Legal Business

‘Very selective’: DLA goes to Freshfields for rare City corporate hire in wake of London losses

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Strategic recruitment DLA PiperFreshfields Bruckhaus Deringer

It has been something of a one-way street out of DLA Piper’s London office recently but the global giant believes it has filled a gap in its corporate practice with the hire of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer veteran Martin Nelson-Jones.

Nelson-Jones had been partner at Freshfields since 2001 and was previously the firm’s co-head of global infrastructure and transport. He specialises in M&A, particularly in the energy and infrastructure sectors. He first joined Freshfields in 1991.

DLA global corporate co-chair Bob Bishop told Legal Business that infrastructure had been a gap the corporate practice had been looking to fill with a senior hire. The firm was always looking to deepen its corporate bench, which has more than 20 partners, but its strategy in recent years was to focus on hires which added new expertise rather than just putting bums on seats.

‘We are keen to grow our London corporate group, but particularly in specialisms. One is infrastructure. We see a lot of investment coming into infrastructure globally. There’s a lot of money chasing a small number of assets.’

Bishop believes Nelson-Jones was attracted to DLA’s comparatively broader international platform, saying DLA was focused on global deals in a wide spectrum of sectors. The firm advised on the highest number of deals in Europe last year, according to Mergermarket statistics – the eighth consecutive year DLA has topped the rankings by volume.

Nelson-Jones’ hire comes amid a turbulent few months at DLA, who recently lost one of its brightest deal stars when Anu Balasubramanian left to lead Paul Hastings’ private equity team in London.

That blow followed a high-profile partner exodus to McDermott Will & Emery, which most recently saw the departure of City real estate trio Laurence Rogers, Neville Wright and Tom Calnan.

Bishop said it was a shame to see Balasubramanian leave but added he was confident the practice would continue to build, saying the market was ‘very buoyant’ with both significant, headline deals and large volumes overall.

Nelson-Jones is DLA’s eleventh partner hire in London in the past 18 months. Corporate laterals in the City have been hard to come by, however, with the most notable in recent years stretching back to private equity partner Tim Wright from KWM in mid-2014. The firm made up one partner in its corporate practice this year.

Bishop commented: ‘We continue to look to add people but we also want the right people. We’ve intentionally been very selective about what we will and won’t do.’

Meanwhile at Freshfields, Nelson-Jones’ departure comes after the high-profile loss of corporate heavyweight David Higgins to Kirkland & Ellis and the retirement of stalwart dealmaker Simon Marchant as London corporate head .

hamish.mcnicol@legalbusiness.co.uk

Legal Business

Freshfields steps up New Law makeover with Euro services hub and Manchester expansion plans

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Innovation Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer is to build on its mass relocation of support roles to the north with the launch of an equivalent hub for continental Europe. The move is also set to usher in a new career track for legal staff and support tech-assisted services, further building on the City giant’s 2015 shake-up, which has already created more than 700 jobs in Manchester.

The latest initiative will see Freshfields launch a new back and middle office centre to cover mainland Europe, with Berlin viewed as the most likely destination. ‘Berlin is the preferred location because it’s a centre for legal tech, and the only European city where there is a real start-up scene,’ Freshfields managing partner Stephan Eilers told Legal Business.

The move will create a support service for the whole of continental Europe.

There will be around 100 new roles for support lawyers, legal assistants and technologists in the new European hub. The firm will use its existing Berlin branch, which currently has around 80 staff, to transition to the new site, which is expected to be up and running before the end of the year.

Freshfields also aims to use the incoming regime to allow work-based routes to qualifying in England and Wales to offer its current ‘legal support assistants’ in Manchester the chance to become solicitors. The firm in Manchester currently has around 60 law assistants – typically paralegals or holders of vocational legal qualifications. These ranks are now expected to rise to over 100.

The prospect of an elite London law firm offering an apprentice-style track to becoming a solicitor (under the new solicitors qualification exam regime) is also a notable move in the profession.

Freshfields will also begin recruiting qualified solicitors in Manchester to support its widening range of services like contract management, due diligence and document review. The firm expects to hire or transfer ten to 15 junior solicitors to Manchester, the first time it has recruited solicitors locally.

