Legal Business

Asia: DLA Piper builds up its Singapore office while Milbank and Sidley expand in China

Posted on |
Asia DLA PiperMilbankSidley Austin
legal-business-default

DLA Piper, Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy and Sidley Austin have all completed partner raids on rivals in Asia as they seek to expand their presence in the region.

DLA Piper, which undertook a major overhaul of its Asia partnership in 2014 as it moved on underperforming lawyers, secured a coup with the hire of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher’s Singapore partner John Viverito and of counsel Myles Hankin.

The corporate duo joined Gibson in 2008 from Jones Day to launch the firm’s Singapore office and will be joined by their former colleague, capital markets partner Joseph Bauerschmidt, who is departing Jones Day to reunite with Viverito. All three will join DLA Piper as partners.

Viverito will take charge of DLA Piper’s Singapore office, replacing insurance litigator John Goulios, who will now co-head the firm’s Asia Pacific insurance practice.

Meanwhile, Milbank has continued to add to its ranks in Asia, hiring another Allen & Overy Hong Kong partner in the form of M&A lawyer David Kuo.

Kuo, a US and Hong Kong qualified lawyer, made partner at the Magic Circle firm in May 2013. His practice focuses on cross-border acquisitions, focusing on handling work for private equity and hedge funds.

The US firm lured a four-lawyer team from A&O led by capital markets partner Jim Grandolfo at the tail end of 2013 and bolstered its ranks last year with the hire of Stephenson Harwood’s aviation finance chief Paul Ng in Singapore.

Attempts to capture market share in Asia have placed a premium on those with management experience, as a host of firm’s seek to rework strategies that have failed to bear fruit.

With technology M&A having created a surge in legal work at the international law firms able to handle cross-border work, Sidley Austin has hired management experience with the addition of US technology firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati’s Beijing head Kefei Li.

Li, who earlier in his career had spells at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom and Dewey & LeBoeuf, ended a three-year stint at the tech law firm to move his capital markets practice to Sidley Austin’s more developed Beijing office. He has headed Wilson Sonsini’s office in the Chinese capital since its opening in 2012.

tom.moore@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Q&A: Heineken UK’s Graeme Colquhoun and DLA Piper’s John McKinlay talk sole adviser mandates

Posted on |
In-house DLA PiperHeineken
legal-business-default

Having appointed DLA Piper as principal legal adviser this month (January) in a bid to cut down on external spend, Heineken UK’s head of legal Graeme Colquhoun (pictured) and DLA Piper IP/IT partner John McKinlay talk to Sarah Downey to discuss the perks of having a one-stop-shop and its possible extension.

Graeme, what did the review entail?

We started internally getting our ducks in a row around April. Senior commercial lawyer Lynsey Nicoll did the main bulk of the work. I was the architect and she was the builder. At the end, six firms were invited to pitch and five ended up pitching – one was conflicted. But we got procurement advice internally and spent a lot of time defining exactly what it was we were doing. I spoke to other legal heads in drinks companies. Our tender document was 20 pages; it had lots of KPIs and specifications – we did it in a slightly fuller on way than most do.

It was much more work than I would have ever believed. I was really conscious that I wanted to give everyone as much information as I could to allow them to put their best foot forward. You try to be honest about the challenges and opportunities. People responded to that. The issue was, it took so much time to get the information together at our end and then speak to all the different firms. That was one of the key learning points for us – to not underestimate how much time it takes. With a multi-faceted business you’re trying to find out where the touch points are between the external lawyers and my colleagues. We ended up finding out a lot more about our business than we knew at the start.

What did you want to achieve besides cost efficiency?

GC: We wanted a long term relationship rather than a transactional one with our lawyers. I want to see synergies, and the knowledge that we give in one instruction to be applied on others. For instance, I had a meeting with DLA’s property lawyers and talking about how what they’ve learned on say legislation issues, can be applied to our leasing issues on a day-to-day basis. We can better share that knowledge now.

