Legal Business

‘Deals like this act as a catalyst’ – Gowling WLG on its Legal Business Award-winning work for AstraZeneca

Posted on |
Legal Business Awards 2024 Gowling WLG

Gowling WLG won this year’s LB Award for Life Sciences Team of the Year for its role in advising AstraZeneca on a collaboration and license agreement with biopharmaceutical company Quell Therapeutics worth more than £2bn. LB spoke with two of the partners who worked on the deal to discuss why it’s important and what it means for the team. 

Ranked by the BioIndustry Association as the largest UK licensing deal of 2023, the £2bn-plus agreement will see the two companies work together on the development, manufacturing, and commercialisation of a novel engineered T-regulatory (Treg) cell therapy to treat type 1 diabetes and inflammatory bowel disease.

AstraZeneca paid Quell Therapeutics $85m upfront in a combination of cash and equity investment, with further payment of up to $2bn contingent on milestones. The deal also allows an option for Quell and AstraZeneca to co-develop Treg cell therapies in the US in the future.

‘Apart from being one of the largest UK licensing deals, cell therapy is an exciting new development in the sector with great potential to help treat some diseases that are currently untreatable or have existing treatments with limited efficacy’, said Gowling life sciences co-head Patrick Duxbury.

He added: ‘like any transaction of this type, it’s in the hope it will deliver new and effective treatments for diseases such as autoimmune conditions that currently lack satisfactory options and will provide real change for patients.’

The firm’s private equity team head Ian Piggin also worked on the deal, which he described as ‘a complex deal with novel technology that required specific expertise from the whole team working on it to deliver the successful outcome for AstraZeneca.’

AstraZeneca has been a key client of Gowling’s for over a decade, and the firm’s earlier work for the company includes advising on a collaboration agreement for the development and distribution of the University of Oxford’s recombinant adenovirus Covid-19 vaccine, as well as on a $6.9bn cancer drug collaboration and antibody drug conjugate agreement with Daiichi Sankyo.

Now, the team hopes that the agreement will help enable further activity in the growing cell therapy space – and that its experience here will leave Gowling well positioned to do more work in the space. ‘As technologies such as cell therapy develop, you are constantly learning and adapting to the application of the law accordingly’, said Duxbury. ‘We are using this transaction as a case study and ensuring we conduct due diligence to not overlook any aspects that might significantly impact the transaction.’

He concluded by underscoring the broader significance of such agreements: ‘Deals like these typically act as a catalyst for others to follow and gain momentum, which I expect will be the case following this agreement.’  

The Gowling team that advised AstraZeneca was led by UK life sciences co-heads Jenny Davies and Patrick Duxbury, and included corporate partner Ian Piggin.

anna.huntley@legalease.co.uk

 

Legal Business

Gowling WLG: The Client’s View

Posted on |
Legal 500 data Gowling WLG

Gowling WLG

Lawyers and
Team Quality

80.33

Quality of partners 83.52

Quality of associates 73.42

Partner availability and engagement 84.12

All scores are global and /100.

What do clients really think about the service they receive from law firms? At Legal 500, we hear from hundreds of thousands of clients every year, rating firms on key metrics such as lawyer quality and availability, billing, and levels of communication and expertise.

The answers we receive allow us to evaluate firms using a set of client service data scores, covering Lawyers and Team Quality, Value: Billing and Efficiency, and Sector and Industry Knowledge – all of which combine to produce an overall Client Service Score.

This article focuses on Lawyers and Team Quality, for which Gowling WLG scores 80.33. (The rest of this article is available to logged-in users only. If you are unable to log in above right, please click ‘Forgot your password?’ below to gain access to the full article).

Legal Business

Dealwatch: Kirkland lift first Cinven mandate since Maguire hire as Links, Gowling and Jones Day bed roles in week of PE records

Posted on |
Dealwatch Gowling WLGJones DayKirkland & EllisLinklaters

Kirkland & Ellis has this week won roles advising on one of the largest European private equity transactions since the financial crisis and the UK’s largest-ever private real estate transaction.

Kirkland advised private equity houses Advent International, Cinven and the RAG foundation in their €17.2bn acquisition of Thyssenkrupp’s elevator business and acted for Blackstone in its $4.7bn purchase of iQ Student Accommodation.

