Legal Business

Ashurst refreshes Hong Kong outpost with Linklaters hire

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Hong Kong AshurstLinklaters

Ashurst continues to bulk up its Asia Pacific offering with the hire of Linklaters partner PH Chik to its Hong Kong office.

The appointment comes after the office lost its former office managing partner Lina Lee and partner Jonathan Hsui who quit to join Allen & Overy’s (A&O) capital markets practice in September.

Corporate partner Chik specialises in Hong Kong listing work, including Hong Kong IPOs, secondary offerings and post-listing compliance, with a particular focus on Chinese state-owned enterprises. He joined Linklaters’ Beijing office in 2012 after moving from Baker & McKenzie where he spent five years.

Ashurst’s Asia corporate head Stuart Rubin said: ‘Hong Kong ECM has long been, and will continue to be, an engine for the growth of our broader corporate practice. PH’s hire will complement our existing investment bank relationships to enable us to compete for Hong Kong’s premier IPOs.’

Chik’s arrival follows the hires of M&A partner John Brewster, who joins from Clayton Utz, and Shane Kyriakou from Herbert Smith Freehills to its Melbourne office. Ashurst confirmed their appointments earlier this week.

Ashurst lost Singapore managing partner Shaun Lascelles in October who moved to Vinson & Elkins, along with fellow corporate partner Keith McGuire, who left the Singapore office in favour of PwC Legal. Abu Dhabi managing partner Alastair Holland joined Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle.

Linklaters saw a number of senior exits early last year. Capital markets partners Singapore-based Dean Lockhart and Hong Kong-based Jeremy Webb resigned last January, along with big-billing Hong Kong corporate partner Christopher Kelly.

Linklaters’ partnership decided against pursuing a fully-fledged merger to secure credible China law coverage and voted through plans for a local spin-off.

madeleine.farman@legalease.co.uk

Read more: ‘Don’t look back in anger: Ashurst leadership tries to rally partners but the drift continues’

 

 

Legal Business

Magic Circle duo to take home £102m in fees from mega stock exchange merger

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Corporate Freshfields Bruckhaus DeringerLinklaters

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Linklaters are expected to take home £102m in fees as they advise on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and Deutsche Börse’s attempted tie-up.

Documents filed to LSE show legal advice could reach up to £112m. LSE expects it will spend a minimum of £55m on legal fees while Deutsche Börse has calculated it will spend £47m. Total aggregate fees and expenses are calculated to be at least £276m.

Freshfields partners Andrew Hutchings London M&A co-head Piers Prichard Jones led the team representing LSE. Former corporate partner Mark Rawlinson also headed up the magic circle team before leaving the firm last year. Linklaters corporate partner Roger Barron acted for Deutsche Börse, along with Simon Branigan in London and Ralph Wollburg and Staffan Illert in Germany.

In March last year LSE and Deutsche Börse agreed terms for a merger of equals that is set to create one of the largest exchange companies in the world, with a combined value of about £21bn. Under the terms of the deal, LSE shareholders will own 45.6% of the new holding company, while Deutsche Börse shareholders will own 54.4%.

Freshfields took home a chunk of the $261m in fees arising from the $1.94bn in advisory fees generated by Anheuser-Busch InBev’s (AB InBev) $108bn takeover of SABMiller. Freshfields took the lion’s share of AB InBev’s $185m legal fees, which the scheme circular states is based on completion of the deal, with Wall Street firms Cravath, Swaine & Moore and Sullivan & Cromwell next in line having handled the US law element. SullCrom ran the brewer’s filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission and the US firms handled several disposals.

Linklaters took the biggest share of the $76m in legal fees spent by SABMiller with a team led by senior partner Charlie Jacobs and M&A partner Nick Rumsby. Hogan Lovells were next in line having advised the brewer on certain aspects of the deal. Hogan Lovells, which has long been SABMiller’s go-to law firm, were thought to be overlooked to run the deal, with Linklaters deemed to have more M&A firepower. Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton are regular advisers on SABMiller’s US tax issues.

madeleine.farman@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Revolving doors: Linklaters hires in Germany as Akin Gump takes Addleshaws litigator

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Strategic recruitment Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & FeldLinklaters

In a busy start to the year, Linklaters and Simmons & Simmons have added to the benches in Europe, while Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, Eversheds and DLA Piper have hired in the UK.

