Legal Business

Eversheds in talks to extend voting rights as 164 junior partners inject cash

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Financial management Eversheds Sutherland
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Eversheds has started talks over the voting rights of its fixed share partners (FSPs) after they were asked to contribute 25% of their annual earnings in response to HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) tax changes for limited liability partnerships (LLPs).

The top 15 UK law firm called on its 164 junior partners to make the contributions to avoid being deemed as employees, which would require Eversheds to pay national insurance contributions for them.

Under the new HMRC rules, partners are deemed employees if they have less than 25% of their salary attached to profits. Firms were requested to put in place plans for contributions by 6 April 2014, with capital expected within three months.

Chief executive Bryan Hughes said in a statement: ‘Following a series of discussions, our FSPs will be making capital contributions equivalent to 25% of their profit share. During the course of these discussions, associated issues such as voting rights, were raised. We obviously had to act quickly to ensure that the capital payments were in place in line with the timescales set down by HMRC. We have, however, agreed with our FSP group that we will engage with them in an extended consultation to discuss these associated concerns in more detail.’

Under the guidance notes published by the HMRC in response to claims that LLPs can be used as tax avoidance vehicles, an LLP member faces three tests to define if they are an employee for tax purposes. These relate to influence over partnership affairs, the level of capital injected and if their equity share can be classed as a ‘disguised salary’.

In response, a series of law firms have asked their junior partners to contribute capital in recent weeks with Hogan Lovells last week calling on its 65 non-equity partners to make capital contributions of around £60,000 to £100,000.

Francesca.fanshawe@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

High-value commercial litigation rises 16% as recession-related disputes filter through to courts

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Litigation Eversheds SutherlandRPC
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2013 saw a sharp rise in high-value commercial litigation as major disputes arising from the recession filter down to the courts in greater numbers, according to research released today (7 April) by RPC.

Statistics compiled by the firm shows that 1,353 cases were launched in the Commercial Court in 2013, up 16% on the 1,167 cases started in 2012.

RPC said the increase is likely due to the length of time it can take for a claimant to pull together a major case or because of situations where parties have failed to reach a deal, leaving the claimant deciding litigation is the only option to resolve the dispute.

RPC’s head of commercial litigation, Geraldine Elliott, said: ‘This kind of “big-ticket” litigation tends to be quite complex as well as very contentious – it’s not something that can be rushed to court. So there’s bound to be a time-lag between disputes arising during the downturn and when they start to come through the system.

‘Sometimes high-value or large-scale claims can take several years to actually get as far as filing a claim, let alone a court hearing, which is why we are seeing such an upswing in cases coming to court now, even as we start to leave the recession behind us.’

The research also indicated that banking litigation will continue to be a key area for high-value claims, as PPI mis-selling, Libor and interest rate swap scandals faced by financial institutions have resulted in a steady pipeline of cases in recent years.

Banks preparing themselves for further potential claims include the Royal Bank of Scotland, which earlier this year announced it would set aside an additional £3bn for legal claims, including £1.9bn for mortgage-backed securities claims.

The amount of money set aside for FX manipulation claims is also likely to be higher according to the research, as banks not only have to face fines and penalties but have to undertake costly investigations.

RPC financial disputes partner Andy McGregor, said: ‘Claims based on alleged FX manipulation are likely to be particularly complex, and the scale of resources required to deal with the regulatory probes could dwarf even what we saw with Libor. Increasingly, the Financial Conduct Authority is looking to the banks themselves to organise and fund the bulk of data mining and other investigative work, which is going to take huge amounts of specialist manpower.’

Examples of high-profile commercial cases involving banks last year included a dispute between UK trading and investments firm CF Partners and Barclays. The former filed a claim against Barclays last year alleging that the bank breached a confidentiality agreement. CF Partners, whose claim is being bankrolled by Harbour Litigation Funding, alleged that Barclays used confidential information it supplied to the bank when requesting funding for its own bid for Swedish carbon trader Tricorona.

