Legal Business

DLA Piper severs yet another alliance firm as Indonesian arrangement ends

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Asia DLA Piper
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DLA Piper, which severed ties to its South African and Venezuelean alliance firms in the last 12 months, is to cut its links to Indonesian firm Ivan Almaida Baely & Firmansyah (IAB&F).

The relationship has come to an end after just three years, with DLA Piper having tied up with IAB&F in May 2013 as it pushed to become a trusted adviser in all G20 economies. In the meantime, control of DLA Piper’s Asia strategy has passed from its international arm to DLA Piper’s US arm.

A DLA Piper spokesperson said: ‘Our formal relationship with IAB&F is ending soon. However, we will continue to work with them and other Indonesian firms based on the needs of our clients.’

DLA Piper ended its alliance with Venezuelan firm InterJuris in March and with South African firm Cliffe Dekker late last year as it seeks to better integrate its business through higher global standards and wider cross-selling of clients. The firm has since launched its own office in South Africa, with the opening of its first on the ground African offices in Johannesburg, South Africa, and Casablanca, Morocco.

tom.moore@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Strengthening Sweden: DLA Piper acquires 21 lawyer firm

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Europe DLA Piper
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DLA Piper has continued its Nordic expansion, confirming a merger with Swedish law firm Grönberg Advokatbyrå.

With a focus on commercial, corporate and M&A, dispute resolution and insolvency, Grönberg Advokatbyrå’s 21 lawyers and its seven support staff will join DLA’s 76 lawyers in its Stockholm office in October.

DLA signalled the merger will strengthen the firm’s offering in its key sectors: financial services, technology, energy, real estate and infrastructure and construction.

The announcement of the merger comes just four months after DLA confirmed it had agreed to a combination with 30-lawyer Finnish law firm Peltonen, which joined the firm’s Helsinki office. With offices across Finland, Norway and Sweden, DLA’s Nordic presences is now home to over 200 lawyers.

The Nordic region will now form part of DLA’s EMEA practice led by co-managing directors Barbara van Hussen and Juan Picon.

Grönberg Advokatbyrå partner Lars Wiking said although the firm was successful and a leading player in its specialist areas, it had been seeking a merger with an international practice ‘for some time’. ‘[We] are convinced that the future of business law requires international firms with strong local offices,’ Wiking said. ‘From the start, DLA Piper felt like the right fit as we both have a long history of operating in the Swedish market and share similar values. Now we can offer our clients access to unparalleled capability, both in the Nordic market and globally.’

DLA global co-CEO Simon Levine added: ‘We have already demonstrated a commitment to the Nordic region and the opportunity to join with an established firm such as Grönberg Advokatbyrå further supports this. As part of our global strategy we will continue to grow and develop our capabilities to meet the needs of our clients in all of the major world economies and other important markets in which they do business.’

Ashurst announced earlier this month it was closing down its Swedish offering with the firm’s 30 staff based in Stockholm moving to local firm Hamilton.

madeleine.farman@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Barclays panel: DLA Piper loses out as banking giant finalises global roster

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Adviser reviews BarclaysDLA Piper
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After much speculation, a raft of firms including Clifford Chance, Ashurst, Eversheds, Mayer Brown, Reed Smith, Simmons & Simmons, Hogan Lovells, Pinsent Masons, DWF and Bond Dickinson have won places on banking giant Barclays’ reduced legal roster, however DLA Piper has lost its spot following the global panel review.

The bank started informing all law firms they were on the panel last week, with a deadline to inform everyone by the end of Monday (27 June). The current panel ran from 1 July 2014 to 30 June 2016.

It is believed that the total number on the bank’s roster is around a third of the previous total of 350 – 400 firms. The review was led by Stéphanie Hamon, the bank’s head of commercial management who joined the bank in December from King & Wood Mallesons.

A DLA spokesperson said: ‘The firm has enjoyed a strong working relationship with Barclays for a number of years, across a wide range of legal services. We are disappointed that we have not been appointed to their panel, but look forward to working with them again in the future.’

It is understood Clifford Chance’s role since the last panel review has been reduced. The Magic Circle firm refused to comment.

According to one law firm partner the key themes of the panel review were ‘delivering excellence, thought leadership, collaboration, team work and value for money.’

The bank also asked some firms to price work according to a different rates for strategic work, medium and flow, covering everything from high end mandates to process driven work.

In its last panel review Barclays cut its legal roster by around 30% and moved to a streamlined two-tier system of ‘preferred’ and ‘approved’ firms in a move which general counsel Bob Hoyt said was to ‘provide the broad range of expertise and in-depth knowledge of Barclays required to support our business lines globally.’

