Legal Business

An 11-strong panel: Ashurst and Addleshaws lose out as Carillion finalises adviser review

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Adviser reviews Addleshaw GoddardAshurstCarillion
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Construction giant Carillion has finalised its legal panel review, with Ashurst and Addleshaw Goddard losing spots and Irwin Mitchell gaining a place for the first time.

Set to run for a two-year term until 2017, Carillion’s new 11-strong panel comprises Slaughter and May, Linklaters, DLA Piper, Clyde & Co, Clarkslegal, FBC Manby Bowdler, Irwin Mitchell, Kennedys, MacRoberts, Pinsent Masons and RPC.

The review was run by company secretary and director of legal services, Richard Tapp, and firms were asked to present client initiatives with regards to diversity and innovation. The company has continuously made efforts to tighten up the number of panel spots. Carillion’s 2009 panel review, which at that point comprised 14 firms, saw Addleshaws, legacy Barlows and Kennedys join the roster for the first time.

Carillion is one of the earliest adopters of innovative business solutions and subsequently altering the way it does business with external advisers in a bid to keep costs down.

Having established its own legal outsourcing arm, Carillion Advice Services (CAS), the company diverts the commoditised and quasi-legal portion of all its workload to Newcastle-based CAS, which is also now used by its panel law firms to service their own needs.

It became a requirement for panel firms during the company’s last review in 2012, and Tapp first trialled the CAS arrangement with panel employment advisers Clarkslegal. In 2013, Slaughter and May followed suit announcing it had begun offering the services of CAS to Vodafone, an arrangement that has since been extended to other clients. CAS has now grown in the last 18 months from carrying out contract review work for Carillion across the UK to across the globe, and the initiative has notably helped the company keep legal costs at the same level they were ten years ago.

Other moves to reduce costs include using external firms in a collaborative network, where firms agree standard forms of documentation for their Carillion work and meet twice a year. Carillion also asks its network of advisers to identify the potential legal issues that could impact its business in the future.

Tapp previously told Legal Business: ‘It works best if all the firms are getting work and we keep the network fairly small. I appreciate we are quite demanding so its quid pro quo.’

sarah.downey@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

A £1bn offer: Linklaters, Ashurst and Gibson Dunn win roles on Domino Printing acquisition

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Corporate AshurstGibson, Dunn & CrutcherLinklaters
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Linklaters, Ashurst and Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher have all landed roles on Japanese electronics company Brother Industries’ acquisition of UK technology company Domino Printing Sciences for £1.03bn.

Under the terms of the offer, the FTSE 250 firm Domino will receive a total of 915 pence in cash for each Domino share held, giving it a total value of £1.03bn – a 26.9% premium to yesterday’s closing price. Citibank is providing a £1.07bn bridging facility to help the Japanese company finance the deal.

Brother Industries’ turned to long-standing advisor Linklaters with corporate partner David Holdsworth leading, while Domino – the developer of inkjet printing and laser printing products – turned to Ashurst’s corporate department, with partner Adrian Clark heading up a team which included competition partner Ross Mackenzie, tax partner Alex Cox and the firm’s head of employee benefits and incentives Paul Randall. Gibson Dunn corporate partner Jonathan Earle provided counsel to Citibank on the cash confirmation aspect of the deal.

The deal continued Linklaters run of success with large acquisitions by Japanese corporates, having also previously acted on the two other public bids made since 2010 which have been over the billion-pound mark in London.

Linklaters’ Holdsworth also led a team advising on Japanese ad giant Dentsu’s acquisition of marketing group Aegis for £3.2bn in 2012 while corporate partner Shane Griffin led on Japanese communications firm NTT’s takeover of Cisco powerhouse Dimension Data for £2.1bn in 2010.

jaishree.kalia@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Accounts revealed: Profits rise 10.8% in Ashurst’s first post-merger filings

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Ashurst‘s first post-merger limited liability partnership (LLP) accounts show the firm’s operating profit increased 10.5% from £193.8m to £214.2m for the financial year ending 30 April 2014 as it contained staff costs and increased turnover.

Filed with Companies House, the LLP accounts are the first since its merger with Blake Dawson in November 2013, following the big six Australian firm’s rebranding as Ashurst Australia in March 2012. The increased operating profit resulted in a 10.8% increase in the profit available for division among members, with it rising from £183.5m to £203.2m.

