Legal Business

Dentons appoints Clifford Chance Russia, CIS oil and gas head Louis Skyner

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CIS and Russia Clifford ChanceDentons

Dentons has taken on Clifford Chance’s (CC) Russia and CIS oil and gas head Louis Skyner as partner, the second practice leader to be poached from the Magic Circle firm this month.

Skyner’s clients include as Lukoil, Rosneft, Gazprom Neft, Shell, and Mubadala Petroleum.

English qualified, Skyner advises energy clients across a broad range of legal issues, including mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, project development, structuring and financing.

Skyner joined CC in 2013 from multinational oil and gas company Statoil, where he was a leading legal counsel for upstream projects with its Russian partners. These included the development of the Shtokman gas field in the Barents Sea, various offshore and onshore oil exploration projects with Rosneft, and the West Qurna II oil field development in Iraq. He has also served as senior legal counsel at Petroleum Geo-Services and for the Russian government.

Dentons Russia managing partner Florian Schneider said: ‘Louis brings more than a decade of experience in Russia and CIS and an extensive client portfolio, including many of the top energy companies in the region.  We are delighted to welcome him onboard.’

Dentons built on its Eastern European presences in March, picking up DLA Piper’s office in Tbilisi. The firm took on a team of 11 lawyers, including partners Otar Kipshidze and Avto Svanidze who joined the firm at the beginning of this month. The team specialises in litigation, corporate, banking and finance, intellectual property, energy, infrastructure and government work.

Earlier this month, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan picked up CC tax investigations and disputes head Liesl Fichardt, who specialises in advising clients on complex tax investigations and enquiries.

Before joining CC in 2013, Fichardt headed up Berwin Leighton Paisner’s tax disputes practice and was previously a partner at US firm Dorsey & Whitney.

madeleine.farman@legalease.co.uk

Read more: ‘The pitch – A new kind of global law firm emerges but can Dentons live up to the hype?‘

Legal Business

Dentons axes five lawyers from Watford office after consultation

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Job cuts Dentons

Dentons’ Watford internal staff consultation, launched in March, has concluded with the axing of five lawyers – two partners and three junior solicitors, alongside a paralegal and three secretaries.

The partners in the Watford office form the majority of legacy firm Matthew Arnold & Baldwin’s 75 person banking and finance litigation team, of which 11 partners and 64 fee earners joined Dentons on 1 February last year.

The Watford-based firm ceased trading in January 2016 following its merger with Dentons, with 30 of its lawyers moving to national firm Veale Wasborough Visards and others to Hill Dickinson.

The banking and finance litigation team won the firm major litigation instructions for defending Barclays in its £20m case from a major Libor and swaps mis-selling claim brought by the liquidators of now defunct caravan company, Arthur Holgate & Sons.

This March, a Dentons’ spokesperson told Legal Business that the ‘flexible resourcing model’ that it offers from its Watford office was “designed to be responsive to the financial litigation and regulatory requirements of our banking clients,’ and that ‘following the conclusion of some major pieces of litigation we can confirm that we are regrettably making a small reduction to the size of the team.’

Also in March, Dentons’ European and UK arms launched a new joint back-office function in Warsaw, with around 70 people, leading to the loss of around 25 UK roles.

In the same period, the firm’s US business cut 60 job losses across 22 offices, following the 2015 tie-up of McKenna Long & Aldridge and Dentons in the US.

In the first quarter of this year, the world’s largest firm by headcount announced that it would open six new offices in Mexico, Barbados, Saudi Arabia, Georgia, the Netherlands and Brazil.

In November last year, Dentons also emerged as a potential suitor to save the beleaguered European arm of King & Wood Mallesons ahead of its collapse. The deal did not go through.

This latest move leaves Dentons’ Watford office with 70 lawyers and paralegals, including eight partners.

Dentons declined to comment.

georgiana.tudor@legalease.co.uk

Read more: ‘The pitch – A new kind of global law firm emerges but can Dentons live up to the hype?’

Legal Business

Latin America: Clydes to open in Mexico via merger as Dentons secures Brazilian alliance

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Latin America Clyde & CoDentons

Clyde & Co has kept up the rapid pace of its international expansion by announcing its first office in Mexico, merging with four-partner local law firm Garza Tello & Asociados. Meanwhile, Dentons has signed a strategic alliance in Brazil with local firm Vella Pugliese Buosi Guidoni.

