Sponsored firm profile: Long term ambition trumps short term reaction

Eversheds Sutherland’s Richard Moulton on why 2022’s market dip hasn’t dampened the desire to become a leading global M&A powerhouse

Faced with the headwinds seen in 2022, it would be tempting for any corporate practice to pause its investment plans. However, the long-term ambition that Eversheds has for its M&A team is such that this was never an option. As Richard Moulton, the firm’s global co-head of corporate puts it: ‘Pausing investment would have been the easy option, but would have missed the opportunity to continue to build in line with our strategic plans for the global M&A team.’

The fundamentals of the firm’s ambitions for the M&A practice go beyond simply wanting to be a bigger practice, so the slowdown in M&A activity experienced in the second half of 2022 was no reason for them to change course. Indeed being larger is a bi-product of what Moulton and the corporate partners are aiming to achieve. ‘It is our aim to become the strategic partner for our clients on their M&A transactions, regardless of size, location or complexity – if it’s important to them, it’s vital for us. If we had stopped our investment, we would have wasted a lot of time, effort and money. It was never really an option for us.’

The firm has continued to transform its corporate business over the last 12 months, with some significant developments both in personnel and deal execution. In May it welcomed city veteran Roger Barron into its ranks as a senior M&A adviser. Barron comes with a lot of pedigree having been a leading M&A lawyer for over 30 years, 27 of which were with Linklaters. Until recently he was a partner at the US headquartered law firm, Paul Hastings, where he was appointed global vice chair of its M&A practice. On his arrival, Moulton adds: ‘Roger has come in to help us get to the next level, in terms of our relationships across the M&A market, and also our approach to positioning ourselves for strategic deals from blue-chip clients. They don’t come more experienced than Roger in that sense.’

Barron’s arrival was not the only significant hire the practice has made recently, with big names appearing across the network in the last 12 months. In Paris, partners Jean-Robert Bousquet and Alexandre Morel joined as part of a seven-strong team making the short journey across the Parc de Bagatelle from CMS Francis Lefebvre Avocats. This was followed by Steffen Schneipp from PwC, whose arrival spearheaded the opening of its much-anticipated Frankfurt office. On Eversheds’ enhanced bench in Europe, Moulton comments: ‘For our strategy to come alive, we need to make sure we have leading practitioners in every key M&A market delivering consistent excellence for our clients. The hires we have made over the past 12 months have sought to deepen and strengthen our existing bench and add a wider range of sector expertise’.

The strengthening of the bench of corporate partners has not been limited to Europe. The practice in the US has also seen some major names added over the last 12 months, with the additions of Craig Alcorn in Chicago and Baird Fogel, who like Schniepp in Frankfurt, has been brought in as part of the office expansion in San Francisco.

Alcorn’s arrival from Skadden in mid-2022 further strengthens the firm’s M&A capabilities in Chicago, which has already seen major corporate investment in the form of Stacey Kern and Lance Philips. Alcorn’s hire also adds much needed public company M&A expertise to the US team’s bench. Fogel’s arrival adds transactional capabilities to an office opened to put a physical presence in a market where the firm already has an impressive client roster.

As Moulton is keen to point out, this is not simply a headcount exercise: ‘It’s important we add the right people with the right expertise to the practice, however what really counts is their fit with how we want to help our clients do deals and the culture of our teams.’

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Moulton is keen that the practice continues with the wider firm’s tradition of focusing on relationships as its foundation. The firm has always been noted for the strength of its relationships with clients and the resource put into ensuring clients receive market leading service on transactions and that they are in constant communication inside, and outside of a project. ‘It’s important as we grow, we continue to live by the principles that have stood us in good stead over the years. We are adding quality lawyers who buy into our platform and the way we want to support our clients to execute their deals. Cultural fit is a
non-negotiable’.

One of the aspects Moulton specifically draws out to when he refers to their principles, is the focus on delivering service excellence that sparks into life whenever they are instructed on a deal. This focus on the client’s key aims is essentially how the corporate partners bring in the full strength of the firm to deliver a great experience for the client, particularly when a deal involves multiple jurisdictions (and almost two thirds of their deals do). Moulton adds: ‘On every transaction we do a detailed debrief with the client to understand what we did well and where we can make improvements’. The intelligence that is gained from these debriefs is used to inform how the team works behind the scenes on a deal. There is a mix of putting the right people, at the right level on deals, utilising specialists, including project managers, and lawyers from other legal disciplines, such as merger control and data as well as utilising the latest technologies. ‘We’re creating a proposition whereby the client experiences the best legal minds, the most efficient use of our resource and information flows and ensuring this is to the same high standard regardless of which lawyers are working on the deal and which country the deal is being led from.’

As a full-service law firm, you would expect the practice to be able to call upon lawyers from around the firm to advise on regulatory aspects of the firm, but as Moulton is keen to point out, the way the firm has developed puts the corporate practice in an advantageous position compared to many of its peers. ‘Whilst other firms see practices like employment and competition as corporate support, we don’t. They are practices in their own right and, as such, are run that way; focusing on having the best lawyers who are immersed in the law. As you would expect, it’s a real benefit to have this specific expertise on a deal, but we also use it to stay ahead of legal developments and knowledge share so that clients are aware of issues before deals start. The UK’s NS&I Act was a great example of this in practice. We were all fully briefed on its implications well in advance, and so were talking to our clients about it – even when no deals were on the horizon. I’m proud of the fact we are able to bring this perspective to clients.’

Investment is also being made in these areas and sector regulatory expertise, with the hire of Martin Sandler from EY who joined the firm’s London financial services regulatory team in October 2022 and Washington-based competition partner, Josh Shapiro who joined from Thompson Hine in January this year.

With the M&A market expected to gradually improve from 2022’s slowdown, Eversheds Sutherland’s corporate practice is well positioned to continue on its trajectory to becoming a practice that competes with the biggest and best in the market.