In Germany, Linklaters has taken on DLA Piper’s international group head of real estate Carsten Loll, as a partner in the Frankfurt and Munich offices. Loll will work closely alongside German practice group head Wolfram Kruger. His appointment brings Linklaters’ partner count in Germany to 64 partners.

Akin Gump hired disputes partner Kambiz Larizadeh from Addleshaw Goddard to strengthen its London offering. He focuses on high value, cross border commercial litigation and international arbitration matters, and has particular experience with regards to Russia and the Middle East. The exit follows the resignation of fraud specialist Mark Hastings who quit for Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan in December 2016.

Simmons expanded its investigations practice this week in Amsterdam with the addition of litigation partner David Schreuders, who joins from DLA Piper. Schreuders is experienced in several jurisdictions both in advisory work, including corporate investigations, as well as compliance audits and litigation.

Withers has rehired private client partner Jeremy Arnold who returns to the firm from Waypoint Capital. Arnold, who was an associate at Withers from 1985 left the firm to go in-house in 2006, when he moved to Barclays to help establish its wealth advisory arm.

In Nottingham, Eversheds has added a corporate partner with the hire of Ian Moore, who was most recently managing director at Scottish sportswear brand Dhu. Moore was a corporate partner at Norton Rose Fulbright between 2007-2012.

Meanwhile in Leeds, DLA strengthened its intellectual property (IP) practice. The firm hired Clarion Solicitors’ founder and former head of the IP practice Leigh Martin. Before seven years at Clarion, Leigh had been a partner in DLA Piper’s IP group from 2000 to 2004. He does international work in patents, designs, trademarks, copyright, database rights and confidentiality.

georgiana.tudor@legalease.co.uk



Legal Business

Linklaters continues litigation push with Goldman Sachs hire

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Strategic recruitment Linklaters

Linklaters has hired Goldman Sachs managing director Susana Cao Miranda as a partner to strengthen its London litigation offering.

The Magic Circle firm takes on Cao Miranda in a bid to boost its bench strength in litigation under global head of dispute resolution Michael Bennett.

Cao Miranda spent seven years at Goldman Sachs, joining the investment bank in 2010. Prior to this she spent seven years at Herbert Smith Freehills, where she was a senior associate.

Linklaters has been viewed as lighter in its litigation practice, having a two pillar strategy in recent years, focusing on its banking and corporate practices.

In October, Linklaters managing partner Gideon Moore told Legal Business the firm was looking to reinforce its disputes practice, with the area seen as ‘somewhere Linklaters has lagged’. The firm had in previous years reported around 12% of turnover from its contentious practice.

In February last year the firm made moves to strengthen its global litigation offering with the hire of Baker & McKenzie global litigation head Tom Cassels as well as the firm’s New York head of litigation and global head of white-collar Douglas Tween.

Linklaters also added Adam Lurie to head its Washington DC litigation and government investigations practice. Lurie joined the firm from Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft where he was a partner.

Linklaters’ Bennett (pictured) said: ‘We are pleased that Susana is joining Linklaters as a partner in our dispute resolution division. She will be a valuable addition to our team.’

matthew.field@legalease.co.uk

For more on Linklaters strategy under Gideon Moore and Charlie Jacobs, see ‘Rain men’.

 

 

 

Legal Business

Linklaters joins SullCrom and Cravath on $65bn Linde and Praxair megadeal

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Corporate Cravath, Swaine & MooreHengeler MuellerLinklatersSullivan & Cromwell
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Sullivan & Cromwell, Cravath, Swaine & Moore, Linklaters and Hengeler Mueller have won roles on another potential mega merger, between US and German oil and gas giants Praxair and Linde.

