Legal Business

KWM head of litigation and major biller Pollack in talks to join Covington

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King & Wood Mallesons‘ head of litigation Craig Pollack is in talks to move to US firm Covington & Burling.

Pollack (pictured) was one of the biggest billers at KWM’s City office and advises investment banks, hedge funds, public companies and high net worth individuals.

Major mandates include advising a major Russian telecoms provider in post-LCIA arbitration enforcement proceedings across various jurisdictions, and defending a star hedge fund manager in a Financial Conduct Authority investigation into regulatory breaches.

Should he sign the dotted line, he will join a spate of partners to depart KWM for Covington since last year, including Alex Leitch, Greg Lascelles, and Elaine Whiteford.

If he leaves he will be the latest in a long line of defects from KWM’s European business; heavyweight biller Michael Halford has recently joined Goodwin Procter and will be joined by funds partners Ajay Pathak, Ed Hall, Shawn D’Aguiar and Patrick Deasy.

Corporate finance partner Andrew Wingfield joined Proskauer Rose, while former managing partner Rob Day is also to move to Proskauer. The pair’s resignation, along with Halford’s exit and Jonathan Pittal also handing in his notice caused KWM to halt its recapitalisation plans in October. 

Following the quartet’s resignations the European partnership looked to its Chinese and Australian counterparts for a rescue deal.

The tabled deal required around 60% of the European partnership to commit to a 12 month lock-in and a contribution of around £14m in capital. This meant around 70 of 120 partners had to agree. However, this was not successful, as only 21 partners agreed to the deal. The firm is now exploring its options, with a merger or pre-pack administration reported as two of these options.

sarah.downey@legalease.co.uk

Read more analysis in the comment piece: ‘Comment: The moment of truth arrives in the SJ Berwin saga’ or our cover feature: ‘Branded: Inside the troubled takeover of SJ Berwin’

Legal Business

Singles in the City: Goodwin and Covington promote one partner each in London

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US firms Goodwin Procter and Covington & Burling have revealed this year’s partnership promotion figures with both firms promoting one each in London.

Goodwin announced private equity lawyer Gemma Roberts has been made up in its round of 15 promotions bringing the firm’s City partner headcount up to 12. Roberts has a particular focus on the middle market and corporate mergers and acquisitions, representing private equity and venture funds, management teams, corporates, financial institutions and entrepreneurs. Roberts joined Goodwin from Kirkland & Ellis in 2014.

The firm’s partner promotions were focused on Goodwin’s flagship Boston office with technology and life sciences lawyers Laurie Burlingame, Caitlin Murray, Qing Nian, Victoria Elman and Jared Fine; real estate lawyers Blake Liggio and Patrick Hurley; ERISA and executive compensation lawyer James Mattus; and white collar lawyer Abim Thomas.

New York saw two promoted to partner with IP lawyer Daniel Margolis and private equity lawyer Michael Andrescavage making the cut alongside two in Washington, finance lawyer Kyle Tayman and litigation lawyer Brian Burgess, and technology and life sciences lawyer Alessandra Simons in San Francisco.

Covington promoted a more modest 13 to partner with life sciences lawyer Brian Kelly bringing the firm’s London partnership headcount up to 23. Kelly focuses on EU food, drug and healthcare regulatory law, public and administrative proceedings, internal investigations, European Union law and product liability and safety.

Kelly joins lawyers nine promoted to partner in Washington. Corporate lawyer Sean Akins, IP lawyer Erica Andersen, media and data privacy lawyer Elizabeth Canter, real estate lawyer Heather Haberl, litigation lawyer Henry Liu, anti-corruption lawyer Jennifer Saperstein, employment lawyer William Woolston, public policy lawyer Roger Zakheim and litigation lawyer David Zionts. San Francisco based insurance litigator Gretchen Hoff Varner and New York’s compensation lawyer Jenna Wallace were also awarded partner status.

madeleine.farman@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Vinter is coming: Covington boosts projects offering as former BG GC returns to private practice

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Covington & Burling has landed a heavyweight in-house veteran to boost its London project finance offering with the arrival of BG Group’s former general counsel, Graham Vinter, to chair and supervise the expansion of the practice.