There was a more even split between US and UK firms, which was said to better reflect Barclays’ current business and legal spend. The bank selected five US firms: Boies, Schiller & Flexner; Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft; Davis Polk & Wardwell; Latham & Watkins; and Skadden Arps, Meagher & Flom with whom it seeked to ‘deepen its relationship and concentrate spend over time.’

Last month Legal Business revealed that the bank was planning to extend the value account system it introduced in 2014, where law firms are required to pay a rebate if they fail to hit their value targets, to all external advisers.

kathryn.mccann@legalease.co.uk

Additional reporting by Madeleine Farman, Tom Moore, Matthew Field and Sarah Downey.

Legal Business

DLA Piper partner caught up in sexist email scandal with Premier League chairman fined £15,000

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Nick West, a London-based partner at DLA Piper, has been fined £15,000 for sending ‘despicable’ emails to the Premier League’s executive chairman Richard Scudamore.

West hit the headlines in 2014 when a crude email exchange with Scudamore, which contained sexually explicit and sexist comments about a female colleague of Scudamore’s who the pair had nicknamed ‘Edna’, was made public by the Premier League supremo’s former personal assistant Rani Abraham.

While he avoided heavier punishment, which could have seen West struck off from the solicitors’ roll, he was hit with a £15,000 fine and ordered to pay £12,000 in costs at a Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT) hearing yesterday.

The Solicitors Regulatory Authority, which decided in August 2015 it would pursue the case against West, proved to the criminal standard of proof that West was involved in inappropriate emails with his client.

Following a conduct review, DLA stood by sports specialist West, who apologised. While DLA has yet to respond to requests for comment on the fine and outcome of the hearing, in 2014 the firm said it ‘accepted West’s assurances that these emails are not reflective of his beliefs and values and that there will be no recurrence of this behaviour’.

At the time, the firm added in a statement: ‘We have concluded that there was a failure to meet the high professional standards in which we take pride as a firm, whilst recognising that these were emails exchanged between friends and accessed without permission.’

An SRA spokesperson said: ‘We welcome the recognition that behaviour of this sort is unacceptable. Solicitors should uphold the high professional standards that we set and the public expect.’

tom.moore@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

The robots keep coming: DLA Piper makes major AI play with Kira software deal

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Innovation DLA Piper
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Intent on driving automation throughout the business, DLA Piper has partnered with Canadian tech firm Kira Systems to launch an artificial intelligence tool for document review during M&A transactions.

The move comes just three months after Kira Systems secured a similar deal with Big Four accountant Deloitte and follows a 200-person UK redundancy round by DLA Piper as part of an attempt to shift towards automation.

‘We believe that this innovative technology will do for corporate transactional work what e-discovery has done for litigation,’ said Jonathan Klein, chair of DLA Piper’s US M&A practice. ‘It will not only make due diligence faster and more efficient, but will mitigate risk throughout the process, all of which are important benefits for our clients and the firm.’

Kira Systems has developed machine-learning software, which will be available for DLA Piper lawyers across the global firm, to search and analyse text in contracts. Billed as something of a Summly, but for legal contracts rather than shortening news for people in a rush, the software can handle standard and non-standard forms and provisions, including documents in more than 60 formats, by automating the extraction and analysis of key contract provisions and creating summaries in seconds and analysis in just a few minutes.

DLA Piper has already piloted Kira in deals handled by its corporate and IP and technology practices, and was able to measure tangible improvements in speed and accuracy. The firm plans to quickly roll the program out to its corporate lawyers around the world, while looking at opportunities for expansion into other practices by teaching Kira to identify provisions needed for contract review in these other areas.

Andrew Darwin, international chief operating officer at DLA Piper, added: ‘New technology is emerging at a rapid rate within the legal sector. It’s crucial that firms are constantly evaluating and implementing new technologies to complement their existing service delivery models. Part of that means committing to bold investments, such as Kira, on an ongoing basis.’

tom.moore@legalease.couk

Legal Business

DLA to cut 200 UK jobs as global firms trim support roles

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Norton Rose and Dentons follow suit as offshoring takes flight

DLA Piper is to cut 200 business support jobs in the UK in a move that will see the firm make one of the largest law firm redundancies since the aftermath of the financial crisis. The restructuring comes as other Legal Business 100 firms, including Norton Rose Fulbright (NRF) and Dentons, decided last month to also cut back-office jobs.

Legal Business

DLA Piper takes rainmaker from Linklaters alliance firm for South Africa managing partner role

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Africa DLA Piper
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DLA Piper has appointed Webber Wentzel corporate partner Johannes Gouws as South Africa managing partner.

