Legal Business

Slaughters posts high trainee retention rate while BLP keeps on 83%

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Trainee retention Berwin Leighton PaisnerJones DaySlaughter and May
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Slaughter and May, which is well known for its high retention rates, has kept on 33 out of its 34 qualifying trainees, giving it a retention rate of 97%. In March, the firm retained 36 people from a cohort of 38, a rate of 95%.

Corporate partner Robert Byk, who helps lead the firm’s graduate recruitment, told Legal Business: ‘Most firms significantly reduced training contracts three years ago, so it’s logical that their retention rates have improved, we didn’t do that. For us the lowest we’ve ever been is 88%. For us it is important to retain people and recruit for the long-term.’

Byk added that the firm’s recruitment policy, which does not screen out applicants based on A Level results, supports diversity at the firm, which has also added to the complexity of its written tests carried out on the day of interview, a policy introduced two years ago and then shared with partners that had not interviewed the candidate.

Berwin Leighton Paisner has retained 15 of 18 newly qualified lawyers, posting an 83% retention rate in a year when some of its City rivals have increased the number of lawyers they are keeping on.

The firm, which posted bumper financial results this year including a 35% rise in profit per equity partner to £542,000, retained 15 out of 18 final-seat trainees. In the Spring the firm kept hold of 16 out of 18 newly qualified lawyers, a retention rate of 89%.

Anthony Lennox, BLP’s trainee principal, said: ‘We are very pleased to once again be able to retain such a high percentage of our trainees. They are the future of the firm and we are committed to their development and career progression. The calibre of trainees at BLP is extremely high and this reiterates our ambition to recruit only the very best into our trainee programme.’

Elsewhere, US firm Jones Day will keep on eight newly qualified lawyers from an intake of ten. This follows on from when the firm kept on one out of a group of three in March this year, giving the firm a retention rate of 82% for 2014 in London.

Three of the newly qualified will take up positions in the firm’s global disputes practice, while two will join real estate, and the remaining three will be split between corporate, banking and intellectual property.

Of the two trainees that are not staying on, one is leaving to launch his own business, while the other chose to specialise early.

Tom.moore@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Vinson & Elkins snatches BLP arbitration partner ahead of Panama Canal dispute

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Litigation Berwin Leighton PaisnerVinson & Elkins
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Berwin Leighton Paisner arbitration partner Amir Ghaffari has switched to Vinson & Elkins as the firm looks to gear up for an International Chamber of Commerce arbitration over the standoff between contractors and authorities concerning a historic expansion of the Panama Canal.

Ghaffari, who specialises in construction disputes and has a strong client base in the Middle East, will split his time between London and Dubai, where he becomes the firm’s first fully fledged arbitration partner. Vinson & Elkins has three office across the Middle East – in Abu Dhabi, Riyadh and Dubai – that have to date focused on transactions.

His addition adds to the firm’s disputes capability in London which has become the centre of the practice since a strategy was put in place to grow its arbitration base three years ago. The firm is preparing for the next phase of the dispute between the Panama Canal Authority and a Spanish-led consortium over cost overruns and delays to the $5.2bn expansion project.

Spin out disputes are expected to be filed which would involve most, if not all, of the firm’s London arbitration partners alongside lead partner Nick Henchie, who carried across his relationship with PCA when he arrived from Mayer Brown to head of the firm’s international construction group in 2010.

Ghaffari’s arrival comes a year after Vinson & Elkins secured the hire of investment arbitration partner George Burn from Dentons. Head of V&E’s international dispute resolution practice, James Loftis, said: ‘Amir brings the right combination of legal skill, advocacy experience and diplomacy during a time when the importance and the complexity of international disputes has grown in recent years. Amir has worked for several years with one of the best of the international arbitration bar and we are pleased to have him as part of a team that offers a unique understanding of the regions of the world where our clients operate.”

Ghaffari added: ‘I’m thrilled to be part of a team that is handling some of the most important disputes in the energy and infrastructure space. V&E offers a vast global reach and depth of knowledge in handling disputes, especially in key international markets and industries, such as energy where the firm has a proven track record and offers deep, historical ties.’

To read Legal Business’ analysis of global arbitration click here.

Tom.moore@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

BLP begins consultations to ease rules around managing out partners

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Leadership Berwin Leighton Paisner
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Following a period of upheaval that has seen Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) exit a number of non-performing senior lawyers, the top 20 firm is considering changes to its partnership deed to make it easier to manage partners out.

