Legal Business

Revolving doors: DLA Piper pensions partners exit as Freshfields loses Paris real estate head

In a big week for lateral recruitment, a two partner pensions team has quit DLA Piper‘s Leeds office, while Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer‘s Paris real estate head has left for a US firm. Meanwhile, Dechert and Debevoise & Plimpton have made key hires.

While Freshfields made a major play in Paris earlier this month with a five partner private equity team from Ashurst, it has suffered the loss of its real estate head from the same office. Erwan Le Douce-Bercot will move to Jones Day to run its French real estate team, bringing associates Flavia Poujade, Solène Maulard and Alix Pallier.

Boutique firm ARC Pensions Law has opened a new office in Leeds with a double partner hire from DLA Piper. Leeds partners Kate Payne and Vikki Massarano will lead ARC’s new five lawyer office, alongside legal director Max Ballard and senior associates Nigel Jones and Robert Walker.

ARC senior partner Anna Rogers said: ‘We’re extremely fortunate to be joined at ARC by Kate Payne and Vikki Massarano, two very experienced and highly regarded pensions partners, together with most of their team.

Meanwhile, DAC Beachcroft will make two legal directors from Clyde & Co partners at the firm when they move in March this year. Legal directors Michelle Traxler and Tom Walshaw move along with four other partners from Clydes which DAC announced in November. The duo join David Knapp, Danielle Singer, John Goodman and Nigel Adams as part of DAC Beachcroft’s claims solution group in London.

Focusing internationally, Debevoise has hired private funds lawyer Patricia Volhard to operate out of the firm’s Frankfurt and London offices.

Previously of German outfit Pöllath + Partners, Volhard has experience in advising private funds on a range of regulatory issues. Fluent in German, French and English, Volhard is permitted to practice in Germany and France.

Chair of Debevoise’ global investment management/funds group, Erica Berthou, said: ‘The arrival of Patricia as a leader of our European funds regulatory work strengthens our global funds regulatory platform, giving us a true heavy hitter in mainland Europe to add to our UK and US teams. We believe it puts us in a unique position in terms of what we can offer clients in this space.’

Closer to home, Dechert has strengthened its Dublin office with the hire of financial services partner Jeff Mackey from Dillon Eustace. Mackey’s practice focuses on the establishment and authorization of investment funds.

Mackey added: ‘I’m certain my clients will benefit from the international presence of the firm and I’m glad to contribute to the firm’s growth.’

tom.baker@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Cutting the cord – Allen severs Ropes ties to focus on new role as DLA Piper continues finance push

Raconteur, rainmaker and serial legal entrepreneur Maurice Allen is to phase out his ongoing role with Ropes & Gray to focus on his new post at DLA Piper, after admitting it was ‘difficult’ to work for both firms as a consultant.

Allen, who was Ropes & Gray’s London office founder and senior partner, was originally planning to remain as a consultant at the Boston-bred leader while also joining DLA as a consultant to develop the client side of the firm’s finance practice.

However, speaking to Legal Business, Allen said: ‘To be honest the role with Ropes & Gray has come to a head. We effectively decided I can’t do both. With the benefit of hindsight that is probably the right outcome. I am very loyal to Ropes, but going forward I will just be working with DLA and not with Ropes. It would have been too difficult to do both. Ropes have been fantastic. They generally tried to help enable me to do different things. We part as very good friends.’

In January a spokesperson at the top 20 US law firm said the move had been under discussion for some time and that Ropes was ‘comfortable with Maurice working on a consultancy basis for both firms, so long as the consultancies are scoped and more importantly, will operate on a conflict-free basis’.

However, it was apparent that the move has caused some unease at Ropes with some insiders not expecting the finance rainmaker to fit in another legal role into an already crammed CV that includes stints at Clifford Chance (CC), Weil Gotshal & Manges, White & Case and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer.

Allen, who starts the part-time role at DLA Piper on 1 March, will report to Charles Severs, managing director of practice groups and Jan Geert Meents, managing director of sectors and clients. The move comes as DLA has directed substantial investment in recent years into its finance practice to upgrade the practice beyond its roots as a mid-market deal finance and restructuring shop.

