Redundancy woes: Bond Dickinson and Watson Farley are latest major law firms to review support staff roles

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Redundancy consultations continue to dog the City’s top 100 firms as Bond Dickinson and Watson, Farley & Williams last month became the latest to reveal they have placed a number of support roles under review.

In August, Bond Dickinson began a consultation process that will see up to 7% of its support staff made redundant. The newly-merged 700-lawyer firm – a combination of Newcastle-based Dickinson Dees and Bristol-headquartered Bond Pearce that went live on 1 May – said it intends to ‘discuss a proposal to review the support teams and how they should be shaped to best support the needs of Bond Dickinson’.

It added that ‘the proposals, if accepted, would see approximately 7% of support staff roles being made redundant and voluntary redundancy enhancements have been offered to all affected staff’.

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Private equity: CVC gifts Clifford Chance and Cleary with two major European mandates

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Followers of the tussle between UK and US private equity practices for European mandates were last month rewarded with an instruction to both camps by leading buyout house CVC Capital Partners in its acquisitions of Domestic & General (D&G) and Campbell Soup.

Advent International agreed to sell extended warranty provider D&G to CVC in a deal thought to be worth about $1.2bn, according to The New York Times, although this sum has not been officially disclosed.

Clifford Chance (CC) advised CVC, with a team led by Kem Ihenacho, co-head of the firm’s Africa practice and one of its private equity stars. He was assisted by M&A partner Brendan Moylan and insurance partner Hilary Evenett.
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European M&A: Big ticket summer mandates scooped by Allen & Overy; Clifford Chance; Freshfields and Macfarlanes

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Despite corporate partners attesting to a summer lull (if only by their absence from the office), the past month brought with it a number of headline European M&A deals, including a €17bn (including €9.8bn of net debt) bid for Dutch telecoms company Koninklijke KPN (KPN), which turned to Allen & Overy (A&O)’s Netherlands office on the deal.

The bid by Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim’s telecoms company América Móvil for the remaining 70% in KPN saw longstanding adviser A&O field a team led by Dutch corporate partner Jan Louis Burggraaf.

Clifford Chance, led by Amsterdam M&A partner Hans Beerlage, advised América Móvil alongside Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, led by New York capital markets partner Nicolas Grabar and corporate partners Neil Whoriskey and Amy Shapiro.

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LETR of the day: education review opts for mum ‘n’ apple pie over radical change

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Sarah Downey assesses the much-touted review of legal education

It promised so much and delivered so little. The Legal Education and Training Review (LETR) published its recommendations on 25 June, concluding what was dubbed as the most comprehensive assessment of legal education since the Ormrod report of 1971. Yet the 350-page report has proved an underwhelming end to a process that was supposed to address fundamental problems. Continue reading “LETR of the day: education review opts for mum ‘n’ apple pie over radical change”

BPP awarded university status after ‘rigorous’ review

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LPC provider follows arch rival to win university status

It has been a long time coming, but in August BPP finally succeeded in its long quest to secure full university status, furthering the ambitions of the UK’s top law schools.

The decision by the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills (BIS) to award the university title to BPP – which provides undergraduate and graduate business degrees across law, finance and tax and is the sole provider of the legal practice course (LPC) to many of the top City firms – will elevate its standing globally, dean and chief executive Peter Crisp told Legal Business. ‘Firstly, it’s the recognition, the reputation and the standing it gives us worldwide,’ said Crisp. ‘So obviously in terms of our appeal to students both in this country and internationally. It puts us on a par with other universities who also recruit on to the LLB and the vocational legal training practice. Continue reading “BPP awarded university status after ‘rigorous’ review”

Life during law: Mark Rawlinson

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I was in the first ever gender-mixed year at my college in 1976. I got on very well with one particular girl and she was reading law and I developed an interest. I applied to Freshfields, Linklaters, Allen & Overy, Lovell, White & King and Simmons & Simmons. I got five interviews and five offers in 1982 and chose Freshfields. In those days it was a lot easier to get a job.

Regrets? I would have loved to have gone off and done more mountain climbing, but that would have been very selfish as I had a family. Sport has always been a stress buster – I used to work closely with Anthony Salz, when he was co-senior partner at Freshfields, and I used to drive him mad because I’d hit the gym for an hour right in the middle of a deal, but it really helped to refresh me. But there was a tension between being a sportsman and a serious lawyer. But from early on, I wanted to be the best M&A lawyer. My three boys – Max, Tim and Nicky – are all sportsmen and it drives my wife mad as it is one hell of a competitive place at home.

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Latham, Sidley and Skadden lead the US pack in Legal 500 research

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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.

The 600-partner firm received recommendations in 55 practice areas. Recommendations are calculated by the research team of The Legal 500 based on client and peer feedback and the submissions of the firms themselves, and take into account multiple factors including track record in winning cases, the complexity of deals and innovation. Latham received 20 top-tier recommendations, including listings in areas such as capital markets (equity offerings and high-yield debt offerings), project finance (lenders and sponsors), energy (renewable and transactions) and telecoms and broadcast (regulatory and transactional).

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Financial results round-up: Freshfields tops UK elite firms

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Magic Circle firm shines with 7% revenue spike in flat market

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has led the Magic Circle for 2012/13 financial results in a year that has seen the UK’s elite turn out flat annual turnover and profits, while many of the UK’s top 50 reveal spikes in revenue largely generated by international expansion.

Freshfields has revealed a 7% revenue increase from £1.139bn to £1.22bn, with profit per equity partner (PEP) rising by 11% to £1,439,000.

Headline deals for the firm have included its role advising the government on the long-running IPO of Royal Mail, and advising Betfair on CVC Capital Partners’ £910m takeover bid. For Q1 of 2013, Freshfields was ranked by mergermarket in third place for global M&A behind US firms Davis Polk & Wardwell and Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, and second for global buyouts behind Kirkland & Ellis.

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It’s now or… later. Hogan Lovells to make decision on dual chief executive structure

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Hogan Lovells’ senior management has begun discussions over whether to retain the firm’s dual US-UK chief executive (CEO) structure or continue with a single head if UK CEO David Harris steps down as expected next year.

Harris (pictured) and US counterpart Warren Gorrell have opened the discussion on succession plans with the transatlantic firm’s board, which in turn will canvass the appetite of partners to move to a single leader now the merger of UK firm Lovells and Washington DC’s Hogan & Hartson is three years down the line.

The ten-strong board includes longstanding legacy Lovells City partners Nicholas Cheffings, who also acts as global chair, and finance partner Emily Reid. US members include new appointees Cole Finegan (Denver) and Dan González (Miami), who replaced New York-based Marc Gottridge and Hamburg-based Andreas Meyer respectively in May.

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All or nothing: Only a handful of DBAs entered into as confusion reigns over hybrid model

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‘It’s an extraordinary thing – hundreds of lawyers should have entered into damages-based agreements (DBAs) by now.’

So says Leslie Perrin, former managing partner and senior partner of Osborne Clarke, who is now chairman of litigation funding group Calunius Capital, with around £40m of capital to invest in disputes.

Instead, DBAs, which came into force under the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (LASPO) and entitle a lawyer to claim a percentage of their client’s damages by way of fees, have failed to take off at all. Perrin adds: ‘The confusion around the regulations has been such that I don’t think more than a handful of DBAs have been entered into all across the country. There’s so much ambiguity and grief for the first people going down that road and disputes lawyers are unanimous in holding this position.’

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