Legal Business

Dentons to vote on new union with Australian and Singaporean firms

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Legal mergers DentonsGadens
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Dentons announced last night (2 October) it intends to create a tripartite union with Australian firm Gadens and Singaporean firm Rodyk & Davidson, subject to partner approval.

In an attempt to better recognise ‘clients’ needs for seamless, integrated…representation in today’s global economy’, a combination with Gadens would give Dentons Australian capability in across a full range of practice areas, including corporate, tax and disputes.

A Singapore tie-up would further enhance Dentons’ presence in the Pacific region with the City-state’s fourth-largest firm by headcount, Rodyk & Davidson, which specialises in corporate, finance, IP, disputes and real estate.

Geographically, Gadens will provide offices in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth, and Port Moresby while Rodyk & Davidson gives added resource in Singapore and Shanghai.

Dentons, which created the world’s largest law firm by lawyer headcount through a combination with leading Chinese firm Dacheng in January, followed by a deal with US firm McKenna Long & Aldridge in April, has been seeking further growth in the Asia Pacific region for some months, despite being yet to bed down logistical and operational issues from its other tie-ups this year. A combination with Gadens and Rodyk & Davidson would take lawyer headcount to well in excess of 7,000 lawyers.

Dentons global chairman Joe Andrew said: ‘By any objective standard, Dentons has accomplished more for our clients in one year than any other firm in recent history, and the year is not over yet. Our clients tell us that our commitment to bring them more experience in key markets around the world is significant in helping support their business needs locally, nationally and globally.’

Gadens national chairman Ian Clarke said the firm had been considering opportunities to support Gadens’ ability to ‘meet inbound client needs from Asia Pacific into Australia, as well as supporting our clients with global business interests’, while Rodyk & Davidson managing partner Philip Jeyaretnam added: ‘Rodyk’s own forward-looking approach, international outlook, and the desire to provide a comprehensive suite of legal services to clients with cross-border business needs, has led it to this historic opportunity, to become part of the world’s biggest and leading, law firm.’

If approved, once the combination with Dacheng is effective, the proposed firm’s name will be Dentons in English and all other languages, and 大成 in Chinese.

sarah.downey@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Dentons boosts competition offering with BLP veteran hire

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Strategic recruitment Berwin Leighton PaisnerDentons
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Dentons has enhanced its competition and antitrust offering by appointing longstanding Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) partner Adrian Magnus to join its City practice.

The departure of Magnus, who was a founding member of BLP’s competition law team, follows the departure of BLP’s former competition head David Harrison who moved to Mayer Brown in May.

Having resigned from BLP after 21 years, Magnus will join Dentons’ four-partner competition team in London in November.

Cited as a ‘key player’ on EU and competition matters by The Legal 500, Magnus trained as a lawyer at Clifford Chance until 1991 before moving to legacy firm Paisner & Co in 1992.

Magnus advises on a range of competition law issues including UK and EU merger control, market investigations, public procurement and competition-related disputes across multiple sectors including financial services, transport, logistics, and media.

Major mandates included advising National Grid on a £275m, multi-party cartel damages claim as well as acting for BDO on the Competition Commission’s market investigation that led to the mandatory tendering of audit services. He further served a six-month stint as a secondee to the Financial Conduct Authority in 2013 to work within its competition department.

Dentons UKMEA chief executive, Jeremy Cohen, said: ‘Competition law is one of the most international and rapidly developing areas of legal practice, with increasing alignment throughout the world, new competition authorities in emerging markets, and ever-increasing international co-operation between competition authorities. The scope of Adrian’s work and the breadth of his experience will be a real asset to the firm.’

BLP has seen some senior moves in recent months, losing a four-strong process management team to Herbert Smith Freehills this month. However, it did launch a US securities practice in the City with the recruit of Proskauer Rose partner Katherine Mulhern and Bank of America Merill Lynch director Bobby Schrader in June.

sarah.downey@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Dealwatch: KWM, A&O and Dentons advise as China and Germany sign historic stock exchange JV

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Corporate Allen & OveryDentonsKing & Wood Mallesons
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King & Wood Mallesons (KWM) and Dentons have leveraged their considerable Asia platforms to secure roles as lead advisers on a landmark agreement between Germany and China to create the first dedicated platform for yuan-denominated trading outside China.

The two firms, along with Allen & Overy, executed a first-of-its-kind deal between two Chinese exchanges to establish a new trading venture with Germany’s Deutsche Börse.