Turnover at the combined firm was up 2% from £569.7m to £582.4m with the rise in profit coming as operating costs at the firm were cut 2.4% from £380.4m to £371.1m. Staff costs fell by 1.7% with savings on wages coming in at 2.7%. Other operating costs came down by 4%.

The slimming down of staffing expenditure came as the number of legal and support staff heads increased by eight across the year from 2,890 and 2,898, while the average number of partners grew by one 355. However, the highest earning member took home £1.1m – 16% higher than in the previous financial year when the highest profit share’s value was £977,000.

The firm considerably improved its cash at bank and in hand balance, with it shooting up 96% – doubling from £15.5m to £30.4m. As such, the firm’s saw a rise in its current assets from just under £346m to £351m on its consolidated balance sheet. Net funds also grew to £3.2m at the end of the last financial year, after debt totalled £13.9m at its beginning. In comparison, at the start of the financial year ending April 2013, funds totalled £15.9m.

jaishree.kalia@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Ashurst Australia head steps down while HSF picks up Ashurst corporate duo in Asia

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Strategic recruitment AshurstHerbert Smith Freehills
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Ashurst’s John Carrington, who helped handle the integration of Blake Dawson, has retired as Australian managing partner with no successor, as Herbert Smith Freehills bulks up in Asia with two corporate hires from the firm.

After almost 30 years with the legacy Australian firm Blake Dawson, and then Ashurst, including the past six as managing partner in Australia, Carrington is retiring from the firm as well as his position. He has been a partner since 1990 and was appointed managing partner in October 2008, helping to oversee the integration of Blake Dawson with Ashurst alongside now Ashurst vice chairman Mary Padbury and the legacy firm’s board.

The firm confirmed there is no successor to the role with his responsibilities being shared across the firm’s Australia-based office heads, as well as Australian-focused executive committee members Phil Breden, Geoff Gishubl, Paul Jenkins and Lisa Ritson, and board members Mary Padbury, Peter Armitage, Roger Davies and Jennie Mansfield.

‘John was instrumental in initially exploring merger opportunities and ultimately steering the Australian firm through the process which, in November last year, saw it complete full financial integration with Ashurst,’ said Ashurst managing partner James Collis. ‘I came to the decision that the responsibilities of the position could effectively be shared amongst senior Australia-based partners.’

Padbury added: ‘The vision he outlaid at the start of his term – for the firm to become part of a leading international firm, to focus on our strengths in the energy and resources and financial services sectors, to build capability in the Asia-Pacific region and to strengthen our financial performance – have all been realised.’

Meanwhile, Herbert Smith Freehills has added Ashurst corporate partners Ian Williams and Damien Roberts to its corporate M&A practice, joining the firm’s Brisbane and Tokyo office respectively. Williams, who was also on Ashurst’s board, specialises in M&A and joint ventures in the energy, resources, infrastructure and industrial sectors while Roberts’ M&A experience also focuses on energy and infrastructure.

Herbert Smith Freehills global head of corporate, Mike Ferraro said: ‘In particular, Ian’s strong relationships with Japanese and Korean organisations and Damien’s long-standing relationships with key Japanese corporates and semi-government bodies will boost Herbert Smith Freehills’ strength in Japan and Korea.’

jaishree.kalia@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Asia round-up: Hogan Lovells turns to A&O for first partner based in Vietnam, while Bakers appoints new MP

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Hogan Lovells has put its first partner on the ground in Vietnam, recruiting Allen & Overy’s (A&O) senior associate Jeff Olson as a partner to its corporate practice. Meanwhile, Baker & McKenzie elected partner Milton Cheng to serve as managing partner for its Hong Kong, China, Korea and Vietnam offices where he succeeds Paul Tan who held the position since October 2012.

Hogan Lovells hire of Olson is indicative of recent strategic expansion made by the firm in the Asia region, including the hire of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer TMT partner Mark Parsons in January this year and Kirkland & Ellis private equity partner Steven Tran last month, of which both moved to its Hong Kong office. US-qualified Olson joined from A&O’s Vietnam office and has moved to Hogan Lovells Ho Chi Minh City office.

Global head of Hogan Lovells’ corporate practice, David Gibbons, said: ‘Vietnam is a key market for our international clients and a gateway to ASEAN international trade. Jeff’s presence on the ground in Vietnam will complement our offering, along with the recent arrivals of Steven Tran and Mark Parsons in Hong Kong’.

