Legal Business

Freshfields and Linklaters last of the big four to match US associate bonuses

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Associates Freshfields Bruckhaus DeringerLinklaters
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The remaining Magic Circle firms with a US presence have now matched Cravath, Swain & Moore‘s associate bonus payouts with Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Linklaters the latest to send out memos, following Clifford Chance (CC) and Allen & Overy (A&O).

Freshfields’ US managing partner Peter Lyons sent out an internal memo to its US based associates last week confirming associates could expect their bonuses in one month. The memo, leaked to Above The Law, said its associates from the class of 2008 will receive $100,000, while 2015 and 2016 associates will both receive $15,000 (with the latter year awarded on a pro-rated basis).

Associates in the class of 2010 will take home $90,000, while 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014 associates will pocket $80,000, $65,000, $50,000 and $25,000 respectively.

Linklaters’ US head Scott Bowie also confirmed US associates it would match the Cravath bonus scale. Associates ‘who are in good standing with the firm, subject to the usual pro-rations for part-time schedule and leaves of absence’ can expect the same amount of money in their pockets on December 30, according to the leaked email.

A&O and CC matched bonus levels rewarded by leading Wall Street firms last week. CC Americas chief Evan Cohen confirmed its US associates would receive their bonuses on January 13, 2017 with A&O’s US managing partner David Krischer confirming the same bonus levels and pay scales.

The Wall Street elite have made concerted efforts for some years to attract junior talent to the ranks, and in late November Cravath associates were told their year-end bonuses. Newly-qualified associates in 2016 and 2015 will receive $15,000. The bonus scale means 2014 associates will receive $25,000, 2013 will receive $50,000, while associates from 2009 will earn up to $100,000 in bonuses. The scale remains on a par with last years’ US bonuses.

madeleine.farman@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Linklaters and DLA Piper advise on City’s tallest skyscraper 1 Undershaft

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Property DLA PiperLinklaters
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The second tallest building in Western Europe is set for the City, as Linklaters and DLA Piper picked up key real estate mandates advising on the new skyscraper.

Second only to the Shard in height in London, 1 Undershaft – nicknamed ‘The Trellis’ due to its distinctive crosshatched design – will be the tallest building in the City of London at 73 storeys and more than 300 metres.

Linklaters advised on all aspects of the planning application by Singapore-based developers Aroland Holdings. Real estate planning partner David Watkins led the deal for Linklaters. DLA partner Ian Brierley advised Aroland Holdings on other mainstream real estate issues.

Linklaters’ Watkins told Legal Business: ‘It is certainly an exciting deal. It will become the apex of the cluster of tall buildings in the City. It helps to show business as usual for the City and speaks volumes that foreign investors are willing to invest in London.’

The new building to be built on the site of the Aviva Tower, which will be demolished, and is due to be completed at some point in the 2020s. Planning permission approval was granted this week by the planning and transport committee of the City of London Corporation.

The building will provide 130,000 sq metres of office accommodation and 2,000 sq metres of retail space, housing up to 10,000 workers.

The original design would have seen 1 Undershaft come to the same size as the Shard, however the overall height was reduced by planning restrictions on London’s airspace. It will overlook other distinct buildings in the City, including the Gherkin and 122 Leadenhall Street.

The deal for the building does not yet have a clear value, however other major skyscrapers in London have topped £400m. The Shard was valued at £435m with a height of 309 metres, just above 1 Undershaft’s 304.6 metres tall.

The new 233 metre development for Landmark Pinnacle at Canary Wharf is set to cost £320m, with financing by City Pride advised by Taylor Wessing, while 122 Leadenhall Street, known as ‘The Cheesegrater, came to £286m.

matthew.field@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Rising star Sum quits for Sidley Austin in blow for Linklaters banking practice

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Strategic recruitment LinklatersSidley Austin
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Rising restructuring star Yen Sum will exit Linklaters‘ banking practice to join US firm Sidley Austin after eight years with the Magic Circle firm.

Before joining Linklaters, Sum trained at the firm’s Australian alliance partner Allens. She joined Linklaters in 2002, moving to Barclays as a leveraged finance specialist in 2005 before returning to the Magic Circle firm in 2008 and making partner in 2010.

Sum is rated in The Legal 500 for her restructuring and insolvency work. Her experience includes leading on the £2.8bn restructuring of French clothing retailer Vivarte and acting on the £2.3bn restructuring of directories business Yell.

The Magic Circle partner will join Sidley a year after the firm also saw veteran restructuring partner David Ereira move to US firm Paul Hastings. Ereira was a rare lateral hire within the Magic Circle, having moved from Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer to Linklaters in 2007.

Linklaters global banking group is led by Tony Bugg, the former head of restructuring and insolvency, a practice which is now led by global co-heads Rebecca Jarvis and Richard Bussell.

In February, Bugg had picked Sum to lead a push for greater market penetration in the shadow banking space. Sum had previously worked in Barclays Capital’s leveraged finance unit.

