Legal Business

Buy-back: Bird & Bird shelves trademark and IP consultancy spin-off

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Competition Bird & Bird
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After a management shake-up at its IT consultancy arm, Bird & Bird has shelved its intellectual property and trademarks spin-off, just two years after launch and after almost 50% the partnership put capital into the business.

Aves Brands, a consultancy set up by the IP and technology focused firm in 2013, was re-acquired by Bird & Bird over the summer from Aves Enterprises. The firm applied for a change of name in July, rebranding the spin-off as Bird & Bird IP Services.

Lawyers at the 285 partner firm could invest in Aves Enterprises – the parent company of Aves Brands and Bird & Bird technology and IT consultancy Baseline – including using amounts from quarterly profit distributions, Legal Business understands. However, only 157 current and former Bird & Bird partners and other employees are currently invested in the Aves Enterprises LLP.

While the consultancy’s website has been shut down, its marketing material claimed it could save companies 30-50% in IP support services costs, as its ‘broad range of transactional services allows you to offload your administrative burden.’

In its latest financial results, Aves Brands reported turnover of £660,000 for the year ending December 2015, but also recorded losses of £200,000 with costs mostly related to recruitment and marketing.

Partners at Bird & Bird currently control much of the £500,000 worth of shares invested in the company. The spin-off was led by chief executive Jade Thompson, a former global marketing director at CPA Global, with the company’s directors including senior Bird & Bird IP partners Morag MacDonald and Katherine Stephens.

Around 150 former and current Bird & Bird partners and other employees have shares in Aves Enterprises – the parent company of Aves Brands and Bird & Bird technology and IT consultancy Baseline.

Baseline has also experienced significant changes this year, losing its chief executive Dominic Cook, a senior Bird & Bird partner, who quit the firm earlier this year. Cook left following a failed leadership challenge against long-standing Bird & Bird chief executive David Kerr. It recently appointed Edoardo Monopoli, founder of Valeocon Management Consulting, as its new chief executive.

Baseline’s reported turnover dropped from around £1m in 2014 to less than £250,000 for the year ending 2015, according to its Companies House accounts. Partners at Bird & Bird invested capital in the startup in 2015 to work on IT project consultancy, with a deal to channel Baseline’s legal work back to the firm.

Bird & Bird declined to comment.

matthew.field@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Bird & Bird election revealed: Less than half of firm’s partnership voted for Kerr

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Leadership Bird & Bird
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Bird & Bird chief executive David Kerr received support from less than half the firm’s partnership as almost 30% of partners abstained from voting during the firm’s last leadership election in March, Legal Business can reveal.

Long-standing partner Dominic Cook launched a leadership challenge to Kerr (pictured) receiving around a third of the vote, held earlier this year. Kerr secured a majority of those that voted which gave him another term.

Legal Business revealed in August that Cook departed the firm, leaving his role as head of Bird & Bird’s IT consultancy Baseline.

A current partner told Legal Business: ‘David has a continuing mandate. There wasn’t anything particularly different in the platforms, but it’s good to have a conversation in this situation. For example, there is discussion of whether Theresa May has much of a mandate without an election. I always think having a vote if you can gives the opportunity for discussion and ensures the winning person has a proper mandate.’

However one rival managing partner said: ‘What I’d heard was Cook was just a put up candidate. But if he was a put up candidate, why would he leave? It doesn’t stack up if he then left.’

Cook is also understood to have stood against former chair Michael Frie during the firm’s 2013 election for chairman. Frie stood down in 2016, with Italian partner Massimilano Mostardini taking on the role this year.

Earlier this month, the firm announced that Edoardo Monopoli had been appointed as the new CEO of Baseline. Monopoli joins from Valeocon Management Consulting, where he remains a partner and leader of the UK team. Bird & Bird also landed former Nokia litigation head Richard Vary as a partner in its intellectual property (IP) and tech & communications group however it saw the exit of co-head of disputes Steven Baker to Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft at the beginning of September.

