Legal Business

Revolving doors: Homebase appoints legal head as Clydes, Dentons and Pinsents improve overseas offerings

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Strategic recruitment Clyde & CoDentonsPinsent Masons

Homebase has hired its first legal head, as Clyde & Co, Dentons and Pinsent Masons all make international appointments.

Simone Tudor becomes Homebase’s first dedicated head of legal after joining from retail group AS Watson. Homebase is currently in the process of becoming Bunnings UK & Ireland, with the new company completing its first panel review in November 2016. Herbert Smith Freehills and Dentons were among the firms that made the cut for the company’s inaugural roster.

Clyde & Co has added to its four-partner Dubai shipping practice with the addition of corporate and finance partner Ian Chung. Chung has worked in the Middle East since 2008 where he specialises in corporate and finance work in the international trade, maritime and oilfield services sectors. He joins from Holman Fenwick Willan (HFW) in Dubai where he was a partner.

In Europe, both Dentons and Pinsents have improved their German offerings. Pinsents has made a trio of appointments, hiring Alexander Bayer, Peter Koch and Jörg Khöber to bolster its Munich office.

All three of the new recruits join from Gowling WLG, with Bayer arriving as an intellectual property (IP) partner specialising in fintech. Koch joins as a legal director, with a background in cross border patent litigation. Khöber joins as a senior associate.

Pinsents partner and head of German operations, Rainer Kreifels, commented: ‘Our depth of sector expertise has been a major driver of our success and bringing Alexander, Peter and Jörg onto the team continues to strengthen our presence in the market.’

Dentons has strengthened its German team with the appointments of Stefan Dittmer and Amy Kläsener as partners. Dittmer, formerly of Baker & McKenzie and DLA Piper, joins Dentons’ IP and technology practice in Berlin with experience in competition law, licensing law and press law.

Kläsener, who joins from Shearman & Sterling, reinforces Dentons’ international arbitration practice in Frankfurt. Kläsener has expertise in cross-border arbitrations, in addition to a specialism in engineering and construction.

tom.baker@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

A different Middle East playbook: Dentons launches in Jeddah as CC and HSF pull out of Qatar

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Middle East and Africa Clifford ChanceDentonsHerbert Smith Freehills

Dentons has announced today (7 February) it is to launch in Jeddah at the same time as Clifford Chance and Herbert Smith Freehills have revealed plans to scale back their presence in the Middle East.

Jeddah will be Dentons’ second office in Saudi Arabia, alongside Riyadh, providing a mix of Arabic and western language legal capability and will be led locally by corporate partner Anas Akel.

Dentons’ global chairman Joe Andrew said: ‘Our clients will benefit from better access to legal services in the western province, close to many multinational corporations and home to Saudi Arabia’s leading merchant families.

‘As the largest importer of oil from Saudi Arabia, China in particular is looking to undertake outbound transactions to the Middle East and our new Jeddah office will help facilitate those client needs,’ added Dentons’ global CEO Elliott Portnoy.

And while Dentons’ global board is today holding its regular monthly meeting in Qatar as it launches a new office in the region, Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) and Clifford Chance (CC) have both announced the closure of their offices in Doha, joining the growing trend of international firms cutting back on their Middle East footprint.

CC is to close its Doha office later this month, while HSF confirmed today it will cease activity in the region in August.

CC’s office opened in 2011, but the firm has recently diminished its presence significantly in the region, with office managing partner Jason Mendens the only fee-earner based in the city. He is to relocate into the firm’s office in Dubai and will continue to head the Qatari practice from there.

A spokesperson for CC said: ‘From our ongoing discussions with Qatari and international clients, it is clear that there is no longer the same need for a presence on the ground in Doha. Rather, while consolidating those relationships into Dubai …we look forward to working with our clients as we continue to develop our Qatari practice in this next phase.’

HSF’s Doha office was established four years ago, and operates as a separate limited liability partnership (LLP).

HSF’s head of Middle East Zubair Mir said: ‘The Middle East region is a key strategic market for the firm. We will continue to invest in our leading practice in the region, which was which significantly strengthened this year with the lateral hires of Anthony Ellis, Euan Pinkerton and Nasser Al-Hamdan, the promotion of Chris Skordas and the opening of our Riyadh office.’

Neither CC nor HSF is expected to make any redundancies as result of closures, as both are relocating staff in the region, most likely to Dubai.