Sum will join former Linklaters veteran corporate partner Stephen Blackshaw at Sidley, who joined the US firm’s London office in 2012. Blackshaw is currently co-head of corporate at the London office, having spent 14 years at Linklaters, founding the firm’s Amsterdam office and leading its corporate group.

Linklaters relatively stable banking practice was previously led by now managing partner Gideon Moore. In private equity, the Magic Circle firm has seen more losses to US rivals, with five partners moving to Kirkland & Ellis in the past two years.

Sidley has sought to strengthen its base in the City with a six-partner hire earlier this year from Kirkland, allowing the US firm boost its London private equity offering.

Sidley co-chair of corporate restructuring and bankruptcy James Conlan said: ‘Yen has an excellent reputation in the market and is a welcome addition to our practice and to Sidley. She will also work with our growing team of private equity and finance lawyers as we expand the firm’s offering to clients in situations across the UK, the rest of Europe, Asia and the US.’

Linklaters said in a statement: ‘We can confirm that Yen Sum will be retiring from the firm at the end of the year. We thank her for contribution to the firm and wish her well.’

matthew.field@legalease.co.uk

Read more on the City’s top banking teams in the feature: ‘Golden goodbyes – changing faces and fortunes at the City’s top banking teams’

 

Legal Business

Eversheds and Linklaters act as L&G finalises biggest pensions buyout of the year

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Commercial Eversheds SutherlandLinklaters
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Eversheds has advised Legal & General Group on the largest pensions risk transfer of 2016 as the insurer takes on £1.1bn of the Vickers Group Pension Scheme.

Linklaters advised the scheme, part of Rolls-Royce Group, which covers around 11,000 members. The team was led by Linklaters corporate partner Victoria Sander.

Eversheds corporate insurance partner Hugo Laing and pensions partner Mark Latimour advised Legal & General on the buyout.

The de-risking market has faced some headwinds following the introduction of Solvency II. The EU regulation required insurers to hold more capital to reduce the risk of insolvency, but insurers have worried it would have an impact on pricing and impact de-risking deals.

Eversheds’ Laing (pictured) told Legal Business the deal showed the buyout was ‘a good statement of the health of the market’.

Laing added: ‘2016 brought some perceived challenges for the de-risking market in the form of Solvency II. However, the de-risking market is very busy indeed and the size of this transaction demonstrates simply a peak in a large number of transactions we have seen in the past six months.’

Eversheds is a long-standing adviser to insurance and investment giant Legal & General, having previously acted on the purchase of a 50% stake in MediaCity UK in 2015 and on a £252m real estate portfolio deal in 2014.

Other significant deals this year have seen Travers Smith, Debevoise & Plimpton and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer advise on Canada Pension Plan Investment’s deal to buy Lloyds of London syndicate Ascot Underwriting for $1.1bn.

Ascot, part of American International Group (AIG), instructed Travers Smith senior partner Chris Hale, while Canada Pension Plan Investment was advised by Debevoise partner Alexander Cochran and Nicholas Potter. AIG enlisted Freshfields corporate insurance partner George Swan.

matthew.field@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Linklaters votes for Moore’s lockstep reforms but controversial features dropped

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Salaries Linklaters
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Linklaters partners have voted today (3 November) to accept changes to the firm’s lockstep that will provide more flexibility in moving partners on the ladder.

The changes come from a review of lockstep by managing partner Gideon Moore after he was elected last year.

Proposals reported by Legal Business last month are understood to be set to go ahead, according to partners at the firm.

Linklaters currently has a relatively pure lockstep model running from 10-25 points, with country variable ‘discounts’ used in some foreign markets like Germany and Belgium (respectively equivalent to 90% and 70% of UK partners). Under the proposals it would be doubled to range from 20-50.

A gate will be introduced at the eight progression, and there will be five year reviews for partners who have reached the top of equity in order to make it easier to move partners down the ladder.

A partner at Linklaters said: ‘I don’t think that the partnership is feeling remotely negative towards the proposals. It’s not dramatically changing the nature of the lockstep.’

Legal Business also understands that Moore (pictured) consulted the partnership on proposals with more radical options, with ‘superpoints’ and extra bonuses for high performing partners considered, however these were ultimately dropped.

Another Linklaters partner said: ‘Gideon and Charlie Jacobs have worked hard to get buy-in from partners. Some of the more controversial features have been dropped.’

At Linklaters, top of equity partners pull in around £1.86m, with profit per equity partner currently £1.4m.

Magic Circle firms have recently made moves to introduce more flexibility to their lockstep systems. Allen & Overy introduced a system offering the potential for ‘superpoints’, while Clifford Chance launched a review of where partners should sit on its lockstep in order to retain star partners.

A partner at another Magic Circle firm said: ‘There has been focus on law firms towards equivalence at the performance end. It’s a balancing act, but it’s not the end of lockstep.’

matthew.field@legalease.co.uk

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

Legal Business

‘The next generation’: Linklaters appoints new corporate group heads as Comiskey takes charge

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Corporate Linklaters
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Linklaters has reshuffled the leadership of its corporate team, moving a number of key roles down to rising stars following changes to senior management in the department.

