Legal Business

‘Hugely complicated’: Watson Farley, White & Case, A&O line up on $14bn shipping deal

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Finance Allen & OveryWatson Farley and WilliamsWhite & Case

Watson Farley & Williams (WFW) has advised a group of 29 international and local banks who were acting as financiers on a $14bn merger between shipping giants Hapag-Lloyd and United Arab Shipping Company (UASC).

The merger will create one of the five largest container shipping lines in the world, with 237 vessels and a combined turnover of around $12bn.

Dubai-based finance partner Andrew Baird led for WFW with support from Dubai partner Neale Downes, Hamburg partner Maren Brandes, London partner Kavita Shah and Singapore partner Mei Lin Goh.

Allen & Overy (A&O) and Ince & Co acted for Hapag-Lloyd in the deal, while White & Case provided advice to the UASC. White & Case’s team was co-led by New York partner Chris Frampton and London partner Alison Weal, with partners Michiel Visser and Roger Kiem.

Sami Chowdhury and Jan Hungar acted for Ince & Co and Frankfurt partner Bianca Engelmann led for A&O.

Baird told Legal Business that WFW began working on the deal around eight months ago, commenting: ‘It was a hugely complicated transaction, as you can imagine.’

‘We co-ordinated a team across our Dubai, Hamburg, London and Singapore offices, so a lot of people played their part in bringing their expertise to bear,’ he said.

‘We currently have a lot of mandates of this type, but obviously this transaction is huge in its own right. We won the mandate due to a combination of our market leading position and the fact we have acted for the banks on a large number of the underlying financings in the past.’

The deal is the largest WFW has worked on this year, since landing a role on Shell’s $3.8bn sale of North Sea oil and gas assets in January.

Joe Levin led WFW in advising third party banks, as British investment firm Chrysaor Holdings bought out an initial consideration of $3bn, plus an additional potential payment of up to $600m, subject to commodity prices and $180m for future oil and gas finds.

White & Case partners Ian Bagshaw and Richard Jones advised Harbour Energy Limited, an investment vehicle managed by EIG Global Energy Partners, on its agreement to lead for Chrysaor on the acquisition of the oil and gas portfolio.

tom.baker@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

‘Forward-looking changes’: A&O introduces new management structure

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Leadership Allen & Overy

Following a consultation period, Allen & Overy (A&O) has introduced a new executive committee and client group in a bid to introduce more structure in the way it delivers services.

The firm’s executive committee, co-chaired by senior partner Wim Dejonghe and managing partner Andrew Ballheimer, will be responsible for developing and implementing the firm’s strategy and overall performance. Dejonghe, Ballheimer and representatives from practice groups, regions and the client group will meet for the first time in June.

The client group, chaired by Dejonghe, will be responsible for growth around industry sectors and the development of client relationships. Ballheimer also sits on the group alongside around 25 sector representatives and client relationship managers.

Partners on the executive committee include UK-based global finance co-head Philip Bowden, global international capital markets co-head Simon Hill and new US and Latin America senior partner Tim House. The board, which is already is place, will review and approve the strategy set by the executive committee. UK-based partners Angela Clist in securitisations and David Lee in infrastructure sit on the eight lawyer board.

Ballheimer said: ‘These are forward-looking changes that will allow us to use our global network even more effectively to deliver the services our clients want. They maintain the best collaborative strengths of our partnership while providing clear and accountable leadership.’

The firm also said it has enhanced its internal reporting of practice group, sector and client information on global lines. Support functions will also be run along global lines by May next year.

In other leadership news, earlier this month Simmons & Simmons re-elected senior partner Colin Passmore for a third term, after six years in the role. Passmore ran against the firm’s head of Asia, Paul Li. His new term will commence on 1 August, for a period of four years.