JM: What attracts us is being able to take the holistic view of the client relationships you’re freed up from billing on a project by project basis. It’s just a more natural and comfortable way of working.

Graeme, what cost savings are you expecting to make?

I would say for three years, using our historic numbers, we will save a seven-figure sum – not a tiny seven figure sum. It’s a material sum.

John, what has been your relationship with Heineken?

Graeme and I used to work together at legacy McGrigors – we’ve known each other for 15 years. DLA Piper also did a lot of work for Scottish & Newcastle (now Heineken) and then laterally as one of a number of advisors for Heineken as well. It’s been an ongoing relationship.

How many at DLA will be involved in managing this relationship?

JM: There’s a small core team made up of myself and litigation partner Hazel Moffatt who will provide the central management role, plus the department heads in the larger work streams such as real estate and litigation to speak to the client very regularly. That will span out to individual people. At the moment we identify a team of 30 people that will be involved in doing this. That will expand and contract depending on the flow of work over the course of the three year appointment.

Can this mandate be rolled out across other jurisdictions where Heineken operates?

GC: This agreement is an obvious thing for Heineken UK to do – we do a lot of commoditised work which allows us to go to law firms with the proposition of guaranteed work. Other Heineken companies may not have that churn of work. I expect, however, this arrangement will become more popular. You can be sure every head of legal for every company across the land is being given the same challenges about managing external cost and getting value for money. We will see a lot more.

What are your key objectives going forward?

GC: Obviously we want to see this work and manage that closely – this will be successful if DLA win it next time. Having a law firm that is actually proactive and feels really part of the team…it was the distance that I felt sometimes between us and the advisers. It shouldn’t have been like that.

sarah.downey@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

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

Posted on |
Covington & BurlingDLA Piper
legal-business-default

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

Revolving doors: New Year moves at Eversheds, DLA Piper and HFW

Posted on |
Strategic recruitment DLA PiperEversheds SutherlandHFW
legal-business-default

Many City partners got the New Year started at new firms, with Eversheds, DLA Piper and Holman Fenwick Willan (HFW) making key hires in the City.

Eversheds hired property partner Clare Whitaker from Clyde & Co as it expanded its City real estate practice in an effort to boost its offering within the hotel and leisure sector. Whitaker has been a partner at Clydes for the last two years, before which she worked at Reed Smith from 2006 to 2012 where she became a partner in 2007.

Whitaker’s experience includes negotiating hotel management agreements and involvement in time share and shared ownership projects. Some of her recent key deals include advising Compass Group on the £3.3bn disposal of hotel brands it acquired through the demerger of Granada Compass and acting for CVC Capital Partners on the £1.7bn successful bidding for the issued share capital of Debenhams. She also negotiated the lease of Microsoft’s central London office headquarters and represented Starwood Capital on its £200m refinancing of a portfolio of English and Scottish hotels.

Meanwhile, commodities lawyer Richard Usher moved from in-house to private practice after he joined DLA Piper as a partner in its City finance and projects practice. Usher has 18 years’ experience of working within the in-house community, most recently, Usher as legal counsel at Noble Group for six months and general counsel (GC) at BTG Pactual Commodities for eight months.

He has also been GC at Global Shipping and Trading for just over a year and a half, head of commodities at Legal EMEA from July 2006 to May 2012, and various other in-house roles prior to this. His experience comprises mainly of advising commodity trading houses and banks, including BTG Pactual, Mercuria Energy Trading and Morgan Stanley, and has particular experience in the oil and energy sector.

Head of DLA Piper’s finance and projects practice Charles Morrison said: ‘I am delighted that Richard is joining DLA Piper, bolstering our position in the market place within the commodities arena. He brings a huge amount of expertise to the team, and will add to the firm’s strength in emerging markets.’

The firm also expanded its trade and government relations practice with the hire of John Forrest, who was a senior civil servant and formerly a senior director at Dechert, as a partner and will lead the firm’s trade practice. Baroness of Vernham Dean Elizabeth Symons, who was the former general secretary of the FDA Trade Union and a Minister of State, and an existing consultant to DLA Piper, also joins the firm to lead the city government relations practice.