The 763-lawyer firm has kicked off a consultation with its partners over changes to the partnership deed’s retirement provisions, with a spokesperson for the firm commenting: ‘We regularly review our governance arrangements and are currently consulting partners on a number of matters including some of the processes relating to partner retirement.’

Providing further clarification, managing partner Neville Eisenberg told Legal Business: ‘We’re constantly reviewing the governance of the firm, some of which impacts on the partnership deeds. We’ve got consultations on a number of different aspects which would certainly touch on some of the processes for partner retirement. We’re in discussion with partners about that. Different proposals require different percentages [of partners to vote through changes].’

BLP, which after a turbulent period that saw its 2012/13 profit per equity partner (PEP) drop by 35% to £430,000, this year posted improved results, with a 6% growth in revenue to £246m and 35% increase in PEP to £542,000 for the 2013/14 financial year.

The firm’s drop in PEP, which followed a period of significant but costly international expansion into jurisdictions including Berlin and Frankfurt, also coincided with an 18-month period in which there have been a number of high profile partner departures.

But while the firm has undoubtedly suffered from a number of unwanted exits, it has also been undertaking a programme of managing out underperforming partners and one person familiar with the situation said: ‘There have been no more unwanted departures in the past year than in previous years.’

While it is not uncommon for firms to amend their partnership deed, particularly given the 2012 changes in legislation that saw a default retirement age become illegal, William Wastie, a partner at Addleshaw Goddard specialising in partnerships and LLPs, said: ‘It all depends on what majorities are required to amend the deed, there’s usually an amendment provision in the agreement. Such changes require careful management because of people that feel vulnerable about such change.’

Tom.moore@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Lawyers On Demand looks beyond City with regional launch

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Innovation Berwin Leighton Paisner
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Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP)’s spin-off lawyer contracting service Lawyers on Demand (LoD) is set to launch its first hub outside of London in Manchester, after BLP in March announced it would open an office in the UK’s second largest legal market.

LoD, which was launched by BLP in 2007 but hived off into a separate company in 2012, is recruiting local legal staff ahead of the Manchester launch in the autumn of 2014. LoD will initially launch the service as a pilot, offering organisations across the North West access to local, qualified freelance lawyers on ‘secondment style’ arrangements.

Legal Business

Financial results 2013/14: BLP’s PEP up 35% and revenue 6%

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Financial results 2014 Berwin Leighton Paisner
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In one of the most anticipated sets of financial results of the 2013/14 financial reporting season, Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) last month unveiled its latest figures, with the top-20 firm’s revenue and profits per equity partner (PEP) up by 6% and 35% respectively, to £246m and £542,000.

As one of the earliest top City firms to unveil its financial results, these numbers, and the timing of their release are in marked contrast with last year, when the firm became the last to disclose that its PEP was down by 39% and its revenues were flat.

Legal Business

Financial results 2013-14: BLP’s profit up 35% and revenue 6%

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Financial results 2013/14 Berwin Leighton Paisner
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Undoubtedly some of the most anticipated financial results of the 2013-14 financial reporting season, Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) has unveiled its latest figures, with the top 20 firm’s revenue and profit per equity partner (PEP) up by 6% and 35% respectively, to £246m and £542,000.

One of the earliest top City firms to unveil its financial results, these numbers, and the timing of their release are in marked contrast with last year, when the firm became the last to disclose that its PEP was down by 39% and its revenues were flat.

BLP’s managing partner Neville Eisenberg said: ‘These results demonstrate the resilience of the firm’s business and reflect an increase in the number and quality of new mandates across the firm as a whole.

‘Our international offices showed strong growth, with Russia and Germany turning in particularly good performances. Profit growth was generated from an increase in high quality client mandates, growth in international offices and cost savings. Our bank borrowings are significantly reduced. We continued to invest in developing high quality new solutions for clients, consistent with our commitment to market- leading innovation.

‘Activity levels in the firm are strong and I am confident that we are well placed in our markets for the coming year.’

BLP’s near return to 2012/13 levels of profitability follow a number of partner departures, particularly from the 786-lawyer firm’s real estate finance (REF) team, where highly rated REF lawyer Jo Solomon most recently left in March to join Hogan Lovells.