In March Travers Smith re-elected senior partner Chris Hale, after completing his first term of four years. Hale, who in 2013 amended the firm’s partnership deed to restrict his own term in the job, will retire from the senior partner post in 2019 after a further two-year stint. In the past, senior partners had a three-year term, but there was no limit to the number of terms one could complete.

madeleine.farman@legalease.co.uk

Executive Committee members

Wim Dejonghe – senior partner – UK

Andrew Ballheimer – managing partner – UK

Philip Bowden – finance – UK

Simon Hill – international capital markets – UK

Tim House – dispute resolution – US

Ian Ingram-Johnson – finance – United Arab Emirates

Astrid Krueger – M&A – Germany

Vicki Liu – finance – China and Hong Kong

Dirk Meeus – corporate – Belgium

Barbara Stettner – finance – US

Legal Business

‘This latest round has been disappointing’: A&O vows to address lack of diversity as Magic Circle announces new partners

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Gender diversity Allen & Overy

Allen & Overy (A&O) promoted just two women to partnership last month, 8% of its total round, with the firm stating it is working towards three clear 2020 targets to address the diversity concerns.

The targets include having 20% female partners; at least 30% women in each promotion round; and 30% of women in its partnership in non-elected leadership roles.

Legal Business

‘Enhancing our approach to development’: A&O drops annual appraisals in performance pilot scheme

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Allen & Overy

Allen & Overy (A&O) confirmed today (4 May) that it has been running a performance pilot scheme for the last six months, dropping traditional annual appraisals in a new approach to performance management.

The pilot scheme, focused on feedback and dialogue as tools to strengthen development and performance, has been running since October 2016 and currently involves 500 fee-earners and business staff across several practice groups and support functions in London, Singapore and the Middle East.

Given the positive feedback, particularly in engaging female associates on their career development, the firm is planning to roll out a second phase of the pilot later in 2017 involving more people, offices and practice areas worldwide.

A&O global HR director Sasha Hardman said: ‘We are always looking to evolve what we do to ensure that we have the best possible platforms for the development of our people. We are very pleased that the pilot has been received so positively and are using the feedback from it to enhance our approach and look forward to extending and developing it for the second phase.’

Last month A&O made up 24 partners worldwide, including 10 in London, with banking, international capital markets and corporate each seeing three promotions in the City in an increased global round. However, only two women were made up to partnership this year, making up just 8% of total promotions.

As a response, the firm pledged to achieve better gender balance continuing to work towards the existing target of at least 20% female partners by 2020, and new targets including ensuring 30% of yearly partner promotions will be women and achieve 30% women to non-elected leadership roles by 2020.

In a continuing bid to remain competitive, earlier this year Legal Business reported A&O broke lockstep again for a New York finance team, about six months after it used its rejigged remuneration system to bring in a four partner leveraged finance team.

georgiana.tudor@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

A&O makes up 24 partners in largest promotion round since 2008

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Partnership promotions Allen & Overy

Allen & Overy (A&O) has made up 10 partners in London with banking, international capital markets and corporate each seeing three promotions in the City in an increased global round of 24.

Just two women were made up to partnership in this year’s round, making up just 8% of total promotions. Last year 29% of the firm’s partner promotions were women, down from 2015 when 41% of females made the cut.

The promotion round is the largest since 2008. Last year the firm promoted 21 in a reduced round with almost half the promotions made in the firm’s banking team.

Corporate made up the bulk of the firm’s promotions this year with the practice gaining eight promotions. Six were made up in banking, and four were made up in both litigation and international capital markets. Three were promoted in both Hong Kong and Sydney with A&O’s Amsterdam, Brussels, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Istanbul, Jakarta, Madrid and Prague offices all receiving one new partner.

A&O managing partner Andrew Ballheimer (pictured) said: ‘We’ve had a very busy year and are investing strongly across our network. Following a string of high-profile lateral hires, it’s fantastic to be able to promote some of our most senior lawyers to meet client demand.’

