Legal Business

Dealwatch: Clifford Chance, Linklaters and Latham advise on $7.7bn Pirelli sale to ChemChina

Posted on |
Corporate Clifford ChanceLatham & WatkinsLinklaters
legal-business-default

Clifford Chance (CC), Linklaters and Latham & Watkins are advising on the $7.7bn bid by China National Chemical Corp (ChemChina) to buy Italian tire-maker Pirelli, a deal that will give Chinese investors a significant foothold in Italy’s manufacturing industry while signalling continued Chinese investment into Europe.

ChemChina’s tyre-making division China National Tire & Rubber (CNRC) will first buy the 26.2% that Italian holding firm Camfin owns in Pirelli, and will then launch a mandatory takeover bid for the rest.

ChemChina and CNRC have instructed CC to advise on financing issues, as well as local firm Studio Legale Pedersoli e Associati for Italian law advice and Chinese firm Jun He on Chinese law. The deal saw a cross-border team from CC, led by finance partners Charles Adams and Giuseppe de Palma Milan and involving leveraged finance and high-yield partner Michael Dakin in the City and Beijing-based banking and finance partner Maggie Lo.

Linklaters advised private Russian investment company Long Term Investments which will enter into the shareholders agreement after the initial purchase with Milan-based corporate partners Giovanni Pedersoli, Pietro Belloni leading alongside Moscow-based partner Grigory Gadzhiev.

Latham & Watkins led for JP Morgan, which acted as underwriters on the deal, with a team including co-chair of global banking Christopher Kandel, capital markets partner Jeff Lawlis, and Milan-based partners Andrea Novarese and Maria Christina Storchi. Gianni, Origoni, Grippo, Cappelli & Partners provided Italian tax advice.

Local firm Chiomenti advised Pirelli’s holding company Camfin while Lombardi Molinari Segni handled financing aspects.

The deal agreed with Pirelli shareholders on Sunday with China National Tire & Rubber (CNRC), a subsidiary of ChemChina, envisages the ‘integration of the industrial tyre business of Pirelli and certain assets of CNRC, an expansion of Pirelli’s business in Asia, and a potential de-listing of [Milan-listed] Pirelli.’

Chinese investment into Europe hit record levels last year, with FDI transactions doubling to $18bn in 2014 compared to the previous year over 153 separate investments. According to research by Baker & McKenzie, Europe emerged as one of the top destinations for Chinese foreign investment globally, with Italy in second place as one of the top-five countries in 2014 for such investment.

sarah.downey@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Consolidation: Latham set to shut Abu Dhabi and Doha offices as it refocuses efforts in Dubai

Posted on |
Middle East and Africa Latham & Watkins
legal-business-default

Latham & Watkins has internally announced today (18 March) that it will close two offices in the Middle East by the end of the year, shutting down its outposts in Abu Dhabi and Doha, and relocating staff to its Dubai operation.

The closures come seven years after the firm launched in the Middle East with offices in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha, Qatar. Latham plans to wind down its Doha office by 30 June 2015 and its Abu Dhabi office by the end of the year.

The news was announced in those offices this afternoon, with the 11 lawyers based in Abu Dhabi and Doha asked to relocate to Dubai, which the firm hopes to turn into a hub for its work in the Middle East. 

Currently 35 lawyers are operating in the region for the firm but a management team set up to review the firm’s strategy in the Middle East concluded that the firm’s offering could be run out of offices in Dubai and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The firm has also held talks with over 12 major clients in the last fortnight to ensure the closures would not impact on its business in the region

Villiers Terblanche, the managing partner of the firm’s Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha offices, was part of the team running the review and will remain managing partner of the enlarged Dubai office. The firm’s office in Riyadh, which opened in 2010 though an association with the Law Office of Mohammed Al-Sheikh, will not be impacted.

London-based Bill Voge, chair and managing partner at Latham, told Legal Business: ‘I personally had several calls with top clients in the region to explore the effect on our client service and that gave us the comfort that what we’re doing is not disruptive to our clients. They didn’t view having an office in Doha, when our office in Dubai is an hour’s flight away, as critical. Dubai is only 80 miles down the road from Abu Dhabi too. Consolidation makes sense’

Voge added: ‘We won’t have the Abu Dhabi and Doha offices but the same lawyers will be servicing the same clients.’