HSF also closed its Abu Dhabi base in June 2015 and relocated staff to Dubai, while Latham & Watkins closed its Doha and Abu Dhabi bases in 2015 and Simmons & Simmons also closed the doors of its Abu Dhabi office in 2016.

georgiana.tudor@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

LLP latest: Dentons European and African business turns over £169m as top-earning member pockets 60% more

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Financial results 2016/17 Dentons

Dentons‘ UK, Middle East and Africa business has seen turnover increase 7% to £169m for the financial year ending 2015/16, up from £157m the previous year, according to the firm’s LLP accounts.

The firm saw operating profits up from £42.2m to £47.2m, while profits available for distribution among members was up to £44.7m from £36.6m the year before.

The global firm’s UK partnership has seen headcount growth across its business, with the average number of members up from 118 to 124 while total headcount increased from 858 to 899.

The top earning partner in the Dentons UK, Middle East and Africa business was rewarded with £1.3m in the 2015/16 financial year, up from £800,0000 the year before, however such increases in salary can sometimes be attributed to ‘golden handshakes’ for retirements. Remuneration for key management at the firm was up to £4.3m for 2015/16 from £3.8m.

The firm’s UKMEA business covers its operations in London, Milton Keynes and Watford in the UK as well as offices in Abu Dhabi, Amman, Cairo, Doha, Muscat, Riyadh and Tashkent. The Watford office was recently added to Dentons’ UK presence with the hire of a 75-strong team from banking litigation outfit Matthew Arnold & Baldwin.

The UK-based business’s financial performance sees the partnership return to its revenue peak from around the time of the banking crisis as legacy Denton Wilde Sapte. UKMEA revenues later dipped to around £143m in 2013.

Now in its global incarnation, Dentons has seen rapid growth over the last two years as a results of its merger with Chinese practice Dacheng in 2015. Last year the firm’s total turnover topped $2.1bn, and it has since seen further expansion into Australia and Central America in 2016.

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

The big get bigger: Dentons expands in Barbados and opens second office in Mexico

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Latin America Dentons

Mega verein Dentons has announced it is opening new offices in Mexico and Barbados as part of its latest expansion initiative.

The Monterrey-based Mexico office has been formed as part of a merger between Monterrey firm Canales Zambrano y Asociados and Dentons’ existing office López Velarde, enabling Dentons to provide its clients a full array of legal services in Mexico’s most important industrial centre and energy hub.

Dentons’ Mexico managing partner, Rogelio López Velarde said: ‘We are thrilled to have the skilled lawyers of one of Monterrey’s most highly regarded firms join with Dentons López Velarde.’

The firms’ Barbados office has been bolstered by the arrivals of Charles Gagnon, Rosalind Bynoe and Ruan Martinez as partners. The new additions all join from Canadian firm BCF law, which also has a strong presence in Barbados.

All three will be based on the Caribbean island, which the firm said is an ‘attractive jurisdiction’ due to the prevalence of opportunities offered by international sales corporations, life insurance companies, captive insurance companies, reinsurance companies, trading companies, among others.

Elsewhere, Dentons has re-elected Evan Lazar as chairman of the Dentons Europe. His second term of office will end at the end of December 2019.

Recent expansion for Dentons of late includes its tie-up with Australian firm Gadens, which gave the firm a presence in Sydney, Perth and Port Moresby. However three of Gadens’ office split off and did not take on Dentons’ branding. The global giant opened its second Italian office in July last year, launching in Rome after first establishing a base in Milan.

tom.baker@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 makes competition play with Skadden veteran Venit

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Strategic recruitment DentonsSkadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom

European competition veteran James Venit is to leave Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom to join Dentons in Brussels after 16 years at the US firm.

Venit (pictured) joins as Dentons’ European competition and antitrust practice as a partner following his retirement from Skadden, where he was co-head of antitrust and competition in Europe. He joined Skadden in 2000, moving from legacy WilmerHale. Prior to this he was a lawyer with French firm SG Archibald.

Venit has a history of advising on major M&A deals, including the €27bn merger of Arcelor and Mittal in 2006 and the $164bn acquisition of Time Warner by AOL in 2000. He also advised on the failed mergers of Volvo and Scania and GE and Honeywell.

Dentons European head of competition Jörg Karenfort said: ‘We are absolutely thrilled to have a lawyer of Jim’s stature joining our team. Our clients will benefit from his extensive experience in international antitrust and European competition law.’

