Legal Business

Legal Business 100: Case study – Eversheds Sutherland

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Legal Business 100 2017 Eversheds Sutherland

2017 has been a good year for Eversheds, which made significant strides internationally – first through its tie-up with US firm Sutherland Asbill & Brennan in February and then in gaining Singapore Ministry of Law approval and merging with local firm Harry Elias Partnership in June.

In a year of significant international change, the firm also posted its best growth in revenue terms for some time although profit per equity partner (PEP) dipped slightly. Turnover was up 8% to £438.6m for 2016/17, just eclipsing the 7% growth achieved on the top line in 2015/16. PEP now stands at £725,000, down £17,000 or 2% from the previous financial year but is up 16% from the £642,000 posted in 2011/12. Overall, Eversheds’ top line has grown 20% in the last five years, from £366m.

Legal Business

Eversheds opens fourth German office in Düsseldorf

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Germany Eversheds Sutherland

Eversheds Sutherland expanded in Germany in August, opening its fourth office in the country after acquiring Düsseldorf-based firm Grooterhorst & Partner.

The new office, which is focused on real estate and insurance, opened with three partners: Johannes Grooterhorst, Marc Christian Schwencke and Ralf-Thomas Wittmann. The trio were joined by a team of 11 lawyers.

Legal Business

Sole survivor – Eversheds gets the lot from Turkish Airlines as company slashes legal roster from 120 to one

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In-house Eversheds SutherlandTurkish Airlines

It has been a legal trend more discussed than delivered in recent years but Eversheds Sutherland has made good on its pioneering work as a sole adviser to major corporates to secure the panel work of Turkey’s national flag carrier Turkish Airlines.

The arrangement, which will last for three years, will cover all of the airline’s day-to-day legal needs across 116 countries with Eversheds Sutherland’s head of global client development Stephen Hopkins managing the relationship. Ali Uysal, chief legal counsel for Turkish Airlines, said the deal would provide ‘efficiency and cost certainty’. The deal will not include domestic work as Eversheds does not have a local practice. Hopkins added: ‘Our partnership with Turkish Airlines is a long-term, strategic relationship.’

The deal follows on from similar arrangements Eversheds has in place with FTSE 100 water company Severn Trent and security systems group Tyco. The legacy Eversheds pioneered such deals in 2006 with Tyco, attracting much attention in industry circles despite being initially beset by teething problems.

Though such arrangements often see clients retain another adviser for high stakes transactional work – Tyco for instance has often used Allen & Overy as lead corporate counsel – hoovering up large amounts of day-to-day legal work for large clients can still involve very substantial fees.

Turkish Airlines is a sizeable client by any yardstick, generating revenues of more than $10bn in 2015 and employing more than 27,000 staff. Eversheds’ hand in the pitch was likely strengthened by its recent tie-up with US practice Sutherland Asbill & Brennan, which created a £600m law firm.

Severn Trent reappointed Eversheds as its sole adviser for a new five-year term in 2015, despite having considered appointing at least two firms to its new roster.

Pinsent Masons has a current sole adviser mandate with Balfour Beatty, while in 2015 Heineken appointed DLA Piper as its principal legal adviser for a major proportion of work.

While sole adviser mandates remain relatively rare, their increasing prominence underlines the extent to which clients are using shrinking panels to wring further cost concessions from advisers.

kathryn.mccann@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Eversheds opens three European offices at once to extend international odyssey in line with strategy

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Europe Eversheds Sutherland

Seven months after its game-changing transatlantic merger, Eversheds Sutherland is continuing its spate of recent international expansion with the opening of three new European offices in Luxembourg, Moscow and St Petersburg, which include a number of lateral hires.

Two partners from Simmons & Simmons and five from Nordic Euro Elite firm Hannes Snellman will join the new offices, which bring the firm’s global footprint to 66 offices in 32 countries, in what Eversheds’ co-chief executive Lee Ranson (pictured) described as a ‘key element’ of the firm’s 2020 strategy.

The Luxembourg office, opening today (6 September), will initially focus on investment fund and corporate work, while the new Russian operations – which Legal Business understands will open in the next few weeks – will be full service, with a particular emphasis on M&A, real estate, litigation, corporate crime and investigations.

‘Luxembourg and Russia are both a natural fit for us in terms of our client base, practice strength and geography,’ said Ranson.