Describing his brief at DLA, Allen added: ‘My role is to continue in a sense the role I had at Ropes in the last couple of years, which is to be client-facing. It is having an overview of the relationships globally, seeing where the natural fit is. And then I usually will be able to find some point of access to a client if the firm is interested in that client. Or different points of access if they already have a relationship.’

A Ropes & Gray spokesperson said: ‘We can confirm that Maurice Allen’s consultancy with Ropes & Gray has come to end.  After discussion, it was agreed that Maurice’s consultancies with ourselves and DLA could not operate on a sufficiently conflict-free basis.  As a result, it was mutually agreed that Maurice should end his consultancy with us. He remains, however, a friend of the firm and we thank him for his significant contribution to the firm and wish him all the best with his future career.’

Allen announced his retirement as a partner at Ropes at the end of last year, and the 1,100-lawyer US firm has no current plans to replace him in role of UK senior partner, created in July 2014 when the dual role of co-managing partner shared by Allen and Mike Goetz was split.

Following his then trailblazing move from CC to Weil Gotshal in 1996, Allen has for 20 years been one of the most high-profile finance lawyers in the Square Mile with a career marked by restless team-building and a 30-year charm offensive directed at the City’s most coveted finance clients. With the exception of an unhappy post-White & Case move to Freshfields, he presided over a series of successful growth stories, culminating at Ropes, which saw its City revenues rocket from a 2010 launch to $83m in 2015.

Allen’s clients have included borrowers such as Liberty Global, Ahold and Bain Capital; and lenders such as Highbridge, Ares, Sankaty, CVC Credit, MV Credit and AMB. Bank clients have included Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan, Credit Suisse and Goldman Sachs.

Speaking to Legal Business in 2013, Allen said: ‘I was very lucky that Ropes & Gray came along, otherwise I could have reached a low point at Freshfields. But no more moving now – this will be my last home.’

Who’d take that bet?

Kathryn.mccann@legalease.co.uk

For more on Ropes & Gray’s City ambitions click here (£)

Legal Business

9,000 clients vote: BLP, Travers and DLA Piper win plaudits for innovation but City giants miss the mark

In a margin-conscious environment it is tough for advisers to catch a client’s eye, but according to flagship research into GC attitudes, a group of quality City law firms are standing out from the crowd through cutting-edge service delivery.

Drawing on responses from more than 9,000 buyers of legal services, the Client Intelligence Report (CIR) found Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP), Osborne Clarke (OC), Travers Smith and Hogan Lovells, among the standout City players for adopting innovative working methods.

BLP was the highest-ranked law firm for innovation out of the UK top 50, scoring a 7.66/10 in the poll of in-house counsel, against a group average of 6.84/10.

The firm has turned heads with its Lawyers On Demand (LOD) business, which has pioneered the flexi-lawyer model in the UK. LOD last year expanded into Asia with the acquisition of AdventBalance and launched an Uber-style online platform dubbed Spoke.

‘For LOD, and NewLaw generally, innovation has to be a constant process rather than the occasional big bang. It’s something where the whole team has to contribute,’ said LOD co-founder Simon Harper.

Other highly-ranked City firms include OC, Travers Smith, DLA Piper and Hogan Lovells. Allen & Overy and Clifford Chance both scored above the top 50 average, though elite City firms were generally indifferent performers on the innovation front. Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Linklaters and Slaughter and May all clustered together moderately below par.

Other top 50 law firms scoring poorly on innovation included Trowers & Hamlins, Charles Russell Speechlys and Fieldfisher.

In contrast, a number of regionally-bred players posted strong results, with Shoosmiths, Weightmans and Hill Dickinson all securing high scores.

 

Innovation – top-ranked City firms

 innovation rankings

Client score out of ten

NB: UK top 50 average score: 6.84/10

 

Telefonica UK law chief Ed Smith (pictured) said that he wants to see innovation focused on better service rather than cost. ‘I am GC of a company that turns over £5.7bn a year. Legal fees in the scheme of that are very low [but] the issues that lawyers advise on are hugely important to us. Innovation I would like to see only in terms of better outcomes. If a law firm could tell me that I could generate better management information or make better decisions, then I’m interested.’

