Legal Business

Paul Hastings doubles up in the City as A&O loses global IP head to Kirkland

Posted on |
Strategic recruitment Allen & OveryKirkland & EllisPaul Hastings

Paul Hastings pulled off two headline lateral hires in London in a week as the US firm strengthens its corporate offering in the City.

Private equity rising star Anu Balasubramanian was the first hire announced, as DLA Piper lost another key dealmaker in the City. The addition will be a major boost to Paul Hastings’ City corporate and private equity practice, with Balasubramanian bringing experience in an array of mid-market work, acting for sponsors such as ABRY Partners, Accel-KKR, Oakley Capital and Aurium Capital Markets.

Legal Business

Kirkland and Baker McKenzie chart course for €950m sale of Danish shipping giant

Posted on |
Corporate Baker McKenzieKirkland & Ellis

Kirkland & Ellis and Baker McKenzie have secured key roles as Turkish freight shipping operator UN Ro-Ro launched its sale to Danish shipping and logistics company DFDS in a deal worth roughly €950m.

The Kirkland team, spearheaded by London corporate partner David Arnold, advised Actera Group and Esas Holdings, while the Bakers team was led by Charles Whitefoord (London) and Eren Kurşun (Istanbul).

Legal Business

Kirkland makes surprise push into City IP with hire of A&O practice chief

Posted on |
Strategic recruitment Kirkland & Ellis

Latham & Watkins’ City lateral hires outside its traditional transactional heartlands have been in the news for a while, but this time it is US rival Kirkland & Ellis tapping the Magic Circle for a surprising IP hire.

The firm announced today (14 May) that Allen & Overy’s (A&O) global head of IP Nicola Dagg has quit the firm to join the London office of the newly-crowned world’s largest grossing firm.

The well-regarded litigator will leave A&O after 12 years. Her practice focuses on patent litigation and breach of confidence disputes, particularly in technologically advanced matters.

Kirkland’s chairman Jeffrey Hammes said her experience ‘is quite complementary to our existing practice and will be particularly useful to our life sciences and technology clients as they defend their intellectual property around the world’.

Her hire comes within months of two headline laterals for Kirkland, which in March surged past Latham to become the world’s top-billing law firm.

In December last year the firm announced the hire of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer private equity star David Higgins in a landmark $10m deal, while in January this year it tapped Cravath for New York M&A playmaker Eric Schiele.

City laterals outside the transactional arena have been rarer for the US giant, although in 2015 it tapped Linklaters for UK competition chief Paula Riedel.

marco.cillario@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Fieldfisher, Kirkland and Stephenson Harwood the major winners at 2018 Legal Business Awards

Posted on |
FieldfisherKirkland & EllisStephenson Harwood

Fieldfisher, Kirkland & Ellis and Stephenson Harwood were the big winners at the 2018 Legal Business Awards in front of more than 900 people last night (18 April), as Allen & Overy’s deal star Denise Gibson was recognised as Lawyer of the Year and BT’s Dan Fitz GC of the Year.

Hosted by journalist, writer and television presenter Mariella Frostrup, the ceremony saw Fieldfisher crowned Law Firm of the Year after an impressive 36% revenue growth to £165m in 2016/17 – the largest rise of any law firm in the Legal Business 100 table last year. The firm scooping the most prestigious award of the night underlines the work of managing partner Michael Chissick and senior partner Matthew Lohn in turning around a firm which only in 2012 was near-crisis (as described in our recent cover feature Reversal of Fortunes .

It was a big night for Kirkland too. The world’s highest-grossing firm secured two of the most sought-after awards, Private Equity Team of the Year and US Law Firm of the Year. Matthew Elliott, Neel Sachdev, Steven Lucas, David Holdsworth and Stuart Boyd were joined by recent high-profile lateral hire David Higgins on stage when they picked up their second award.

Stephenson Harwood also picked up two awards on the night – Private Client Team of the Year, and one of the most coveted awards – Corporate Team of the Year – for its role advising Lavendon Group in its takeover by Loxam. A&O’s banking star Denise Gibson, who featured prominently in our cover feature Alphas this year about the leading female deal talent, was crowned Lawyer of the Year.

Meanwhile, Glen Atchison’s decade at the helm of successful West End practice Harbottle & Lewis secured him Management Partner of the Year.

In other practice awards, Norton Rose Fulbright scooped Finance Team of the Year for the pro bono work of the team led by chair-elect Farmida Bi advising the International Committee of the Red Cross on the development of the Humanitarian Impact Bond, a funding mechanism to encourage social investment from the private sector.