Baker & McKenzie also made appointments in the region, electing longstanding partner Milton Cheng to succeed Paul Tan as managing partner for its Hong Kong, China, Korea and Vietnam offices. Having joined the firm’s London office in 1990 as a trainee, dual-qualified Cheng relocated to join the Hong Kong office in 1993 as an associate and became an equity partner in 2004. Previous management roles undertaken by Cheng includes serving as co-head of the corporate group and head of the firm’s Asia-Pacific mergers and acquisitions group.

Ashurst has also expanded in the region adding to its Hong Kong roster with the hire of Slaughter and May lawyer Ben Hammond, who specialises in non-contentious regulatory work.

The firm has made concerted efforts in recent months to improve its Asia offering, and finance practices in particular, and in May hired White & Case finance partner Kate Allchurch in Singapore, and relocated London-based finance partner Chris Tang and Sydney-based Doos Choi to Hong Kong.

Jonny Gordon, co-head of the global financial regulation practice and based in Sydney, said: ‘Hong Kong is a key financial centre for our clients in the Asia-Pacific region, and the addition of Ben in the non-contentious space complements our already strong contentious offering in the Hong Kong market and in the region generally’.

sarah.downey@legalease.co.uk    

Legal Business

Updated: ‘I like building businesses’ – Ashurst blow as ex-head Geffen quits with corporate partner for Gibson Dunn

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It had been long rumoured but the loss that Ashurst clearly wanted to avoid has materialised as it was today (1 October) confirmed that the firm’s former head Charlie Geffen has quit alongside corporate partner Mark Sperotto for a US rival.

The pair join Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, the top 20 Global law firm, becoming the fourth Ashurst partners to join the Los Angeles-bred giant’s expanding City arm.

Geffen, the high profile former head of Ashurst and a driving force behind its buyout practice, will head Gibson Dunn’s firmwide private equity practice and chair its City corporate practice. He will focus on global corporate and sponsor relationships, including all types of M&A and private equity transactions. Sperotto will continue to focus on cross-border M&A, private equity and equity capital markets transactions.

Geffen was famously defeated in a leadership election last year by litigator Ben Tidswell in the wake of the vote for Ashurst to push ahead with full financial integration with its Australian partner Blake Dawson. After losing the partnership vote in November 2013, Geffen assumed his role as a corporate partner up until March 2014 when he took leave. Geffen told Legal Business that since then he has sought opportunities inside and outside of the law, but in the end decided to join Gibson Dunn because of its US platform and its strong links within the regulatory, antitrust and transactional practice areas. He is also understood to have looked at in-house positions and consultative roles.

While Geffen said he has not handled direct private equity work for the past five years because of his management responsibilities, he says one of his aims is to grow Gibson Dunn’s corporate relationships.

Geffen said: ‘I have known Ken Doran [Gibson Dunn managing partner] for a number of years and love the culture of the firm. Gibson Dunn has a strong antitrust and regulatory capability and it is extremely hard to compete with US firms in this aspect. It is one of the most profitable global firms in the world. The firm is focused on building its capabilities in London.’

Both Geffen and Sperotto handed in their resignations this morning. With regard to his former firm, Geffen added: ‘Ashurst is a strong English brand and I am hugely proud of what the firm achieved during my time there. The business has been through a big transformation and it’s entirely natural for it to be in a new phase. I led the firm for five years and this is a natural career progression. I like building businesses.’

Gibson Dunn co-partner in charge Tom Budd told Legal Business: ‘Our hiring process will continue in the City. We have a strong litigation, corporate and M&A practice and may make further hires in private equity and finance.’

No start date has been confirmed for both Geffen and Sperotto as yet.

The moves follow the exit of former Ashurst corporate partner Nigel Stacey, for Gibson Dunn in June, after corporate partner Jonathan Earle left in April.

The departures come at a sensitive moment for the 420-partner firm, which has faced mixed views internally over its Australian tie-up and the defeat of Geffen, who enjoyed strong support in Ashurst’s City corporate practice. Notably, the firm also last year saw the departure of highly rated co-head of corporate Stephen Lloyd for Allen & Overy, in what was seen as a blow to its corporate practice.

There have been concerns that Geffen was effectively voted out by the Australia side of the firm, amid expectations that Geffen would have pushed to rationalise its partnership after the union. However, Ashurst had initially hoped to convince Geffen to stay on in a senior role.

A spokesperson at Ashurst said: ‘Charlie has made a tremendous contribution to the firm over 30 years including five years as senior partner of Ashurst. He leaves a considerable legacy and we wish him well.’