There was a notable absence of partner promotions in the US where the firm has made a number of notable lateral hires this year. A&O hired a three partner finance and securities team from Paul Hastings including heavy hitter Bill Schwitter, appointed former Morvillo Abramowitz Grand Iason & Anello partner Eugene Ingoglia to its investigations and litigation practice in New York and brought on Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft litigation partners Gregory Mocek and Anthony Mansfield to its Washington DC office.

madeleine.farman@legalease.co.uk

Allen & Overy partner promotions in full:

Frits Gerritzen, Amsterdam, litigation

Peter van Dyck, Brussels, corporate

Murad Daghles, Dusseldorf, corporate

Jan Erik Windthorst, Frankfurt, litigation

Michael Jacobs, Hong Kong, corporate

Agnes Tsang, Hong Kong, ICM

Patrick Wong, Hong Kong, banking

Joe Clinton, Istanbul, banking

Michael Tardif, Jakarta, banking

Joel Ferguson, London, banking,

Neil Sinha, London, banking

Vanessa Xu, London, banking

Matthew Appleton, London, corporate

Peter Banks, London, corporate

Dominic Long, London, corporate

Tom Constance, London, ICM

Daniel Fletcher, London, ICM

Tom Roberts, London, ICM

Nick Saner, London, real estate

Javier Castresana, Madrid, litigation

Prokop Verner, Prague, corporate

Connell O’Neill, Sydney, corporate

Jason Gray, Sydney, litigation

Ka Sen Wong, Sydney, tax

Legal Business

‘We won’t stop’: A&O management team on building out in the US and breaking lockstep

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US Allen & Overy

Allen & Overy (A&O)’s management is bullish about the Magic Circle firm’s US expansion plans, having broken lockstep twice in 12 months to bring in two finance teams from major US firms.

In February it emerged A&O used its bonus pool to hire a three-partner Paul Hastings team. The US firm’s leveraged finance head Bill Schwitter joined A&O’s New York office as the firm’s global co-head of high-yield alongside partner Michael Chernick and capital markets partner Jeffrey Pellegrino.

Legal Business

A&O and CC take spots as Bradford & Bingley loans sold by Slaughters Treasury client

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Finance Allen & OveryClifford ChanceSlaughter and May

Slaughter and May, Allen & Overy (A&O), Clifford Chance (CC) have all picked up advisory roles in the UK government’s £11.8bn sale of buy-to-let mortgages from failed lender Bradford & Bingley.

Slaughters is advising Treasury entity UK Asset Resolution (UKAR), with a team led by finance partner Guy O’Keefe (pictured) and corporate partner Craig Cleaver.

Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton was also special US counsel, advising UKAR alongside Slaughters, with a team led by international capital markets partner Pierre-Marie Boury in London.

A&O and CC are advising the buyers, Blackstone and Prudential, respectively. CC’s team is led by structured debt partner Maggie Zhao alongside M&A partner Hilary Evenett.

The government took control of the failed bank’s £50bn loan book back in 2008,  while Bradford & Bingley’s £20bn savings unit and branches were bought by Santander bank.

Slaughters advised UKAR in 2008 when a large proportion of Bradford & Bingley’s portfolio was rescued, while Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton and Linklaters advised private equity company TPG on its acquisition during Bradford & Bingley’s collapse.

Slaughters and Linklaters also landed major roles in 2015 advising on the government’s record-breaking £13bn sale of former Northern Rock mortgages during the financial crisis.

Separately, Slaughters also acted for UKAR when the government sold a £13bn asset portfolio to Cerberus Capital Management in 2015.

georgiana.tudor@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Mishcon, A&O and Freshfields major winners at 2017 Legal Business Awards

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Allen & OveryFreshfields Bruckhaus DeringerMishcon de Reya

Mishcon de Reya, Allen & Overy (A&O) and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer were among the major winners at the 2017 Legal Business Awards, with Macfarlanes’ senior partner Charles Martin recognised as Management Partner of the Year.

Mishcon (pictured) was named Law Firm of the Year for the second time in five years, winning the most coveted award for what is been a startling run over the last decade (as can be seen in our December cover feature ‘The USP – What is Mishcon’s secret formula?‘.

A&O was of the one night’s main winners, picking up two awards: Competition Team of the Year and Legal Innovator of the Year, thanks to the successful launch of its MarginMatrix product and collaboration with Deloitte. Meanwhile, Freshfields picked up one of the most sought-after awards, Private Equity Team of the Year, for its role advising Advent International on the £1.5bn sale of the Priory Group to Acadia Healthcare.

Our Lawyer of the Year award this year was given to commemorate the work and life of the late Frances Murphy of Slaughter and May, one of the finest City M&A partners of her generation.