On the contentious side, Charles Russell Speechlys was named International Arbitration Team of the Year for Patrick Gearon’s team work in defending a Qatari telecoms provider against a $660m claim brought by a Saudi Arabian multinational. Wedlake Bell won Commercial Litigation Team of the year for advising Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga as he challenged the outcome of the 2017’s presidential election, which brought to Kenya’s Supreme Court annulling the election results.

DLA Piper was named Real Estate Team of the Year for its use of tech in advising Oval Real Estate in its acquisition of the Custard Factory and Fazeley Studios in Birmingham. The team closed the deal just over a month after the terms had been agreed by using automated contract review system Kira.

Two separate awards recognised the growing importance of tech. Legal Innovator of the Year went to F-Lex, a platform that connects firms and in-house lawyers with pre-vetted paralegals. Squire Patton Boggs brought home Legal Technology Team of the Year for developing Global Edge, an app portal providing employment advice across 32 jurisdictions.

In-house lawyers had their chance to shine too. BT’s Dan Fitz was the first winner of the newly-established GC of the Year prize, while Kendra James at the FT won Rising Star In-House Counsel of the Year. In-House Team of the Year went to The Carlyle Group. The awards ceremony was preceded by a reception to mark the launch of this year’s GC Powerlist report, featuring the top 50 in-house teams in the country.

Irish leader William Fry scooped International Law Firm of the Year after advising on Linde’s $70bn merger with Praxair, the largest deal in Europe in 2017.

The winners were selected by an external judging panel comprising: Nilema Bhakta-Jones, group legal director of Ascential Group; Kate Cheetham, group general counsel, Lloyds Banking Group; Kirsty Cooper, group general counsel and company secretary, Aviva; Simon Croxford, general counsel – group centre legal, Barclays; Maaike de Bie, general counsel, Royal Mail; Claire Debney, chief of staff and director of legal strategy, Shire; Dan Guildford, general counsel, FT; Rachel Jacobs, group general counsel, Springer Nature; Rosemary Martin, group general counsel and company secretary, Vodafone; Nigel Paterson, general counsel and company secretary, Dixons Carphone; Nayeem Syed, assistant general counsel, Thomson Reuters; Ned Staple, general counsel and company secretary, ZPG; Liz Tanner, director of legal services, SSE; Geoffrey Timms, group general counsel and company secretary, Legal & General; Clare Wardle, general counsel and company secretary, Coca-Cola European Partners. The panel also included Legal Business managing editor Mark McAteer and editor-in-chief Alex Novarese.

Our May edition will include a full report of the night. For more details on the awards, click here .

Marco.cillario@legalbusiness.co.uk

Legal Business Awards 2018 – The Winners

Hogan Lovells – TMT Team of the Year

Norton Rose Fulbright – Finance Team of the Year

Charles Russell Speechlys – International Arbitration Team of the Year

CMS Cameron McKenna Nabarro Olswang – Restructuring Team of the Year

Wedlake Bell – Commercial Litigation Team of the Year

Stephenson Harwood – Private Client Team of the Year

Eversheds Sutherland – Competition Team of the Year

Pinsent Masons – Energy and Infrastructure Team of the Year

Clifford Chance – Insurance Team of the Year

Stephenson Harwood – Corporate Team of the Year

Kirkland & Ellis – Private Equity Team of the Year

DLA Piper – Real Estate Team of the Year

GQ Employment Law – Boutique Law Firm of the Year

Denise Gibson, Allen & Overy – Lawyer of the Year

Weil, Gotshal & Manges – CSR Programme of the Year

William Fry – International Firm of the Year

Kendra James, Financial Times – Rising Star In-House Counsel of the Year

Dan Fitz, BT – GC of the Year

The Carlyle Group – In-House Team of the Year

Glen Atchison, Harbottle Lewis – Management Partner of the Year

Kirkland & Ellis – US Law Firm of the Year

F-Lex – Legal Innovator of the Year

Squire Patton Boggs – Legal Technology Team of the Year

Shoosmiths – National/Regional Law Firm of the Year

Fieldfisher – Law Firm of the Year

Legal Business

Global London comment: Brexit looms but the $20m partner is coming

Posted on |
Global London Kirkland & EllisWhite & Case

Striking numbers abound in this year’s Global London table, if you are into that kind of thing. The three pace-setting US brands in London – Latham & Watkins, Kirkland & Ellis and White & Case – are all generating in the $300m region in the Square Mile, last year saw the first $10m lateral and my back-of-the-envelope scribbling indicates that the top 50 US firms are pulling in around $5bn in the UK.