This research coincides with a study published today by Eversheds, which has released similar findings on the rise of large commercial disputes, despite the fact that corporates do not want to resort to litigation. In a study entitled Companies in Conflict: How Commercial Disputes are Won, whether a company wins or loses in court is determined by the calibre of the professionals involved in the case, while corporates that generate revenue of more than £1bn were typically engaged in two to five large disputes over the last three years, but 16% of companies were involved in more than ten. One fifth of businesses involved in the study considered managing reputation to be the most important factor in pursuing a dispute.

sarah.downey@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Eversheds in merger talks with German partner as it opens a new Berlin office

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Legal mergers Eversheds Sutherland
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Eversheds has confirmed it is in talks over a full merger with its German partner Heisse Kursawe Eversheds as the firm opens a third German office in Berlin.

Chief executive Bryan Hughes said in a statement today (2 April): ‘Our strategy for growth is focused on increasing the depth and reach of our international operations. We are regularly in dialogue with firms around the world and this includes our German partner firm. As those discussions are ongoing, there is nothing further to say at this stage.’

The new Berlin office of Heisse Kursawe Eversheds will be headed by senior office partner and employment partner Stefan Kursawe and will cover all areas of commercial law, with a particular emphasis on public law, procurement law and real estate law.

The firm, whose clients include base security provider Securitas and project management company DEGES, which is responsible for the development and construction of infrastructure within reunified Germany, says it opened the office in response to client demand for a presence in Berlin.

Kursawe said: ‘Berlin has become an obligatory location for commercial law firms and we have opened the office due to real client demand. As an economic area, Berlin has clearly gained enormous momentum and is the headquarter of several important authorities and associations. Berlin is also a vibrant city and we hope our presence in the region will also help attract potential new recruits as we continue to pick up new mandates.

‘The opening of our Berlin office is another exciting development for Eversheds international presence, as we continue to grow our operations in new markets in order to offer our clients the seamless and collaborative service they have come to expect from us.’

Earlier this week, Eversheds took the next step in its African expansion strategy by signing a partnership agreement with existing relationship firm CWA Morocco, establishing new offices in Casablanca and Tangier.

Led by local managing partner Mohamed Oulkhouir, Eversheds CWA Morocco will advise domestic and international clients across a broad spectrum of industries, including maritime, automotive, financial services and industrial engineering.

As part of Eversheds’ ‘Pan-African strategy’ to establish offices in key markets announced in October 2013, the 1760-lawyer firm opened four other offices on the continent in December through tie-ups with South African firm Mahons and Tunisia’s El Heni, with the firm continuing to explore opportunities in Ghana and Kenya.

francesca.fanshawe@legalease.co.uk

For more on Eversheds’ international strategy and ambitions, see The ideal law firm for 2013? Eversheds hunts for its breakthrough

Legal Business

Eversheds pursues Africa expansion with Morocco partnership

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Middle East and Africa Eversheds Sutherland
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Eversheds has made good on its African expansion strategy by signing a partnership agreement with existing relationship firm CWA Morocco, establishing new offices in Casablanca and Tangier.

Led by local managing partner Mohamed Oulkhouir, Eversheds CWA Morocco will advise domestic and international clients across a broad spectrum of industries, including maritime, automotive, financial services and industrial engineering.

As part of Eversheds’ ‘Pan-African strategy’ to establish offices in key markets announced in October 2013, the 1760-lawyer firm opened four other offices on the continent in December through tie-ups with South African firm Mahons and Tunisia’s El Heni, with the firm continuing to explore opportunities in Ghana and Kenya.

Head of Eversheds’ Africa practice Boris Martor said: ‘As a gateway to Northern Africa, Morocco is an important market for us. After signing a cooperation agreement three years ago with CWA Morocco, Eversheds is pleased to now rebrand the offices with Mohamed and his team who quickly established themselves as a preeminent team of lawyers handling complex matters in Morocco.’

The agreement with ten-partner Mahons, which rebranded as Eversheds in the new year, handed Eversheds presences in Johannesburg, where Mahons has two offices, as well as Cape Town and Mauritius.

Mahons was set up by former Terry Mahon in 2011, former chairman of South African firm Routledge Modise, which was an ally of Eversheds until October last year when the firms split with chief executive Bryan Hughes citing client conflicts of interests. Routledge Modise since merged with Hogan Lovells in December.