Gouws will lead the firm’s push in the country after it launched its first African offices at the end of last year in Casablanca and Johannesburg. He will work closely with Michael Whitaker, chief operating officer for South Africa, to drive the firm’s strategy in South and sub-Saharan Africa.

A well-regarded lawyer in the local market, Gouws was part of Webber Wentzel’s Legal 500 tier one ranked M&A team, and regarded as ‘extremely professional.’

Gouws has had a string of management positions at Webber Wentzel, which has an alliance with Linklaters. Prior to his time at Webber Wentzel, Gouws was general counsel at South African bank Absa, where he led one of the biggest in-house legal teams in the country.

Gouws began his career at Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr legacy firm, Hofmeyr, where he also served on the executive committee and led the firm’s corporate practice. DLA ended its alliance with Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr last summer in a move designed to strengthen its local brand in the region. The opening followed a stark warning from DLA Piper to its associated firms that failure to integrate with the rest of the network would result in axed relationships and a competitor instead of a friend.

Gouws, who specialises in cross-border M&A, securities regulation and corporate finance said: ‘the South African legal landscape is evolving and DLA Piper will be a strong new force in the market’.

DLA Piper co-chief executive Simon Levine added: ‘We are committed to growing and developing our presence in Africa to provide our clients with the specialist legal services they need in a key growth market. Johannes is an extremely well-regarded and experienced practitioner and is the ideal person to establish and lead our office in Johannesburg.’

tom.moore@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

DLA Piper to cut 200 UK jobs after support staff review, in favour of Warsaw hub

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DLA Piper is slashing 200 business support jobs in the UK in a move that will see the firm make one of the largest law firm redundancies since the aftermath of the financial crisis.

Nearly a fifth of business support roles in the UK will be axed, with IT, finance, human resources, marketing, business development and secretary staff badly impacted by the cull. The move will see DLA Piper, which is targeting 5% profit growth each year, automate huge swathes of jobs and shift roles to low-wage economy Poland.

The changes follow a two-year review of the firm’s operations, run by chief operating officer Andrew Darwin, and a pilot of a global shared services centre in Warsaw. The firm has promised to consult with staff over the redundancies, with employees told that jobs will not be axed until October at the earliest.

Darwin told Legal Business: ‘Until the consultation is completed, we will not be making any final decisions, and we will be actively supporting our people during this process. The approach [to redundancy packages] is to be generous. We’ve benchmarked against what’s happened elsewhere and we’re trying to be respectful and compassionate.’

In a shift away from the firm’s roots in Yorkshire, where DLA Piper can trace its history back to 1764 when the firm Barnard & Bolland was established in Leeds, around 80 jobs are set to be axed in its Sheffield and Leeds offices. All of the firm’s UK offices will be affected, with around 55 roles also made redundant in London. DLA also has offices in Birmingham, Liverpool, Edinburgh and Manchester.

Darwin added: ‘The UK has always been our service centre for the international business. Because of our history, having grown up through mergers, we want to standardise things and get them done in a central location. We did a study and Poland came out very strongly. Poland is a recognised European centre for shared services.’

‘Let’s move on from the history to the future and adopt a DLA Piper way of doing things. Some of this is overdue for an overhaul and, quite frankly, for automation. Rather than doing the same thing in multiple ways, we’re going to do things in one way and where a process can be automated, we’ll be automating it.’

The move comes three years after DLA’s last UK redundancy round, when around 250 staff were laid-off in a move that also saw the firm close its Glasgow office.

The consultation will begin on 31 May 2016 and will be completed by the end of July. The move is arguably another sign of a slowdown in the legal market, with King & Wood Mallesons axing 45 business services staff in London in March and Reed Smith cutting 45 lawyer roles across the US, UK and Middle East in January.

tom.moore@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

DLA Piper doubles City promotions amid 48-strong round

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London was home to eight of DLA Piper’s expanded partner promotions round, double the number made up last year as the Anglo-American law firm moves to expand in key legal hubs.

Some 29% of this year’s 48-strong promotion round at DLA were based in the UK – with 14 making partner at DLA this year, compared to nine in 2015. Eight of the promotions were in London.

Of the City promotions, the corporate, restructuring and litigation and regulatory teams each received two promotions. The London intellectual property and technology and finance and projects groups received one promotion apiece. The firm’s Leeds and Liverpool offices each received two promotions, with real estate duo Richard Thompson and Andrew Batterton made up as the UK’s booming property market feeds regional UK lawyers.

Reflecting a recent focus on key global hubs, New York also saw a significant slice of the promotions with five new partners at its Avenue of the Americas office, where DLA recently took on more space.