Clydes will gain insurance, marine and energy firm Garza Tello’s 23 lawyers based in Mexico City and its satellite presence in the Gulf of Mexico port city of Ciudad del Carmen. The firm will be fully integrated into Clydes after the merger receives regulatory approval.

The four local partners include founder of Garza Tello and oil and gas partner Enrique Garza, insurance and reinsurance partner Arturo Arista, litigation partner Arturo Bello and shipping partner Fernando Escamilla.

Senior partner Simon Konsta said: ‘Garza Tello is a firm we’ve worked with for many years. Its sector focus complements our own and having a presence on the ground in Mexico is important as the market continues to liberalise and provides new opportunities for both our local and international clients.’

Earlier this year, Clydes opened new offices in Chicago and Washington DC after taking on a team of ten lawyers from Global 100 firm Troutman Sanders at the end of January. The growth follows Clydes’ expansion into Miami in May last year with the acquisition of five-partner strong litigation firm Thornton Davis & Fein.

Meanwhile, yesterday (9 May) it emerged Dentons plans to form a strategic alliance with Brazilian firm Vella Pugliese Buosi Guidoni (VPBG). If approved by the partnership, the alliance will give Dentons access to VPBG’s 13 partners and 116 fee-earners based in offices in São Paulo and Brasília.

The proposed alliance follows the launch last year of Dentons López Velarde in Mexico and Dentons Cardenas & Cardenas in Colombia, as well as earlier this year the launch of Dentons Muñoz in Central America.

Following the approval by partners of both firms, who are expected to vote on it in the next few weeks, the proposed strategic alliance will launch later in 2017.

madeleine.farman@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Partner promotions: Dentons ups global round by 15% with twice as many promoted in Europe

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Partnership promotions Dentons

Dentons announced today (3 May) that it has promoted 54 partners across Canada, Europe, Singapore, UK and the US, a 15% increase on last year’s round.

Dentons’ offices in Europe and the US received the bulk of the promotions with 16 new partners joining each region, closely followed by Canada with 15 added to its ranks.

The firm’s European offices saw twice as many partners added to its ranks compared to last year, including five in Berlin, two in Frankfurt, two in Paris, one in Bratislava, one in Brussels, one in Budapest, one in Warsaw and one in St Petersburg.

Meanwhile, the UK only saw seven added to its partnership ranks including four in London. Virginia Allen joined as a new employment partner, Joseph Altendorff joined in corporate, Helen Bowdren in environment and Suhail Qureshi in tax. In Milton Keynes, Dentons made up Christopher Colclough to partner in its corporate practice, alongside David Payton and Greg Rigby in real estate. The seven promotions are an improvement on last year when the firm only made up two partners in the UK.

Global chief executive Elliott Portnoy (pictured) said: ‘Elevating any one of our talented practitioners to partner is an incredibly important milestone in their career and in the longevity of our firm.

Practice-wise, nearly 30% of new partners were made up in corporate, followed by 19% in real estate, 13% in litigation, while the rest is made up of practices such as energy, financial services, tax, insolvency, restructuring, competition, intellectual property and employment.

The promotions come as Dentons announced yesterday (2 May) that it has officially opened its new base in Tbilisi, Georgia, with a team of 11 lawyers, including two partners. With the addition of the Tbilisi, Dentons now employs more than 7800 lawyers in 150 offices across more than 60 countries around the world.

Dentons UK promotions in full:

Virginia Allen, London, employment

Joseph Altendorff, London, corporate

Helen Bowdren, London, environment

Suhail Qureshi, London, tax

Christopher Colclough, Milton Keynes, corporate

David Payton, Milton Keynes, real Estate

Greg Rigby, Milton Keynes, real Estate

Legal Business

Going Dutch: Dentons sets out new European integration strategy after Boekel merger

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Europe Dentons

Dentons is set to combine with Dutch firm Boekel, completing its third phase of European expansion, which has seen the global giant launch in Italy and Luxembourg.

The deal gives the firm a new Amsterdam office that expands its European presence to 26 offices in 18 countries. Boekel adds 70 lawyers to the global firm and 16 partners, with a focus on real estate, corporate and litigation.

Legal Business

Dentons takes entire Tblisi office from DLA Piper as firm closes in Georgia

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Europe DentonsDLA Piper

In its second office closure in a week, DLA Piper will shut down its Georgia operations with all fee earners, including two partners, departing for Dentons.