Eilers stressed, however, that Freshfields in London ‘will not shrink under our plans’ and these initiatives were aimed at up building new service models rather than cutting its City ranks further. The firm employs around 1,200 staff in London.

Andrew Hart, disputes partner at Freshfields, commented: ‘The tech focus will be mainly on increasing efficiency of due diligence in the claims management space, to be used to speed up complex and data-heavy claims like the Volkswagen diesel emissions case.’

Hart also cited considerable progress since in 2016 partnering with Kira, the artificial intelligence software that searches and analyses contracts, to transform the way Freshfields handles due diligence.

The fresh initiatives come amid a sustained push to refashion the 275-year old City giant with new business models and efficient tech-assisted tools. The firm recently invited a group of GCs to tour its Manchester site to elicit feedback on new services it is developing, drawing praise from the GC community.

In January, Freshfields also appointed a new chief digital and technology officer, Charlotte Baldwin from bluechip Pearson, to help drive its digital agenda on a global level. Eilers sums up Freshfields’ approach: ‘This will be pretty radical. Manchester has made substantial sense for the firm, and Berlin will too. We’ve learned that you need to take substantial steps. It doesn’t make sense to make changes piecemeal.’

nathalie.tidman@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Magic Circle duo secure key mandates as Novartis sells its €13bn stake to GSK

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Dealwatch Freshfields Bruckhaus DeringerSlaughter and May

Slaughter and May and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer have landed pivotal roles on a $13bn deal which sees GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) acquire the remaining 36.5% stake in its consumer healthcare joint venture with fellow pharma giant Novartis.

Slaughters is advising GSK with a team comprising corporate partners Simon Nicholls and David Johnson, alongside tax specialist Dominic Robertson, competition partner Bertrand Louveaux, and finance partners Guy O’Keefe and Oliver Storey. Meanwhile Freshfields is advising Novartis, fielding a team led by corporate partners Julian Long and Jennifer Bethlehem, accompanied by tax partner Paul Davison and antitrust partner Rod Carlton. The in-house legal team at GSK was led by senior vice president and head of legal corporate functions Chip Cale, and associate general counsel Antony Braithwaite.

Legal Business

Deal watch: trio of big-ticket deals highlight frothy market for US and City elite

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Corporate Freshfields Bruckhaus DeringerWhite & Case

Barely a City or US firm in London has gone without popping a Champagne cork in recent days as big-ticket deal activity remains frothy, while showing no signs of losing its fizz.

Recent big-ticket deals characterising the market include US tech private equity player Silver Lake’s proposed £2.2bn buyout of ZPG – the parent company of UK property site Zoopla – Cinven’s disposal of its Ufinet Spanish fibre-optic business and the $816m London listing of Avast, the Prague-headquartered cybersecurity heavyweight.

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer celebrated a double victory, cropping up on both the Cinven disposal and the ZPG deal. The team, led by partners Adrian Maguire, Victoria Sigeti, Armando Albarrán and Javier Monzón, advised long-standing client Cinven on a deal which saw the private equity firm’s fifth fund sell Ufinet Spain, its Spanish fibre network operator, to a consortium led by Paris-headquartered infrastructure investor Antin Infrastructure Partners.

Herbert Smith Freehills advised Antin with a team lead by Madrid-based corporate partner Pablo García-Nieto, with support from UK-based partner Heather Culshaw. A Madrid-based Clifford Chance team advised the Cinven management. The deal also sees Cinven’s fifth fund sell Ulfinet International, the Latin American operations, to the sixth Cinven fund.

Ufinet provides fibre infrastructure and transmission services to telecom operators in Spain and international markets, with a fibre network spanning more than 66,800 kilometres across two continents. Cinven had acquired Ufinet in June 2014 from Gas Natural Fenosa (GNF), the largest integrated gas and electricity provider in Spain, for €510 million.

Freshfields also won a high-profile mandate advising ZPG plc, the target of Silver Lake’s proposed £2.2bn buyout, with a team led by partners Mark Austin and Piers Prichard Jones. Partners Alice Greenwell and Rod Carlton advised on employment and competition matters respectively.

The deal renews an existing relationship, after the Magic Circle firm advised ZPG on its 2014 initial public offering (IPO). Silver Lake was advised by Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, with a team led by M&A partner and Freshfields alumni Ben Spiers, also featuring London partner Clare Gaskell and New York-based partner Michael Wolfson.