The two companies confirmed the deal yesterday (20 December), creating a company with revenues of around $30bn and a combined market value of more than $65bn. The combined company will be a ‘merger of equals’ with shareholders from each party holding around 50% of the new company, which will be branded as Linde on the New York and Frankfurt stock exchanges.

Cravath US-based head of European M&A Richard Hall led on the deal for Linde, alongside partner Aaron Gruber who acted on M&A matters and Len Teti who advised on tax.

Linklaters is advising on regulatory and antitrust issues with New York-based partner Thomas McGrath and Brussels head Bernd Meyring while Hengeler Mueller corporate partner Maximilian Schiessl is also advising the Munich-headquartered company.

Sullivan & Cromwell is advising Praxair on the deal. The team was led by New York corporate partners Keith Pagnani, Krishna Veeraraghavan and Frankfurt-based partner Carsten Berrar.

The deal has been under consideration for some time, with the two companies confirming talks over the summer before they were called off in September.

Other megadeals this year have included AT&T’s $85.4bn bid to takeover Time Warner, with Sullivan & Cromwell and Arnold & Porter advising AT&T, while Cravath acted for Time Warner.

Sullivan & Cromwell also scored a spot acting on the largest deal confirmed in the first half of 2016, when the New York firm advised Bayer in $62bn takeover attempt of Monsanto. Allen & Overy is also acting for Bayer on the financing of the transaction under Frankfurt-based finance partner Neil Weiand in another key US/German deal.

Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz advised Monsanto through the potential acquisition. The Bayer/Monsanto deal ultimately closed in September after Bayer returned with an improved $66bn takeover bid.

matthew.field@legalease.co.uk

 

Legal Business

Linklaters, Cleary and White & Case advise as Glencore and Qatar take stake in Rosneft

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Corporate Cleary Gottlieb Steen & HamiltonLinklatersWhite & Case
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Linklaters, Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton and White & Case are advising as Glencore and the Qatari Investment Authority (QIA) offer to take a €10.5bn stake in Russian oil giant Rosneft.

The privatisation deal for 19.5% of Rosneft is yet to be completed, with the Russian state-owned oil firm forced to negotiate the sale around international sanctions. Despite the volatility of the transaction, Russian President Vladimir Putin made a public statement confirming the deal.

Legal Business understands Linklaters is advising Glencore, a long term client of senior partner Charlie Jacobs. Corporate partner and mining sector head David Avery-Gee is also a key adviser to the mining giant. Others from Linklaters team on the deal include finance partner Toby Grimstone and corporate partner Hugo Stolkin.

Cleary Gottlieb is advising the QIA on its side of the deal, while White & Case has been employed by Rosneft on the deal, with Doha-based corporate partner Michiel Visser understood to be acting on the transaction.

The deal to acquire the stake in Rosneft has been highly contentious due to sanctions against Russia from the US and the European Union. Glencore said it would commit just €300m in equity for around 220,000 barrels of oil a day, with the funds for the acquisition of shares provided by QIA.

On Wednesday (7 December), the Kremlin issued a press release claiming the privatisation deal for 19.5% of Rosneft had been completed.

However, Glencore subsequently released a statement claiming the company was still in ‘final stage negotiations’ on the deal.

In another recent mandate for Glencore earlier this year, Linklaters’ Avery-Gee advised on a $2.5bn sale of a stake in its agricultural arm to a Canadian pension fund, which was advised by Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer.

Linklaters, Cleary Gottlieb and White & Case all declined to comment.

matthew.field@legalease.co.uk

Read more in: ‘Rain men – goodbye Harvard Kool-Aid, hello plain speaking at Linklaters’ c-suite’

 

Legal Business

‘Not just blue sky thinking’: Linklaters launches innovation group and pilots coding training

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Innovation Linklaters
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Linklaters has set up a partner-led global innovation team to oversee the firm’s use of technology, including plans to teach its lawyers to code.