In a written statement provided to Legal Business, Terblanche, said: ‘We have a broad practice and diverse client base in the Middle East. By consolidating our practice in the region, we will further strengthen our high value corporate, finance and regulatory practices. In the last five years we have seen the legal market develop quite dramatically – our clients across the region use us increasingly regardless of the location of our lawyers and instead on experience, track record and market knowledge.’

tom.moore@legalease.co.uk

For more analysis of Latham’s global strategy see: The firm most likely – can anything halt Latham’s global rise?

Legal Business

Global London: King & Spalding hires Latham’s Daniel Friel as it builds City office

Posted on |
Strategic recruitment King & SpaldingLatham & Watkins
legal-business-default

King & Spalding has hired Latham & Watkins’ former European vice chair of tax Daniel Friel, the latest in a number of strategic hires over the last 12 months as it looks to grow its London offering.

Friel has been a partner at Latham since 2006, after joining from Lovells where he had been head of the firm’s international tax practice. It took him just two years to gain a management position at Latham and was appointed European vice chair of tax and benefits in 2008.

With over 20 years of experience advising on tax planning matters on M&A and financing work, Friel becomes King & Spalding’s third tax partner in London. He is most well-known for his work advising private equity clients and sovereign wealth funds, and counts Bain Capital, Carlyle, Qatar Investment Authority and Deutsche Bank as clients, as well as having worked for brewer SAB Miller, ITV and brothers Sir David and Frederick Barclay. He also has experience in handling tax disputes and tax investigations by HMRC.

Commenting on Friel’s arrival, Abraham Shashy, leader of King & Spalding’s tax practice group said: ‘His tax expertise and extensive experience in building European tax practices at his previous firms make him a natural fit to help expand our European tax practices in London, Frankfurt and Paris.’

Friel becomes the 21st partner in King & Spalding’s London office, which pulled in £26.4m in revenue during 2014. His arrival follows that of fellow Latham partner Markus Bauman, a capital markets specialist who is New York-qualified, in November last year.

King & Spalding have secured a number of high profile hires in the past 12 months, including the founder of Berwin Leighton Paisner’s advocacy unit Stuart Isaacs QC in January this year and Linklaters partner Thomas O’Neill in November last year. The firm also launched a restructuring practice at the end of last year with the hire of Elisabeth Baltay from Bingham McCutchen’s collapsed London office.

Friel started his career as a chartered accountant with Coopers & Lybrand, which later went on to become PwC.

tom.moore@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Latham leads the way with $300m revenue hike as US elite posts robust 2014 results

Posted on |
Financial results 2014 Latham & Watkins
legal-business-default

Jaishree Kalia assesses the winners and losers as the US reporting season kicks off

The broad-based economic recovery in the US proved a boon to many leading advisers in 2014, with firms enjoying a resurgence in corporate work, and robust levels of disputes and regulatory activity.

Legal Business

Under new leadership: Sadanandan replaces Nick Cline as Latham’s London chief

Posted on |
Leadership Latham & Watkins
legal-business-default

After five years in the post, and having nearly doubled the size of the office, Latham & Watkins‘ London head Nick Cline has been replaced by finance partner Jay Sadanandan (pictured).

Cline finished a five-year term as London head at the end of February and Sadanandan, who was made deputy office managing partner in March 2013, has been selected to replace him.

Sadanandan arrived at Latham just before Cline took charge of the office, having been part of a four-partner team to arrive from White & Case in January 2010. That move was the biggest lateral hire in the City that year, spearheaded by Latham’s co-chair of global banking Christopher Kandel, and catapulted Latham’s growth in capital markets. Sam Hamilton, now chair of Latham’s finance department in London, and Brian Conway, who has since moved to Jones Day, were the other partners to make the switch.

Since her arrival, Cline has helped to guide Latham’s London office from 156 lawyers to 295 lawyers, having successfully targeted growth in finance and private equity.

Sadanandan has held a number of management roles at Latham and served on the firm’s 15-strong succession committee that oversaw the retirement of longstanding global chair and managing partner Bob Dell last year. Project finance partner Bill Voge was selected to succeed Dell and took charge on 1 January.