Proskauer Rose partners Liam Arthur and Matt Rees advised Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC, which is taking a minority stake in the company. Corporate partner Iain Wagstaff at Linklaters advised Canadian pension fund PSP Investments, which is also taking a minority share.

The acquisition – done through a scheme of arrangements which are subject to customary conditions including FCA and European Commission approval – is set to close in the next few months.

ZPG owns and operates UK property brands including Zoopla, uSwitch, Money, PrimeLocation and SmartNewHomes, as well as supplying property data and software providers with products including Hometrack, Calcasa, TechnicWeb, Ravensworth, Alto, Jupix, ExpertAgent, PropertyFile and MoveIT.

White & Case meanwhile has scored a repeat mandate to advise Avast on its premium listing on the London Stock Exchange, a tech float valued at US$816.6 million.

The team was co-led by London partners Ian Bagshaw, Jonathan Parry and Jill Concannon and also included partners Guy Potel, Steven Worthington, Prabhu Narasimhan, Justin Wagstaff and Prague-based partner Jan Andrusko.

The offer, which priced at 250 pence per share, includes gross primary proceeds of around US$200 million and represents 25.3% of the shares in Avast. The mandate is the result of a long-standing relationship, Bagshaw having also led the White & Case team which advised Avast on its $1.3bn acquisition of AVG Technologies in 2016.

In a double win for US high-flyers in the City, Latham & Watkins is advising the underwriters with a team led by London corporate and capital markets partners James Inness and Brett Cassidy.

White & Case’s Parry told Legal Business: ‘Two US heritage firms on a premium London listing of this size is something of a watershed. There is no longer an automatic default to the Magic Circle. The deal is a real endorsement of London as an attractive destination for big tech IPOs. That this IPO launched successfully in such a choppy market is a real achievement for Avast.’

Bagshaw said: ‘Our relationship with Avast has gone from strength-to-strength in recent years. We advised the company on a number of key transactions, including its US$1.3bn acquisition of AVG, the initial private equity investment by Summit Partners in 2010, the minority investment by CVC Capital Partners in 2014 and its recent acquisition of Piriform. Advising Avast on a London IPO of this magnitude and strategic significance has been hugely exciting.’

nathalie.tidman@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Freshfields names Pritchard new corporate boss as dealmaker Marchant retires after 30 years

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Corporate Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer

M&A partner Julian Pritchard has been named Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer’s new London deals head following the announcement stalwart dealmaker Simon Marchant (pictured) is retiring in July.

Pritchard will take the title of London head of transactions in replacing the corporate veteran Marchant, who has been at the Magic Circle firm for nearly 30 years.

Pritchard and Marchant co-led on a major deal last November, advising UK energy giant SSE on the separation of its retail business, which was then merged with rival Npower and listed on the London Stock Exchange as an independent energy supplier.

Pritchard, who is dual-qualified in England and the US, joined Freshfields in 1993 and was made up to partner in 2002. He served as the firm’s US managing partner for five years between 2009 and 2014 before relocating back to London. He also has a three-year stint at the firm’s Tokyo office under his belt.

Marchant joined the firm in 1989 and has been a partner since 1997. He was appointed as its City corporate head in May 2014 after Julian Long was elected as London managing partner. He has previously headed up the firm’s Asia business in Hong Kong and has been co-head of London M&A.

Freshfields’ corporate practice has had a rollercoaster few months, with the dramatic shake-up of its partnership last December followed by the $10m transfer of rainmaker David Higgins to Kirkland & Ellis, a move which sent shockwaves through the corporate world.

Nevertheless, the deal team has enjoyed a raft of impressive mandates recently, advising broadcasting giant Comcast on its £22bn bid for Sky and US cable player Liberty Global on the €18.4bn sale of its European assets to Vodafone.

nathalie.tidman@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Deal watch: Magic Circle duo lead on Vodafone’s €18.4bn buyout of Liberty Global European Assets

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Corporate Freshfields Bruckhaus DeringerSlaughter and May

Slaughter and May and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer have landed key roles on Vodafone’s €18.4bn buyout of Liberty Global European assets, as Vodafone expands its European services.