The market is increasingly now defined by this trio, predictably so in the case of Latham, though City lawyers are still trying to get their heads around the idea of Kirkland and White & Case as mounting a frontal challenge. A few years ago, I’d have been equally sceptical, particularly in the latter’s case, but if there is a glaring hole in the game plan of these two outfits, they are hiding it well. With all three making ground in mainstream transactional work through 2017 and securing significant hires – the idea that certain kinds of M&A will remain the preserve of City advisers over the next three years looks fanciful.

As we went to press Kirkland was expected to soon confirm that it has become the second global law firm after Latham to crack $3bn, with another hike in partner profits that will give it further ammunition for London. Kirkland’s average partner profits for 2017 hit $4.75m, which suggests plateau earnings of more than $12m. And one arbitrator in London at another firm is reputed to have been recently paid considerably north of that figure. The equation of elite law is shifting and faster than many veteran partners can keep up.

Aside from the select group mounting a broad challenge, there are obviously high quality brands like Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett that have forged highly productive operations with lean teams in defined areas.

It is a more mixed picture over the top 50 and there is plenty of drift and inertia across the group – yes, Shearman & Sterling, we are looking at you. Many of the more generalist attempts to create US-owned practices continue to lack momentum.

But the overall direction of travel is clear – US firms are making more inroads and have so far proved remarkably sanguine about the Brexit shadow looming over London. It was another robust year of lateral recruitment, even during a period in which the largest US-born firms are now very active promoters of their own UK partners.

The upbeat assessment by US law firms may well be linked to the fact that areas and clients currently driving their growth – white collar, funds, arbitration, leverage finance – are less impacted by Brexit. Yet chairing a client debate this month, there was certainly a much more downbeat tone on the implications for the City and UK investment of leaving the EU. But Brexit aside, US firms in London are now a one-way-bet.

alex.novarese@legalease.co.uk

For more analysis on the leading international firms in London see our White & Case profile, ‘Reborn supremacy’ and our market analysis ‘A Tale of Two Citys’ (£)

Legal Business

High street collapse sees Global 100 players line up on Toys R Us and Maplin failures

Posted on |
Corporate Eversheds SutherlandKirkland & Ellis

In a worrying trend for high-street retailers, Toys R Us and Maplin have announced their UK domestic businesses are going into administration, allowing Kirkland & Ellis and Eversheds Sutherland to land key insolvency roles.

Kirkland was led by restructuring partners Kon Asimacopoulos and Elaine Nolan, as the firm was called in to advise Moorfield as administrator on Toys R Us, while Eversheds Sutherland was led by David Gray advising PwC on the Maplin collapse.

Legal Business

Brexit looms yet City law tilts further towards US leaders

Posted on |
The News Leader Kirkland & EllisLatham & WatkinsWhite & Case

Striking numbers abound in this year’s Global London table, if you are into that kind of thing. The three pace-setting US brands in London – Latham & Watkins, Kirkland & Ellis and White & Case – are all generating in the $300m region in the Square Mile, last year saw the first $10m lateral and my back-of-the-envelope scribbling indicates that the top 50 US firms are comfortably pulling in over $5bn in the UK.

The market is increasingly now defined by this trio, predictably so in the case of Latham, though City lawyers are still trying to get their heads around the idea of Kirkland and White & Case as mounting a frontal challenge. A few years ago, I’d have been equally sceptical, particularly in the latter’s case, but if there is a glaring hole in the game plan of these two outfits, they are hiding it well. With all three making ground in mainstream transactional work through 2017 and securing significant hires – the idea that certain kinds of M&A will remain the preserve of City advisers over the next three years looks fanciful.

Legal Business

Rampant Kirkland surges past Latham to become world’s top-billing law firm as PEP closes in on $5m

Posted on |
Financial results Kirkland & Ellis

Kirkland & Ellis has hiked revenues by more than $500m to overtake Latham & Watkins as the world’s highest-earning law firm, as revenues surged to $3.165bn.