Kerr’s re-election saw him continue an unbroken 20-year tenure as chief executive, having first taken on the role in 1996. In that time Kerr has overseen the firm’s expansion from 70 lawyers in three offices to 1,100 fee earners across 28 offices around the globe.

During his time at Bird & Bird Cook worked with major clients such as BT which he advised on its multi-billion pound IT contract for the NHS.

Bird & Bird declined to comment on the election result.

matthew.field@legalease.co.uk

kathryn.mccann@legalease.co.uk

 

Legal Business

Bird & Bird strengthens disputes bench with Nokia litigation head

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Strategic recruitment Bird & Bird
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Bird & Bird has landed former Nokia litigation head Richard Vary as a partner in its intellectual property (IP) and tech & communications group.

Vary (pictured) was vice president and head of litigation at Nokia, managing cross border patent suits with KPM, IPCom, Apple, HTC, Blackberry and Viewsonic as well as a major arbitration case with Samsung.

He also has experience of dealing with competition law, tax disputes, trademarks as well as working on M&A deals for Nokia’s in-house team as part of the group dealing with Microsoft’s $7.5bn acquisition of Nokia’s handset business in 2014.

Vary led a litigation team of 20 lawyers within Nokia’s 450-strong legal team. Prior to joining Nokia in 2006, Vary was a managing associate in Linklaters’ IP team.

Bird & Bird co-head of international IP Morag Macdonald said: ‘Richard has a very wide skill set across technology, communications and intellectual property – three key areas of specialism for our firm. We are delighted to have someone of his calibre join our team.’

Vary is the firm’s first partner hire in the City since it moved into new offices on New Fetter Lane, which provide the firm with the potential to expand London headcount by around 25%.

Bird & Bird has most recently added internationally, hiring corporate partner Maria Carlsson to its Helsinki office from Borenius Attorneys in August. In May, the firm hired Simmons & Simmons head of TMT Alexander Shepherd to its Singapore office and brought in Perform Group’s general counsel Richard McMorris as a partner in its London office.

However, the firm recently saw the departure of transformational projects head Dominic Cook in May, while co-head of disputes Steven Baker is moving to US firm Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft.

For more on the legal team at Nokia, see ‘The Client: Richard Vary’

matthew.field@legalease.co.uk

 

Legal Business

Q&A: Morag MacDonald – Bird & Bird IP head on disputes, influences and serious maths

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Disputes Bird & Bird
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Sitting in the firm’s recently opened New Fetter Lane office, Matthew Field talks to Bird & Bird international head of intellectual property Morag Macdonald (pictured) as the firm targets London expansion.

What is the state of the IP market?

It’s more focused now, though there’s still a lot of issues emerging in electronic and digital areas. Every time we go through the next generation of mobiles you get a different set of cases, the latest being 4G/LTE technology. All the other international law firms we come across are corporate and finance, but our sector focus and heritage in IP means we are the only international firm that does what we do. That really makes us quite unique in the global market.

How has Brexit affected the IP world?

We thought the Unified Patents Court (UPC), which would cover all EU member states, would be a massive change, but who knows after Brexit. One of the court’s main seats was supposed to be in London. It is very difficult to see how the UPC would proceed in its current form but who knows, and frankly the UPC is not likely to be high up in the agenda for the government when they have so many other issues to consider.

What about the US?

There has been a real upheaval in the US patents market since the America Invents Act came into force in 2011, changing their patent system from ‘first to invent’ to ‘first to file’ and making some other significant changes such as the introduction of Inter Partes Reviews which are a form of opposition in the patent office to the validity of the patent. These reviews have reduced the number of big ticket patent trials now being seen in the US.

Bird & Bird has its new office, so what are the plans now?

We’ve been very rapidly growing our brand management practice in London and on a global scale, it’s really turning into a very successful practice.