The transaction includes the acquisition of US cable giant Liberty’s Unitymedia business in Germany, as well as its UPC brand businesses across Hungary, Romania and the Czech Republic, as Vodafone looks to accelerate consolidation in key markets.

Slaughter and May is advising Vodafone, with a team lead by corporate partners Roland Turnhill and Susannah Macknay, accompanied by tax partner Steven Edge, finance partner Oliver Storey and employment partner Jonathan Fenn. Jane Edwarde and Duncan Blaikie are advising on real estate and IP/IT matters respectively, and Claire Jeffs and Kerry O’Connell on competition concerns.

Magic Circle counterpart Freshfields is advising Liberty Global on the deal, in a team spearheaded by M&A partner David Sonter and IP lawyer partner David Brooks. Antitrust advice is being led by Sascha Schubert, tax advice by Peter Clements, while Jochen Ellrott is providing German corporate advice.

Freshfields’ team also includes German regulatory partners Frank Röhling and Klaus Beucher, and employment partners Alice Greenwell and Boris Dzida.

Sonter commented on the deal: ‘Telecoms consolidation around Europe has been a big thing. It’s a very fragmented market and you will continue to see more of these deals in the market.’

Latham & Watkins is advising Liberty Global on German antitrust matters, while Ropes & Gray is advising on the financing aspects of the deal in a team led by partner Jane Rogers. CMS Cameron McKenna Nabarro Olswang (CMS) is advising on Hungarian and Czech legal affairs and Shearman & Sterling on the US legal aspects of the transaction.

In acquiring Unitymedia in Germany, Vodafone takes on Germany’s second-largest cable operator in what is Vodafone’s largest market. UPC Czech and UPC Hungary, meanwhile, are the largest cable operators in the respective countries, and UPC Romania the second largest cable provider there.

The deal is subject to review and approval from the European Commission, though Vodafone anticipates the purchase will be completed by the middle of 2019.

thomas.alan@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Five get promoted: Freshfields makes up handful of partners in London amid slimmed down global round

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Partnership promotions Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has elected five London-based lawyers to its partnership from its dispute resolution and corporate practices as part of a 12-strong promotions round spanning seven offices.

This was the smallest global promotions round by the firm for some years. Last year there was an 18-strong round, of which six were London-based, while five London lawyers were among the 17 promoted in 2016.

The latest partners provide a slight fillip for the City giant’s corporate bench in the aftermath of rainmaker David Higgins’ exit last year to Kirkland & Ellis with the addition of two new partners.

Emma Rachmaninov, a senior associate in the financial institutions group, specialises in financial services regulatory work, advising investment banks, financial sponsors and insurers on M&A, IPOs and reorganisations. She has worked on secondment at two investment banks and a central bank, as well as serving two years in Freshfields’ Hong Kong-based team.

Intellectual property specialist David Brooks has been promoted from counsel in the firm’s global transactions practice. He has advised across the pharmaceutical, healthcare, retail, technology and financial sectors on the acquisition, disposal, licensing and separation of IP assets including in M&A, joint ventures and carve-outs. He qualified at Freshfields in 2002 and has worked in the firm’s London, New York and Singapore offices.

Dispute resolution saw a three-partner boost, including Samantha Trevan, who has been promoted from senior associate in the firm’s commercial disputes group. A specialist in fraud and asset tracing, she also advises on multijurisdictional investigations involving regulators and advising Big Four accountancy firms of practice protection matters.

Deba Das has been promoted from senior associate in Freshfields’ EU disputes team, where he has advised on contentious competition matters, including litigation in the telecoms and pay TV sectors.

Rhodri Thomas has been promoted from senior associate in Freshfields’ financial institutions disputes group. He has advised banks in high-value cases and has significant experience of disputes involving complex structured products. He has also advised clients on global regulatory and internal investigations involving international regulators. He is also experienced in sports disputes, advising national and international sports governing bodies, teams and individual athletes.

Of the 12 lawyers promoted, only three are women. This is the lowest figure since 2013 when three women represented 21% of 14 partners promoted.  Freshfields had fared better on this front in recent years. In 2017 there were five women in the 18-strong round, or 28%, while 2016 saw five women promoted, making up 31% of partner promotions that year.