Sadanandan is part of an acquisition finance team that The Legal 500 ranks as a first-tier operation and counts investment bank Goldman Sachs and European private equity house Permira among her clients. Sadanandan’s work for another private equity house, Onex, saw her advise on the largest European buyout in 2014 after arranging four finance facilities to purchase Swiss packaging company SIG Combibloc Group.

Employment partner Catherine Drinnan has succeeded Sadanandan as deputy office managing partner. The pair were unveiled as London’s new management during the firm’s annual partners meeting in the City last week, which concluded shortly after Latham became the largest law firm in the world

‘Nick has done a tremendous job leading the office over the past five years,’ said London-based Voge. ‘The practice has thrived under his superb leadership, and we thank him for his dedicated service. London is a bright spot for the firm and we have ambitious plans for further growth. Jay and Catherine are dynamic and energetic leaders with the right talents to lead the office at this exciting time.’

Cline added: ‘We’ve made big strides in the London market and are well-positioned for further growth and success. It will be great to have Jay and Catherine leading the continued expansion of our London office.’

tom.moore@legalease.co.uk

For more on Latham & Watkins’ ambitions see: The firm most likely – can anything halt Latham’s global rise?

Legal Business

Mishcon, Latham and OC up against City elite as shortlists announced for 2015 Legal Business Awards

Posted on |
Latham & WatkinsMishcon de ReyaOsborne Clarke
legal-business-default

Clifford Chance (CC), Mishcon de Reya, Osborne Clarke and DLA Piper are among those vying to win prizes at what promises to be the largest-ever Legal Business Awards.

The firms are among those nominated as we unveil the shortlists today (9 March) for the awards ahead of the ceremony, which will be held on 24 March at the Grosvenor House Hotel in central London.

Mishcon and OC are joined by Latham & Watkins, Travers Smith, Macfarlanes and Watson Farley & Williams in contention for the biggest award of the night: Law Firm of the Year. Mishcon managing partner Kevin Gold is also up against OC’s Simon Beswick and Stephenson Harwood’s Sharon White as Management Partner of the Year.

CC, meanwhile, features heavily in the major practice awards, including Finance Team of the Year, where the firm is shortlisted alongside Allen & Overy, Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF), Norton Rose Fulbright, Reed Smith, Sidley Austin and Simmons & Simmons.

The shortlist for Corporate Team of the Year is Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Covington & Burling, HSF, Linklaters, Macfarlanes, OC and Slaughter and May.

This year we introduce two new categories: Boutique of the Year and Legal Innovator. The former sees Candey, Curtis Davis Garrard, Signature Litigation, Volterra Fietta, Wiggin and Zyda Law compete, while the innovation shortlist is Berwin Leighton Paisner, CMS Cameron McKenna, DWF, Mishcon, Pinsent Masons and Wiggin.

Bluechip legal teams up for the main in-house award are AIG, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Coca-Cola Enterprises, Royal Mail, SSE and Telefónica UK.

The night, which is being hosted by distinguished broadcaster Jeremy Paxman, is set to attract well over 1,000 guests and will be preceded by a reception to mark this year’s GC Power List report.

In a special award to mark the 25th anniversary of Legal Business, the magazine will also name a single individual who has made an outstanding contribution to the profession over that period.

In a further change this year, Legal Business has introduced an external judging panel to increase scrutiny. The distinguished panel of judges comprise a range of senior general counsel: Michael Shaw (Barclays); Andrew Whittaker (Lloyds Banking Group); Robert Ivens (Marks & Spencer); Adrian de Souza (Land Securities); Siobhan Moriarty (Diageo); Michael Herlihy (Smiths Group); Kirsty Cooper (Aviva); Claire Chapman (Daily Mail and General Trust) and Alison Kay (National Grid). Also on the panel, alongside editor-in-chief Alex Novarese and managing editor Mark McAteer, are Jomati founder Tony Williams and Paul Gilbert of LBC Wise Counsel.

alex.novarese@legalease.co.uk

The Legal Business Awards 2015 shortlists:


TMT Team of the Year

Bristows

Covington & Burling

Harbottle & Lewis

Royal Mail

RPC

Simmons & Simmons

Taylor Wessing

 