The global firm is set to open an office in Tblisi, with Dentons taking on a team of 11 lawyers including partners Otar Kipshidze and Avto Svanidze, who will join on 1 May.

The team specialises in litigation, corporate, banking and finance, intellectual property, energy, infrastructure and government work. Dentons has had a presence in Eastern Europe since 1991, when the firm opened an office in Russia, and now has offices in Turkey, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan across eastern Europe, the Caucuses and central asia.

The retreat is the second office closure for DLA this month after the firm confirmed it was to close its Berlin office after its sole partner moved, alongside an of counsel, to launch DWF’s offering in the German capital.

The launch in Georgia comes as Dentons’ European arm plans to open up in Amsterdam next month, merging with Dutch law firm Boekel. The European business has expanded into a number of new jurisdictions in the last two years, including Luxembourg and Italy through mergers and office launches.

Dentons European chief executive Tomasz Dabrowski said: ‘Our market-leading position in CEE-CIS is one of the jewels in Dentons’ crown. Our strategy for this region is simple: to be a top firm in all the markets where we are present.’

In September last year Dentons’ European arm made a capital call to raise an additional €6m to €7m in a move which Dabrowski called ‘good financial prudence’. European partners, excluding the UK which operates as a separate legal entity, have been asked to contribute up to €100,000 extra over a two-year period.

A DLA spokesperson said: ‘The firm has had a successful presence in Tbilisi since merging with a local Georgian law firm in 2005. However, we have since concluded that our respective interests and strategies can be better delivered separately in future’

They added: ‘We are confident that we can continue to support our global clients who operate there in an efficient manner and wish the team every success for the future.’

matthew.field@legalease.co.uk

Read more: ‘The pitch – A new kind of global law firm emerges but can Dentons live up to the hype?’

Legal Business

Five lawyer roles at risk as Dentons launches Watford office consultation

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Job cuts Dentons

One year on from its acquisition of the banking litigation team of Matthew Arnold & Baldwin in Watford, Dentons has launched a consultation over nine roles in the office.

The staff affected include two partners, three junior solicitors, one paralegal and three secretaries.

The firm has a team of around 75 lawyers and paralegals in Watford, including 10 partners.

The group formed the majority of Matthew Arnold & Baldwin’s banking and finance litigation team, which joined Dentons on 1 February last year, more than doubling the size of Dentons’ financial and commercial disputes group and winning the firm major litigation instructions for Barclays over Libor.

The merger with the Matthew Arnold team led to the closure of the firm after 30 further lawyers moved to national firm Veale Wasborough Visards.

A Dentons spokesperson said: ‘We constantly monitor all aspects of the business to ensure that we can continue to provide clients with the highest levels of service, while remaining competitive in challenging market conditions.

‘The flexible resourcing model that we offer from our Watford office is designed to be responsive to the financial litigation and regulatory requirements of our banking clients, and following the conclusion of some major pieces of litigation we can confirm that we are regrettably making a small reduction to the size of the team.’

In its US business, Dentons recently cut back on 60 support staff jobs across 22 US offices.

matthew.field@legalease.co.uk

Read more in: ‘The Pitch – A new kind of global law firm emerges but can Dentons live up to the hype?’

Legal Business

Dentons cuts 60 jobs across US offices as McKenna Long merger layoffs hit

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Job cuts Dentons

While its merger driven expansion has made Dentons a global giant, integration across the firm’s US business has led to 60 job losses across 22 offices.

Following the combination of McKenna Long & Aldridge and Dentons US in 2015, the firm has moved to consolidate business services and support teams.

The firm informed the affected staff last Monday, according to Above the Law. A spokesperson for Dentons confirmed the layoffs.

The merger with McKenna Long saw Dentons integrate several offices in New York, Atlanta, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington DC.

Following the US merger, Dentons has entered combinations in China, Australia, Central America and Singapore in the last two years alone.

The US job cuts are not the first from Dentons in recent months. Last year, Dentons European and UK arms launched a new joint back office function in Warsaw with around 70 people, leading to around 25 UK roles being cut back.

A statement from Dentons said: ‘As part of regular business operations, Dentons has undertaken a review of its US internal operations. The legal sector is rapidly evolving, and just like our clients it is important that we constantly explore ways to ensure our business is aligned to the needs of our partners and clients to demonstrate continued value.