The annual client report, a major initiative from Legal Business sister brand The Legal 500, is based on responses from 9,096 buyers of legal services globally including more than 4,000 general counsel (GCs) or heads of legal. The survey – the largest poll of the buyers of legal services ever undertaken – includes responses from 79% of the FTSE 100 and 81% of the Fortune 100.

The risk agenda

In a wider context, key findings in the report underline the subdued state of the corporate legal market as GCs come under intense pressure to contain costs.

Clients in the UK, Europe and US all reported narrowly rising legal spend in the aggregate. In the UK, 24% of GCs said they were increasing their external budgets over the next year, against 16% expecting a decrease and 60% forecasting stable spend. Similar proportions were evident across Europe and the US.

The research indicates that clients in western economies are still routinely bringing work in-house via expanding legal teams to cope with high demand for legal services. Only 6% of 2,453 respondents in the UK said their teams were expected to decrease in size over the next 12 months, against 23% set to increase and 71% forecasting stable headcount. The pattern was closely repeated across European teams as a whole.

Complexity and corporate risk are still driving the client agenda. Asked to cite the greatest challenge for their companies over the next 12 months, the biggest concern was ‘increased regulation’, cited by 30% of UK clients. Likewise, the most popular class of matter to outsource was litigation.

Telefonica’s Smith echoed the finding commenting: ‘I would say sectorial regulation is my number one concern, I would massively agree with that.’

Charlotte Heiss, group chief legal officer at RSA Group, commented: ‘It doesn’t surprise me to see regulation featuring as the top concern. It can be easy to underestimate how much work it can be to properly embed compliance with a new piece of legislation into a business and it always necessitates leaning on already stretched resource.’

Only one in five UK clients intend to use a non-traditional provider in the next 12 months. But if law firms feel complacent, they should note that larger clients are more progressively minded; 25% of clients with revenues over $500m were planning to trial an alternative provider over the next 12 months. This rises to 27% for companies with revenues of $1bn-plus.

Heiss cited pressure on many large companies to more robustly manage legal budgets. ‘RSA has been going been through a turnaround with a strong focus on cutting costs; every department plays its part in this and we have reduced both headcount and external spend.’

The findings come from a wealth of online data produced in the CIR, which asked clients 47 questions to produce an interactive grid map of client attitudes and law firm benchmarking data.

alex.novarese@legalease.co.uk

For more information on the Client Intelligence Report, email dominic.williams@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

DLA LLPs reveal costs up by £11m due to inflation and ‘key investments’ including Warsaw

DLA Piper International’s operating costs have increased by £10.6m to £502.7m according to the firm’s latest LLP accounts, which DLA said is ‘largely attributable to inflationary salaries and key investments into delivering effective and efficient client service’ including project management capabilities and the transfer of 200 business support jobs in the UK to Warsaw last year.

Paul Edwards, DLA’s chief financial officer told Legal Business that this wouldn’t be more than half of the £10.6m figure.

Edwards said: ‘The message back from the partners, particularly against the current backdrop is that they are pleased with the way the firm has progressed over the last three or four years and it shows some of the strength of the firm and we are pleased by that as well.’

DLA also claims that the huge increase is due to ‘significant investment into the Africa region during the year’ which has also contributed, along with other investments, to a drop in the operating margin of 1.1% to 34.5%.

Despite a drop in operating profit of 3%, from £272m to £264.8m and profit available for allocation among members dropping 2% from £265.5m to £260.8m, key management personnel which includes the senior partner, managing partner, members of the executive committee, international practice group heads, country managing partners and service directors pocketed a total of £34.3m, up from £32m in 2015. However Edwards said that due to LLP reporting standards not recognising some partners as members these figures do not represent real underlying profit amongst members and members’ equivalent which is actually up 7.6% year on year.

There was a marginal increase in DLA’s revenue for 2015/16, with turnover increasing by 0.4% from £764.1m to £767.5m which the firm said ‘was a pleasing result in current market conditions’ particularly as the drop in sterling value reduced revenue by £15.5m. According to Edwards, this was not a direct comparison because in the year 2015 the numbers were boosted by the Turkish practice and the Norwegian practice, both which were later demerged from the consolidated accounts in that year. The actual underlying fee increase in income is 3.1%. Edwards claims that the fee income growth largely came from the firm’s French and German practices which saw increases of 25% and 18% respectively.