Despite its $1.39bn revenues, Gibson Dunn has so far largely focused its City arm on disputes, with Legal Business’s Global London research showing its UK arm shrinking from 57 lawyers to 48 between 2008 and 2013. However, the firm has been clear about renewed ambitions to build out a fully-fledged English law practice covering mainstream corporate work. It currently has a total of 22 partners in its City practice, 60% of which sit in transactions, with the remainder in litigation.

For more analysis on Ashurst’s post-merger fallout from Legal Business click here.

Jaishree.kalia@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Revolving doors: OC hires from Bakers in international push while Ashurst and Dentons build European presence

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Strategic recruitment AshurstDentonsOsborne Clarke
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Last week saw LB 100 firms Dentons, Ashurst and Osborne Clarke (OC) expand European offices while Addleshaw Goddard boosted its litigation offering.

 

Dentons enhanced its Paris office with the hire of Nicolas Theys, a partner from King & Wood Mallesons SJ Berwin, to lead its restructuring insolvency and bankruptcy practice in France. His hire is indicative of the increasingly fluid Parisian market that has seen Clifford Chance ramp up its finance and corporate teams in recent weeks. For others, it’s been more of a challenge as evidenced by Berwin Leighton Paisner’s recent decision to scale back as a result of market difficulties.

For Dentons, the addition of Theys, a specialist in all aspects of French insolvency law and experienced in shareholder-related disputes, will enable the firm to ‘build our offering to clients in France and contribute to the strategic goal of developing a leading restructuring practice in Europe’.

Theys brings with him a four-strong team including King Wood counsel Audrey Molina and associates Geraldine Astrup, Elisabeth de Carvalho and Gwenaelle de Girval.

Meanwhile, Ashurst took measures to improve its disputes team in the typically volatile Spanish market, a region that is starting to enjoy an increasingly positive economic outlook. The firm has appointed Jose Antonio Rodriguez Alvarez, a former partner in CMS’s Spanish arm, CMS Albinana & Suarez de Lezo, to head its disputes practice in Spain.

Before his role at CMS, Alvarez also previously led the disputes practice at Baker & McKenzie in Spain and served as general counsel at Spanish TV company, Sogecable.

Commenting on Alvarez’s arrival, the firm’s Spain managing partner Eduardo Gracia: ‘We are confident that Jose Antonio will make significant contribution and provide the leadership required to make it the go-to team in the Spanish market’.

Over in Germany, Osborne Clarke (OC) continues to make good on its international ambitions and recruited IP partner Andrea Schmoll from Baker & McKenzie who leaves the world’s largest firm by revenue after 12 years. She joins OC’s office in Cologne, Germany’s fourth largest city, and brings with her experience in the commercialisation of IP rights, and know-how in R&D, licensing and collaboration agreements.

Having enjoyed an upward growth trajectory of late with global revenues up 26% to €169m for the most recent financial period alongside a profit per equity partner hike of 46% to £513,000, the firm has made clear its audacious mandate for continued expansion.  Outgoing managing partner Simon Beswick told Legal Business previously that, alongside four office launches since last year, the firm will look at further internationalisation which includes making additional lateral hires throughout 2014.

Lastly, having been plagued by multiple partner defects in recent months, Addleshaw Goddard has refocused its efforts on its London office and appointed litigation partner Mark Hastings as head of fraud, regulatory and corporate crime following the exit of Ian Hargreaves to King & Wood Mallesons SJ Berwin while litigation partner Helen Worth was hired from Hong Kong firm Cordells to its London Office.

Hastings is known for several high profile mandates, including leading in the mammoth Berezovsky dispute, a $6bn commercial court claim against Roman Abramovich. He further acted on the related $3bn Chancery Division claims against the estate of the late Georgian billionaire Arkady Patarkatsisvili.

On his new role, litigation division managing partner Michael Barnett said: ‘Mark is well placed to build on this strong platform and lead the team towards our ambition of becoming one of the City of London’s best civil fraud practices’.

sarah.downey@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

‘It is to improve efficiency’: Ashurst cuts back overnight production team as it looks to offshore

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Top 20 firm Ashurst has made 15 redundancies to its overnight production staff in London nearly halving the City firm’s 34-person team following a consultation process last month.

The past year has seen a number of UK firms scale back their back-office support teams to become more efficient and save costs. While the remaining half of the team will continue to work in London, the firm plans to outsource a greater portion of late-night document production work to an offshore provider.