The global law firm made moves to expand its practice across Europe in 2016. Dentons added an office in Italy, launching in Rome in July with antitrust partner Michele Carpagnano and corporate partner Luca Pocobelli.

The firm also opened in Munich with the hire of top Norton Rose Fulbright corporate partner Alexander von Bergelt as well as partners Michael Malterer and Igsaan Varachia.

Dentons Belgium managing partner Edward Borovikov said: ‘We are very excited to welcome Jim onboard. His experience in high profile competition and antitrust matters, and in particular in competition-related litigation, will further strengthen our reputable EU Competition practice here in Brussels.’

matthew.field@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Victory for Dentons as judge throws out £30m PAG claim against RBS

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Litigation Bird & BirdDentons
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Dentons client The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has won a battle over interest rate swaps mis-selling against Bird & Bird client Property Alliance Group.

According to a High Court judgment released today (21 December), the Manchester investment company lost the $30m claim against RBS, which was advised by Dentons litigation partner Richard Caird instructing Fountain Court Chambers’ Richard Handyside QC.

Justice Asplin dismissed the claims that the bank had mis-sold four interest rate swaps, that the firm’s global restructuring group had acted in bad faith, and that it had breached terms in the setting of Libor. The trial lasted 10 weeks over the summer.

Bird & Bird represented Property Alliance Group, having replaced the group’s former lawyers, Cooke, Young & Keidan earlier this year. The group was represented by disputes head Steven Baker, who has since left the firm for Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, instructing Tim Lord QC of Brick Court Chambers.

In March, Dentons managed to move the Property Alliance Group claim to London’s newly created financial court, hearing the case as a financial list claim.

RBS remains subject to several other high-profile court cases, including a shareholder action stemming from the banks’ share rights issue, which led to thousands losing money after RBS sold its shares at £2 per share. The claimants allege that the prospectus on which the rights issue was based was ‘defective’ and contained material misstatements and omissions.

Herbert Smith Freehills partners continue to defend RBS in the action with a team lead by partners Adam Johnson, Simon Clarke, Kirsten Massey and James Norris-Jones. While claimants represented by Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan and Stewarts Law have settled their claims, Signature Litigation’s clients are pressing for a trial next spring.

matthew.field@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Dentons cracks Central America as key local player Muñoz Global joins network

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Latin America Dentons
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Dentons has scaled up its Central American ambitions with plans to combine with regional firm Muñoz Global.

The combination, if approved by both partnerships, will give Dentons a presence in Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Panama in early 2017. The global firm will merge with 53-lawyer Muñoz Global, a firm newly-created by Arias & Muñoz founders José Antonio Muñoz and Pedro Muñoz, who have split away from their former firm which will contrive to operate as Arias in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.

Legal Business

Dentons Australia combination goes through at last after three offices break away

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Asia Dentons
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Dentons long-awaited tie up with Australian law firm Gadens has officially gone through, although three of the firm’s offices will split off and not take on the Dentons branding.

First announced in November last year, Dentons combination with 500-lawyer Gadens ran into delays over the Australian firm’s partnership structure, which saw some of the offices organised in a federated partnership system.

The completed deal sees Dentons secure a presence in Sydney, Perth and Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea. The three offices operated as one partnership, while the other offices maintained some autonomy. Gadens chair Steve Healy will become chief executive of Dentons Australia.

In October Legal Business revealed at least one of the offices was unlikely to join the combined firm. Of Gadens seven original offices, Melbourne will have no formal ties to Dentons, while Brisbane and Adelaide will become associate firms and not take on the branding.

In May the Gadens Singapore office also left the proposed deal when managing partner Marc Rathbone left to join Nabarro.

Dentons global chair Joe Andrew (pictured) said: ‘The launch of Dentons in Australia and Papua New Guinea is another step in our drive to connect clients around the world to lawyers who know the communities, the culture and the business and legal environment of the markets in which clients need a matter addressed or a dispute resolved.’

The deal was announced last November as part of a triple combination with Gadens in Australia and Singaporean firm Rodyk & Davison. The Rodyk combination completed in April, with the 200-lawyer firm joining as Dentons Rodyk. At the time, the deal was said to be to ‘create the Pacific Rim’s leading global law firm’.