Adrian Maguire (pictured) acted on Kirkland’s first deal for his long-term client Cinven since his move from Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer last year. The team was led out of Kirkland’s Munich base with corporate partners Benjamin Leyendecker and Philip Goj, and also involved David Higgins, whose move to Kirkland from Freshfields preceded Maguire’s.

Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton advised Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, which was also part of the consortium acquiring the business.

Linklaters’ co-head of M&A, Dusseldorf-based Ralph Wollburg, acted for Thyssenkrupp, which saw several bidders battle out for its elevator business. An offer by private equity house CVC in partnership with Finnish engineering company Kone, advised by Clifford Chance, was withdrawn partly due to antitrust concerns.

A consortium of Blackstone, Carlyle and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) had also shown interest, advised by Milbank’s German offices. Thyssenkrupp had also considered an IPO before deciding to offload the business entirely.

Headquartered in Germany, the elevator business generated €8bn in revenues in 2018/19. The deal is expected to close within six months.

While its plan for the acquisition from Thyssenkrupp did not materialise, Blackstone went through with its plans to acquire iQ Student Accommodation from Goldman Sachs and The Wellcome Trust.

Kirkland fielded a team led by London corporate partners Michael Steele, Carlos Gil Rivas and Dipak Bhundia, with Gowling WLG’s real estate specialist Michael Twining also acting for the private equity house.

The London office of US firm Jones Day also won a prominent role on the record-breaking transaction, with London partners Giles Elliott, Anthony Whall and David Smith advising iQ, Goldman Sachs and The Wellcome Trust.

Simpson Thacher & Bartlett partner Tom Lloyd advised on the financing aspects.

‘It’s a great business for a great client with a sophisticated buyer on the other side,’ Elliott told Legal Business. ‘It was an incredibly accelerated process all round. It was an exhausting but great deal to be involved in.’

Jones Day has some history with the business and its owners, having advised Goldman when it combined its student housing business with The Wellcome Trust-owned iQ in 2016.

marco.cillario@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Gowling WLG appoints corporate partner UK chair as Witts steps down

Posted on |
Leadership Gowling WLG

Gowling WLG has elected a corporate partner chair of its UK LLP, with incumbent Andrew Witts standing down after more than eight years and multiple mergers.

M&A and private equity partner Andy Stylianou (pictured) will become the firm’s chair from May 2020 on a four-year term, the firm said today (12 November). He was already chair of Gowling’s UK partnership’s representative council and a founding member of its diversity forum.

Stylianou assumes the role from Witts, who will return to his fraud and asset recovery practice full-time. This follow’s the firm’s recent launch in Brazil in September, which Witts was closely involved with, and growth in the firm’s international fraud and disputes team.

Witts held the position for many years having been re-elected as chair of legacy Wragge Lawrence Graham & Co in 2015, following on from an initial two-year term after the merger between Wragges and Lawrence Graham (LG) in 2014. Before that, Witts was chairman of LG for three years. WLG merged with Canadian firm Gowlings in 2016.

Stylianou commented: ‘It’s an exciting new role for me – and we’re very ambitious about where the firm is headed. We’ve always been famous for our people, our culture and going above and beyond for clients – and we’re now competing on a much bigger international scale.’

UK chief executive David Fennell added: ‘Andrew has been a huge part of the firm’s success and there’s no one who has put in more travel by planes, trains and automobiles to be there for our clients and our people.  Andy is very much in the same mould.  We’ve known each other for a long time – and he’s a great ambassador for everything we stand for.’

Growth at Gowlings was muted this year, as revenue climbed just 1% to £461.7m, following a strong performance in 2017 which saw a 17% uptick in turnover to £455.5m. Legal Business estimated profit per equity partner (PEP) at the firm, which does not report a global PEP figure, was £510,000 last year.