Additionally there was a significant increase in the firm’s net assets of £23.9m to £260.4m while the Group’s cash and cash equivalents less borrowings have also increased during the year by £15.1m to £17.3m for the fourth successive year. Borrowings decreased from £33.9m in 2015 to £17.9m and the firm slashed its overdraft by £26.5m to £13.9m.

Total staff numbers at the firm have reduced, from 4,926 in 2015 to 4,916 in 2016. Despite this, the overall number of fee earners has increased, from 2,036 to 2,044.

kathryn.mccann@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

DLA Piper the star attraction as Merlin GC Jowett opts for sole supplier deal

Merlin Entertainments has appointed DLA Piper as its primary supplier for global construction as well as UK commercial, property and HR work, Legal Business can reveal.

General counsel Matt Jowett, who took over from Merlin’s longstanding group legal director and company secretary Colin Armstrong last year, has agreed a primary supply retainer arrangement with DLA from the beginning of this month, but will continue to work with other firms in the UK on non-retainer work or work where DLA is conflicted. The account will be managed by corporate partner and client relationship partner for Merlin, Rob Salter.

Speaking to Legal Business, Jowett said that Merlin, which owns visitor attractions such as Alton Towers, Legoland and Madame Tussauds, decided on a sole supplier mandate because of the efficiencies and economies of scale that can be gained from such a relationship. The company also uses a number of local firms around the world for day-to-day work.

He added: ‘We chose DLA as the primary relationship for all of our UK commercial and global construction work because of their experience and also critically their proposed delivery of legal services through best use of IT which is well suited to the high volume of legal work in our business.’

Legal Business first revealed last August that Jowett was carrying out the company’s first ever review of its external advisers.

Previous regular advisers for the leisure company included Ashurst, Knights, TLT and Fladgate in the UK, with the group turning to Ashurst in 2013 for its £3.3bn initial public offering. Corporate partner Mark Sperotto, who is now at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, led on the transaction alongside capital markets partners Jonathan Parry, who recently left Ashurst for White & Case, and Nicholas Holmes.

In addition, Merlin turned to Kennedys last year for advice after its Smiler rollercoaster at Alton Towers crashed, leaving 16 people with injuries.

Jowett was previously general counsel and company secretary at packing company DS Smith, and before that had headed the legal team at VT Group.

DLA is currently the principal legal adviser for the UK arm of Heineken in a three year appointment which began in January 2015. The deal sees DLA acting for the global beer and cider producer across a broad range of legal work in the UK, including property, litigation, IP, corporate and employment law.

kathryn.mccann@legalease.co.uk

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

Legal Business

Maurice Allen to advise DLA Piper while remaining consultant at Ropes

Maurice Allen, Ropes & Gray‘s UK office founder and former senior partner is to join DLA Piper on 1 February as a consultant to develop the firm’s finance sector strategy.

As well as remaining as a consultant to Ropes & Gray, Allen (pictured) will report to Charles Severs, managing director of practice groups and Jan Geert Meents, managing director of sectors and clients at DLA.

A spokesperson at Ropes & Gray said the move had been under discussion for some time, and the firm was ‘comfortable with Maurice working on a consultancy basis for both firms, so long as the consultancies are scoped and more importantly, will operate on a conflict-free basis.’

Allen announced his retirement as a partner at Ropes & Gray at the end of last year, and the firm has no current plans to replace him in role of senior partner, created in July 2014 when the dual role of co-managing partner shared by Allen and Mike Goetz was split.

Allen is a seasoned finance lawyer, working at Clifford Chance, Weil, Gotshal & Manges, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and White & Case before joining Ropes & Gray with Goetz to spearhead the launch of the firm’s London office in 2009.

His clients have included borrowers such as Liberty Global, Ahold and Bain Capital; and lenders such as Avenue, Highbridge, Ares, Sankaty, Partners Group, CVC Credit, MV Credit and AMB. Bank clients have included Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan, Credit Suisse and Goldman Sachs.