The Chicago-bred giant today (22 March) announced its results for the 2017 financial year, confirmed a 19% hike in revenues against $2.65bn the previous year. Profit per equity partner (PEP) surged nearly 15%, to $4.7m from last year’s $4.1m, making it one of the world’s most profitable law firms. Headcount rose 13.5% to 1,997 lawyers, while revenues per lawyer increased 5.2% to $1.585m.

The pace-setting performance underpinned by booming private equity and leveraged finance markets underlines a 20-year ascent that has seen the thrusting US law firm expand dramatically beyond its Illinois roots to become a potent force in New York and London.

And Kirkland has certainly made its presence felt on both sides of the Atlantic in recent months, perhaps most strikingly when it in December hired Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer private equity veteran David Higgins with a market-setting $10m package.

Other major London hires have included Linklaters’ real estate M&A rainmaker Matthew Elliott in 2015 and Freshfields’ restructuring partner Sean Lacey last May. The firm hit the headlines again in January when it enlisted Cravath, Swaine & Moore M&A star Eric Schiele in New York.

London has been one of Kirkland’s fastest-expanding offices, growing 61% since 2013 to 189 lawyers in 2017. The practice currently generates over $300m. New York headcount has increased 42% over the last five years to 503 lawyers.

Aside from private equity, Kirkland’s restructuring practice saw it advise on standout matters, including acting for Toys R Us on the Chapter 11 filing for bankruptcy of its US business in September 2017, as well as a deal with the Pension Protection Fund (PPF) that temporarily saved the company from collapse in December 2017. The firm went on this February to seal a further mandate amid the Toys R Us collapse, with restructuring partners Kon Asimacopoulos and Elaine Nolan advising Moorfields’ joint administrators Simon Thomas and Arron Kendall.

The achievement of overtaking Latham caps a remarkable rise to prominence for a thrusting institution that has long divided peers into critics of a supposed ruthless culture and the admirers of its driven panache. But critic or fan, Kirkland is increasingly impossible to ignore.

nathalie.tidman@legalease.co.uk

For more analysis on Kirkland, see ‘The Departed (£) 

Legal Business

Comment: A shock to the system as Freshfields heavyweight departs

Posted on | and
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?’

Legal Business

Deal Watch: Kirkland and Eversheds lead as Toys R Us and Maplin collapse following bleak Xmas for retailers

Posted on |
Dealwatch Eversheds SutherlandKirkland & Ellis

Insolvency professionals have long been predicting a wave of trouble would hit the beleaguered UK high street and it has come to pass with Kirkland & Ellis and Eversheds Sutherland securing lead roles on the collapses this week of Toys R Us and Maplin.

Toys R Us announced today (28 February) that its domestic business was going into administration following a failed attempts to secure a new buyer for the UK’s largest toy retailer after sluggish trading hit the industry over the 2017 festive season.

Kirkland also acted for Toys R Us on the Chapter 11 filing for bankruptcy of its US business in September 2017, as well as a deal with the Pension Protection Fund (PPF) that temporarily saved the company from collapse in December 2017.

Kirkland restructuring partners Kon Asimacopoulos and Elaine Nolan are advising Moorfields’ joint administrators Simon Thomas and Arron Kendall.

Meanwhile, Eversheds’ team, led by Manchester restructuring partner David Gray, is advising Maplin’s joint administrators at PwC, which is fielding a team under partner Zelf Hussain.

Eversheds in 2014 advised Maplin on the consumer electronics retailer’s £85m sale to investment house Rutland Partners. Taylor Wessing is now advising Rutland, a long-standing client which it acted for in a number of deals last year, including the sale of Brandon Hire, the acquisition of Armitage Pet Care and an investment in Omar Group.

Gray said the Maplin business would continue to trade for a number of weeks in the hope of a sale, given the strength of Maplin’s brand. He added: ‘The high street’s having a tough old time at the moment.’

PwC’s Hussain commented: ‘Like many other retailers, Maplin has been hit hard by a slowdown in consumer spending and more expensive imports as the pound has weakened. Our initial focus as administrators will be to engage with parties who may be interested in acquiring all or part of the company.’

Maplin has annual turnover of £235.8m and employs 2,335 people across 217 stores in the UK and Ireland. Toys R Us, meanwhile, has 105 stores and employs 3,000 people in the UK.

‘It’s only going to get worse,’ notes one Magic Circle partner. ‘Furniture retail, department stores and casual dining are all expected to feature among the high-street casualties over the coming months.’

Nathalie.tidman@legalease.co.uk

For more on the insolvency market see last year’s report, ‘Waiting for Carney’ (£)