Also in October, the firm established Eversheds African Law Institute (EALI) to share knowledge, training and regional and international commercial opportunities with member firms and announced at the beginning of March that the network had reached 33 members in 37 offices across 31 African countries after adding 10 independent firms to the roster.

This comes just a couple of months after DLA Piper’s Africa Group announced its expansion in north, southern and eastern Africa with the addition of three new member firms in January.

Algerian firm B L & Associés, Rubeya & Co Advocates of Burundi and Namibian firm Ellis Shilengudwa Inc joined the 4200-lawyer firm’s Africa Group as of 1 October 2013. The firm now has member firms in 14 countries in Africa, and is located in 30 countries around the world.

Other leading UK firms to have boosted their African presence in recent months include Linklaters, which sealed an alliance with South African firm Webber Wentzel in December last year, and Norton Rose Fulbright, which launched a Tanzania office last October.

francesca.fanshawe@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Onwards and upwards for Ashurst’s head of pensions who joins Eversheds 90-lawyer team

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Strategic recruitment AshurstEversheds Sutherland
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Ashurst’s London head of pensions Steven Hull has jumped ship for Eversheds’ highly-rated 90-lawyer team, becoming the latest of a series of exits at the top 20 firm.

Hull joined Ashurst in 2005 from US Global 100 top 40 firm McDermott Will & Emery, where he headed the City pensions and employee benefits practice from its 2000 inception.  He will leave Ashurst on 20 March, joining Eversheds on 1 May.

Taking over Hull’s role as London pensions chief at Ashurst will be partner Marcus Fink, while Caroline Carter will continue in her role as head of the firm’s employment, incentives and pensions group, which has 20 partners internationally.

With over two and a half decades’ experience in pension-related matters, Hull’s expertise includes pension scheme reorganisations and mergers, deficit reduction strategies and scheme funding negotiations, changing and closing benefit structures, the pension aspects of corporate transactions and disputes involving the Pensions Regulator.

Commenting on his own appointment, Hull said: ‘I was attracted by the opportunity to join Eversheds due to its reputation in the market and its unrivalled capabilities in the pensions arena. I look forward to joining the team and working collaboratively to grow the practice.’

Eversheds’ head of pensions Francois Barker said: ‘Steven is a talented and highly capable lawyer who will complement our existing pensions practice as we continue to increase our mandates and cement our position as the genuine market leaders in all pensions related matters.’

Clients of Eversheds’ pensions team include Accenture, the BA pension schemes, Bombardier, DHL, DuPont, GE, John Lewis, National Grid, Severn Trent, Siemens, United Utilities, Vauxhall, Veolia and Volkswagen.

Ashurst has suffered a number of departures since ex-senior partner Charlie Geffen unexpectedly lost the chairman vote to litigator Ben Tidswell last October, most recently private equity partner Karan Dinamani, who joins former Ashurst corporate head Stephen Lloyd at Allen & Overy.

Francesca.fanshawe@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Sole adviser: Eversheds wins Tyco-style primary legal services contract with IATA across 158 countries

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Innovation Eversheds Sutherland
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Building on the success of its game changing multi-million pound annual retainer with Tyco International, Eversheds has won its largest-ever primary legal services provider contract with the International Air Transport Association (IATA) across 158 countries.

Following a competitive pitch, the UK top 10 firm has secured a contract to service all the legal needs of IATA, the trade association for the world’s airlines, in 93 countries across Europe, North Asia and Asia Pacific, in addition to the existing fixed-fee contract it won last April to deliver legal services in 65 countries across Africa and the Middle East.

Eversheds will offer a tailored pricing model, with tiered blended rates for each region, a performance-based fee element and project management provisions in a bid to deliver consistent quality, transparency, clear cost control and comprehensible metrics for both parties.

The team will be led by head of global client development Stephen Hopkins, who heads similar deals, including the one with Swiss security systems company Tyco, and who will act as a central point of accountability with dedicated project managers and lead partners in each of the IATA regions.

Jeffrey Shane, general counsel at IATA, said: ‘We have high expectations of Eversheds. The goal of IATA’s legal department is to be on the cutting edge in delivering support to our offices around the globe.

‘We have been impressed with the high quality and cost transparency of Eversheds’ services to IATA in Africa and the Middle East, and we look forward to further benefits as we extend the consolidation of our external legal support with Eversheds across three more important regions for our business.’