Partners José Ignacio Pascual Gutiérrez and Viviane de Moreau d’Andoy will join the Luxembourg office from Simmons, along with five associates.

Gutiérrez specialises in fund formation work, with a focus on alternative investment funds. De Moreau d’Andoy advises international clients on matters including the corporate and regulatory aspects of the structuring and distribution of funds.

In Russia, Eversheds has acquired Hannes Snellman’s entire operation, including a team of 22 lawyers led by Victoria Goldman.

Hannes Snellman senior partner Johan Aalto said it was time for the firm to ‘hand over the reins to Eversheds Sutherland, a firm which is more than well equipped to further develop the solid practice at hand’. He added that the firm would recommend the outgoing team to clients and looked forward to ‘co-operating on joint assignments in the future as well’.

Goldman has more than 20 years of experience in M&A and real estate, nine of which was spent as Hannes Snellman’s managing partner in Russia after it entered the market in 2006 by acquiring ETL Law Offices. Partners Yury Pugach, Luke Wochensky, Anu Mattila and Mikhail Timonov will move with her, adding to Eversheds’ local litigation, corporate crime and investigation operations.

For Eversheds, this announcement follows the opening of a Düsseldorf office in August through the acquisition of Grooterhorst & Partners, giving the firm a fourth base in the country along with Munich, Berlin and Hamburg. Meanwhile in Asia, a combination with Harry Elias Partnership gave Eversheds a Singaporean office in February.

Ranson has cited international expansion as one of the main causes for a dip in legacy Eversheds’ profitability in 2016/17, with profit per equity partner falling by 2% to £726,000 against an 8% growth in revenue to £438.6m.

He told Legal Business earlier this summer: ‘Continued strategic investment in people, recruitment and, most notably, our US combination led to an anticipated slight dip in profitability. We are making sure we are investing for the future. The acquisition in Germany [of Heisse Kursawe in 2015], investment in new recruits, systems, technology and the US combination, all of that comes into play.’

marco.cillario@legalbusiness.co.uk

For a more informal interview with Lee Ranson, read recent our Life During Law profile here

Legal Business

Eversheds Sutherland gains further momentum in Germany with fourth office in Düsseldorf

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Europe Eversheds Sutherland

Eversheds Sutherland has expanded further in Germany by acquiring Düsseldorf-based firm Grooterhorst & Partners, giving the firm a fourth office in the country.

The office, which will launch today (1 August) with three partners, will initially focus on real estate and insurance with plans to become a full-service practice. The three partners, Johannes Grooterhorst, Marc Christian Schwencke and Ralf-Thomas Wittmann, will be joined by a team of 11 lawyers.

Both Grooterhorst and Schwencke specialise in real estate, with Wittmann focusing on insurance.

Commenting on the opening of the office, co-chief executive Lee Ranson said the firm strategy is further commitment to the expansion of its global platform. Eversheds also launched in Singapore earlier this yearfollowing a merger with local firm Harry Elias Partnership.

‘Our launch in Düsseldorf, an important centre of corporate activity and the industrial heartland of Germany, is a significant milestone in the rollout of that strategy,’ he said.

Eversheds Sutherland has steadily developed its footprint in Germany in recent years, notably merging with its German partner Heisse Kursawe in 2015.

‘Our German practice has recently made significant progress. The opening of the Düsseldorf office adds momentum to these positive developments as we strengthen our position in the German market,’ said the firm’s managing partner in Germany, Matthias Heisse.

The move to open the new office comes just a month after co-chief executives Ranson and Mark Wasserman laid out a draft 2020 strategyfor the future of the firm to around 680 people at the first partner conference since the firm’s tie-up in February.

Ranson and Wasserman laid out plans for the future vision of the firm, with a formal strategy to be implemented in September following further consultations with partners.

kathryn.mccann@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Addleshaws, Eversheds and Simmons claim places on HSBC UK legal panel

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Adviser reviews Addleshaw GoddardEversheds SutherlandSimmons & Simmons

HSBC has appointed around ten firms to its UK legal banking panel. Addleshaw Goddard, Eversheds Sutherland and Simmons & Simmonswere among those which made the cut.

CMS Cameron McKenna, Dentons and Pinsent Masons are also among the roster which was reduced in size.