The firm has been widely perceived to have been besieged by partner departures over the last financial year and has lost some key players, however, according to one partner at the firm, the number who have left the firm during the last 12 months voluntarily has been the same as during the past three years.

david.stevenson@legalease.co.uk

 

Legal Business

Asia: CC’s Charlton on high Asian promotion rate; Winston takes on DLA team; BLP enters Indonesia; Wragge LG ends Singapore tie-up

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Asia Berwin Leighton PaisnerClifford ChanceGowling WLGWinston & Strawn
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In a fortnight that has so far seen Winston & Strawn hire a four-strong corporate team from DLA Piper in Hong Kong; Berwin Leighton Paisner enter into an association in Indonesia; and Wragge Lawrence Graham end its association in Singapore with PK Wong & Associates, Clifford Chance’s Asia managing partner Peter Charlton also spoke to Legal Business about the firm’s heavy promotion rate in the region.

The Magic Circle firm’s latest partner promotion round of 21 saw a third of those promotions fall in the Asia Pacific region, with two in Singapore, two in Hong Kong, and one in Beijing, Bangkok and Perth.

It puts Clifford Chance marginally ahead of Magic Circle rival Linklaters, which made up six of its 21 new partners in Asia, and Allen & Overy, which also promoted a third of its smaller 16-strong round in the region, with three in Hong Kong, one in Perth and one in Sydney. Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer promoted one partner in Perth, while Slaughter and May’s only promotions outside of its London office were the two associates made up in Hong Kong.

Charlton told Legal Business: ‘Thirty percent of our promotions were in Asia as it is strategically very important. We have doubled in size in five years from 50 to 100 partners and also doubled our revenues.

‘Asia now makes up for 15% of the firm’s revenues, but our aim is for it to be 20%.’

Elsewhere, in Hong Kong, Winston & Strawn’s four-strong corporate team hire last week from DLA includes DLA’s local office chief and Asia head of corporate Mabel Lui. Lui moves across to the US firm with senior associate Daniel Tang, who joins Winston & Strawn as a partner, of counsel Polly Chu and associate Natalie Tsang.

David Hall-Jones, Asia managing partner of the firm said: ‘The addition of this group is in line with our growth strategy for specific practice areas in Asia and significantly expands our capabilities within the corporate practice globally.’

The team focuses on cross-border M&A transactions, and general commercial and corporate matters. It represents further Asian expansion this year for Winston & Strawn, which opened an office in Taipei last month.

Meanwhile at newly-merged Wragge Lawrence Graham, which went live on 1 May, the firm has ended its formal law alliance (FLA) originally entered into by Lawrence Graham (LG) and Singapore’s PK Wong. The FLA began in 2010, creating Lawrence Graham PK Wong Alliance and was LG’s only Asian office.

In contrast BLP, following a tie-up with Myanmar’s Legal Network Consultants in March, has entered into a more recent alliance with Mataram Partners in Jakarta.

Mataram is based in the Jakarta stock exchange building and is led by senior partner Andi Zulfikar, with the firm practising a wide range of civil and commercial law with expertise in mining, an area of focus for BLP.

‘Indonesia is a key market for the firm and this relationship will provide the local knowledge that is key for the work we are doing in the country, especially in the mining sector,’ said Alistair Duffield, head of the firm’s Singapore and South East Asia practice.

BLP now has offices in Beijing, Hong Kong and Singapore, which in addition to the firm’s growing network of Asian alliance firms gives the firm a credible presence in the region.

The tie-up comes as Appleby, following its launch in Shanghai in 2012, since when it has only been licensed to offer fiduciary services, has become the first offshore firm to be awarded a Chinese legal practice certificate, with most of its direct competitors servicing China from Hong Kong. The firm’s greater China team includes over 15 partners and fee-earners based in Hong Kong, although current managing partner of the firm’s Mauritius and Seychelles office, Malcolm Moller, will now lead the development of the firm’s offering in China, supported by fee-earners in Shanghai.

‘Being able to practise from within China will catapult our strategy for Asia and China forward, and we are very excited about this prospect,’ said Frances Woo, the firm’s chairman.

david.stevenson@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

BLP’s head of banking and finance litigation defects to King & Spalding

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Strategic recruitment Berwin Leighton PaisnerKing & Spalding
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Hughes’ exit follows spate of departures from international firm

Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP)’s head of banking and finance litigation, David Hughes, is set to leave the firm to join the litigation team at King & Spalding.