LLP accounts in January showed that revenue and profit at the UK arm of the firm fell in the year to 30 April 2018, however, dropping 5% to £179.9m and 14% to £51.9m respectively. The Canadian combination is structured as a UK company limited by guarantee, with both profits and partnerships kept separate.

hamish.mcnicol@legalbusiness.co.uk

Legal Business

In-house: Trustpilot bags former Skyscanner legal chief as Gowling scores sole Commonwealth Games mandate

Posted on |
In-house Gowling WLG

Adding to recent high-profile in-house appointments, former Skyscanner legal chief Carolyn Jameson (pictured) has been appointed chief legal and policy officer at consumer review website Trustpilot, while Gowling WLG has become sole legal adviser to the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games.

GC Powerlist-regular Jameson, who earlier in the year announced her departure from high-profile travel metasearch engine Skyscanner after six years, will oversee global legal and public affairs at Trustpilot from the UK and Denmark.

She also joins the company’s executive leadership team, reporting to chief executive Peter Holten Mühlmann, and replaces former general counsel (GC) Kasper Heine. Jameson ran a legal team of 12 at Skyscanner and was involved in its £1.4bn acquisition by Chinese online travel giant ctrip.com in 2016.

Jameson said: ‘I am hugely excited to be joining Trustpilot at a time when it is continuing to grow more important every day.’

Muhlmann added: ‘[Jameson’s] experience in helping brands navigate the issue of trust online makes her a fantastic addition to the team. As Trustpilot continues to grow and continue its ambition to bring consumers and businesses together, Jameson’s expertise will only help improve the experiences of everyone using the platform.’

Her move to Trustpilot follows former Worldpay GC Ruwan de Soyza decamping to FTSE 100 technology company Halma earlier in the month. Jameson, meanwhile, was replaced at Skyscanner by former Deliveroo legal head Rob Miller.

Elsewhere, Gowling has won a competitive tender to be exclusive legal advisers to the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games for the next three years.

A team from the firm will advise on a range of legal matters, including brand reputation and disputes management, led by partner and Commonwealth board member Michael Luckman, alongside the event’s chief legal officer Caroline McGrory.

Commonwealth event chief executive Ian Reid said it already works closely with Gowling: ‘This is a very exciting time as we’ve just passed our three years to go milestone and our profile and workload is really starting to increase.’

Gowling chief executive David Fennell added: ‘This appointment builds on our strong track record of advising on major projects across the public and private sectors’.

anna.cole-bailey@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Simmons looks to the City in increased partner round as Gowling doubles promotions to ten

Posted on | and
Partnership promotions Gowling WLGSimmons & Simmons

Top-25 UK firms Simmons & Simmons and Gowling WLG have followed suit on a series of strong partnership promotion rounds, making up 15 and 10 respectively.

Simmons promoted 15 lawyers to partner, eight of which were minted in London. The round is a significant increase on last year, when nine lawyers were promoted across the firm – a decrease from 12 the previous year – with only four promoted in the City.

Of the 15 promoted this year, six are women, seeing the firm make good on its commitment to have at least 30% of all promotion rounds comprised by women.

In London Adam Brown, Chris Owen, Elizabeth Williams and Priya Nagpal were all given the nod to become partners of the firm’s disputes practice, which received the lion’s share of the firm’s promotions with six new partners. Cathryn Bean, meanwhile, was promoted in the firm’s employment practice, while Kathryn James and Alex Ainley were promoted in the London financial markets practice. Jonathan Spencer was made up in the firm’s Bristol disputes practice.

Fourteen of the promotions were across Europe and the Middle East. The sole Asia-Pacific promotion was corporate lawyer Claudia Yiu in Hong Kong.

Gowling, meanwhile, has doubled its UK LLP’s 2018 promotions round to make up 10 partners this year.

In the UK, the firm promoted two partners to the real estate practice, three to its dispute resolution group, two in pensions, and one each in EU, trade and competition and commercial, IT and outsourcing. In France, employment lawyer Gaëlle Le Breton was made partner.

The promotions are up on last year, when five were promoted, and follow four lateral hires across different practice groups over the last year.

