these type of deals.

We are confident there will be further foreign takeovers of UK plcs given the fall in sterling. Notwithstanding ongoing uncertainty around Brexit and the US elections, we are encouraged that the M&A landscape is quite well set for a stronger second half of the year.’

Charlie Jacobs, senior partner, Linklaters

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The M&A Report: Private equity offers the clients for all seasons

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Market turbulence looks likely to only send the private equity bandwagon spinning faster… for those who can get on board

Markets can charge up or down, banking crises come and go, but it seems that it will take more than a little turmoil, uncertainty or even the spectre of Brexit to stop the rising influence of private equity and sponsors in Europe’s deal markets.

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The M&A Report: ‘Who Are Ya?’ – Mark Rawlinson: Freshfields’ playmaker leaves the pitch

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There is little space at the top among the elite M&A dealmakers, but as of October there is a vacancy for another heavyweight as Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer’s Mark Rawlinson departed Fleet Street for investment bank Morgan Stanley.

After 34 years at Freshfields, Rawlinson ended his time with a run of headline deals ensuring that he went out on a high. It capped an ultra-exclusive standing for Rawlinson, established alongside Slaughter and May’s Nigel Boardman, as one of the City’s top deal advisers at an age when even the most driven partners are usually losing a yard.

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On the bus – Inside the Norton Rose Fulbright masterplan

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NRF chief executive Peter Martyr defied expectations to reinvent Norton Rose as a progressive global player over more than a decade. Three years on from its ambitious US tie-up, where is the firm going next?

‘You will have to talk to Peter, we are not authorised to speak,’ says one Norton Rose Fulbright (NRF) partner. It’s a familiar refrain in a firm that – despite its reputation as a friendly place to work – defers to central management. A lot.

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The business and human rights debate: The new judges

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With new legislation putting human rights on the business agenda, we teamed up with Herbert Smith Freehills to gather lawyers and experts from a range of industries to debate the key issues

In our recent Insight report on business and human rights (see Soft law, hard sanctions – Human rights laws and the next risk front facing business) – published in September in association with Herbert Smith Freehills – we noted how the arrival of the Modern Slavery Act (MSA) in the UK in 2015 has crystallised the groundswell of awareness of the human rights concerns in business. We heard from in-house human rights experts how the debate over the last 15 years had moved beyond a vague concept to which lip service had been paid to become a bona fide business consideration, combining legal liability with potentially devastating reputational risk.

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Rising Star: David Avery-Gee, Linklaters

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Key clients: Glencore, Lloyds Banking Group, Alinda

Partner since 2011

I always wanted to do M&A. I used to look at the financial papers at university and was always interested in the deals. As a Linklaters trainee I decided very quickly I wanted to do corporate. I enjoyed the transactions and being at the centre of client relationships.

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