Recently appointed global corporate head Aedamar Comiskey (pictured) has handed three of its group head roles to the next generation of corporate lawyers at the firm.

Simon Branigan, Nick Rumsby and Iain Wagstaff took over three of the firm’s corporate groups in September, each managing around ten partners and up to 40 trainees and associates. Energy specialist Owen Clay, a more senior Linklaters lawyer who made partner in 2000, will remain head of the fourth corporate group. The three take over the leadership roles for four year terms.

Rumsby’s appointment comes off the back of a summer dealing with the $108bn purchase of SABMiller by brewing giant Anheuser-Busch InBev. Branigan works with key client RBS as well as mining companies such as Anglo American. Wagstaff specialises in public and private M&A.

In addition, David Avery-Gee has been made head of the firm’s mining sector, taking on the job as Linklaters rainmaker Charlie Jacobs moves into his role as senior partner.

The moves follow the promotion of Comiskey to global head of corporate this summer after she stood for senior partner earlier in the year. Former corporate head Matthew Middleditch took on the role of global corporate chair at the firm, based in Hong Kong.

The three group heads replace corporate partners Roger Barron, John Lane and Stuart Bedford, who was also London corporate head, as their terms end. Bedford is set to exit the firm to join private equity house LeapFrog Investments as general counsel. The job of City corporate head has since been absorbed by Comiskey.

Comiskey told Legal Business: ‘We have a new leadership team in corporate and have moved a number of the leadership roles within the department in London down a generation. It’s great to see the next generation of partners coming through very strongly, complementing the talents and experience of our more senior partners.’

Separately, Linklaters announced yesterday (2 November) that Claudia Parzani would become Western Europe Regional managing partner. She takes over from Pieter Riemer for a four-year term.

matthew.field@legalease.co.uk

Read more on the City’s leading corporate teams in: ‘The M&A Report: To have and to have not’

Legal Business

Freshfields and Linklaters lead on largest post-Brexit IPO

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Corporate Freshfields Bruckhaus DeringerLinklaters
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ConvaTec’s $1.8bn float bright spot in a subdued autumn market

Linklaters and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer are advising on medical products company ConvaTec’s anticipated $1.8bn initial public offering (IPO).

Legal Business

Rising Star: David Avery-Gee, Linklaters

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Corporate Linklaters
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Key clients: Glencore, Lloyds Banking Group, Alinda

Partner since 2011

I always wanted to do M&A. I used to look at the financial papers at university and was always interested in the deals. As a Linklaters trainee I decided very quickly I wanted to do corporate. I enjoyed the transactions and being at the centre of client relationships.

Legal Business

Olswang and Grant Thornton charged £8.4m for BHS sale, Sir Philip Green claims

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CMS UKGrant ThorntonLinklaters
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Months after the collapse of BHS, Sir Philip Green has revealed that Olswang and Grant Thornton charged purchaser Retail Acquisitions Limited a collective £8.4m for the transaction.

During an investigation into the demise of BHS, MPs led by Labour MP Frank Field called on the law firms involved to disclose further details of their dealings. Linklaters and Nabarro released what they billed at £1.2m and £217,000 respectively to their clients, Green’s Arcadia Group and Taveta Group.

Olswang had refused to provide details of its fees and cited client privilege.

Speaking in his first major interview since the event to ITV News yesterday (18 October), Green (pictured), who has faced criticism for his role in BHS’s demise, said both Olswang and Grant Thornton were ‘well regarded professional firms, that weren’t afraid to charge…they charged £8.4m for their services.’

Green further stated that ‘these two companies never got interviewed by the Select Committee, or the correct people didn’t get interviewed by the Select Committee, in spite of Mr Field stating, when he was told I don’t want reserves from the bench, he never called for the two principle people from the two companies to ask they what work they had done/ hadn’t done.’

Stressing that while he wasn’t ‘making an excuse’ he felt that ‘with two prominent advisers, there were two or three other lawyers in the team…we felt they had relevant people around them, there were different letters that came, different views, letters came on finance being offered, so we thought there was a good opportunity for someone to take the business forward, with money, that was provided and give it a fresh start. Unfortunately that didn’t work out.’

Green, who chairs the Arcadia Group which includes Topshop and Burton, bought British Home Stores in 2000 for £200 million, rebranding it BHS. Having faced intense market competition in 2006, the business was eventually sold to Retail Acquisitions, led by Dominic Chappell, for £1 in 2015. Chappell told the inquiry in June he was considering legal action against Green.

A plan to turn BHS around failed and it collapsed into administration in April 2016, with many blaming Green for taking big dividends and leaving the company with a huge pension deficit.

Green has since commissioned the legal opinion of Lord David Pannick QC of Blackstone Chambers who dismissed the conclusions of the inquiry criticising Green over the fall of BHS, describing it as ‘bizarre,’ ‘unstoppable,’ and ‘beset by serious factual errors.’

It comes ahead of a House of Commons vote on Green’s conduct, which will determine whether he can keep his knighthood.

sarah.downey@legalease.co.uk