Top 30 UK firm Irwin Mitchell last month lost its place on energy giant National Grid’s legal panel to Shakespeares, following a review by UK general counsel (GC) and company secretary Karen Clayton.
The 700-lawyer firm was appointed for debt recovery services on the FTSE 100 energy company’s panel in 2011, at a time when it cut its roster of firms by 25% to 16.
Continue reading “Irwin Mitchell replaced by Shakespeares on National Grid’s UK panel after review”
Home entertainment company Virgin Media has completed an overhaul of its executive following its £15bn acquisition by Liberty Global in 2013, announcing Mine Hifzi as its general counsel (GC).
Hifzi was previously senior vice president of commercial and legal affairs for Scripps Networks Interactive, where she held a combined business development, commercial strategy and legal role. She also spent 14 years heading up the international legal and government affairs team at Discovery Communication, and prior to that worked in senior positions at Turner Broadcasting System Europe and United International Pictures.
I used to pretend I decided to be a lawyer at 16. My sister made a visit to me in London and one of our smarter associates asked: ‘So, tell us when Phil decided to be a lawyer?’ My sister said: ‘You were eight, weren’t you?’ She blew my cover. I’ve always been attracted to it.
US law firms are facing a fundamental overhaul over the way they calculate and distribute their profits that could result in far higher short-term tax bills if controversial proposals currently before Congress are approved.
The proposals could see US firms with over $10m in revenues forced to switch their accounting model from a cash basis, under which money received in a financial year is taxable, to a UK-style accrual method, where taxable revenue includes work done but not yet billed or collected.
The impact of HM Revenue & Customs’ decision to overhaul the way salaried partners are taxed is being felt across the City as a number of leading firms confirm they are reviewing their arrangements, although some of the largest Legal Business 100 firms have come out to categorically deny the changes will have any effect at all.
Firms including Herbert Smith Freehills, Ashurst, TLT, DWF, Weightmans, and Trowers & Hamlins have all confirmed to Legal Business that they are reviewing their partner remuneration arrangements in anticipation of the new rules, which will mean partners with under 25% of their salary attached to profits will be regarded as having a ‘disguised salary’ and treated as employees by tax authorities in a move expected to add thousands of pounds onto firms’ tax bills.
Continue reading “LB100 firms review partnership model as HMRC’s LLP changes loom”
In mid-February, Latham & Watkins confirmed its third London private equity partner hire from Clifford Chance (CC), with Kem Ihenacho set to follow on the heels of global head of private equity David Walker and newly-made up partner Tom Evans.
Ihenacho was co-head of the Magic Circle giant’s Africa practice, but here London head of corporate, Simon Tinkler, talks to Legal Business about CC’s position in the private equity market.
Continue reading “CC’s Tinkler addresses recent private equity departures”
David Stevenson assesses Shearman’s hopes of regaining its potency
‘The work that’s been done over the last few years is bearing fruit. Like a tree blossoming,’ observes Laurence Levy, head of European M&A at Shearman & Sterling. Long-time Shearman watchers have, of course, become familiar with variations on the revival rhetoric that Shearman has used several times before. But has this once celebrated Wall Street name really rediscovered its winning ways?
Firm-wide, the jury is at best still out, but focusing on its London operation it is easier to be upbeat. The firm’s City arm broke the $100m turnover mark in 2010 and has generally been growing at a respectable clip since then, up from $112.6m in 2012 to $134.8m for the 2013 financial year.
Latest QC promotions round the largest in three years
In stark contrast with the recent decline in the number of Queen’s Counsel (QC) appointments, the latest round announced in February saw 100 advocates awarded the elite kitemark, up by 19% on last year’s all-time-low figure of just 84.
The number of applicants rose this year to 225, in what may be interpreted as the litmus test of confidence in the wider economy, after queries were raised from within the profession over whether previous drops were a reflection of not just the £2,000 cost of applying to become a QC, but also fears that the associated higher rates would not be supported by cash-strapped clients.
Continue reading “Return to form for Queen’s Counsel as 100 advocates take silk”
Partasides and Petrochilos to join former colleague Jan Paulsson
Breakaway arbitration boutiques are increasingly common but they rarely have the gravitas of the latest entrant, as Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer’s London international arbitration group head Constantine Partasides last month resigned alongside Paris-based partner Georgios Petrochilos, to form a heavyweight trio alongside former co-arbitration head Jan Paulsson.
Dispute resolution partner Partasides spent ten years practising in the Magic Circle firm’s Paris office before returning to the UK in 2007 to head up its top-tier arbitration team. He is listed as a leading individual in The Legal 500 and recent arbitrations he has led include acting for a telecoms operator in a treaty claim regarding an expropriation of a multibillion-dollar business in North Africa.
Continue reading “Arbitration heavyweights resign to form boutique”
US leaders grind out growth in 2013 despite ‘anaemic economy’
Despite having to contend with what Latham & Watkins’ outgoing global chairman Bob Dell described to Legal Business as a still ‘anaemic economy’ last year, early results among the US law firms to disclose their 2013 financials are solid, with many forecasting a return to substantive growth this year.
Dechert was among the first to reveal its financials for 2013, with revenue up by 6.6% to $777.2m from $729m.