Restructuring Team of the Year

Allen & Overy

Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton

Clifford Chance

DLA Piper

Herbert Smith Freehills

Slaughter and May

 

Competition Team of the Year

Ashurst

Berwin Leighton Paisner

Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer

King & Wood Mallesons

Shearman & Sterling

 

Energy and Infrastructure Team of the Year

Dentons

DLA Piper

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer

Herbert Smith Freehills

Hogan Lovells

Slaughter and May

 

Dispute Resolution Team of the Year

Eversheds

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer

Hausfeld

Mishcon de Reya

Weil, Gotshal & Manges

White & Case

Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr

 

Finance Team of the Year

Allen & Overy

Clifford Chance

Herbert Smith Freehills

Norton Rose Fulbright

Reed Smith

Sidley Austin

Simmons & Simmons

 

Private Client Team of the year

Addleshaw Goddard

Boodle Hatfield

Burges Salmon

Mills & Reeve

Taylor Wessing

Withers

 

Insurance Team of the Year

Ashurst

Clifford Chance

DAC Beachcroft

Hogan Lovells

Pinsent Masons

Simmons & Simmons

 

Corporate Team of the Year

Covington & Burling

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer

Herbert Smith Freehills

Linklaters

Macfarlanes

Osborne Clarke

Slaughter and May

 

Private Equity Team of the Year

Latham & Watkins

Linklaters

Shearman & Sterling

Travers Smith

Weil, Gotshal & Manges

 

Real Estate Team of the Year

Addleshaw Goddard

Ashurst

Baker & McKenzie

Clyde & Co

Hogan Lovells

K&L Gates

Wragge Lawrence Graham & Co

 

Boutique of the Year

Candey

Curtis Davis Garrard

Signature Litigation

Volterra Fietta

Wiggin

Zyda Law

 

Lawyer of the Year

Bob Dell, Latham & Watkins

Sir Nigel Knowles, DLA Piper

Rosemary Martin, Vodafone

Angus McBride, Kingsley Napley

 

CSR Programme of the Year

Allen & Overy

Baker & McKenzie

Clyde & Co

Dentons

Paul Hastings

Reed Smith

White & Case

 

International Firm of the Year

Garrigues

Goltsblat BLP

Integrites

Matheson

NCTM

Noerr

 

Rising Star In-House Counsel of the Year

Kent Dreadon, Telefónica UK

Martin Graham, Oaktree

Howard Landes, BG Group

Jenny Lowe, Aggregate Industries

Alice Marsden, Thomas Cook

Kumar Tewari, Lloyds Banking Group

 

In-House Team of the Year

AIG Europe

Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Coca-Cola Enterprises

Royal Mail

SSE

Telefónica UK

 

Management Partner of the Year

Simon Beswick, Osborne Clarke

Bill Drummond, Brodies

Kevin Gold, Mishcon de Reya

Bryan Hughes, Eversheds

Sharon White, Stephenson Harwood

 

US Law Firm of the Year

Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher

Jones Day

Morgan, Lewis & Bockius

Paul Hastings

Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan

Ropes & Gray

Simpson Thacher & Bartlett

 

Legal Innovator of the Year

Berwin Leighton Paisner

CMS Cameron McKenna

DWF

Mishcon de Reya

Pinsent Masons

Wiggin

 

Legal Technology Team of the Year

Ashurst

Axiom

Keoghs

King & Wood Mallesons

Wragge Lawrence Graham & Co

 

National/Regional Firm of the Year

Bond Dickinson

Brodies

DWF

Foot Anstey

Mills & Reeve

Stevens & Bolton

TLT

 

Outstanding Individual Achievement – 25 Years

To be announced by Legal Business at the ceremony

 

Law Firm of the Year

Latham & Watkins

Macfarlanes

Mishcon de Reya

Osborne Clarke

Travers Smith

Watson Farley & Williams

Legal Business

So long, Magic Circle: Latham sets blistering pace for global elite as 2014 revenues up over $300m

Posted on |
Magic Circle Latham & Watkins
legal-business-default

Latham & Watkins‘ global strategy has paid off with its 2014 revenues surging by 14% to $2.61bn in 2014 and making it the largest law firm in the world, an achievement managing partner Bill Voge (pictured) puts down to the recovery of the global M&A market and to clients increasingly using multiple offices across its ‘global footprint’.