The UK review follows a global shake-up in December last year, in which existing panel members Allen & Overy, Clifford Chance (CC), Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Linklaters were joined by US newcomer Davis Polk & Wardwell.

The bank previously reviewed its panel in 2012, when it expanded its roster to include a group US firms including Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, Latham & Watkins and Mayer Brown.

HSBC’s in-house legal team changed significantly in 2017.The company’s head of legal for worldwide operations and deputy general counsel (GC) Richard Given left to become GC and company secretary at fintech startup 10x Banking.

Internal associate general counsel Stephen Cooke replaced Given, who was in his role for almost six years.

Hugh Pugsley has been GC at HSBC since 2015, after leaving Lloyds Banking Group.

In May, in other banking panel reviews, Standard Chartered unveiled its completed global panel, with Magic Circle firms dominating the line-up. On the panel were Slaughter and May, A&O, Linklaters and CC, alongside Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF), Hogan Lovells, Baker McKenzie and Dentons.

Deutsche Bank also completed its global panel this year, with all of the Magic Circle firms joined by HSF, Ashurst, Simmons & Simmons, Taylor Wessing and Hogan Lovells.

HSBC declined to comment.

tom.baker@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Eversheds Sutherland wins place on Koch Industries global panel, as co-CEOs reflect on 139 days post-combination

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Leadership Eversheds Sutherland

Eversheds Sutherland‘s co-chief executives (CEO) Lee Ranson and Mark Wasserman laid out client wins and a draft 2020 strategy for the future of the firm to around 680 people at the first partner conference since the firm’s tie-up in February.

Highlights over the last four months include a global panel win for Koch Industries in April, as well as additional work for joint client Shell, which Wasserman said the firm received as a direct result of the combination.

According to Ranson (pictured), there have been 136 joint panel opportunities since 1 February and work referrals from 32 countries in the 139-day period from the announcement around the combination.

In addition both Ranson and Wasserman laid out plans for the future vision of the firm, with a formal strategy to be implemented in September following further consultations with partners.

Speaking to Legal Business, Ranson said: ‘We talked about where we really wanted to be in the next period – 2020 was a suitable timeline. We caveated this by saying that we were looking for partners to understand where we had got to with the draft vision – but we did want to spend the next couple of months with them talking about the detail.

‘By 2020 we want to be a leading global law firm by reference to such metrics around clients, quality of the work we are doing, people we are employing and the areas we are employing them. We talked about specific initiatives around culture, quality of client experience – where we have pointed and definitive actions we want to take. We will formally launch that by September.’

In terms of plans to grow the firms’ international network, Ranson and Wasserman discussed international expansion and US expansion based around high-growth possibilities in new locations and strategic expansion around existing products and service lines, although they did not discuss specific locations.

Wasserman added: ‘It is important to our clients that they don’t see us just planting a flag in five more places, whether in the US or elsewhere. There is clearly a desire in the US to grow in New York and Texas, but in addition we are also looking at the Mid-West, in the North Pacific, North West – we have an office in California, we want more in California. But it will be all about finding the right groups or folks that match what we want to do for clients in those cities.’

kathryn.mccann@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

‘In acquisitional mode’: Clyde & Co takes on five-lawyer marine team from Eversheds Sutherland

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Strategic recruitment Clyde & CoEversheds Sutherland

Clyde & Co has picked up a five-lawyer marine team from newly-merged Eversheds Sutherland, including the firm’s head of shipping.

Eversheds Sutherland’s shipping head Stephen Mackin and shipping litigation partner Jessica Maitra have led the team to ever-expanding Clydes. The group will be based in the firm’s 23 lawyer Newcastle-Upon-Tyne office.

Mackin joined legacy Eversheds from Shell Tankers, where he was a navigating officer, in 1992. He was made up to partner in 2001.

Maitra has spent her career at Eversheds and joined the firm’s partnership in 2011.  

The team’s clients include Shell, North of England P&I Club and a number of Greek ship owners.

Clydes’ commercial litigation, shipping and trading disputes partner Andrew Preston told Legal Business that the firm had ‘known Steve for many years – we’ve identified him as the right person with the right practice who will add value of our business.’

‘The driver and the catalyst for all of this is that this is not a Greenfield site for us, we already have a Newcastle office following our merger with Simpson & Marwick a few years ago. It’s a tough marine market, but we’re doing well in a tough market and we are in acquisitional mode,’ Preston said.  

