Legal Business

Hedge funds pick Quinn Emanuel and Boies in multi-million dispute with Indian car parts maker

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Litigation Boies Schiller FlexnerQuinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan
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Litigation powerhouses Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan and Boies, Schiller & Flexner, have been selected by hedge funds who purchased bonds issued by India’s Castex Technologies to prepare for a $200m dispute in the English courts.

Quinn Emanuel’s London co-managing partners, Richard East and Sue Prevezer QC, have been enlisted by one group of hedge funds to prepare a case alleging unlawful share manipulation by car parts maker Castex after a steep rise in its share price triggered an ability to swap its bond debt for equity in the ailing company.

Likewise, Boies Schiller’s London managing partner Natasha Harrison has been drafted in to represent another hedge fund that bought Castex bonds in a $200m issue in 2012. Quinn is representing a group of hedge funds who have interests in convertible bonds, known as the 6% group, while Boies is representing a major holder of the 2.5% foreign currency convertible bonds that are set to be converted to equity at the end of September. The two sets of bonds are governed by English law and have an English jurisdiction clause to send disputes to London’s courts.

Castex’s share price on the Bombay Stock Exchange tripled between April and July, potentially allowing the manufacturer to swap the bondholder debt into equity. Its share price has fallen since then.

The bondholders, which have already complained to the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), the National Stock Exchange of India (NSE) and the Indian regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), allege that the mandatory conversion of the bonds into equity was carried out by fraudulent means and the right exercised unlawfully.

East told Legal Business: ‘Our clients suspect foul play and we have been instructed to prepare for litigation. There was a huge increase in the stock, which almost tripled, and it all coincided with the mandatory conversion. The stock price has since gone down every day.’

Harrison added: ‘Castex is one of a number of cases we have been instructed on behalf of international investors against Indian listed companies who have failed to implement proper corporate governance, and/or have breached or defaulted upon their foreign currency convertible bonds. It will serve to discourage international investment into India if this type of conduct and lack of corporate governance is allowed to prevail.’

tom.moore@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Boies Schiller boosts London presence as it takes on third City partner with WilmerHale hire

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Strategic recruitment Boies Schiller FlexnerWilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr
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Eighteen months on from its City launch, Boies, Schiller & Flexner has hired its third partner with Kenneth Beale joining the disputes shop from Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr’s arbitration group.

The hire comes as the firm looks to bulk up its offering within its three core practice lines: investigations, litigation and international arbitration. Beale starts in his new role on July 6 and will be joined by three associates from various firms including White & Case.

Beale, who was of counsel at WilmerHale with particular experience of disputes involving Russia, Eastern Europe and Asia, was understood to have been on track to partnership at the firm but decided to leave to join fellow arbitration partner Wendy Miles, who also left last September to boost Boies Schiller’s City arbitration offering.

The arrival of the team will take office headcount to 15, which counts three partners and 12 associates including two secondees. The firm has also taken out extra office space in Old Broad Street’s Tower 42 that will house up to 25 heads.

After more than a decade at WilmerHale’s London and Washington DC offices, Beale returns to Boies Schiller where he spent time as a summer associate in the early 2000s under co-founder and managing partner Jonathan Schiller.

Beale has experience of advising in criminal and corporate investigations, cross-border disputes and international arbitrations across the oil and gas, manufacturing, financial services, telecommunications, pharmaceuticals and defence sectors.

Boies Schiller’s London head, Natasha Harrison, said: ‘Ken is a valuable and important addition to our growing London office. His expertise in investigations and international arbitration will add further resource and depth to the office as we continue to build the international disputes practice.’

Founded in 1997, Boies Schiller launched its first office outside of the States in London in the summer of 2013 with the hire of former Bingham McCutchen star partner Harrison. The launch came in a bid to service the firm’s major clients including Barclays, which Boies Schiller represented over Libor related issues.