All the promotions are effective from 1 May 2018.

Nathalie.tidman@legalbusiness.co.uk

Freshfields’ partner promotions in full:

Markus Benzing, Frankfurt, corporate
Richard Blair, Hong Kong, corporate
David Brooks, London, corporate
Deba Das, London, dispute resolution
Alfonso de Marcos, Madrid, corporate
Nigel Gleeson, Singapore, corporate
Nicholas Günther, Düsseldorf, corporate
Julia Haas, Hamburg, real estate
Emma Rachmaninov, London, corporate
Daniel Schnabl, Frankfurt, dispute resolution
Rhodri Thomas, London, dispute resolution
Samantha Trevan, London, dispute resolution

Legal Business

Freshfields and Davis Polk win key roles as Comcast looks to thwart Murdoch’s Sky bid

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Corporate Davis Polk & WardwellFreshfields Bruckhaus Deringer

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Davis Polk & Wardwell have landed pivotal roles as Comcast seeks to disrupt an existing bid from Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox to buy out European satellite broadcaster Sky.

The London-based Freshfields team advising Comcast comprises M&A partners Julian Long and Alison Smith, City competition partners John Davies and Michele Davis, and London employment partner Alice Greenwell.

Legal Business

Freshfields trounces rivals as Global 100 firms release gender pay stats

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Gender diversity Freshfields Bruckhaus DeringerReed SmithWhite & Case

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has become the penultimate Magic Circle firm to publish statistics on the disparity between male and female employee earnings, performing well ahead of its peers to date.

The firm today (22 March) revealed it pays male staff on average 13.9% more than female fee-earners, a gap which closes to 13.3% when the median figure is taken into account.

While more women than men received a bonus – 64.5% of women compared with 58.9% of men, by value men received 41% on average over the past 12 months, with the median figure standing at 33.3%.

‘There is still a significant amount of work to be done in relation to gender balance’, the firm said in a statement.

But Freshfields has done significantly better than the Magic Circle rivals that have filed their figures so far ahead of the statutory 4 April deadline.

Linklaters did not fare so well, revealing that it paid its male staff members nearly 60% more in bonuses than women. The firm’s female employees were paid on average 23.2% less than male colleagues. The gap widened to 39.1% when the median figure was considered.

Allen & Overy did better, revealing that the firm’s female employees were paid on average 19.8% less per hour than their male counterparts, a gap which widened to 27.4% when the median figure was calculated. Male A&O staff were paid on average more than 42% in bonuses than women for the 12 months to 5 April 2017, with the median bonus figure standing at 23%.

Meanwhile Slaughter and May paid male employees almost 55% more in bonuses compared to women. Men also earned 14% more than women on average, with the gap widening to 38.5% when the figures were considered on a median basis.

Freshfields’ figures for trainee pay show that males receive 6% more than females, with the median figure at 7.39%. For business services roles, men have a 6.23% advantage in pay while women overtake by a 7.77% margin when calculated on a median basis.

Taking into account the upper quartile of fee-earners at Freshfields, men earn 10.4% than female counterparts, while the gap shrinks to 3.6% for the upper-mid quartile. Men in the lower-mid quartile have a 2.7% pay advantage while women have a slight 1.7% advantage in the lower quartile pay band.

It will be interesting to see how Clifford Chance – the remaining Magic Circle firm to file its gender pay statistics before the deadline – compares.

Meanwhile, White & Case has revealed one of the largest gaps in bonus payments to men and women so far – 71%, however the mean figure narrows the gap to 45%. This comes despite a similar number of women and men receiving bonuses at the firm, with 44% of female employees receiving a bonus compared to 46% of men.

The median overall pay gap between men and women stands at 31%, before dropping to 24% when the mean figure is considered. As with many other law firms, White & Case maintains the discrepancy can be explained by the distribution of men and women across different roles at the firm.

Elsewhere, Reed Smith has put additional pressure on rivals by including partners in its pay gap report. The data signals progress at the highest level of the firm, with the mean pay gap between partners standing at 0.83%, with the median figure rising to 8%.

However, the bonus gap between male and female partners stands at 21.5% with the median figure rising to 31% and the overall gender imbalance at Reed Smith shows there is still work to be done, with 77% of partners at the firm being men.