The sharp rise in turnover from the $2.29bn achieved in 2013 helped the firm to record its highest ever profit per equity partner (PEP), with the average take home package for 2014 rising by 17% to $2.9m. The level of profitability edges the firm closer to the likes of Kirkland & Ellis and Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher and makes ground on the White Shoe firms that have historically clocked the highest partner profits with Latham’s PEP having previously been $2.49m in 2013 compared to the likes of Sullivan & Cromwell which recorded $3.65m that year.

Lathams’ revenues could still be surpassed by DLA Piper, which pulled in over $2.48bn in 2013 and won’t publish its results until April, or Baker & McKenzie, which raked in $2.54bn for the year ending 30 June 2014 but it is worth noting that the US firm has been growing at a faster rate than those firms in recent years. The figures also put the firm clear of Magic Circle rivals such as Clifford Chance which in 2013/14 had revenues of around $2.1bn with Linklaters and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer both around the $2bn mark.

The firm’s managing partner, Bill Voge, put the achievement down to the resurrection of the global M&A market last year and huge gains achieved by the firm’s capital markets and private equity groups. ‘Next week I have to address our partnership in London at our annual partners meeting and traditionally Bob Dell [the firm’s former managing partner] highlighted 10 or so high profile deals, but I’m going to tell our partners it was too difficult to highlight deals in 2014 as we had around 50 high profile deals.’

He added that the firm’s aggressive international expansion, with 33 offices worldwide, had also played a major part with over 85 of the firm’s top 100 clients using Latham in more than one country. Voge explains: ‘The global footprint has caused us to have this increase in revenues. We have a global footprint that satisfies the needs of our clients and a lot of what kept our lawyers so busy was the clients that chose to use Latham in multiple offices and countries.’

While the number of lawyers at the firm only increased by 40 to 2,100 in 2014, largely driven by London and New York, revenue per lawyer increased from $1.11m in 2013 to $1.24 in 2014.

US firms have outperformed their UK rivals in recent years and Latham’s figures for 2014 have continued that trend and even outpaced some of its stateside rivals. Both Davis Polk & Wardwell and Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison broke the billion-dollar mark in revenues in 2014 with strong revenue growth of 13% and 11% respectively to $1.1bn and $1.03bn.

The achievement concludes Bob Dell’s 20-year leadership of the firm after stepping down as managing partner and chair on 31 December to be replaced by London-based Bill Voge.

Voge concluded: ‘The global law firm that Bob Dell led over 20 years is starting to have dividends by clients using us more and more in different offices and different countries.’

tom.moore@legalease.co.uk

For more analysis of the rise and rise of Latham & Watkins see: The firm most likely – can anything halt Latham’s global rise?

Legal Business

Hunting Titans: RPC fails to convince judge to order BNY Mellon to release Argentinian bondholders

Posted on |
Litigation Allen & OveryLatham & WatkinsRPC
legal-business-default

The battle between Argentinian bondholders and the South American government rattles on after RPC failed to convince a High Court judge to order the trustee, The Bank of New York Mellon (BNY Mellon), to release $257m to four holdout investors.

George Soros’s Quantum Partners, Knighthead Master Fund, RGY Investments and Hayman Capital Master Fund had been seeking to have the judge declare that BNY Mellon pay the holdout investors, confirm that Argentina’s English law bonds are governed by English law and request that he tell the bank to show a copy of the judgment to a US court currently stopping Argentina from paying out the bonds.

Mr Justice David Richards said ordering the BNY Mellon to pay the holdouts would ‘would be in breach of trust’ and ‘serves no useful purpose’.

While the judge did rule that the bonds in the trust are governed by English law, he refused to order the bank to show his judgment on the matter to the US court.

He explained: ‘The claimants are critical in some respects of the conduct of the trustee in the US proceedings. I do not propose to enter into a discussion of those criticisms. I am in no doubt that the trustee is conscious of its obligations as trustee but equally it is conscious, as it must be, of the delicate position in which it finds itself as a trustee subject to the personal jurisdiction of the US courts’

He added: ‘I am not satisfied that the trustee’s conduct of the litigation has been outside the reasonable range of possible approaches.’