Recent work out of the London office has seen Boies Schiller advising the Class A1 Fixed Noteholders of Canary Wharf in a dispute to a spens payment, which is listed for trial in the final week of July; and obtaining a judgment from the High Court in April in favour of a group of Spanish conglomerate FCC’s debt holders.

jaishree.kalia@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Boies Schiller hires WilmerHale’s Miles to boost London arbitration

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Strategic recruitment Boies Schiller Flexner
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US litigation powerhouse Boies Schiller & Flexner has hired long-serving arbitration partner Wendy Miles from Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr to kick start a London arbitration practice.

The hire comes as the firm aims to expand its arbitration capabilities in the City a year on from setting up shop in the region. It takes the London office headcount to two partners as she joins London managing partner Natasha Harrison and two associates while litigator Duane Loft splits his time between New York and London.

Miles quits WilmerHale after 15 years at the firm, having joined in 1999 and been made up to partner in 2005. It leaves the firm with 4 partners in the London office and John Pierce who splits his time between London and New York. She built a practice focused on instructions in disputes between European and Asian parties, particularly in the energy sector, and regularly advises in international arbitration proceedings administered under international arbitral institutions and rules, including the ICC, LCIA, HKIAC, PCA and UNCITRAL.

She is known in the market for advising, alongside WilmerHale’s London international arbitration head Gary Born, southern Sudan in a ground-breaking boundary dispute at The Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague – a case that redrew the boundaries of the oil-rich Abyei region following years of civil war, and was one of the first arbitration proceedings to be aired live via the internet.

Born said: ‘We are delighted by Wendy’s move and fully supportive. Wendy is a perfect fit for Boies Schiller and we wish them all the best.’

Boies Schiller, founded in 1997 and known to be among the most profitable firms in the US, launched its first office outside of the States in London last summer with the hire of former Bingham McCutchen star partner Harrison. The launch came in a bid to service the firm’s major clients including Barclays, which Boies Schiller represented over Libor related issues.

jaishree.kalia@legalease.co.uk, tom.moore@legalease.co.uk

For more on Boies Schiller’s high-profile launch in London, see Global London – The justice play

Legal Business

London launch: Boies Schiller hires Bingham heavyweight Harrison to spearhead City practice

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US firms Boies Schiller Flexner
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US litigation powerhouse Boies, Schiller & Flexner has hired Bingham McCutchen star partner Natasha Harrison to head the firm’s foray into the London market, its first office outside of the US.

Harrison has been a partner at Bingham since 2004 and is described by the The Legal 500 as an ‘incredibly commercial for a litigator’. She was instrumental during the Icelandic bank crisis, acting for bondholders of the three collapsed Icelandic banks, Landsbanki, Kaupthing and Glitnir, the world’s second largest insolvency.

The highly profitable 258-lawyer firm has chosen to open an office in the City to service the firm’s major clients including Barclays, which Boies Schiller has been representing over Libor related issues. The firm’s team defending Barclays is led by managing partner Jonathan Schiller and chairman David Boies.

The 258-lawyer firm was reported to have been considering a move to London as far back as 2008 but its growing London portfolio, including the successful defence of Barclays against a $13bn claim brought by Lehman Brothers over the purchase of its North American broker unit, has brought the decision to a head.

Although the firm has not finalised the office headcount, it is expected to bring in a group of associates to support Harrison.

Schiller (pictured) said: ‘Natasha is a distinguished English lawyer, with a leading practice in finance litigation and arbitration, areas in which our firm’s works is increasing globally each year. She will be the managing partner in our London office and joins our talented partnership in addressing clients’ most critical issues around the world.’

Boies Schiller’s 2012 profits per partner stood at $2,725,000, according to The American Lawyer 2013.

david.stevenson@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Global firms strengthen white-collar practices

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Competition Boies Schiller FlexnerFreshfields Bruckhaus Deringer
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A number of global firms boosted their white-collar defence practices last month with a spate of hires from US and UK government agencies. The hires come as regulators on both sides of the pond continue to tighten their grip on domestic and international businesses.

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer hired Matthew Friedrich, former acting head of the criminal division at the US Department of Justice (DoJ), to bolster its white-collar practice based in Washington DC.