The general statutory data reveals a mean pay gap of 14.8% between men and women across all staff, which rises to 37.1% on a median basis, while the mean bonus gap stands at 27.1%, but drops to 13.2% on a median basis. This gap exists despite 76.9% of female employees receiving bonuses compared to 71.9% of men.

The move from Reed Smith to publish partner data is a rare step and not required under The Equality Act 2010 (Gender Pay Gap Information) Regulations 2017. It follows the move, revealed earlier this week, by the Big Four accountancy firms to reveal their pay gaps for equity partners.

Nathalie.tidman@legalease.co.uk

Thomas.alan@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Comment: A shock to the system as Freshfields heavyweight departs

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Comment Freshfields Bruckhaus DeringerKirkland & Ellis

Given that it has been so well telegraphed that the $10m lateral was coming to the Square Mile, the shock among City peers at the hire of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer private equity veteran David Higgins (pictured) has been, well, shocking. ‘Outrageous’, ‘obscene’ and ‘mildly appalling’ are among the reactions from peers. One hopeful partner at a US firm notes: ‘The clients won’t be impressed with that number splashed all over the news.’

But such sentiments are a naive reading of how the industry is evolving. Yes, if you think of a lateral as wrangling an immediate book of business, such a package suggests needing to preside over $30m within three years to be called a success on a conventional yardstick. That would certainly be a stretch – though not impossible given what some of the strongest City laterals have managed – but that is not the benchmark. Kirkland & Ellis has been stuffed with leveraged finance talent for years while lacking an unquestioned corporate A-lister. The hyper-productive Matthew Elliott delivered that when he joined from Linklaters in 2016, but his practice has a very precise real estate slant.

Higgins is one of the City’s leading private equity hands and he has been brought in to build for the long term at what is already a large City operation. And rivals who insist on talking down Kirkland should consider how meteoric its rise has been over the last 15 years. The firm that back in the day launched an English law practice with a low-profile hire from DLA now routinely takes partners out of top firms in London and Manhattan. A lot of feathers were ruffled on Wall Street with Kirkland’s 2012 recruitment of Cravath, Swaine & Moore’s Sarkis Jebejian – last month the Chicago-bred giant went one better to hire one of New York’s leading M&A lawyers, Cravath’s Eric Schiele. After another robust year, Kirkland is one of the world’s largest, most profitable and potent law firms, and still gaining momentum.

Some point to Higgins’ move as jarring, coming after the recent vote to shake up Freshfields’ compensation, but that neglects that the package should have gone through more than two years ago, and as it stands will not deliver much for top performers for over a year, and only then if forecasts of profit-per-point are met.

That is not to overplay the immediate impact on Freshfields’ buyout team. The team is stuffed with quality – not least in loyalist Adrian Maguire, a universally-respected operator in a field packed with Marmite men. The tight-knit team has plenty of young talent – most strikingly in the case of rising star Charles Hayes, but also Victoria Sigeti, with Alex Watt ably covering the buzzing real estate sponsor clients.

There is also a formidable European network and Rolls-Royce coverage in tax, regulatory and antitrust, and a finance team that has been increasingly fashioned around buyouts (though not enough to stop tensions with Higgins).

Without further losses, Freshfields can head off much of the damage. Indeed, Kirkland’s own analysis is that the top of Europe’s buyout market will consolidate around three firms: itself, Freshfields and Latham & Watkins. But even if no other significant hands quit Fleet Street – a pretty big if – others will heed the call.

Such laterals tend to go one of two ways: they are a watershed for the hiring firm and leave the abandoned institution still diminished years later or they ultimately amount to very little. Even if this move proves to be the latter – and that looks doubtful – there will be more from the City elite. And some will deliver to devastating effect.

This is the competitive reality facing London law firms. Yet too many of their older partners brush it off, even as more of their best senior associates and young partners gaze wistfully at US rivals. If such firms cannot learn to reconcile the interests of their next generation with their elder statesmen, they are setting themselves up for more shocks. And sooner than many think.

alex.novarese@legalease.co.uk

nathalie.tidman@legalease.co.uk

For more on Freshfields’ partner remuneration, read ‘Comment: Ditching lockstep – better too late than never?’