Widely regarded as one of the standout GCs of his generation, Vinter joined BG in 2007 after 27 years with Allen & Overy (A&O), including two decades as a partner and acting as the Magic Circle firm’s global head of projects from 1996 to 2007.

Covington chair Timothy Hester described Vinter as a ‘veteran of the project finance industry [who] is highly respected worldwide for his unparalleled knowledge of the sector.’

‘We see an opportunity at Covington to build a leading projects practice that also provides synergies with other parts of the firm – in particular, arbitration, government affairs, tax, corporate, IP, and energy regulation.’

Vinter said: ‘Project finance is all about navigating complex projects involving multiple sets of interests from around the world, and Covington’s strength in policy-facing matters and diplomacy is a huge asset in this context.’

News of Vinter’s retirement from the BG Group emerged last April, and he was succeeded by Tom Melbye Eide in September 2015, who joined from Norweigan aluminium manufacturer Sapa.

The moves were confirmed before it emerged that BG was the target of a takeover by Royal Dutch Shell.

Other recent hires by Covington’s London office includes competition litigator Elaine Whiteford and disputes partner Greg Lascelles, both from King & Wood Mallesons.

sarah.downey@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Whiteford becomes the latest to quit KWM after sealing move to Covington

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Competition litigator Elaine Whiteford has become the second London partner to quit King & Wood Mallesons‘ European practice for Covington & Burling in the past week.

Whiteford (pictured) leaves KWM just three and a half years after joining from Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP). She reunites with former KWM London litigation head Alex Leitch, who joined Covington at the start of 2015 in a reboot of the firm’s City disputes practice, and last week’s recruit Greg Lascelles.

Her exit comes as a blow to KWM’s leadership, which has been working hard to halt a damaging run of partner exits in 2016, with the biggest damage coming in April when a six-partner private equity team in Paris switched to Goodwin Procter. The exits have coincided with, but are not part of, a partnership restructuring that saw 24 partners in Europe and the Middle East asked to leave in March.

Whiteford’s departure also coincides with Norton Rose Fulbright announcing today (18 July) it has hired disputes partner Paul Stothard from KWM. Stothard’s practice is based in London and Dubai.

Having started her career in Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer’s renowned City competition team in 2000, Whiteford left 11 years later to make partner at BLP. Her practice is based around advising corporates on investigations by the European Commission and UK competition authorities, and ‘follow on’ litigation in the English courts. One of her biggest cases at KWM saw her advise Luton Airport in a bus concessions dispute that stands as one of the few abuse of dominance cases to go to trial in England.

Whiteford becomes Covington’s third major competition hire in Europe this year, following the arrival of Kevin Coates, who headed a cartel unit at the European Commission, and Sophie Bertin, a former state aid official at DG Comp, in Brussels.

Leitch said: ‘She brings a wealth of EU litigation experience, which we see as a real asset in the current market, impacted by many developments around Europe, including Brexit related disputes, and the new class action regime in the United Kingdom.’

Law firms in the City have been gearing up for a slew of competition-based disputes following the introduction of US-style class actions in the UK late last year in the Consumer Rights Act 2015. US litigation firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan announced earlier this month it is bringing a £19bn claim against MasterCard on behalf of UK consumers hit with ‘illegal’ credit and debit card charges in one of the first claims of its kind.

tom.moore@legalease.co.uk

Read more in the feature: ‘Branded – Inside the troubled takeover of SJ Berwin’

Legal Business

Listing in London – King & Spalding carries US biotech to AIM listing

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King & Spalding’s recent recruits in the City have helped handle Californian biotech company Verseon £300m stock market listing in London while Covington & Burling advised from San Francisco.

London corporate partners William Charnley and Tom O’Neill handled the listing on the Alternative Investment Market for the Californian company with support from partners in the US while Covington & Burling advised from San Francisco. K&L Gates’ London corporate chief Paul Tetlow advised Cenkos Securities, the nominated adviser and broker to Verseon. The move marked a turnaround from the stream of European drugs companies listing in the US to raise money for expansion.