A spokesperson for Ashurst said: ‘It is to improve efficiency. You can’t always predict capacity levels, whereas if you’re outsourcing it then whether or not there’s a phenomenal amount of jobs or the jobs are all completed in normal working hours it doesn’t make much of a difference.’

The firm’s Australian offices have operated a hub model, whereby a streamlined document production team receive work and post it onto outsourcers, for at least 18 months.

The move to downsize this part of the team comes after 350 staff roles were initially earmarked for redundancy after the firm created a 150-strong unit in Glasgow last year to cover back office support and volume legal work, including document review in litigation and corporate work.

Some 120 employees were later given the option to transfer to the firm’s new lower cost Glasgow site or take redundancy.

tom.moore@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Cadwalader grows London team as Ashurst capital markets partner returns to the firm

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Strategic recruitment AshurstCadwalader, Wickersham & Taft
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US firm Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft has made a key hire to its global capital markets practice with Ashurst partner David Quirolo, as the New York-headquartered firm continues its efforts to rebuild its London finance team.

Quirolo is listed as a leading individual in securitisation in the Legal 500 and focuses primarily on collateralised loan obligations (CLOs) and other securitisation and repackaging transactions involving various asset types in both the US and Europe. He also advises arrangers and collateral managers, issuers, originators and investors in a variety of structured finance transactions. Prior to joining Ashurst in 2004, he spent eight years in the New York and London offices of Cadwalader.

Cadwalader has been driven in its efforts to rebuild its structured finance group, after seven partners left to join Paul Hastings back in 2009. It recruited Latham & Watkins partner Holly Neavill and Richards Kibbe & Orbe partner Louisa Watt to its restructuring team in May 2013, while former Linklaters partner Yushan Ng, a high profile restructuring specialist, departed from the magic circle firm for Cadwalader in 2012.

Other hires brought into the London team in the last 18 months includes former Mayer Brown finance and banking practice head Bruce Bloomingdale who joined the 435-lawyer firm last September alongside Chicago banking and finance partner Jeremiah Wagner, who had been on secondment to Mayer Brown’s London office.

On Quirolo’s appointment, London managing partner Gregory Petrick said: ‘David’s return to Cadwalader is an important further expansion of the firm’s global market leading structured finance practice. We continue to execute on our strategy of growing our London office by recruiting top tier talent and practicing in areas of the Firm’s core strategic strengths. We are very pleased to have David back with us.’

‘Our strategy is to attract market-leading practitioners, like David, who can offer our clients legal solutions that are informed by an in-depth market perspective,” added Stu Goldstein, co-chair of the global capital markets practice group.

sarah.downey@legalease.co.uk

For more on structured debt markets, click here to see Legal Business’ analysis.

Legal Business

Weil boosts finance practice with Ashurst hire in New York

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Strategic recruitment AshurstWeil, Gotshal & Manges
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US firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges continues to boost its global finance practice with the hire of Ashurst banking partner Damian Ridealgh in New York.

The hire comes as Weil aims to strengthen its cross-border finance work, with Ridealgh’s experience especially assisting in offering US and European financing solutions to the firm’s banking and sponsor clients.

Previously, Ridealgh led Ashurst’s US banking practice and leaves after spending three years at the firm. Before this, he was a partner at US firm Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson for seven and a half years.

Ridealgh is leaving the UK headquartered Ashurst for the second time, the first being when he was an associate at the firm in 1999 for four years, before joining Fried Frank.

His expertise includes focusing on advising private equity sponsors, corporate issuers and financial institutions, including investment banks and hedge funds, in complex US and European financings covering acquisitions, leveraged buy-outs, fund financing, real estate financing and asset-based loans.

Weil’s global finance practice head Daniel Dokos said: ‘Damian’s experience both in London and New York makes him a great fit with the firm and will further strengthen the firm’s cross-border finance capabilities.’

‘We are delighted Damian has joined us. His international banking experience is a perfect fit for the needs of our bank and sponsor clients requiring US and European financing solutions,’ added Mark Donald, head of Weil’s London finance practice.

Ridealgh added: ‘Having practiced on both sides of the Atlantic, I am confident my skills and expertise will complement Weil’s accomplished lawyers in New York and around the world.’

Ridealgh hire forms part of Weil’s recent drive to boost its global finance practice after high-profile banking head Stephen Lucas quit Weil’s City practice to join Kirkland & Ellis in May. Shortly after, Weil hired banking partner Reena Gogna who left Latham & Watkins after eleven years.

jaishree.kalia@legalease.co.uk