KWM’s Frankfurt-based Christian Cornett and Beijing-based Xu Ping teamed up to advise the Shanghai Stock Exchange on its agreement with both Deutsche Börse and the China Financial Futures Exchange. The agreement has created the China Europe International Exchange (CEINEX), which will become the first dedicated trading platform for renminbi transactions outside of China and marks an important milestone in the internationalisation of the renminbi and for China’s capital markets.

Dentons was instructed by China Financial Futures Exchange on the deal, with corporate partner Hermann Meller – who splits his time between Berlin and Shanghai – leading the team.

Frankfurt-based M&A partner Hartmut Krause led Allen & Overy’s legal advice to Deutsche Börse, which leaned heavily on its own in-house team of Tobias Gressinger and Holger Klafs to pull off the new venture.

CEINEX will offer Chinese investment products, including exchange-traded funds and bonds to international investors. The first of these bonds and exchange traded funds in renminbi will be traded on the new platform from 18 November. The agreement comes just one week after Chinese president Xi Jinping’s state visit to the UK, with Frankfurt having stolen a march on the City in connecting its exchanges to China.

KWM’s Cornett said: ‘The China-Europe stock market deal opens significant new opportunities for investment in China, which is a trend that we in Germany have seen rapidly evolve over recent years. This new platform will help to develop key offshore RMB products, which is crucial to further capital flows between the two countries.’

tom.moore@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Revolving Doors: Pinsent Masons, Dentons and Mishcon make key appointments

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Strategic recruitment DentonsMishcon de ReyaPinsent Masons
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Pinsent Masons, Dentons, Mishcon de Reya,  and Crowell & Moring are among a raft of firms which have made key appointments in past weeks. 

Pinsent Masons has expanded its technology media and telecoms team with the addition of Reg Dhanjal as a partner, he joins the firm from DAC Beachcroft where he made partner in 2012.

Staying in the TMT area, Dentons has strengthened its London team by employing Taylor Wessing’s head of communications Tracey Sheehan, to bring the number of lawyers in the London TMT team to more than 40.

Crowell & Moring has picked up DLA Piper’s head of healthcare Jonathan Lisle to head the firm’s London corporate practice. Lisle’s practice focuses on general private M&A across all sectors and has experience in cross-border M&A.

Simmons & Simmons has expanded its international IP group by hiring Baker Botts partner Mark Heaney. Heaney specialises in computers, electronics and telecommunication.

Howard Kennedy has appointed high profile lawyer Jonathan Metliss as a consultant. The former founding partner of SJ Berwin is also a consultant at Nexus Investment Ventures. Howard Kennedy chief executive Ian Harvey said: ‘Jonathan has long been a friend of the firm, and we are thrilled to have him as part of our team. His approach very much echoes our own and his contacts are unrivalled.  He will be a real asset to the firm.’

National firm DWF has appointed Eversheds partner James Lupton to its public sector team based in Manchester. Lupton has more than 15 years’ experience and specialises in legal issues which arise in delivering public private partnerships.

In the US Cahill Gordon & Reindel has announced Pierre Gentin, formerly of Credit Suisse AG, has joined the firm as partner in its New York litigation practice group. He had served as global head of litigation and regulatory investigations for the bank. In Washington Kirkland & Ellis has appointed Mario Mancuso to lead the national security and committee on foreign investment in the United States practice.

In non-legal appointments, Mishcon de Reya has taken SJ Berwin’s IT director Simon Kosminsky and appointed him chief information officer.  Hogan Lovell’s chair Nicholas Cheffings will succeed Allen & Overy senior partner David Morley as chairman of diversity movement Prime next year when Morley retires at the end of his term as senior partner at A&O. 

victoria.young@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Entering Italy: Dentons opens in Milan with 21-strong team from DLA and local boutique

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Europe DentonsDLA Piper
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Dentons has launched an office in Milan, its first in Italy, with the hire of 21 lawyers, including three partners from DLA Piper, and two partners from local employment law boutique hELP. 

Leading the team from DLA is the firm’s former managing director for Europe and Africa Federico Sutti, who also previously served as Italy managing partner for more than 16 years.

He joins DLA partners energy lawyer Matteo Falcione and real estate expert Federico Vanetti, as well as corporate specialist senior associate Pier Francesco Faggiano and senior counsel Maria Sole Insinga who have been made up to partner. 

Partners Aldo Calza and Iacopo Aliverti Piuri are also joining from employment law boutique hELP, which was founded by Calza after leaving DLA.

This year has seen Dentons embark on major expansion, including in Budapest in April with the hire of White & Case partners István Réczicza, Rob Irving and Edward Keller who joined alongside some 50 lawyers and other legal professionals.