The hires comes on the back of growing demand for sanctions, and import and export controls advice, as well as an increase in clients’ needs for strategic government relations counsel. Symons joined at the beginning of the year, whereas Forrest will join the firm in March.

HFW also recruited in the City, but within its employment practice, with the hire of partner Neil Adams, who joins from US firm Edwards Wildman Palmer.

Adams leaves Edwards Wildman as the firm has seen a flurry of exits from its London office. He was at the US firm for ten years, since joining the legacy Kendall Freeman in 2000 before its tie-up with Edwards Angell to form Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge in 2008. Before 2000, he was a partner at rival firm Trowers & Hamlins for two years. Adams will re-join fellow partners Richard Spiller and Ashwani Kochhar who joined HFW in 2011 from legacy firm Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge.

Richard Spiller, head of the firm’s insurance and reinsurance practice said: ‘Having previously worked with Neil, I know that his experience of handling complex employment law issues in the insurance sector will add a valuable extra dimension to our existing capability.’

Adams advises on aspects of employment counselling and complex litigation for financial commodities and technology clients. He has experience of advising on both individual and team moves, breach of contract and duty, the enforcement of restrictive covenants and board disputes. His work also involves advising in relation to M&A and restructuring, litigation in the High Court and employment tribunals.

jaishree.kalia@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Cheers: Heineken UK gifts DLA Piper with principal legal adviser role

Posted on |
Adviser reviews DLA Piper
legal-business-default

After much speculation and a lengthy review, the UK arm of global beer and cider producer Heineken has announced the appointment of DLA Piper as its principal legal adviser for a major proportion of work, a move which the company has made in a bid to cut down on external legal spend.

The three year appointment will see DLA acting for Heineken across a broad range of legal work in the UK, including property, litigation, IP, corporate and employment law. The relationship will be managed by Edinburgh-based IP and technology partner John McKinlay and litigation and regulatory partner Hazel Moffat.

Although the firm will carry out the large majority of the work itself, at the request of Heineken, UK licensing work will continue to be carried out by regional firm Flint Bishop and associated recoveries work will continue to be carried out by Bristol-headquartered TLT. Both services provided by the firms will be managed by DLA Piper.

Legal Business revealed in early April that Heineken UK was actively considering going down the one-stop-shop route for the bulk of its legal work, with its UK head of legal Graeme Colquhoun explaining that the mandate would most likely be awarded to a firm with which the brewer already had a relationship with.

With no formal panel in place and much of the procurement and commercial work kept in-house, the company had nonetheless forged key relationships with firms including DLA, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Allen & Overy, Shepherd and Wedderburn, TLT, Morton Fraser, Irwin Mitchell, Osborne Clarke, CMS Cameron McKenna and Pinsent Masons, which were also speculated to be in line for the windfall instruction.

Colquhoun previously said: ‘Our business is very fragmented and distributed – there’s lots of touch points between the business and external firms. Cost is a huge issue and so is control. From Edinburgh it’s quite hard to get a grip on that other than through our system where we can see how much money is being paid but we can’t stop it before it happens. We think we might have better control through having a sole supplier – a one-stop-shop.’

On the appointment of DLA, Colquhoun said: ‘While we have historically worked with a significant number of strong law firms in a wide variety of areas, we believe the time is right to consolidate the provision of these services in one key partner and that DLA Piper demonstrated an excellent cultural fit and the business focus we were looking for. As well as the financial and business efficiencies generated by having one key provider, we look forward to a step-change in the quality of management information which we receive and believe that this will help us to become the undisputed No 1 cider and beer maker in the UK.’

sarah.downey@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

The Friday Edit: Nostalgia, greed and DLA – celebrating 25 years of Legal Business and other animals

Posted on |
Comment DLA Piper
legal-business-default

With Legal Business gearing up for its Christmas lunch, it’s once again time to look back on the notable events of the week – and 25 years in this case – with The Friday Edit, our informal take on current legal happenings. For subscriber content, click here for full access to Legal Business or email ‘mark.proudley@legalease.co.uk’ for more information. Corporate subscribers can also access our premium reporting firm-wide online and via our iPad edition as well as print copies.