‘Having completed one full year post merger in the US, we now have a complete set of data on our combined operations, as well as continued integration of our US and global support teams. In many US locations, we have concluded moving from two offices to one, and consolidated many systems, among other integration.

‘As a result, earlier this week we implemented a realignment of our business services teams. Regrettably, this resulted in notifications of an overall reduction of approximately 60 positions in business services across our 22 US offices. This process is complete.’

matthew.field@legalease.co.uk

Read more in: ‘The Pitch – A new kind of global law firm emerges but can Dentons live up to the hype?’

 

Legal Business

‘An attractive location’: Dentons goes Dutch with Amsterdam merger

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Legal mergers Dentons

Dentons is set to enter the Netherlands, as the firm announced today (2 March) it has combined with Dutch law firm Boekel.

Dentons’ new Amsterdam office will operate under the firm’s European LLP, in the global swiss verein structure. The expansion will bring Dentons’ European arm up to 26 offices in 18 countries across the continent, while the global network operates in more than 60 countries around the world.

‘Two years ago, we set out our vision for growth, with an ambitious goal to enter three new markets: Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. We opened in Milan in October 2015, and in Luxembourg and Rome last year, and are now continuing the momentum with our combination in Amsterdam,’ commented Dentons Europe chief executive Tomasz Dabrowski.

‘Due to its business-friendly climate, it is an attractive location for corporate headquarters and therefore a key market for our multinational clients,’ added Dentons’ global chief executive Elliott Portnoy.

Boekel currently employs 70 lawyers, including 16 partners with a focus on real estate, corporate and litigation. The firm also has a small office in London, which is staffed on a fly-in basis by lawyers from Amsterdam. Following the combination with Dentons, Boekel will close its London office. However, no redundancies will occur as a result of the closure, and clients will have full access to Dentons’ London office.

Both partnerships have approved the merger, which is expected to become official in April 2017.

In September last year Dentons’ European arm made a capital call to raise an additional €6m to €7m in a move which Dabrowski called ‘good financial prudence’. European partners, excluding the UK which operates as a separate legal entity, have been asked to contribute up to €100,000 extra over a two-year period.

This expansion comes less than a month since the firm opened its first office in Jeddah in February, and another in Monterrey, as the firm’s second Mexico office, earlier in January.

Last month, Fieldfisher also opened in Amsterdam with a five-partner office, including a small group of partners from local TMT specialists Kennedy Van der Laan. Fieldfisher’s new office, which will focus on corporate and finance, will open on 1 May.

georgiana.tudor@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Pension Protection Fund axes Dentons and Jones Day amid panel review

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Adviser reviews DentonsJones Day

The Pension Protection Fund (PPF) has renewed its panel of legal advisers, with Bevan Brittan, Dentons and Jones Day among those being axed.

Burness Paull, Kingsley Napley and Pitmans have also been removed as the other 16 firms who make up PPF’s legal panel have been given a one-year extension.

The process was overseen by PPF general counsel David Taylor, with firms being reorganised to fit into three sections: a core panel, an insolvency and corporate panel and a specialist and reserve panel.

Clyde & Co and Gowling WLG make up the revised panel of core advisers. When PPF last reviewed its panels in 2013, the core panel line-up consisted of Clydes, Dentons and Wragge & Co.

Addleshaw Goddard, Herbert Smith Freehills and Squire Patton Boggs are among 11 firms that make up the insolvency and corporate panel, which guides the PPF on restructuring matters.

The specialist and reserve panel, which is designed to provide additional strength and depth in areas such as litigation and investment work, features Fieldfisher, Bond Dickinson and Mayer Brown.

Launched in 2014, the PPF’s assessment period legal panel, which assists with the transition of PPF schemes, comprises of Burges Salmon, Clydes, DWF, Eversheds, Norton Rose Fulbright and Osborne Clarke.

PPF is considered one of the most important institutions in the pensions industry, and paid out £616m in compensation to its members in 2016, a 9% rise on 2015. The PPF’s performance report for the 2015/16 financial year also states that there is a 93% likelihood of the institution being financially self-sufficient by 2030.

tom.baker@legalease.co.uk

Read more analysis in: ‘A buyers’ market – The trends and traumas in adviser reviews’