US securities specialist O’Neill joined King & Spalding in November from Linklaters last year as part of the firm’s recent expansion in the City, which has continued into 2015 with the hire of Latham & Watkins’ former European vice chair of tax Daniel Friel in March and Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson’s London disputes head Nick Cherryman last month.

The listing gives Verseon a market capitalisation of £303m with it planning to use £61m to advance its current drug programmes, expand its drug pipeline into additional disease indications and develop its drug discovery platform.

The deal follows the work done by Markus Bauman, a US securities specialist who also arrived last November from Latham & Watkins, on mobile food ordering company Delivery Hero’s $589m purchase of Turkish peer Yemeksepeti which completed on Friday (8 May 2015). Bauman worked alongside Elisabeth Baltay who was brought in from Bingham McCutchen in October 2014.

tom.moore@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

10 weeks to respond: Cleary Gottlieb called in to handle EU competition claims against Google

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Google’s lawyers at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton have been given 10 weeks to respond to the European Commission’s charges that the search engine abused its dominant position to favour its own price comparison service.

The saga began in 2009 when price comparison website Foundem alleged that Google had systematically lowered its ranking on the search engine and 30 other complaints followed from the likes of Microsoft and holiday websites Expedia and TripAdvisor.

Google’s defence is being handled by Cleary Gottlieb’s London-based competition partner Maurits Dolmans and Brussels-based counterparts Thomas Graf and Robbert Snelders. An in-house legal team made up of former Cleary Gottlieb associate Oli Bethell, former Herbert Smith associate Jenny Coombes and director of competition Julia Holtz are coordinating the efforts.

The complainants have instructed a number of leading competition lawyers, with Fairsearch, a consortium of 15 members, represented by Clifford Chance’s antitrust chairman Thomas Vinje and Covington & Burling’s Miranda Cole representing Microsoft and travel websites Expedia and Trip Advisor.

The European Commission announced yesterday (15 April) that its five-year investigation had concluded the search engine, which has market share of over 90% in most EU countries, has ranked Google Shopping in highly prominent positions irrespective of its merits. The Commission argues that this badly impacted on its rivals and that ‘users do not necessarily see the most relevant comparison shopping results in response to their queries’.

Google has the right to a hearing over the charges and if unsuccessful, could face a fine of up to 10% of its turnover, which in 2014 amounted to over $66bn. The Commission has also opened a separate antitrust investigation into Google’s conduct in the mobile phone market, airing concerns that its Android platform may have entered into anti-competitive agreements for applications and abused its market dominant position.

The EU’s recently appointed competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager said: ‘I am concerned that the company has given an unfair advantage to its own comparison shopping service, in breach of EU antitrust rules. Google now has the opportunity to convince the Commission to the contrary. However, if the investigation confirmed our concerns, Google would have to face the legal consequences and change the way it does business in Europe.’

tom.moore@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

An opportunity to ‘build something’: KWM’s City litigation head Alex Leitch leaves for Covington

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US firm Covington & Burling has bolstered its European disputes capabilities with the hire of King & Wood Mallesons London head of litigation, Alex Leitch (pictured), to its City office, as its plans to bulk up the practice this year.

Leitch is expected to start at Covington in early summer but it is still unknown whether any of his team or key clients will follow. His move, however, is indicative of Covington’s ongoing recruitment strategy within its City disputes practice with more hires expected.

A solicitor advocate who became a partner at legacy SJ Berwin in 2000, his departure comes just over a year after taking over the London litigation chief role in place of Craig Pollack, who was appointed global litigation and dispute resolution chief.

He has specialised in corporate and media-related litigation and acts for hedge funds, private equity houses, asset managers and major public companies in the financial services and private equity sectors. Recommended by The Legal 500, recent instructions includes the high-profile Crown Dilmun litigation relating to the sale of Fulham Football Club’s ground by Harrods; and he was part of the team representing Arch Financial Products, as well as its chief executive Robin Farrell and compliance officer Robert Addison, in connection with the Financial Conduct Authority’s investigation into Arch’s role as investment manager of the Arch Cru funds.