Mackin had ‘proved adept at leading, managing and nurturing the team’, Preston added.

Last month Clydes announced its third office opening this year, merging with four-partner local law firm Garza Tello & Asociados in Mexico. Clydes took on insurance, marine and energy firm Garza Tello’s 23 lawyers based in Mexico City, and its satellite presence in the Gulf of Mexico port city of Ciudad del Carmen.

This January, the firm continued its US expansion spree, launching in Chicago and Washington DC. The firm recruited a team of ten partners from US firm Troutman Sanders. The Washington DC office opened its doors with a six partner insurance litigation team, while four partners joined the firm’s Chicago offering, giving Clyde’s capacity across the general liability and professional liability, mass tort, environmental and product liability claims and insurance litigation markets.

Clydes also took on London based procurement partner David Hansom from Veale Wasbrough Vizards, this February.

However, the firm lost four casualty partners to DAC Beachcroft late last year.

At around the same time, it emerged the firm would downsize its aviation team by three senior associates in a bid to streamline its offering.

Madeleine.farman@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

‘Community level’: Eversheds Sutherland launches ‘ES Disrupt’ new tech service for start-ups

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Legal tech Eversheds Sutherland

Eversheds Sutherland is the latest firm to target the lucrative fast-growth, start-up industry with its launch of ‘Eversheds Disrupt’ – a product providing web-based bespoke legal advice to start-ups and fast-growth companies.

ES Disrupt, which is wholly funded and owned by Eversheds, will target start-ups before they have specific legal issues, selling individual documents providing legal advice on issues including funding and company formation, hiring, corporate compliance and trading contracts.

So far, Eversheds Sutherland has invested around £200,000 in the product, including lawyer time and a cash investment by the firm.

The idea for the offering came from Eversheds Sutherland trainee Jocey Nelson, who had worked at tech incubator Techtopia, before joining the firm and ES Disrupt was the winning entry in the firm’s “CEO Innovation Challenge” in 2016.

Speaking to Legal Business, Nelson said her admin role at the incubator business made her realise that start-up companies were putting their businesses at risk by failing to get adequate legal advice – either because of funding problems or fears that it could act as an impediment to the business.

‘It made me realise very early on that start-ups are almost on purpose putting themselves in a vulnerable position. And it seemed very unfair that they will have to let their business suffer to realise that legal is actually very important,’ Nelson said.

‘At the moment we are launching on a minimum viable product, so we are trying to live and breathe the start-up lifestyle and we have a skeleton plan instead of a flesh and bone one,’ she added.

‘The plan is to take client data and use live clients to pivot with how we are going to sell these documents. Social media will be our main point of advertising and we are trying to engage people on a start-up community level.’

Nelson currently sits in co-working space WeWork in Moorgate which she called ‘a fantastic way to meet start-up companies and investors.’

The content behind ES Disrupt will also be used to help provide legal advice to Eversheds’ existing fast-growth and scale-up clients.

Charlotte Walker-Osborn, Eversheds’ head of TMT, said ES Disrupt was the result of her team spending ‘many years’ supporting and mentoring start-ups.

ES Disrupt follows similar initiatives undertaken by other firms. In May 2016, Simmons & Simmons started a £100,000 fund to cover free legal advice for up to four fintech start-ups.

Later that year, Magic Circle firm Slaughter and May put forward £300,000 for a similar initiative, before Addleshaw Goddard announced that it would provide up to £500,000 worth of legal mentorship and advice for up to 16 start-ups over a 12 month period.

Mishcon de Reya has also been active in the start-up space, launching a legal tech incubator programme in January this year. Named MDR LAB, Mishcon’s chief strategy officer Nick West selected six legal tech start-ups to participate in the programme.

kathryn.mccann@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Life during law: Lee Ranson, Eversheds Sutherland

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Life During Law Eversheds Sutherland

When I was 11-years old a teacher asked us to write down what we were going to do when we left school. I said ‘solicitor’. Half the class didn’t know what that was. My uncle was a solicitor and it seemed interesting. He used to do quite a bit of criminal law so I got it in my head I would do that.

Coming out of university I didn’t feel ready to go straight to law school. I wanted to experience the world. Two options: go travelling (but I had no money and a huge overdraft) and the other one was to do something different, so I joined the Avon and Somerset Constabulary.