Led by a trio of partners including Paul Lewis in London, Sophie Mathur in Singapore and Christian Storck in Frankfurt, the group is tasked with managing the use of technology and assessing future innovation at the firm.

The new team was launched by managing partner Gideon Moore at the firm’s Berlin partners meeting in April. The three partners coordinate developments with different practices at the firm, working with ideas from partners, associates and trainees.

Some of the current firm-wide initiatives include working on artificial intelligence (AI) projects, while the group has also worked to skill-up the firm’s lawyers. One idea from a trainee at the firm led to the launch a pilot programme teaching lawyers the basics of coding and blockchain.

Lewis (pictured) told Legal Business: ‘We see coding as very useful for lawyers who are involved in technologies such as blockchain, smart contracts and AI. But, at an even more basic level, it’s also just useful for lawyers to have a grounding in computational logic – it complements all sorts of traditional legal skills.’

Another initiative came through an associate in the banking practice, growing into a regulatory advice project for clients known internally as Link RFI. ‘We have no monopoly on good ideas,’ said Linklaters’ Lewis, ‘an associate saw the need and helped develop it.’

Lewis added that clients were looking for more from law firms to drive innovation and efficiency: ‘It’s absolutely something general counsel are looking for. The legal industry has evolved in its own little world and there are all sorts of things we can do to be more effective.

‘In the last year or two we have had real buy-in with clients wanting us to be more efficient. For us it’s not just about doing blue sky thinking, but it is about having three partners making sure we work across the board, with ideas come from ground up rather than top down.’

Although Linklaters has kept most of its technology work internal, others in the Magic Circle have gone public on their use of AI and other programmes. Clifford Chance launched a partnership with Canadian AI provider Kira, while Slaughter and May’s senior partner Steve Cooke launched a high-profile deal with Cambridge-based Luminance to develop a new AI product.

matthew.field@legalease.co.uk

Read more on Linklaters in: ‘Rain men – goodbye Harvard Kool-Aid, hello plain speaking at Linklaters’ c-suite’

Legal Business

‘A matter of efficiency’: BAT drops Linklaters from bribery probe

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In-house LinklatersSlaughter and May
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British American Tobacco (BAT) has picked Slaughter and May as its sole legal provider for its investigation into allegations of bribery and corruption, removing Linklaters from the mandate.

A BAT spokesperson said: ‘We have been working with Slaughter and May for some time on this matter, alongside Linklaters. We have decided as a matter of efficiency to consolidate the work in one firm, Slaughter and May.’

‘We continue to have a strong working relationship with Linklaters in a number of areas,’ she added.

Although immediately after the bribery accusations were launched in December 2015 BAT had initially turned to media boutique Harbottle & Lewis to ‘deal with the matter’, in February this year the company appointed Linklaters as it announced a full investigation over the allegations made against its activities in Africa which emerged from a BBC Panorama. US officials have also since called for a further investigation into claims that BAT paid to cover up scandals such as the environmental damage caused by a warehouse fire in Uganda.

The tobacco firm historically instructs Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF). Examples include its challenge of the UK government’s plans to bring in plain cigarette packaging, after parliament approved the Standardised Packaging of Tobacco Products Regulations 2015 and the acquisition of Europe’s largest eCigarette CHIC Group in a bid to enter the e-cigarette market in September 2015. In addition, in October this year BAT instructed HSF again on its offer to acquire the remaining 57.8 % stake in Reynolds American for $47bn.

In June, BAT appointed Irish lawyer Ronan Barry as its new legal chief for Europe to succeed Benoit Belhomme, following an internal shake-up of the company’s legal division.

georgiana.tudor@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

‘A competitive auction’: Clifford Chance and CMS advise as consortium buys majority of National Grid

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Corporate Clifford ChanceCMS UKEversheds SutherlandLinklaters
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Clifford Chance, CMS Cameron McKenna, Linklaters and Eversheds have advised as National Grid has agreed the sale of its gas pipe network with an enterprise value of approximately £13.8bn to a consortium of bidders.