On his departure, Leitch told Legal Business: ‘I had been there for 20 years. I have nothing but respect for King & Wood and my departure is not prompted by any disaffection or lack of appetite for the combination. I met Covington last autumn and I knew they had a strong reputation for their dispute resolution practice, and while it has a great reputation in the US, there’s an opportunity to tell that story here too and build something. The second aspect was the one firm approach where it felt unified across all offices. And the crown jewel of this place is its collegial atmosphere. It has a genuine approach to partnership. Against all the hiring by US firms, and I wasn’t interested in many, those two things were the real pull.’

International arbitration partner Jeremy Wilson added: ‘The firm historically has always had a significant disputes practice. We’ve been focused on growth. Alex provides an opportunity to help us grow and develop so that we have the same offering in London as we do in other offices around the world. We certainly want a multi-partner practice in the litigation group and we intend to make more hires in the litigation and arbitration practices this year.’

The addition of Leitch follows the departure of arbitration partner duo from Covington’s City office last year, Carmen Martinez Lopez who departed to arbitration boutique Three Crowns, and Ben Holland to Squire Patton Boggs.

sarah.downey@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Global London: Weil and Covington sustain robust City growth as US firms expand market share

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The days when London offices tended to be expensive beachheads draining profits from American parents appear to be long gone, with Weil, Gotshal & Manges and Covington & Burling joining the string of US law firms to substantially hike their revenues in the City in 2014.

Weil’s London arm saw a 10% rise in revenue to $125m in 2014 as the New York firm targeted the newer divisions of private equity clients, including credit and distressed debt desks. Last year the firm grossed $114m in the UK. The result means Weil’s 31-partner City arm was a major driver of growth as firm-wide revenue was up only 1.2% to $1.15bn.

The 300-partner firm attributed the growth to an uptick in M&A activity and the broadening of its London office beyond its buyout heartlands. ‘We’ve benefitted from having a strong range of practices, with leveraged finance and restructured finance off the charts,’ said Weil London managing partner Mike Francies.

While the firm last year lost highly regarded banking partner Stephen Lucas to Kirkland & Ellis in a much publicised transfer, Francies says the firm has focused on achieving organic growth. Having last year secured the hire of restructuring veteran Andrew Wilkinson from Goldman Sachs, the firm made London the focus of its partner promotions, with a third of the 12 made up in January being based in the City.

‘The biggest contributor to our success last year came from the broadening out of the practice. Previously it was very private equity-focused and a lot of the work, even if it wasn’t generated by the partners, was based off our private equity expertise, whereas now the work is based off funds generally,’ said Francies.

He added: ‘A lot of the big private equity funds aren’t private equity funds anyway, they have credit, real estate, infrastructure, distressed, the whole lot, and that really plays to our strengths because having a really strong finance practice, particularly in structured finance, we could attack these multi-asset managers in a number of different areas.’

Covington, meanwhile, also posted a notable rise in revenue, with its income in the City nearly 7% up to $64m. In 2013 the firm grossed $60m in the Square Mile. Covington’s 23-partner City arm accounted for 9% of its global revenue, which grew at a similar pace to hit $709m in 2014.

The results underline a three-year run in which US-bred law firms have made considerable ground in the UK. Legal Business’s 2014 Global London report, which tracks the 50 largest foreign law firms in London, found that headcount in the Square Mile in the group had risen by 6% over the previous 12 months, with the 50 largest firms employing 4,624 lawyers as a whole. Current indications are that such trends are continuing… and perhaps even accelerating.

Tom.moore@legalease.co.uk

Click here to access our 2014 Global London report

Legal Business

Go your own way: Lawyers at Covington & Burling and DLA Piper leave to launch boutiques

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Having watched an increasing number of their peers depart during 2014 to launch boutique law firms, Covington & Burling‘s co-head of EU litigation and DLA Piper‘s former Middle East managing partner have quit their respective firms to set up their own boutiques.

Following last year’s launch of Three Crowns, which saw Covington & Burling’s co-head of international arbitration Gaetan Verhoosel depart to link up with three Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer partners to create an arbitration shop, the firm has been hit by the exit of EU litigation co-chief Damien Geradin to launch a competition boutique.