It also announced a combination with Chinese firm Dacheng in January, a deal which will establish a 6,600 lawyer giant operating under a Swiss verein structure, and moved to bolster its US capabilities through a tie-up with Atlanta-based McKenna Long & Aldridge.

On its foray into Italy, Europe CEO Tomasz Dąbrowski said: ‘Italy is one of the key markets under our growth strategy for Europe. We are very pleased to welcome such a high quality team to the Firm and look forward to working with Federico Sutti and new colleagues in order to achieve our objective of becoming one of the leading full service international practices in the country.’

Evan Lazar, chair of the firm’s Europe board, said: ‘We continue to make strategic and important growth moves across the Europe region, where we see a significant and growing amount of cross-border work. With many clients seeking counsel with a meaningful presence in Italy, we are very pleased to be able to offer them this leading team of real estate, energy and employment lawyers from day one.’

sarah.downey@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Watford’s finest: Dentons in talks with Matthew Arnold & Baldwin over third tie-up of 2015

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Legal mergers Dentons
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After having already announced tie-ups with China’s Dacheng and US firm McKenna Long & Aldridge this year, Dentons is pushing on with its expansion plans by holding talks with Watford-headquartered firm Matthew Arnold & Baldwin (MAB).

Dentons, which is quickly emerging as the poster child for speedy globalisation, said in a statement that the firm is ‘constantly evaluating the market for opportunities’ and ‘we do not make any comment on such discussions until they are complete to protect the privacy of those involved and to ensure our clients are the first to be informed of any enhancement to our firm.’

If such talks were to progress to a union, Dentons would add around 80 lawyers to its headcount across offices in Watford, Milton Keynes and London and nearly £17m to its top line. The law firm has four top-tier recommendations in The Legal 500 for the south east including commercial litigation and media. MAB refused to comment.

It would further constitute Dentons’ third official union this year. In January it announced a combination with Chinese firm Dacheng, a deal which will attempt to establish a 6,600-lawyer giant operating under a Swiss verein structure, while in April Dentons moved to bolster its US capabilities with a combination with Atlanta-based McKenna Long & Aldridge.

Now ranging over 125 offices and 50 countries, Dentons is deploying a strategy that aims to become the ultimate one-stop-shop for clients. In June management figureheads, chief executive Elliott Portnoy and chair Joe Andrew, told Legal Business the firm’s vision could potentially see it become a 10,000-lawyer firm spanning 200 offices.

sarah.downey@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Bringing AI to a law firm near you: Dentons’ NextLaw venture invests in IBM Watson app to answer lawyers’ questions

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Legal tech DentonsNextlaw
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Dentons’ NextLaw Labs, having launched in May to focus on developing and investing in new technologies for the legal profession, has signed a deal with its first portfolio company, ROSS Intelligence, a start-up developing a legal adviser app powered by IBM Watson.

ROSS’s app uses IBM Watson’s ability to process natural language so that lawyers will be able to ask the app a question and it will sift through legal documents, research and return an evidence-based answer. Dentons will serve as a testbed for the app to help define the body of legal data which it will draw on.

The firm has also joined up with IBM Cloud with the aim of enabling start-ups to create and deploy legal applications faster. Announced today (6 August) the firm said NextLaw Labs will provide legal tech start-ups with access to IBM Cloud and the IBM global entrepreneur programme for Cloud start-ups, as part of being an ‘active technology investor, accelerator, and business incubator.’

Following its May launch, NextLaw Labs is aimed at developing a set of technologies to change how lawyers practise law and provide better solutions to clients. Dentons has made clear its intention to be the accelerator’s lead supporter and investor and is serving as the testing ground to vet, pilot and scale-up new products, services and other ideas such as ROSS.

On the latest venture, NextLaw Labs chief Dan Jansen said: ‘Technology is now and will continue to be a real differentiator in the legal profession. The potential in companies like ROSS shows how the approach to solving client challenges is going to change. NextLaw Labs wants to be a part of transforming what is possible into a tangible offering in today’s legal market.’

sarah.downey@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Forward planning: Dentons management Portnoy and Andrew to stand in 2017 election

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Leadership Dentons
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In a conspicuously early move by Dentons‘ chief executive Elliott Portnoy and global chairman Joe Andrew, both have revealed they will stand as candidates for the firm’s scheduled management elections in 2017.

If elected, it will constitute Portnoy’s fourth consecutive term in senior management. Currently tasked with directing the firm’s global strategy and management, he previously served as chair at legacy Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal and was reappointed to the role after its merger with Denton Wilde Sapte in 2010.

A win for Andrew would constitute his third consecutive term in management, having previously chaired legacy SNR Denton and reappointed to the role after Dentons’ $1bn tripartite merger with Salans and Fraser Milner Casgrain in 2013.