In other key practice categories, Clifford Chance was selected as Corporate Team of the Year for its role advising National Australia Bank on the three-and-a-half year-long demerger and subsequent listing of CYBG; while Ropes & Gray won Finance Team of the Year for advising Virgin Media on two innovative transactions. In one of the most competitive slots, Latham & Watkins was named US Law Firm of the Year.

Gowling WLG was a joint winner alongside Hogan Lovells in the Real Estate Team of the Year category, then returned to the stage to pick up the CSR Programme of the Year award for its work on establishing the Suited For Success charity.

Our disputes category was split for the first time this year, with Boies, Schiller & Flexner named Commercial Litigation Team of the Year for obtaining the first summary judgment from the Financial List in a landmark case for Barclays, while Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom picked up the International Arbitration Team of the Year award for securing victory for the Republic of South Sudan in its ICSID dispute with Sudapet Company.

Other major awards saw Virgin Media’s legal team named In-House Team of the Year for its role in the success of two major initiatives for the company in the last year, while Scotland’s leading independent, Brodies, picked up National/Regional Firm of the Year after a very strong 2016.

The awards were presented to 900 guests in a gala ceremony last night (23 March) hosted by renowned journalist and newscaster Alastair Stewart. The event was preceded by a reception to mark the launch of this year’s GC Powerlist report.

The winners were selected by an external judging panel comprising the following senior general counsel: Nilema Bhakta-Jones, group legal director of Ascential Group; Claire Chapman, general counsel (GC) and company secretary of Daily Mail and General Trust; Kate Cheetham, general counsel at Lloyds Banking Group; Kirsty Cooper, group GC and company secretary at Aviva; Claire Debney, director of legal strategy at Shire; Chris Fowler, GC UK Commercial for BT; FT GC Dan Guildford; Geoffrey Timms, GC and company secretary at Legal & General Group; Zoopla Property Group GC Ned Staple; Nigel Paterson, general counsel at Dixons Carphone; Nyeem Syed, assistant GC, financial & risk at Thomson Reuters; and Tony Williams of Jomati as well as Alex Novarese and Mark McAteer from Legal Business.

Our May edition will include a full report of the night. For more details on the awards, click here.

mark.mcateer@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business Awards 2017 – The Winners

Bristows – TMT Team of the Year

Ropes & Gray – Finance Team of the Year

Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom – International Arbitration Team of the Year

Ashurst – Restructuring Team of the Year

Allen & Overy – Competition Team of the Year

CMS Cameron McKenna – Energy and Infrastructure Team of the Year

Boies, Schiller & Flexner- Commercial Litigation Team of the Year

Irwin Mitchell – Private Client Team of the Year

Bond Dickinson – Insurance Team of the Year

Clifford Chance – Corporate Team of the Year

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer – Private Equity Team of the Year

Gowling WLG/Hogan Lovells – Real Estate Team of the Year

Three Crowns – Boutique of the Year

Frances Murphy, Slaughter and May – Lawyer of the Year

Gowling WLG – CSR Programme of the Year

Vieira de Almeida – International Firm of the Year

Ahsan Gulabkhan, Virgin Atlantic – Rising Star In-House Counsel of the Year

Virgin Media – In-House Team of the Year

Charles Martin, Macfarlanes – Management Partner of the Year

Latham & Watkins – US Law Firm of the Year

Allen & Overy – Legal Innovator of the Year

Linklaters – Legal Technology Team of the Year

Brodies – National/Regional Firm of the Year

Mishcon de Reya – Law Firm of the Year

Legal Business

Freshfields and A&O latest in the Magic Circle to post spring trainee retention rates, keeping on 84% and 82% respectively

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Trainee retention Allen & OveryFreshfields Bruckhaus DeringerSimmons & Simmons

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Allen & Overy (A&O) have both kept on 31 members of their spring trainee intake, with retention rates of 84% and 82% respectively.

Freshfields will keep 84% of its group of 37 trainees – 31 offers were made to the cohort with all agreeing to stay on as newly-qualified (NQ) lawyers. The rate is up slightly on last year’s spring retention figure of 82% when the firm again kept on 31 trainees out of a group of 38. The firm offered 33 of 38, or 87%, of its trainees places.