Hopkins said: ‘This is one of the largest global frameworks of its type in the legal sector. We will provide all legal services to 158 countries globally; this is no mean feat. Our relationship with IATA has been underpinned by consistent quality delivery, transparency and cost control. We are confident that this new agreement will continue to develop and strengthen our partnership with IATA.’

Eversheds experience of this kind of multi-jurisdictional full-service model started in 2006 when it won the contract to provide industrial conglomerate Tyco with all its ‘business-as-usual’ legal work across EMEA.

That contract, which has been renewed several times, has evolved each time, underpinned by Eversheds’ Global Account Management System.

In May last year, Eversheds was appointed by Tyco spin-off Pentair Flow Control to take over all its routine litigation, certain intellectual property (IP) and commercial work and some premium work in the EMEA region.

IATA is the trade association for the world’s airlines and works with members and the air transport industry as a whole to promote safe, reliable secure and economical air travel. IATA has a presence in 60 countries representing 240 airlines across 113 countries handling some $370billion of financial transactions in 2012.

francesca.fanshawe@legalease.co.uk

For a detailed analysis of why single adviser deals have yet to sweep the market see Three steps forward… will Tyco-style deals ever sweep the market?

Legal Business

LLP latest – Bird & Bird and Eversheds pay cost of expansion and restructuring

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Financial results 2012/13 Bird & BirdEversheds Sutherland
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The cost of Bird & Bird’s strategic investment in 2012/13 became apparent today (27 January) with the filing of its limited liability partnership (LLP) accounts, which show that its overdraft facility rose 55% to €21m from €13.6m in 2011/12, while net debt was up 20% from €22.6m to €27.1m during that period.

Turnover at the 966-lawyer firm was up 8% to €293,248 from €270,745 the previous year, while profit was down 7% from nearly €65m in 2012 to €60.2m this year.

The top 20 firm has been in expansion mode and, in addition to opening in Dubai and entering co-operation agreements in Sydney and Switzerland, in November 2012 merged with Denmark’s Bender von Haller Dragsted.

The firm also secured the hire of partner Sven-Michael Werner from rival firm Taylor Wessing to its China corporate practice in January.

This growth is reflected in the firm’s fee earner numbers, which rose by 10% to 856 from 773 in 2011/12.

Its highest paid equity partner took home €1,011,000 – only a marginal increase compared to the €1,008,000 paid the year before.

Meanwhile, the costs of the three year strategic plan unveiled by Eversheds in July 2012 has also become apparent, with the top 10 LB100 firm’s LLP accounts showing that its restructuring costs amounted to £4.8m, which includes its redundancy programme and office closures.

Provision for onerous leases was a further £3.7m and in a statement the firm said: ‘Restructuring costs were incurred following a detailed management and operation review in January 2013 to align the operations of the firm to the new three-year strategic plan and address certain parts of the business where current market activity makes existing structures unsustainable.

‘The costs incurred include the costs of closing the Copenhagen office and other redundancy costs. Provisions have also been made for the costs of leases on vacant or sublet properties.’

Group turnover increased nearly 3% from £366m to £376m in 2012/13.

Elsewhere, the average number of members and employees dropped from 2,761 to 2,734, with the number of legal advisers down from 1,482 to 1,455.

Eversheds was one of a number firms to announce job losses last year, confirming in May 2013 that 116 staff would be made redundant across the firm after a consultation that placed 166 jobs at risk, including 82 fee earners. This was the UK law firm’s sixth redundancy round since 2007.

Meanwhile, the estimated entitlement for the highest paid member for the 2012/13 year stood at £1.2m compared to £1.15m in 2011/12.

The firm’s defined contribution pension scheme, which is closed to new entrants, had a deficit of £772,000 as of 30 April 2013, up from £403,000 in 2012.

sarah.downey@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Leadership: Eversheds favours client management specialist Paul Smith in chairman vote

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Leadership Eversheds Sutherland
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Eversheds has named litigator and former Tyco relationship partner Paul Smith as its next chairman as current incumbent John Heaps steps down.

The partnership voted in favour of Smith in the third week of November against corporate partner Robert Pitcher, who also stood for election. Smith will begin his four year term on 1st May 2014.