Gowling chief executive David Fennell (pictured) commented: ‘Our new partners are all outstanding lawyers and business advisers, with a wealth of expertise in their respective areas, consistently delivering a first class service to our clients. Their diverse skills and experience will enhance Gowling WLG’s support to clients around the world and the continued growth of the firm.’

thomas.alan@legalbusiness.co.uk

Simmons & Simmons promotions in full:

 

Adam Brown – dispute resolution, London

Alex Ainley – financial markets, London

Cathryn Bean – employment, London

Chris Owen – dispute resolution, London

Elizabeth Williams – dispute resolution, London

Kathryn James – financial markets, London

Ed Smith – employment, London

Priya Nagpal – dispute resolution, London

Jonathan Spencer – dispute resolution, Bristol

Christopher Goetz – corporate, Munich

Gijs ter Braak – corporate, Amsterdam

Paul Tjiam – dispute resolution, Amsterdam

Maria Tomillo – financial markets, Madrid

Simone Lucatello – financial markets, Milan

Claudia Yiu – corporate, Hong Kong

Gowling WLG UK LLP’s partner promotions in full:

 

Daniel Leather – Housing, Development and Regeneration

Toni Weston – Planning

Catherine Naylor – Commercial Litigation

Helen Davenport – Commercial Litigation

Sam Beighton – EU, Trade and Competition

Kieran Laird – Projects

Jocelyn Paulley – Commercial, IT and Outsourcing

Christopher Stiles – Pensions

Joanne Tibbott – Pensions

Gaëlle Le Breton – Employment

Legal Business

LLP accounts: Gowling’s UK revenue and profit fall while top-earner’s pay drops 6%

Posted on |
Financial results 2017/18 Gowling WLG

Revenue and profit at Gowling WLG’s UK LLP have fallen despite the overall firm, including its Canadian arm, increasing revenue by nearly 17% last year.

Gowling’s UK LLP accounts for the year to 30 April 2018 say revenue fell 5% to £179.9m. Profit, meanwhile, fell to £51.9m from £60m, a 14% drop.

The average profit share of members fell to £373,000 from £396,000, even as the average number of members fell to 142 from 154. Pay for the highest-earning member similarly fell to £859,000 from £910,000. Remuneration for key management was flat at £3.8m.

The drop occurred during the firm’s second full financial year since the 2016 tie-up between Wragge Lawrence Graham & Co and Canadian firm Gowlings. The Canadian arm does not formally publish financial results, but in July last year overall revenue was said to have increased to £455.5m from £390.1m. The combination is structured as a UK company limited by guarantee (CLG), with both profits and partnerships kept separate.

In an interview with Legal Business earlier this year, Gowling chief executive David Fennell (pictured) said the UK business would be down largely because of the departure of its private client business. The legacy Lawrence Graham team left for Forsters last March, in what was described as ‘the right move’ for both the team and the firm.

Gowling noted in its accounts that Brexit has increased uncertainty for the firm but that it believes it is well equipped to deal with the risks and opportunities this presents: ‘In the longer term, the group’s strong market position and diversity of the markets in which it operates will mitigate some of the uncertainty.’

Gowling has a long-talked about ambition to expand through further mergers, with offices in nine countries. Germany is the main priority for the firm, while Southeast Asia, most likely Singapore, is also an area of interest. On Monday (7 January), the firm extended its ‘best friend’ relationship with Indian law firm Naik Naik & Company.

hamish.mcnicol@legalbusiness.co.uk

Legal Business

The LB interview: Gowling WLG

Posted on | and
Interview Gowling WLG

LB: What’s been happening in the two years since the Canada tie-up?

David Fennell (DF), chief executive: One of the reasons for doing that combination was access to the US market, so our US sales are up by 18% year-on-year.

Legal Business

Gowling WLG revenue climbs to £455m in second post-merger financial results

Posted on |
Financial results 2017/18 Gowling WLG

Gowling WLG has replicated a broadly strong year for law firms after adding nearly 17% to its top line.

The firm’s second full financial year since the 2016 tie-up between Wragge Lawrence Graham & Co and Canadian firm Gowlings saw revenue increase to £455.5m from £390.1m last year.

Legal Business estimated profit per equity partner (PEP) at the firm, which does not report a global PEP figure, was £415,000 last year. The combination is structured as a UK company limited by guarantee (CLG), with both profits and partnerships kept separate. The Canadian arm does not formally publish financial results.