The move also comes following a request from the Chinese firm Dentons is combining with, Dacheng, to reset the senior management’s terms. A spokeperson for the firm said: ‘Terms were reset with the combination with Dacheng, at the specific request of Dacheng’s leadership to ensure leadership continuity, and were voted on by all Dentons and Dacheng partners.’

The firm has also recently provided its 2015 forecasted revenue of $1.93bn while its UKMEA LLP financials recorded a 6% increase in revenue to £155m for 2014/15 with profit per equity partner up 23% on last year and net profit rising 18% to £34m.

The firm said the revenue growth was led by banking, TMT and real estate in the UK while the Middle East offices enjoyed double digit growth.

Both leaders are currently in the process of integrating the firm’s latest mergers, including its combination with Chinese firm Dacheng operating under a Swiss verein structure and, more recently a union with US firm McKenna Long & Aldridge.

Other firms gearing up for management elections this year include Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, which Legal Business revealed will see veterans Edward Braham and Christopher Pugh unite on a single platform and campaign to lead the firm together, despite initially canvassing separately. They will run against Anglo-German duo, corporate partner Simon Marchant and Germany and Austria regional managing partner Klaus-Stefan Hohenstatt for the positions of senior partner and managing partner respectively, as well as a third European-based ticket.

sarah.downey@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Withers takes its pick of McKenna Long partners ahead of Dentons tie-up as firm launches three US offices

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Strategic recruitment DentonsWithers
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Withers has launched three new offices in the US with the hire of a nine partner team – the majority of which come from McKenna Long & Aldridge as the US firm carries on leaking partners ahead of a combination with Dentons.

While one of the partners will be based in the private client specialist’s existing San Francisco office, the rest will be spread among new outposts for the firm including San Diego, Los Angeles and Rancho Santa Fe.

Of the nine partners being brought in by Withers to build its Californian presence, eight are from McKenna Long with Fred Vandeveer, Jeremy Crickard, Michelle Graham and Steve Chidester joining in Rancho Santa Fe; Carol Kao and Jeremy Moffit launching the San Diego office; Diana Hastings in San Francisco; and Elizabeth Bawden based in Los Angeles. Partner Michael Brophy is joining from Russ August & Kabat.

The McKenna Long team also comprises 16 other lawyers and nine support staff while counsel Christine Steiner joins from Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton.

Withers managing director Margaret Robertson said: ‘Our new California team provides a huge boost to our US capabilities and, in addition to our recent East Coast hires, grows our American partnership size by nearly a third. Our San Francisco office opened at the start of 2014, and an integrated technology, estate planning and real estate practice is winning work across the north of the state. The new team allows us to significantly extend our footprint across California, as well as provides real weight and strength for our clients in, and with interests in, the state.’

McKenna Long and Dentons confirmed that they would combine in April but the firms took the unusal step of stating in the announcement that ‘by mutual decision, not all lawyers and professionals will join the combined firm.’

Since then, there have been several partner exits including in May when Covington & Burling took a 20 lawyer team from McKenna Long consisting of five partners and 15 other fee earners. The group, which included the former chair of McKenna’s government contracts practice Frederic Levy, joined the firm’s Washington base.

michael.west@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Financial results 2014/15: Dentons UKMEA sees revenues rise by 6% as net profits climb 18%

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Financial results 2014/15 Dentons
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Dentons UKMEA LLP is understood to have increased its revenues by 6% to £155m in the 2014/15 financial year, while net profit rose by 18% to £34m.

The £8.7m increase in turnover at the LLP, which covers covers a spread of offices including London, Milton Keynes, Abu Dhabi, Singapore and Tashkent, was led by a strong performance in the banking, TMT and real estate practices in the UK while Middle East offices saw a double digit growth rate. The LLP’s net profit of £34m resulted in a profit per equity partner of £502,000 – a 23% increase on 2013/14.

The strong profit performance has been put down to an increase in productivity as fees per fee earner picked up by 7% while client collections were also better – up 11% or £15.1m on last year.

Dentons UKMEA also managed to close out the year with a positive cash balance of £4.2m after having recorded net borrowings of £7.3m at the end of 2013/14.

The Swiss verein has been undergoing a rapid expansion this year announcing combinations with both Dacheng and McKenna Long & Aldridge. In its 2013/14 LLP accounts published earlier this year the firm confirmed it had transferred its Moscow and Almaty offices to Salans FMC SNR Dentons Europe LLP.

sarah.downey@legalease.co.uk

michael.west@legalease.co.uk