Also posting its trainee retention figures this month is A&O which posted a spring retention rate of 82%, compared to a rate of 91% this time last year. The Magic Circle firm held on to 31 applicants after 32 of the group of 36 received offers from a cohort of 38.

The results follow Slaughter and May’s 100% retention of its trainees, keeping all 25 due to qualify in March. Slaughter and May, Freshfields and A&O have outshined Clifford Chance (CC) which has kept on just 31 of its 46 trainees or 67% of its cohort. CC had 43 out of 46 apply for a contract, it made 33 offers and retained 31. Comparatively, CC retained 91% of its trainees in spring 2015, and 80% in spring 2016.

Meanwhile, Simmons & Simmons claims an 80% retention rate, offering 12 trainees in its spring cohort an NQ role. The firm said 14 out of 15 applied for a position, 12 offers were made and accepted.

This time last year, the firm announced nine trainees had gone through the qualification round while it later emerged there were actually 13 trainees on the intake, which gave Simmons a lower intake rate of 54%, rather than that declared of 78%.

madeleine.farman@legalease.co.uk

 

Legal Business

Managing Manhattan: A&O moves senior partner contender Tim House to New York

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Litigation Allen & Overy

Allen & Overy‘s (A&O) global head of dispute resolution Tim House is to become senior partner of the US and Latin America as the Magic Circle firm continues its heavy push into the region.

House will replace current managing partner David Krischer, who will remain at the firm, on 1 May and will be based in A&O’s New York office. It was announced in November the firm’s US senior partner, Kevin O’Shea, would leave for Milbank Tweed Haley & McCloy. Both Dave Lewis and Barbara Stettner will will head up the New York office and the Washington DC office respectively.

House will continue as the firm’s global head of dispute resolution, which he was appointed to two-and-a half years ago, for the rest of his four year term.

House has experience litigating and resolving complex disputes or managing investigations with much of his work being multi-jurisdictional. He will continue to do client work sourced from UK contacts but will not be a US lawyer.

A well-respected name at A&O, House ran for the role of senior partner in the firm’s leadership election last year. He was beaten to the post by longstanding former managing partner Wim Dejonghe, who now stands alongside managing partner Andrew Ballheimer. Former banking co-head Stephen Kensell, who left last year for Latham & Watkins, and Paris-based competition partner Michel Struys also ran for the post.

House told Legal Business: ‘I see my role as a combination of building the business and coordinating among all the partners and amongst all the practice groups in the way we present ourselves to clients and the way we serve their needs in the US and Latin America.

‘I am going to be continuing to do client work. Monthly I will be back in the UK, partly to serve UK-based clients, but also partly in my continuing role as global litigation head because the UK is a large part of that practice.’

House’s move to the firm’s US offices follows the hire of investigations and litigation partners Gregory Mocek and Anthony Mansfield from Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft in January and Eugene Ingoglia from Morvillo in February. Mocek and Mansfield join A&O’s Washington DC office while Ingoglia will be based in New York.

The firm’s litigation group was bulked up with the hire of a four partner London IP litigation team from Simmons & Simmons last year. A&O confirmed Mark Heaney and David Stone would join the firm in September, following the hire of Marc Döring and Marjan Noor earlier that year.

A&O has aggressively grown its finance practice in the US with a thre- partner Paul Hastings team making up its sixth lateral in the country since January. The lockstep-breaking hire includes former Paul Hastings leveraged finance head Bill Schwitter who will join A&O’s New York office and will become the firm’s global co-head of high-yield. He joins alongside high-yield partner Michael Chernick and capital markets partner Jeffrey Pellegrino.

The team was not the first the Magic Circle firm had broken its lockstep for in the past 12 months. A&O hired a four partner team in New York in July last year. The team is led by global co-head of leveraged finance Scott Zemser, who joined with Alan Rockwell and Judah Frogel from White & Case. Rajani Gupta came to A&O from Proskauer Rose, while associate Todd Koretzky joined from Milbank. Koretzky was made up to partner in the move.

madeleine.farman@legalease.co.uk