But the firm did say Canada, which has nearly 650 lawyers and 407 partners, generated 59% of the firm’s global revenue, with the remainder mostly generated in EMEA, and 1% in China. Overall partner numbers dropped from 566 to 553 while equity partners similarly fell to 376 from 400. The firm says it made 20 lateral partner hires globally during the financial year and promoted 24 to its partnership.

The firm’s key clients include AstraZeneca, Bombardier, Dyson, eBay, Estee Lauder, Royal Bank of Canada and Weetabix. During the year it also won spots on the panels of Yum! Brands, Metro Bank and the Pension Protection Fund.

It was, however, hit by the departure of its legacy Lawrence Graham private client team to Forsters in March last year. Four partners, including former private client head Anthony Thompson, left in what was described by Gowling chief executive David Fennell as ‘the right move’ for both the team and the firm.

Alongside its post-merger revenue growth, Gowling has a long-talked about ambition to expand through further mergers. Germany is the main priority for the firm, while Southeast Asia, most likely Singapore, is also an area of interest.

hamish.mcnicol@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Gender diversity: pay gaps revealed at Addleshaw Goddard, Mishcon de Reya and Gowling WLG

Posted on |
Salaries Addleshaw GoddardGowling WLGMishcon de Reya

A fuller picture of the legal industry’s gender pay gap issue is emerging as Addleshaw Goddard, Mishcon de Reya and Gowling WLG become the latest firms to reveal big earnings disparities.

Gender pay brackets at Addleshaw – published Tuesday (13 March) ahead of the 4 April deadline required by legislation brought in last year – reveal the firm paid its male staff on average 43.2% more in bonuses than women for the year to 5 April 2017. The median bonus figure was 33.3%.

Female employees were paid on average 23.8% less per hour than men, although again the median figure was lower at 16.4%.

In line with the reasons touted by other firms, Addleshaw pointed to a higher proportion of females being employed in junior and administrative roles, such as secretarial services where its PA population is 98% female, and fewer women in senior roles as the reason for the discrepancy between pay and bonus gaps. Human resources director Niki Lawson said this meant the firm’s pay gap was not an equal pay issue.

‘I don’t think the data for our sector is revealing anything we don’t already know but I hope it will help to drive greater accountability across the professional services community and even greater, collective commitment to addressing the underlying causes.’

Lawson said the firm was working to close the gap through a number of initiatives, including unconscious bias training and programmes it has introduced in recent years. Its female leadership programme Flourish began in 2012, after which nearly a third of partner promotions have been female, pushing overall representation in the UK partnership to 26% from 20%. The firm is targeting 30% female partnership by 2020.

Meanwhile, Mishcon pays men 42% more than women on average in bonuses, rising to 51% as a median figure. For hourly pay, men are paid 17% more on average, rising to 37% for the median figure.

‘As has been observed across the legal industry, the data is affected by the distribution of roles: we have many more women than men working in secretarial and legal operations roles,’ the firm said in its report. ‘In our business, 63% of our people are women. Our secretarial and legal operations roles are 97% women and make up 19% of the roles performed by women at the firm.’

Gowling WLG also published its numbers on its website recently. They reveal that the firm’s hourly pay is 25% higher for men on both a median and average basis, while bonuses are 64% higher for men on average, and 49% higher on a median basis. Again, the firm blames having proportionally more females in support roles than its lawyer population for the pay gap.

Regarding the bonus disparity, the firm said it has three bonus schemes but there is a higher proportion of females in the firm-wide scheme than in the director and fee-earner bonus schemes. The firm has a gender target of 30% female partnership by 2026.

‘We are confident we do not have an equal pay issue,’ the firm’s report said. ‘However, we are continuing to take steps to ensure that everyone within the firm has the same career opportunities, allowing them to access salary and bonus progression as they develop and advance through the firm.’

These numbers follow magic circle firm Allen & Overy, revealing on Monday (12 March) it paid its male staff on average more than 42% in bonuses than women, with the median bonus figure standing at 23%. 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.

Other firms to report include Linklaters, which last month revealed that it paid its male staff members nearly 60% more in bonuses than women. Taylor Wessing, Bird & Bird, Pinsent Masons and CMS have also reported their pay gaps.

hamish.mcnicol@legalease.co.uk