Legal Business

Macfarlanes makes up six partners in male-only round

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Partnership promotions MacfarlanesMishcon de Reya
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Macfarlanes has made up six new internal partner promotions across its tax, real estate, corporate and disputes practices, with senior partner Charles Martin (pictured) expressing concern that the group is ‘disappointingly lacking in women.’

Set to take effect from 1 May 2016, the new partners include tax lawyer Peter Abbott, commercial real estate lawyer Nick Barnes, corporate M&A duo Alexander Green and Justin Hope, and litigation specialists James Popperwell and Gideon Sanitt.

Senior partner Charles Martin said the promotions constituted a ‘large group by historic standards but one that is uncharacteristically and disappointingly lacking in women.’

The London-only firm has previously told Legal Business it wishes to improve diversity internally. At June last year it had just 16% female partners, half the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s estimated female partner average of 31% at UK firms.

Martin added in a statement: ‘On a more positive note, the majority of these lawyers trained at the firm, a further vindication of our policy of nurturing home grown talent. We are amongst a small group of firms that has increased trainee intake over recent years. We supplement that carefully with outstanding lawyers from other firms who are attracted by our distinctive offering at a slightly later stage in their careers.’

Although an increase on five promotions last year, the stats still lag on the firm’s 2014 round where nine lawyers were made up – though the 2014 figure had been its highest round since 2005.

It follows Mishcon de Reya making up six to its own partnership across its disputes, real estate, employment, immigration, and tax practices, with a further six taking the role of legal director. The promotions are the first since the firm converted to a limited liability partnership in October last year.

sarah.downey@legalease.co.uk

Macfarlanes partner promotions 2016:

Peter Abbott, tax

Nick Barnes, commercial real estate

Alexander Green, M&A

Justin Hope, M&A

James Popperwell, litigation

Gideon Sanitt, litigation

Mishcon partner promotions in full:

Steven Bostock, immigration

Stephen Diosi, tax

Sarah Houghton, disputes

Kirpal Kaur, commercial real estate

Jennifer Millins, employment

Maria Patsalos, immigration

Legal Business

Mishcon secures another lateral hire from Addleshaw Goddard in continued disputes push

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Mishcon de Reya has today (14 March) announced the arrival of former Addleshaw Goddard partner Sonia Campbell as it continues the steady expansion of its commercial disputes team.

Campbell’s arrival sees her join former colleague Richard Leedham (pictured), who left his position as Addleshaws’ head of insurance at the end of 2014. Another former Addleshaws partner, Annabel Thomas, also joined Mishcon de Reya’s dispute resolution department in 2015. Thomas was part of the 11-strong team that departed Addleshaws for Enyo Law in 2010, alongside the boutique’s founders, Simon Twigden, Pietro Marino and Michael Green.

‘[Campbell] obviously worked quite closely with me at Addleshaws,’ Leedham told Legal Business. ‘We’re building out the areas we’ve invested in with quality people. That’s what’s exciting; that we’re able to attract the very best in the sectors that we’ve identified as areas we want to grow.’

After over 15 years at the firm, Campbell only became a partner Addleshaws in 2015. She specialises in insurance litigation, focusing on financial services, pharmaceutical companies, employers’ liability, environmental disputes, professional negligence, construction, property and retail.

‘I am excited to work with Richard and to be involved in the expansion of Mishcon de Reya’s insurance capability,’ Campbell said. ‘This is a growing market with increasing demand.’

Mishcon’s head of dispute resolution department Kasra Nouroozi added: ‘We are very pleased to welcome Sonia to the department. Her expertise in insurance litigation will complement our existing offering as we continue to develop the practice.’

A spokesperson for Addleshaw Goddard said: ‘We are sorry to see Sonia leave after her first year as a partner and she goes with our best wishes. Mark Pring leads the insurance litigation practice, which is increasingly focused on assisting policyholders as well as insurance-related assignments for some of our largest corporate clients. The practice is especially busy at the moment following an increase in work from brokers, offshore law firms and key AG clients – much of the work having an international flavour.’

The development of an insurance litigation practice comes as part of a concerted effort by Mishcon to develop its commercial disputes offering, a strategy set out by managing partner Kevin Gold last year. Mishcon is currently advising several Lloyds Banking Group institutional clients after they broke away from the shareholder action group involved in a £420m court battle against the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS).

madeleine.farman@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Mishcon signs deal with software provider to launch separate e-discovery business

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Mishcon de Reya has launched a new venture with e-discovery provider Unified and software developer kCura, agreeing a fixed-price three-year contract that it claims will save clients between 10% and 30% on large disclosure exercises.

Named Mishcon Discover, the law firm will be the first in the UK to provide e-discovery services in partnership with a technology provider.