National Grid has agreed to sell a 61% equity interest in its UK gas distribution business to a consortium including Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets, Allianz Capital Partners, Hermes Investment Management, CIC Capital Corporation, Qatar Investment Authority, Dalmore Capital and Amber Infrastructure Limited/International Public Partnerships.

A range of bidders had been mooted throughout the year, including Global Infrastructure Partners, the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Fosun International, the CPP Investment Board and a consortium including Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and Borealis.

Clifford Chance and Camerons acted for the winning consortium. Camerons’ head of corporate Charles Currier led a team on the deal while Clifford Chance corporate partner Brendan Moylan acted alongside finance partners Michael Bates and Stephen Curtis.

Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton advised consortium member Qatar Investment Authority with partners  Michael McDonald and Tihir Sarkar taking the lead.

The Linklaters team advising National Grid was led by corporate partners Roger Barron and Jessamy Gallagher. Eversheds also advised the utility company, leading the business separation and supporting the sale with a team led by corporate partner James Trevis.

The property separation aspects of the deal, which includes the transfer of over 15,000 properties, was led by Addleshaw Goddard real estate partners Ian Smith and Cathy Fearnhead co-ordinating other firms, including Eversheds, DLA Piper and Irwin Mitchell. DLA Piper’s team was led by partners Tim Field and Tom Kelsall.

Legal Business understands Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer advised Fosun on its bid with a team led by international energy and natural resources co-head Laurie McFadden. London private equity head Adrian Maguire and corporate partners Richard Thexton, Alan Wang and Natascha Doll also advised.

Linklaters’ Barron said: ‘It was a very competitive auction, but it shows continued confidence in UK infrastructure assets with an international consortium showing its desire to invest in the UK.’

madeleine.farman@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Linklaters LLPs show profits up 5% as board members share £20m

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Financial results 2015/16 Linklaters
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Linklaters top board members received almost £20m in profits for the 2015/16 financial year, according to the firm’s latest LLP filings.

The 12 members of the Magic Circle firm’s executive committee, and senior partner and chair of the partnership board Charlie Jacobs, shared a total of £19.6m, up 4% on 2014/15 when the board shared £18.9m.

Overall the firm posted an increase to its operating profits by 5%, up to £438.2m for the 2015/16 financial year from £418.5m the year before. The firm restated its previous profits of £402.6m, having changed to fulfil the European Union’s International Financial Reporting Standards.

Turnover increased to more than £1.3bn, with significant increases for the firm in the UK. Turnover from the firm’s London office was up to £628.5m from £596.6m, up by 5%.

The firm’s European offices contributed £444.8m, down slightly on the year before, while growth for its offices in the US remained slow with turnover at the firm £60.2m, up only slightly from £59.5m in 2014/15.

In Asia-Pacific, the firm saw solid growth with turnover up 6% to £158.3m from £148.8m, while in the Middle East revenues fell slightly to £13.5m for 2015/16 from £13.8m.

The average number of partners at the firm rose to 303 for the financial year, compared to 287 in 2015.

Linklaters enjoyed a solid financial year in figures reported this summer. Profit per equity partner hit a new high of £1.4m and the firm surpassed the £1.29bn turnover it achieved in 2007/08.

This year has seen managing partner Gideon Moore take up his role in January, with the firm holding elections for its senior partner position. An election held earlier this year was won by Jacobs, beating new corporate head Aedamar Comiskey and veteran corporate partner Jean-Pierre Blumberg.

Writing in the LLP filing, Jacobs (pictured) said: ‘The firm achieved another strong financial result, with a 3% increase in turnover reported. At constant currency rates income is 5% higher than last year.

He added: ‘The firm has seen strong growth and activity in our M&A, projects, dispute resolution and arbitration, TMT, IP and financial regulation group teams. From a sector perspective we have seen strong activity in consumer, energy and utilities and private equity.’

matthew.field@legalease.co.uk

Read more: ‘Rain men – goodbye Harvard Kool-Aid, hello plain speaking at Linklaters’ c-suite’