The 48-strong round is the largest since 2012, when DLA made up 58. Corporate saw the largest intake of new partners with 12 promotions, followed by litigation and regulatory with 10 and real estate with seven. The firm’s tax group saw the biggest increase, up from one promotion in 2015 to five this year, as European and US authorities ramp up their focus on tax avoidance and take a harder line on inversion deals that re-domicile corporates to cheaper tax jurisdictions.

With joint Europe and Middle East managing director Juan Picón replacing Nigel Knowles as senior partner on 1 May, the firm has named his replacement, with Milan-based real estate partner Olaf Schmidt elevated to the role.

Co-chief executive Simon Levine (pictured) said: ‘Developing the capability of our people and helping them to realise their potential is a key part of our global strategy and allows us to deliver the highest quality service to our clients.’

tom.moore@legalease.co.uk

 

DLA Piper partner promotions:

UK

Ben Forgiel-Jenkins, London, corporate

Martin Penn, London, corporate

David Ampaw, London, restructuring

Chris Parker, London, restructuring

John Cloke, London, IPT

Maria Pereira, London, finance and projects

Paul Smith, London, litigation and regulatory

Sarah Smith, London, litigation and regulatory

John Gollaglee, Liverpool, litigation and regulatory

Richard Thompson, Liverpool, real estate

Andrew Batterton, Leeds, real estate

Jane Hannon, Leeds, employment

Thomas Kelsall, Manchester, real estate

Christopher Roberts, Manchester, restructuring

Continental Europe

Antonio Carino, Milan, litigation and regulatory

Paolo Foppiani, Milan, real estate

Tudor Nedelea, Bucharest, tax

Cornelius Frie, Cologne, corporate

Galyna Zagorodniuk, Kyiv, corporate

Teresa Zueco, Madrid, corporate

Martin Haller, Munich, real estate

Alberto Angeloni, Rome, litigation and regulatory

Elisabeth Stichmann, Vienna, corporate

US

Richard Rubano, New York, corporate

Colleen Carey, New York, litigation and regulatory

Lucas Przymusinski, New York, litigation and regulatory

Frank Mugabi, New York, tax

Drew Young, New York, tax

Richard Flaggert, Boston, IPT

Jarrod Matteson, Boston, real estate

Jamie Konn, Atlanta, employment

Todd Patterson, Austin, IPT

Thomas Pilkerton, Baltimore, corporate

Claire Hall, Los Angeles, finance and projects

John Huh, Philadelphia, litigation and regulatory

Melissa Bengtson, Phoenix, corporate

Laura Sirianni, Raleigh, finance and projects

Scott Cowan, Short Hills, corporate

Anil Kalia, Silicon Valley, tax

Angela Castro, Silicon Valley, real estate

Jennifer Kashatus, Washington DC, IPT

Asia Pacific

May Ng, Hong Kong, litigation and regulatory

Peng Tao, Hong Kong, tax

Sheng Wu, Hong Kong, corporate

Johnny Choi, Beijing, employment

Kate Papailiou, Brisbane, finance & projects

James Morse, Sydney, litigation and regulatory

Masa Ishida, Tokyo, corporate

Legal Business

Weil and DLA take lead roles as retailer BHS enters administration

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Corporate DLA PiperWeil, Gotshal & Manges
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Weil, Gotshal & Manges has advised British department store chain BHS as it filed for administration today (25 April), with DLA Piper expected to work on behalf of the administrators.

An attempt to secure a rescue package last week failed, putting around 11,000 jobs at risk. With 164 stores across the UK, the retailer has a total debt of £1.3bn and a pension deficit of £571m which could be bailed out by the government-backed Pension Protection Fund.

The company was sold by Arcadia Group chairman Sir Philip Green in 2000 for just £1 to a group of city investors called Retail Acquisitions as the brand struggled against more fashionable high street competition from the likes of Primark and H&M. Green had originally bought the chain for £200m in 2000.

Weil London head of restructuring Adam Plainer has advised BHS alongside restructuring partner Mark Lawford.

Duff & Phelps has been named as administrators to BHS. DLA Piper will advise the restructuring firm led by Leeds-based partner Colin Ashford.

The firm is a longstanding adviser to Duff & Phelps, working alongside administrators on the sale of tourist attraction Fantasy Island in Skegness as a going concern to the international leisure group Mellors Group earlier this year.

DLA also advised Duff & Phelps on the restructuring and sale of a group of five property owning companies to Starwood Capital Group in 2015 and the sale of Sceptre Leisure to the Gauselmann Group in the same year, in a transaction which saved over 350 jobs.

madeleine.farman@legalease.co.uk