Tom Hibbert, a partner at RPC, and Latham & Watkins‘ former vice-chair of global litigation John Hull, were representing the four holdout investors. They instructed Mark Hapgood QC of Brick Court Chambers and David Quest QC of 3 Verulam Buildings.

Andrew Denny, a London litigator at Allen & Overy, advised BNY Mellon on the proceedings and instructed Robert Miles QC of 4 Stone Buildings.

The bondholders said in a statement: ‘The Honourable Mr Justice David Richards today made an important Declaration in the Chancery Division of the High Court in London that the sum of €225 million transferred by the Republic of Argentina to the account of the trustee (BNY Mellon) with Banco Central de la República Argentina on 26 June 2014 is held on trust and that the trust is governed by English law.’

‘The Claimant Euro Bondholders are very pleased with the English Court’s decision, which represents a significant step forward in the defence of their interests under the English law Trust. They have been deeply concerned that their legitimate English law proprietary interests in the payments have not been taken into account in the on-going US litigation. They now hope that this declaration can be brought to the attention of the appropriate Courts at the first available opportunity and that those courts will have regard to the decision of the English Court.’

tom.moore@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Building a ‘global oil and gas practice’: Latham & Watkins hires HSF energy partner in London

Posted on |
Strategic recruitment Herbert Smith FreehillsLatham & Watkins
legal-business-default

Latham & Watkins has continued its hiring spree in London with the hire of Herbert Smith Freehills‘ energy partner Simon Tysoe.

Tysoe, who joined HSF as a trainee in 2000 and made partner a decade later, becomes Latham’s 70th partner in London and the firm’s first hire in the City this calendar year. It is the second time the US firm has poached a partner from HSF after having attracted Simon Bushell to spearhead its London litigation push in 2013.

Tysoe specialises in cross-border M&A in the oil and gas sector and counts BG Group, BP and Chevron among his biggest clients. His hire furthers Latham’s push in the African energy space, with Tysoe having worked on acquisitions in Tanzania and Namibia. The firm secured the hire of the Clifford Chance’s (CC’s) Africa practice co-head Kem Ihenacho at the end of 2012 as part of a prolonged raid on CC’s private equity practice, which last month resulted in the hire of that group’s co-head Oliver Felsenstein in Frankfurt.

Nick Cline (pictured), Latham’s London managing partner, said: ‘The investment we’ve made in our London corporate department, combined with our global strength in the energy and natural resources sector, makes Simon an exciting addition to our London office. Not only is he a highly regarded oil and gas practitioner, but he has significant experience in the African market that further enhances our credentials in the region.’

Michael Darden, global chair of the oil and gas transactions practice at Latham, labelled Tysoe’s arrival ‘another important step in building a market leading and truly global oil and gas practice’ following the opening its Houston office in 2010.

Latham, which had just 53 partners in London in 2010, hired 10 partners in London last year and has prioritised further growth in the City. The office has become a regional hub for the firm which last month announced plans to open a business service centre in Manchester, as it seeks to provide around the clock IT and accounting support in Europe.

tom.moore@legalease.co.uk

For more analysis on Latham’s global ambitions see: The firm most likely – can anything halt Latham’s global rise?

Legal Business

The firm most likely – can anything halt Latham’s global rise?

Posted on |
US firms Latham & Watkins
legal-business-default

The most upwardly mobile member of the international elite has handed its leadership to a ‘global hawk’. Can anything halt the rise of Latham & Watkins?

At the end of a lengthy call mulling the prospects of Latham & Watkins amid a once-in-a-generation change of leadership, one Allen & Overy partner summarises: ‘They’re still doing better than we are though! Can you hand Bill [Voge] my CV when you see him!’

Indeed. To many neutral observers, Latham has been the most upwardly mobile firm in the upper echelons of the global legal market in the last 20 years, having transformed itself into an international force after deciding to go international in 2000. This rise was overseen by long-term head Bob Dell, one of the most forward thinking and admired leaders in the US legal market. Having led the firm for 20 years, Dell in January handed over as chair and managing partner to fellow Latham veteran Bill Voge (pictured).