Speaking to Legal Business in 2013, Allen said: ‘I was very lucky that Ropes & Gray came along, otherwise I could have reached a low point at Freshfields. But no more moving now – this will be my last home.’

kathryn.mccann@legalease.co.uk

Read more: ‘Life during Law – Maurice Allen’

Legal Business

KWM exits continue as DLA and Greenberg pick up teams

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DLA Piper and Greenberg Traurig are the latest to benefit from a swathe of exits at King & Wood Mallesons (KWM) European arm.

DLA Piper will take on real estate partner William Naunton (pictured) and several members of his team including partners Cornelius Medvei, Bryan Pickup, Ed Page, George Burrha and Jeremy Brooks. Managing associate Omer Maroof will also join as a partner. They join alongside eight other lawyers and three trainees, and are expected to join DLA mid-January.

Naunton is a significant biller for KWM, having billed almost £4m for the firm in the last year. When he joined KWM alongside Clive Jones and former Eversheds partner Cornelius Medvei in late 2014, the team was seen as key to KWM’s aim to expand its structured, high-end real estate offering. On joining DLA, he will become co-head of the UK real estate group.

However, Jones will join Greenberg Traurig. Alongside Jones the US firm also hired private equity funds partners Steven Cowins and Marc Snell, M&A partners Michael Goldberg and David Fitzgerald and partner Matthew Priday along with their teams.

Cowins is one of KWM’s top billers, having joined SJ Berwin in 2005. He specialises in real estate funds and joint ventures and counts Crown Estate among his clients. Goldberg and Priday focus on commercial real estate investment and have British Land on their client roster.

These are the latest in a long line of defects from KWM’s European business; heavyweight biller Michael Halford has last month joined Goodwin Procter with the other funds partners Ajay Pathak, Ed Hall, Shawn D’Aguiar and Patrick Deasy.

Corporate finance partner Andrew Wingfield and former managing partner Rob Day joined Proskauer Rose. The pair’s resignation, along with Halford’s exit and Jonathan Pittal also handing in his notice caused KWM to halt its recapitalisation plans in October. The firm has since failed in its plans to restabilise the business, and is expected to enter administration in January 2017.

Former KWM managing partner William Boss was hired earlier this month by Addleshaw Goddard, alongside Simon Tager and Michael Scott. Meanwhile former senior partner Stephen Kon confirmed last week he would retire from the law.

Another firm in talks with a number of partners is Reed Smith, while KWM’s own Asian arm is trying to secure a European presence through an office spin-off. Although it had expressed interest in a merger deal, Dentons has since pulled out of discussions.

georgiana.tudor@legalease.co.uk

For more on King & Wood Mallesons, subscribers can read ‘Branded’ for an in-depth look at the firm. 

Legal Business

DLA, Slaughters and CC advise on Heineken UK’s bid for Punch pubs portfolio

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DLA Piper, Slaughter and May and Clifford Chance (CC) have all won roles advising on Heineken UK’s proposed £403m acquisition of a portfolio of approximately 1,900 UK pubs owned by Punch Taverns. The beer giant has made a bid for the pubs alongside Patron Capital.

DLA, which has a sole legal adviser mandate with Heineken UK, advised the business on the deal for Punch Securitisation A, which Heineken plans to integrate into its existing Star Pubs & Bars business. DLA’s global co-chair of corporate Bob Bishop led on the deal, alongside corporate partners Mark Chivers and Tim Wright. It is understood it could take approximately six months for the deal to close due to competition clearances.

CC acted for Patron Capital with a team led by corporate partners Lee Coney and David Pearson.

Meanwhile Slaughters acted for Punch Taverns on the acquisition, which is conditional on completion of the recommended cash offer. Corporate partners David Johnson and Murray Cox, alongside finance partner Oliver Storey, advised on the deal. The Magic Circle firm advised Punch Tavern through its £2.3bn capital restructuring which was completed in 2014, two years after it began.