We are doing a lot of non-contentious IP work. We’re helping clients develop their in-house IP strategy, that’s growing as well. The intangibles are becoming seriously valuable assets as a result of the digital world we now live in and this is becoming clear to companies who are becoming much more interested in managing their intangible assets proactively.

Which cases have been highlights for you? 

Last March I worked on probably the hardest trial I have ever done in my whole career. We had to have an expert scientific adviser come in for a teach-in for the court and Mr Justice Birss because the technology was so complicated.

The case was EMGS v PGS – a patent trial over a technique using electromagnetics to determine whether a sub-sea reservoir contained hydrocarbons or not. But it did involve some serious, serious maths like Maxwell’s equations. It was lovely stuff. It was the hardest maths and physics I have ever had to do for a trial, right up with what I was doing at degree level. Everybody was finding it challenging, but it was fascinating.

Which of your peers have stood out for you?

Throughout my career there have been a number of people I have found invaluable. When I joined the firm the head of the IP group at the time was Karl Arnold. I learnt a huge amount from Karl, not necessarily all about the law. He was a very well regarded IP lawyer, strategically he was stunning in terms of how he would work out cases.

I often worked alongside Trevor Cook, now at Wilmer Hale, who was a relatively junior partner when I joined the firm. I’ve also worked with Simon Thorley QC since he was a junior barrister, he has been the standout IP barrister for years. I’ve worked with and against him for years, he’s a pleasure to work with.

There are certain people when you do litigation who you can’t say precisely what they taught you, but whatever they did teach you it stood you in really good stead.

matthew.field@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

The eagle strikes: Cadwalader taps Bird & Bird for disputes head Baker

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Strategic recruitment Bird & BirdCadwalader, Wickersham & Taft
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New York-headquartered Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft has hired Bird & Bird dispute resolution co-head Steven Baker to its London office.

Baker joins Cadwalader’s City practice expanding the firm’s litigation and international arbitration capacity after four years at Bird & Bird. Baker was previously head of commercial dispute resolution at Olswang until 2011, spending almost a decade with the firm.

In The Legal 500, Baker is recommended for cross-border fraud cases, banking litigation, commercial litigation and international arbitration. Baker had been acting with Brick Court’s Tim Lord QC for claimants Property Alliance Group in the libor rigging litigation against Royal Bank of Scotland, winning the £30m dispute from litigation boutique Cooke, Young & Keiden in February this year.

Baker’s exit comes shortly after the departure of Bird & Bird’s head of transformational projects Dominic Cook, who left the firm earlier this year after a leadership challenge to chief executive David Kerr in March.

The latest partner hire for Cadwalader comes after the firm added former King & Wood Mallesons’ Europe head of finance Jeremy Cross in July. The recent recruits represent a fresh push by Cadwalader into the London market. Following a quiet period, the firm grew its City office 17% last year, upping head count to 56 lawyers.

Cadwalader has recently seen a dip in global revenues, down 4% in the Global 100 rankings to $463.5m for 2015/16. The firm’s profit per equity partner also fell, down 7% to $2.06m, having fallen 15% to $2.21m in 2014/15 from more than $2.6m the year before.

US giant Latham & Watkins has also moved to boost its City litigation practice with new partners in recent months, hiring Stuart Alford QC from the Serious Fraud Office in July, while it recruited Debevoise & Plimpton’s rising arbitration star Sophie Lamb in May.

At the start of this year Cooley also increased its London litigation capacity, a year on from its UK launch, hiring Sullivan & Cromwell litigator Louise Delahunty, a specialist in global investigations.

matthew.field@legalease.co.uk

 

Legal Business

Revolving doors: Global 100 firms invest in Europe as Baker & McKenzie, Mayer Brown and Bird & Bird make hires

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Strategic recruitment Baker McKenzieBird & BirdMayer Brown
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UK and US firms have been busy investing in Europe this week, with Baker & McKenzie, Mayer Brown and Bird & Bird all adding to offices in Berlin, Frankfurt and Brussels.