Described by one former BLP partner as a ‘big-hitting litigator’, Hughes specialises in asset recovery (including ships and aircrafts) and security enforcement involving complicated capital markets products, as well as the enforcement of bond structures and International Swaps and Derivatives Association contracts. He also advises clients on fraud, financial irregularities and money laundering issues.

Legal Business

Tesco names BLP as ‘go-to’ real estate adviser following review

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Property Berwin Leighton Paisner
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In a welcome respite from a run of bad news recently, Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) has been confirmed as Tesco‘s lead counsel for real estate following a review of the supermarket’s property advisers.

Tesco general counsel Adrian Morris (pictured) has streamlined its legal advisors for real estate, dropping long-time advisor Ashurst from its panel, with BLP taking on the bulk of property work across England and Wales in what is an endorsement of the strength of its signature practice area and an early success for its new low-cost Manchester office. The firm will service Tesco out of the Manchester base, offering lower chargeout rates than London.

The change comes as the supermarket giant expects a slowdown in real estate mandates over the next coming months on the back of fewer store openings.

Morris told Legal Business : ‘We said over a year ago it was the end of the “space race” in UK retail. We are making significant investments in multichannel retail and our legal requirements are evolving. Volumes of real estate legal work are declining and we needed a new model.

‘BLP has been our most established relationship and its offering in Manchester gives us an opportunity to get quality service on real estate at a regional cost base. It was the logical thing to do.’

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer will continue to advise on Tesco’s corporate and commercial matters, while Squire Sanders and Hill Dickinson will continue to provide employment and insurance advice respectively.

Morris joined Tesco from BP in September 2012 and was named as one of the top 100 GC’s in Legal Business’ GC Powerlist in 2013. His legal team includes around 200 lawyers and external advisers also include Allen & Overy and DLA Piper in addition to Freshfields, Ashurst and BLP.

jaishree.kalia@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

BLP’s head of banking and finance litigation exits to King & Spalding

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Strategic recruitment Berwin Leighton PaisnerKing & Spalding
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Berwin Leighton Paisner’s (BLP’s) head of banking and finance litigation David Hughes is set to leave the firm to join the litigation team at King & Spalding.

Said by one ex-BLP partner to be a ‘big hitting litigator’, Hughes specialises in asset recovery (including ships and aircrafts) and security enforcement involving complicated capital markets products, as well as the enforcement of bond structures and ISDA contracts. He also advises clients in relation to investigating fraud, financial irregularities and money laundering issues.

The banking litigation team at BLP is currently acknowledged by the Legal 500 as ‘excellent, particularly in terms of commercial awareness and appropriateness of advice.’

Hughes, who was previously national head of banking and finance litigation at DLA Piper between 1992 and 2005, is the latest in a series of lateral hires to King & Spalding’s London litigation team, following the arrival of Steptoe & Johnson’s Russia and CIS group co-head Egishe Dzhazoyan; fellow Steptoe partner Tom Sprange, and Bird & Bird duo Jane Player and Sarah Walker.

Hughes is also the latest high profile partner resignation from beleaguered BLP, following just weeks after real estate finance duo Andrew Flemming and Jo Solomon announced their departure for Hogan Lovells.

Those exits shortly follow BLP’s head of real estate finance Laurence Rogers’ resignation for DLA Piper alongside commercial real estate partner Richard Hopkinson-Woolley and corporate tax partner Neville Wright, who join former BLP corporate partner Patrick Somers.

Other recent departures from the top 20 UK firm include banking and capital markets partner Paul Simcock and former head of restructuring Ben Larkin, who joined Jones Day in March and February respectively; and acquisition finance partner Marcus Jamson, who joined Wedlake Bell in January.

A statement from King & Spalding today (16 April) said: ‘King & Spalding is continually on the lookout for talented lawyers whose careers and experience make them a good fit at the firm. Naturally, from time to time, we engage in direct discussions with these lawyers. However, as a matter of policy any such discussion is private, and we comment only when there is an official announcement.’

Update: BLP on 17 April announced the promotion of Oliver Glynn-Jones, a partner in the commercial dispute resolution group, to head of BLP’s banking litigation practice, effective 1 May 2014.

A statement from BLP said: ‘Oliver is currently acting in a number of significant and market leading cases for global investment banks including, for instance, issues resulting from the collapse of Lehman Brothers, including the Eurosail case which recently went to the Supreme Court, as well as acting for a number of other parties in securitisation programmes in resolving similar issues.’

 

sarah.downey@legalease.co.uk