Dentons’ growth in the last two years has seen the firm rocket to the largest law firm in the world by lawyer headcount after its combination with Chinese giant Dacheng. If the firm’s latest proposed combination with Central American firm Munöz Global goes through, the firm will have more than 7,600 lawyers worldwide.

matthew.field@legalease.co.uk

 

Legal Business

‘Nobody left’: KWM expected to close Munich as lease ends

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Germany DentonsKing & Wood Mallesons
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King & Wood Mallesons (KWM) is expected to close its Munich office after failing to find support to recapitalise its European business.

The lease for KWM’s Munich office is expected to run out at the end 2017, and a number of partners and associates are understood to have left or handed in their resignations. In addition, at least one US firm is in talks to take on KWM’s office space.

Last month, Legal Business Euro Elite firm Flick Gocke Schaumburg hired two key private equity partners from KWM, including former Munich managing partner Christian Schatz and Martin Brockhausen. Their exits will leave the firm with just six partners in the city.

One former KWM partner told Legal Business: ‘Look at who has left, I’d be very surprised if they kept it going, given that the lease is due to run out shortly.’

Another former partner said: ‘They lost a few funds partners and IP partners. There is nobody left in Munich.’

In August KWM’s high-billing Munich-based funds partner Sonya Pauls left the firm for Clifford Chance, while in July K&L Gates launched an office in Munich with the hire of three lawyers from KWM, including investment management partner Hilger von Livonius. A number of associates are also understood to be moving to other international firms in the city.

KWM’s legacy SJ Berwin partnership is currently in discussions with a number of firms including Dentons. US outfit Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe is also thought to be interested in parts of the European grouping.

A former KWM partner said: ‘At one point Orrick were in the frame as a merger partner. Dentons would fit – the major practice they have in London is real estate and they could fill out in that – and KWM are their competitor on the worldwide China legal market.’

US firm Greenberg Traurig had also been linked to KWM’s European arm. However, executive chair Richard Rosenbaum took to Twitter to deny the firm had any interest in taking the entire EUME partnership. He said: ‘[It’s] not our style … they have great lawyers, some would be perfect fits with our culture and business strategies but nothing to say at the moment.’

A KWM spokeswoman said: ‘The views of former partners are not based on current or accurate information and should not be relied on. The firm has no plans to close its Munich office.’

matthew.field@legalease.co.uk

 

Legal Business

A giant rescue: Dentons enters fray to take over bulk of KWM’s European practice

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Europe DentonsKing & Wood Mallesons
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Dentons has emerged as a potential suitor to save the beleaguered European arm of King & Wood Mallesons (KWM), Legal Business can reveal, with management at both firms understood to be in merger discussions.

US firm Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe has also been touted as a potential merger partner – and the main contender bidding against Dentons for KWM’s London office.

Dentons – the world’s largest firm by lawyer headcount – is said to be making a strategic play to take Chinese rival firm KWM out of the London market. Having merged in 2015 with China’s largest law firm, Dacheng, the move would give Dentons a significant competitive advantage in London.

Joe Andrew, global chair at Dentons, said: ‘While we would never comment on whether we are in combination conversations or not with any firm, we admire the many European/UK partners of KWM that our partners work with regularly and believe this is a very high-quality group of impressive lawyers.’

Dentons moved from a $1.28bn firm to a $2.12bn business by virtue of its incredibly expansive 2015 – a deal adding on the European business of KWM could add roughly £180m to its top line.

West Coast US firm Orrick has been mooted as another potential suitor and has also been in expansion mode this year, focusing on boosting its real estate, energy, technology and finance sectors. The firm declined to comment and said it was not interested in KWM’s London office.

One former KWM partner said: ‘Orrick has been mentioned that it might be a good suitor for them. At the least partners have been looking to move there. I don’t think the link with China and the London office has ever been there for the firm.’

Last week it emerged that KWM’s legacy European practice had failed to complete its planned recapitalisation programme, which was paused last month after a number of partner departures.

In a statement, the firm added that the EUME partnership board and management were ‘considering a range of strategic options, including mergers, in conjunction with the firm’s bankers and financial advisers’.

KWM’s rescue deal on offer by Chinese and Australian management in recent weeks 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. Salaried partners were also asked to contribute £60,000.

This would have guaranteed the remaining partners at least £11,000 per equity point, against a current figure of £14,000. The new value would see partners on the lockstep earn between £220,000 and £660,000, depending on their position.

sarah.downey@legalease.co.uk

matthew.field@legalease.co.uk