Baker & McKenzie has added two partners in Germany to expand its energy and M&A practices. Both Thomas Dörmer and Tim Heitling are to join from Taylor Wessing (TW) at the beginning of next month. The pair join with two more TW lawyers, Claire Polte and Daniel Neudecker. Both partners recently advised energy company Enovos International and Swiss Life Asset Managers in the bidding war for Thyssengas as well as engineering firm Schuler AG on the acquisition of metals company AWEBA Group.

Meanwhile, Mayer Brown has hired Hunton & Williams partner Geneviève Michaux for its Brussels office. Michaux is a Belgian and French qualified lawyer whose practice focuses on regulatory matters concerning drugs, biologics, medical devices, cosmetics and food across Europe. Mayer Brown government and trade co-leader Duane Layton said Michaux’s skills complement and replicate Mayer Brown’s life sciences practice in the US.

Bird & Bird has also looked to build its practice in Europe, with the addition of Niels Lutzhöft from Gleiss Lutz to join the tech firm’s global commercial practice group. Lutzhöft, who joins Bird & Bird’s Frankfurt office, specialises in commercial regulatory, competition and copyright law.

The firm’s German head Sven-Erik Heun said Lutzhöft was a great fit for the firm’s focus on cross-practice advice. He added: ‘He is very active in the areas of commercial, regulatory and IP law, which provides an excellent basis for advising companies being transformed by technology and the knowledge economy, or facing digital transformation.’

victoria.young@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Maintaining growth: Bird & Bird keeps pace with 6% revenue hike

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Financial results 2015/16 Bird & Bird
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Bird & Bird has reported another year of solid growth, with revenue up 6% to €343.8m from €325.5m for the 2015/16 financial year.

The firm, which reports in euros, said allowing for currency fluctuations turnover was up from £259m to £273.8m in sterling. It has kept pace with its growth in 2014/15, when it also reported a 6% rise in revenues, hitting €325.5m. Profit per equity partner (PEP) saw a slight bump up to £454,000, a 1% increase on the £448,000 reported last year.

Chief executive David Kerr told Legal Business:’Overall it has been quite a solid year, it’s good to see continued growth, it has been quite widely spread in Europe and Asia is holding up well as well as the UK.’

He added the firm’s focus on technology and its international reach had helped keep growth up during the general market malaise in the build up to the EU referendum and that the firm would continue to pursue a growth focusing on its core markets: ‘We are obviously wanting to keep fulfilling our strategy. We are not proposing a major change in the course of direction we have been following, we just want to do it better.’ Kerr (pictured), was re-elected in March for a further three-year term.

Around a third of revenues come from its London headquarters, with the firm expected to move its three London offices to a new combined office on Fetter Lane later this summer.

The firm has undergone rapid international expansion in recent years, opening in Australia by merging with Sydney-based Truman Hoyle in 2014. Its international strategy has included co-operation agreements in Indonesia, Turkey and Korea, on top of Australian and Danish mergers over the past three years.

The technology-focused firm also launched a new office in Luxembourg in early 2016, to work in the new Unified Patent Court, becoming its 28th worldwide office.

Speaking to Legal Business last month, Kerr said IP remained the ‘crown jewels’ of the firm, but its work with banks and other institutions was being transformed by its specialist knowledge of technology: ‘It’s growing like crazy because our heartland was IT and media, and now increasingly it is the industries which are being transformed by tech.’

Competitor firms with a technology focus have seen varied results so far. Osborne Clarke reported in May that the firm had boosted revenues by 23% to €236.3m, while Taylor Wessing saw global growth stay flat, with turnover up 1% to £254.4m.

matthew.field@legalease.co.uk

For more on David Kerr’s leadership and Bird & Bird’s strategy, see ‘David made Goliath – Kerr on Bird & Bird’s re-invention as a leading global TMT shop’.