Analysis of the week: How was it for you?

Our latest issue marked the 250th edition of Legal Business and the start of our 25th anniversary year, which we celebrated with a look back at the defining events, people and trends that shaped the legal industry since our launch. Among the people cited were Sir Nigel Knowles, Tony Angel, Geoffrey Howe, Sir Anthony Salz and Lord Bingham while defining events included the birth of Clifford Chance, the bankruptcy of Lehman and the collapses of Halliwells and Dewey & LeBoeuf. Our coverage also includes comment and insight from a host of industry heavyweights.

Subscribers can click here for the full coverage, while these open access comment pieces, ‘Legal Business celebrates 25 years and the profession as well’ and ‘Bringing greed to law – our part in the profession’s downfall’ pick up several themes.

Stories of the week:

While there have been a rash of high-end contentious boutiques formed in recent years, competition has largely avoided the trend – until now with the news that Clifford Chance’s former head of antitrust Oliver Bretz has quit to launch his own firm, Euclid Law. The move, which sparked a wrangle over Bretz’s contract, will be watched closely in what is one of the most strategically important practice areas for major law firms. Another popular story this week was research showing an explosion in negligence claims against law firms as claimants move to file before the end of the limitation period for losses incurred during the financial crisis. At the end of the week, Addleshaw Goddard unveiled its new strategy to run until 2019. While such exercises typically cause rolling eyes, the firm under new managing partner John Joyce needs to regain its form to reverse a six year period of decline so a fair bit is riding on this.

Quotes of the week:

‘Nigel Knowles took the second best firm in Leeds and created the largest law firm in the world.’

Tony Angel reflects on the unique contribution of his DLA colleague Sir Nigel Knowles, Shaping the industry – the veterans’ view on what mattered in the last 25 years

‘David is in back to back meetings every day for the next four weeks. It would be just impossible to set up a call.’

An Olswang staffer is less than proactive in facilitating contact with soon-to-be-departing chief executive David Stewart, Evasive Action

‘My initial reaction was: “Why on earth would we do this?”‘

Sir Anthony Salz recalls being initially less than compelled with the logic of a Freshfields/Bruckhaus union, How was it for you?

‘The profession should be far more demanding of getting its due from policy-makers and the media. Next year’s Global Law Summit is shaping up to be another missed opportunity in which law firms are targeted for sponsorship for an event spending more time on the Bar and judiciary.’

LB argues that next year’s Magna Cartastock remains confused in its aims, Legal Business celebrates 25 years and the profession as well

Something for the weekend: Paddington: the Immigration lawyer’s take (which is a lot better than it sounds)

Just to show it’s not all about big trends, globalisation and sweeping ambition we found the time this week to host an unusual but popular post on Paddington, in which barrister Colin Yeo reviews the film with a lawyerly eye. As Yeo notes: ‘I never knew the Michael Bond books as a child but Paddington is amongst immigration lawyers a walking, talking, ursine pin-up for humanising our work.’ Engaging stuff. Just as long as we don’t get a leveraged finance partner reviewing The Hobbit and banging on about dragon-related force majeure events. Have a good one.

Top posts:

Comment: Bringing greed to law – our part in the profession’s downfall

‘No one had done it in the London market’: Clifford Chance’s former head of antitrust launches City boutique

Rushing to launch: High Court cases for law firm professional negligence claims jump 192% in a year

(£) Life During Law: Jason Glover, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett

A $150m award: Baker Botts loses another Russian case as Quinn Emanuel secures pay-out against gas giants

alex.novarese@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Baker & McKenzie and DLA Piper bet on Mexico’s growing legal market

Posted on |
Latin America Baker McKenzieDLA Piper
legal-business-default

DLA combines with local firm while Baker & McKenzie boosts its Mexican office

Mexico’s legal market has seen steady growth as President Enrique Peña Nieto’s package of reforms, including widespread tax breaks and the opening up of the energy sector to foreign companies, liberalises the economy. Last month saw both DLA Piper and Baker & McKenzie seek to capitalise on that growth by making strategic hires to broaden their offerings.