Smith (pictured) specialises in environmental law and disputes and has defended a number of multinational companies in criminal investigations in the UK, Europe and North America. However, he has been most commonly known as a pioneering client relationship partner for DuPont and Tyco, and was named Lawyer of the Year at the 2008 Legal Business Awards for his work in securing its revolutionary single-supplier agreement with Tyco.

Heaps was elected chairman in May 2010 for a four-year term and chose not to stand for re-election following turning 60 in Autumn 2013, a spokesperson at the firm confirmed.

Heaps said: ‘Paul’s deep experience of both the firm where he has worked since its inception in the late 1980s and of the international legal market equips him very well for the role. I wish him every success.’

Eversheds chief executive Bryan Hughes added: ‘On behalf of all Eversheds partners, I would like to congratulate Paul on his election success and look forward to working with him in the years ahead. The combination of his intimate knowledge of the firm, wide international experience and client relationship expertise, makes him an ideal person to take on the role of chairman as the firm continues its global development.’

Smith said: ‘I am honoured to have been selected as Eversheds chairman and am very much looking forward to taking up the role next year and working with the executive team to ensure that our strategy is implemented and playing my part in making Eversheds even more of a worldwide success in the future.’

Smith takes a senior role at a time when the firm has been performing reasonably well financially, with revenues growing 3% to £376m in 2012/13. Profit per equity partner also grew from £515,000 to a record high of £640,000 over the last four years.

However, the election of Smith may be perceived as a response to criticism of the firm’s leadership, which has come under fire for being effective internally but lacking visibility with clients.

Jaishree.kalia@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

The ideal law firm for 2013? Eversheds hunts for its breakthrough

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Leadership Eversheds Sutherland
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With an enviable brand reach, warm feedback from clients and a focus on innovation and value, Eversheds should be sweeping all before it. Legal Business explores why it hasn’t been quite that simple

Next year marks the 100th anniversary of Evershed & Tomkinson, the Birmingham firm that lent its name to the high-profile institution of which it would become part in 1995. Backed by a large regional network and a sizeable London arm Eversheds – as it became known – has grown to be one of the most recognisable names in the UK market.

Legal Business

Africa expansion: Eversheds in talks to launch in five key jurisdictions

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Middle East and Africa Eversheds Sutherland
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Eversheds is significantly expanding its Africa offering and is currently in discussions to establish offices in the key markets of Tunisia, Morocco, Ghana, South Africa and Kenya over the coming months.

The 1760-lawyer firm has also today (1 October) announced the launch of the Eversheds African Law Institute (EALI), which will share knowledge, training and regional and international commercial opportunities with member firms.

Firms in 14 countries (Angola, Benin, Cameroon, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Mozambique, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Sudan and Tunisia) have so far signed up as members of EALI.

EALI will provide members with regular monthly updates on legislative changes impacting business in Africa, webinars and training and will launch an African Prize for law students, as well as host an annual client-facing summit in the region.

The network will be headed by partner Boris Martor, head of the firm’s Africa Group based in Paris, supported by Julie Stobart, the firm’s client services director.

Martor said: ‘This model, which is the result of longstanding thoughts on our common knowledge with our relationship firms in Africa for more than a decade, will provide means for the spread of best practices and further African laws developments. It is new thinking and training on African laws combined with strong commercial focus to accompany the growing demand from our clients within Africa.’

The founding member organisations are Basma & Macaulay, 2S, Ba&Tian, Brizoua-Bi Bile-Aka, Djogbenou, Yezid El yezid, Sylla & Associés, CWA Morocco, CWA Tunisia, El Hussein Ahmed Salih Law Firm, EVC Advogados, AG Advogados, JLD&MB, Perchstone & Graeys and SCP Ngassam Njike & Associés.

The move comes after Eversheds in October split with South African ally Routledge Modise – rebranded Eversheds after a dispute with the local law society – with chief executive Bryan Hughes (pictured) citing client conflicts of interests.

Other leading UK firms to have boosted their African presence in recent months include Linklaters, which sealed an alliance with South African firm Webber Wentzel in December last year, and Norton Rose Fulbright, which launched a Tanzania office last October.

francesca.fanshawe@legalease.co.uk