Legal Business

David made Goliath – Kerr on Bird & Bird’s re-invention as a leading global TMT shop

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Victoria Young talks to veteran chief David Kerr about growing pains and going even more global

There’s no doubt chief executive David Kerr has overseen a rapid extension of Bird & Bird’s international reach, with additions ranging from a major takeover in Australia, to acquisitions in Denmark, and associations around the Asia-Pacific region. But for Kerr – re-elected in March for another three-year term after spending two decades as chief executive – a new priority is consolidating and tightening the firm’s focus as it comes off a flat 12 months in a crowded mid-market.

Legal Business

Revolving doors: HSF, Pinsents and Bird & Bird make key international laterals while High Court judge returns to Bar

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Strategic recruitment Bird & BirdHerbert Smith FreehillsPinsent Masons
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Last week saw a host of international law firm lateral hires, while judge Sir Jeremy Cooke has left the UK’s High Court to return to the commercial Bar.

Stephenson Harwood has hired Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) partner Pierre-Nicolas Sanzey to spearhead the launch of a real estate practice in Paris. His client portfolio has included UK-based asset manager Resolution Property, Allianz and Premier Group and his arrival follows Stephenson Harwood’s acquisition of a seven-strong banking and litigation team from Eversheds in Hong Kong in February.

In Düsseldorf, Herbert Smith Freehills has added to its recently launched office with the hire of Baker & McKenzie senior corporate partner Soenke Becker. Becker co-headed Bakers German corporate practice until 2014 and currently chairs its Europe, Middle East and Africa M&A practice and is a member of the global M&A steering committee.

Meanwhile Norwegian firm Wikborg Rein has recruited Ince & Co shipping partner Nick Shepherd. Shepherd, who will serve as head of Ince’s Piraeus office until December, will join Wikborg in London in May. At the same time, Ince’s former shipping head Faz Peermohamed returned to the firm after four months as chief executive of client the Norwegian Hull Club.

In Asia, Bird & Bird secured the hire of Simmons & Simmons head of TMT Alexander Shepherd as partner in its global tech & communications group in a bid to ‘enhance the firm’s transactional capabilities’ in the sector. Having relocated to Singapore in 2013 to establish an office for Simmons, Shepherd will continue to be based in the region where the firm’s international practice head, Graeme Maguire, said it has become ‘an increasingly important regional hub for tech and comms clients and work.’

Meanwhile Pinsent Masons has strengthend its oil and gas team in Asia with the hire of Ashley Wright from Norton Rose Fulbright. A partner in Norton Rose’s Singapore office since 2011, clients have included Hess, Petronas, PTTEP, KUFPEC and Pertamina.

In Scotland, Burness Paull has bolstered its technology practice with the addition of DLA Piper partner Callum Sinclair to its Glasgow office. Sinclair, who currently counts Skyscanner and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival among his clients, will lead the firm’s technology group, and take over as head of the commercial division from partner David Goodbrand, who steps down from the management role after a decade.

Finally at the Bar, commercial set 7KBW has welcomed the return of judge Sir Jeremy Cooke, after he recently stepped down from the bench. He joined the set as a full time arbitrator and mediator earlier this month (3 May).

Cooke’s time as a judge included presiding over the criminal court trial of the first trader to be convicted for attempting to fix Libor. A justice of the Dubai International Financial Court, he specialises in commercial law, including shipping, insurance, professional negligence, and banking.

Cooke’s departure coincides with current strife within the profession about the clear declining morale in the judiciary over issues including pay and working conditions.

sarah.downey@legalease.co.uk

For more on movement at Ince & Co, see this month’s cover feature ‘Ports in a storm – can Ince get back on course’

Legal Business

News in brief – April 2016

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Corporate Bird & BirdFasken MartineauReed SmithSlaughter and May
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REED SMITH REPLACED AS SIEMENS REFRESHES PANEL

Last month Eversheds and Osborne Clarke were reappointed to Siemens UK’s legal panel, while Addleshaw Goddard replaced Reed Smith, following a review. The new panel will last for three years.