Geradin, a partner in Covington’s Brussels office since December 2010, has set-up Edge: Legal Thinking in what he describes as an ‘EU competition law-specialized boutique law firm aiming to deliver independent legal advice of the highest quality to corporations, law firms and institutions’. He is the third big name competition partner to depart from a major firm in the last 12 months, with Clifford Chance’s former head of antitrust Oliver Bretz leaving the firm after 15 years to launch Euclid Law in London and Olivier Fréget, the former chief of Allen & Overy’s global antitrust group, resigning to launch Cabinet Fréget – Tasso de Panafieu in Paris.

Bretz put the exits down to an increasing amount of client conflict at major law firms following the rise in companies that have formed cartels to inflate the price of goods striking immunity deals with the European Commission in exchange for information on the other members.

Tim Hester, chair of Covington’s management committee said: ‘We recognize that this new chapter of his career will give him more flexibility to focus on his academic interests, and his writing and other interests, and we wish him all the best.’

Meanwhile, DLA Piper’s Kuwait managing partner Abdul Aziz Al-Yaqout has joined the boutique bandwagon by launching a Middle East firm with the former general counsel at private equity giant The Carlyle Group, Bader El-Jeaan. With acquisitions by private-equity firms in the Middle East and Africa having surged to $6.6bn in 2014, from $141m in 2013, according the Bloomberg, the duo have launched a bank finance and restructuring, capital markets and M&A boutique in Kuwait.

El-Jeaan and Al-Yaqout have launched Meysan Partners with five lawyers and have plans in place to have a 20-lawyer team in place by the end of 2015 and to have a network of offices across the Gulf by 2020.

Al Yaqout, senior partner, said: ‘We recognized a gap in the market for high-quality, regional legal advice, led by a senior team with in-depth experience advising clients in the Middle East.’

El-Jeaan added: ‘We have quickly established a strong and enviable client list in Kuwait and our plan is to grow the firm in the next five years so that we establish a network of offices around the region to further support our clients. In our growth strategy, we will however maintain a ratio of associates to partners that is significantly below that of other firms in the region, focusing on matters that require the experience of our partners, particularly on cross-border regional transactions and high-stakes commercial litigation.’

tom.moore@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

‘Fits our philosophy and style of practice perfectly’: Three Crowns hires its first female partner from Covington

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Arbitration boutique Three Crowns has hired its first female partner, Carmen Martinez Lopez, from Covington & Burling as the firm boosts its arbitration capabilities, especially in the Latin American and Spanish-language markets.

The firm has also hired a senior associate for each of its three offices in Washington, London and Paris, totalling a team of 23 associates firm wide.

Martinez Lopez will be based in London, taking up the role in January 2015, and has experience of acting as counsel in investment treaty and commercial arbitrations, both under the rules of the major arbitral institutions and ad hoc, involving a variety of jurisdictions. In addition, she is dual-qualified in civil law and common law.

Martinez Lopez joined Covington & Burling in May 2009, before which she was based in New York and Paris at Debevoise & Plimpton for three years, and Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton before that for a year in Brussels.

Some of her key cases include representing a European gas major in a Spanish law ICC arbitration relating to European and African assets; and representing independent oil and gas companies in an ICDR arbitration under New York law arising out of a crude transportation agreement.

The arbitration boutique was launched in April this year and was initially set up by three senior arbitrators from Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer alongside partners from Jones Day, Covington & Burling and Shearman & Sterling. At that time, the firm received some criticism for not having any female partners.

Constantine Partasides QC, founding partner, said: ‘The market has embraced our distinct business model with enthusiasm, and immediate client demand has led to this early expansion. Carmen fits our philosophy and style of practice perfectly, will be a huge asset to our clients, and a role model within our growing firm. Our new senior associates, Nick, Lucy and Agustin – each of whom is already a significant practitioner in their own right – further state our intent to providing specialised arbitration expertise to suit our client’s diversified cultural and business needs.’

jaishree.kalia@legalease.co.uk