DLA was named sole adviser for the UK arm of global beer and cider producer Heineken in January last year and the relationship is primarily managed by Bishop and DLA partner John McKinlay, who heads up the firm’s Scottish intellectual property and technology practice.

The three year appointment sees DLA acting for Heineken across a broad range of legal work in the UK, including property, litigation, IP, corporate and employment law.

kathryn.mccann@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Linklaters and DLA Piper advise on City’s tallest skyscraper 1 Undershaft

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The second tallest building in Western Europe is set for the City, as Linklaters and DLA Piper picked up key real estate mandates advising on the new skyscraper.

Second only to the Shard in height in London, 1 Undershaft – nicknamed ‘The Trellis’ due to its distinctive crosshatched design – will be the tallest building in the City of London at 73 storeys and more than 300 metres.

Linklaters advised on all aspects of the planning application by Singapore-based developers Aroland Holdings. Real estate planning partner David Watkins led the deal for Linklaters. DLA partner Ian Brierley advised Aroland Holdings on other mainstream real estate issues.

Linklaters’ Watkins told Legal Business: ‘It is certainly an exciting deal. It will become the apex of the cluster of tall buildings in the City. It helps to show business as usual for the City and speaks volumes that foreign investors are willing to invest in London.’

The new building to be built on the site of the Aviva Tower, which will be demolished, and is due to be completed at some point in the 2020s. Planning permission approval was granted this week by the planning and transport committee of the City of London Corporation.

The building will provide 130,000 sq metres of office accommodation and 2,000 sq metres of retail space, housing up to 10,000 workers.

The original design would have seen 1 Undershaft come to the same size as the Shard, however the overall height was reduced by planning restrictions on London’s airspace. It will overlook other distinct buildings in the City, including the Gherkin and 122 Leadenhall Street.

The deal for the building does not yet have a clear value, however other major skyscrapers in London have topped £400m. The Shard was valued at £435m with a height of 309 metres, just above 1 Undershaft’s 304.6 metres tall.

The new 233 metre development for Landmark Pinnacle at Canary Wharf is set to cost £320m, with financing by City Pride advised by Taylor Wessing, while 122 Leadenhall Street, known as ‘The Cheesegrater, came to £286m.

matthew.field@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Travers Smith acts on latest Bridgepoint deal as Oasis sold to Bupa for £835m

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Travers Smith, White & Case and DLA Piper have landed roles advising Bridgepoint on its sale of Oasis Dental Care to Bupa, valuing the business at £835m.

Oasis is one of the largest dental companies in the UK, with 380 practices and 1,800 dentists. The company reported annual revenue of £277m for 2015/16. It was acquired by Bridgepoint in 2013 for £187m, with Linklaters acting for the private equity (PE) firm.

Travers advised longstanding client Bridgepoint on the deal for the dentistry company. Travers’ team was led by PE head Paul Dolman (pictured) with a team including competition partner Stephen Whitfield, commercial partner Richard Brown and regulatory partner Phil Bartram.

White & Case advised healthcare and insurance provider Bupa on the deal, while DLA Piper PE partner Tim Wright advised Oasis’s management.

White & Case’s team was led by John Cunningham and Ian Bagshaw in London, and included Mark Powell in Brussels as well as City partners  Victoria Landsbert, Stuart Willey, Colin Harley and Michael Wistow. The US firm also advised Bupa on its £325m acquisition of Polish healthcare provider LUXMED back in 2013.

Travers has advised on several of this year’s headline deals. Travers corporate head Spencer Summerfield acted for Micro Focus on its $8.8bn dollar acquisition by HP in September, while corporate finance head Neal Watson advised for Pinewood Studios on its £323m takeover in August.

PE specialists Travers has strengthened its grip on the upper reaches of the middle market, handling work for clients such Hellman & Friedman and 3i Group as well as Bridgepoint. However the firm lost rising star Helen Croke in May this year. Croke, who joins Travers’ former head of PE Phil Sanderson at Ropes & Gray, counted Bridgepoint as one of her main clients.

matthew.field@legalease.co.uk

For more on private equity deals, see ‘A private function – the in-house counsel making their way in the thrusting world of private equity’

Read more in: ‘The M&A Report – Private equity offers the clients for all seasons’