Legal Business

A major instruction: DLA Piper instructed by Vodafone for Spanish tax fraud investigation

Posted on |
Litigation DLA Piper
legal-business-default

DLA Piper lawyers from London and Madrid have been called in by Vodafone to investigate allegations of tax fraud at Spanish cable operator Ono, which the telecoms giant acquired in July for €7.2bn.

Corporate partner Juan Picon, who was made co-head of Europe and Asia on Tuesday this week, led on the original transaction and has been recalled by Vodafone over allegations that staff traded international call minutes off its balance sheet – through affiliate companies – without paying tax.

London-based global head of international arbitration Matthew Saunders and tax fraud specialist Jeremy Andrews have been parachuted in to assist, alongside a litigation and tax team based in Spain. DLA is also receiving support from Spanish criminal law boutique Oliva – Ayala.

Vodafone has blocked £50m in bonuses to former Ono executives, agreed once the takeover was completed in July, while the alleged fraud is investigated by Spanish authorities.

Picon told Legal Business: ‘Vodafone was formally notified of the investigation by the tax authorities. We are working off the back of a forensic analysis being carried out by Deloitte’s forensic team in the UK and Madrid.’

Weil, Gotshal & Manges led by London private equity partner, Marco Compagnoni, advised Ono’s owners on the sale to Vodafone. Local law advice came from Garrigues partner Renata Mendana.

tom.moore@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Management changes: DLA Piper overhauls board as Ince & Co picks new senior team

Posted on |
Leadership DLA PiperInce & Co
legal-business-default

A mass reshuffle has taken place of DLA Piper’s executive managment team, with the firm’s Dutch head of corporate Barbara van Hussen and chief of practices and sectors Juan Picon being made joint managing directors of Europe and the Middle East. Meanwhile, Ince & Co has selected Hamburg-based partner Jan Heuvels to succeed James Wilson as international senior partner.

Picon’s appointment comes after heading practices and sectors alongside Simon Levine, who is set to become chief executive in the New Year. That position has now been split in two, with London-based head of corporate Charles Severs becoming managing director of practice groups and Germany managing partner Jan Geert Meents promoted to managing director of clients and sectors. Both will sit on the nine-person executive management team.

Van Hussen becomes one of the most senior women at the firm and the first female on what was an all-male executive committee. Both corporate partners, van Hussen and Picon, take over from retiring head of Europe and the Middle East Ulrich Jungst.

After a year of turmoil in Australia for DLA Piper, with head Tony Holland having departed last year to join local firm Gilbert + Tobin and Sydney-based Andrew Darwin stepping into the role for an interim period, John Weber now fills the final spot on the management team having been brought on board to be Australia managing partner from Minter Ellison. Darwin continues in his role as COO and keeps his spot on the firm’s global board.

With several senior positions vacated, UK head of corporate Bob Bishop takes over as international chief from Charles Severs and M&A partner Ben Parameswaran and employment partner Bernd Borgmann replace Jan Geert Meents as Germany managing partners.

DLA Piper’s executive managment team steers the firm’s strategy in all regions but the US, which has its own committee that is chaired by global co-chairman Roger Meltzer, and Jay Rains, who is set to join Levine as co-CEO on 1 January.

Ince & Co has also increased the number of management positions, appointing global head of shipping, Paul Herring to the newly created position of chairman to work alongside Heuvels in representing the firm to clients.

Day-to-day responsibility for running the firm will remain with Heuvels who is relocating to London to take up his position in January 2015. Jan Hungar will take over his current role as Hamburg managing partner.

Wilson, who has led the firm for two terms since 2008, will return to a client facing role in the global shipping group.

tom.moore@legalease.co.uk