The initiative is being developed by e-disclosure manager Richard Legge (pictured) alongside disputes managing associate Edward Carder. The business will be established under a new limited liability partnership and offer analytical services, including predictive coding, to help with disclosure requirements for electronic documents in litigation.

Unified and kCura will provide the software, Relativity, and Mishcon will provide consultancy services and work with clients to manage document reviews.

The firm carried out a tender process with potential suppliers for the fixed-price contract, which Mishcon expects to roll over when the term ends in 2019.

Speaking to Legal Business, Legge said: ‘Law firms are thinking about this but no one has had the guts to do it. It’s conservatism…you have to have a bullish outlook about the future.’

He added that a key advantage with its new offering is the availability of cheaper predictive coding, which is meant to help lawyers discard irrelevant documents quickly. ‘The licensing arrangement we have will allow us to provide Relativity to clients at a lower cost. At the moment it is a cost which for a general client would range between £50 and £150 per gigabyte. That’s why there’s a massive reluctance in the UK to get clients over that first hurdle and use that technology.’

Carder said the move was part of a wider push toward technology initiatives, as evidenced by Mishcon’s hire of Nick West from Axiom as chief strategy officer in January.

He added: ‘This is a financial risk. It’s taking a view on where we think the market will go. We want to see how technology will change our business – that’s why we hired West.’

Despite its relatively recent introduction into English litigation, the use of predictive coding in disclosure was given the green light by the English courts by Master Matthews in February.

sarah.downey@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Mishcon de Reya launches e-discovery business

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Firm aims to save clients up to 30% on disclosure

Mishcon de Reya has launched a new venture with e-discovery provider Unified and software developer kCura, agreeing a fixed-price three-year contract that it claims will save clients between 10% and 30% on large disclosure exercises.

Legal Business

Dismissed: Mishcon de Reya defeats former QPR owner’s £5m professional negligence suit

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The high-profile professional negligence dispute taken against Mishcon de Reya by former Queens Park Rangers chairman Antonio Caliendo has been dismissed by London’s High Court.

The dispute arose over a £5.5m sale agreement of Queens Park Rangers (QPR) shares by Caliendo to Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone and Italian businessman Flavio Briatore in 2007, an agreement that was executed by former Mishcon de Reya partner Kevin Steele on behalf of Caliendo.

The allegation was that the terms of the documents entered into for the transaction differed materially from terms which Caliendo instructed Mishcon to implement. The claim also said the documents failed to provide for payment of a further £2m to Caliendo in the event QPR was promoted to the Premier League within five years (which actually happened); and that the documents failed to provide for payment by the purchasers of over £1m of debt.

Heard throughout December 2015, the decision in the case was handed down today (4 February).

Justice Arnold said: ‘I conclude that the claimants’ expenditure on the defence of the QPRH Proceedings was not caused by any breach of duty on the part of Mishcon de Reya… I conclude that the breaches of duty complained of did not in any event cause the claimants any loss.’

Counsel for Mishcon de Reya submitted that Caliendo was not a truthful witness, relying upon no less than 24 examples of what was contended to be false evidence. The judge assessed that Caliendo was not a witness on whose evidence he could safely rely, stating in his judgment the case ‘involved arguments of legal ingenuity but no merit.’

Wilberforce Chambers’ Alan Gourgey QC, and 4 New Square’s Katie Powell were instructed by DLA Piper for the Caliendo and his interests while Wilberforce Chambers’ trio Ian Croxford QC, Clare Stanley QC and Jonathan Chew were instructed by Robin Simon for Mischon.

The case is the second Mishcon has successfully fought in the last year. In February 2015, the firm faced a separate $3.7m claim over allegations it dishonestly assisted a ‘crook’ client who used money meant to refinance a hotel resort in Orlando on a playboy lifestyle, including a £170,000 Maybach car and a £33,000 diamond bracelet. That claim was dismissed at the High Court.

sarah.downey@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Mishcon de Reya: The dangers of repeat appointments

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Karel Daele

Partner, Mishcon de Reya

karel.daele@mishcon.com

The issue of repeat appointments has been news in International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) cases in recent times, but what’s the concern? The independence of the arbitrator is one of the cornerstones of arbitration. An independent arbitrator is one who has no close relationship with a party in the arbitration or its counsel, be it of a financial, professional or personal nature. It is crucial that an arbitrator has no such relationships because they might induce the arbitrator to decide in favour of one of the parties, irrespective of the merits of the case.

Legal Business

RBS dispute: Mishcon de Reya instructed as Lloyds Bank claimants break away from shareholder group

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Several Lloyds Banking Group institutional clients have instructed Mishcon de Reya after breaking away from the shareholder action group involved in a multi-billion pound court battle against the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS).

The nine claimants have left the RBS Shareholder Action group which continues to be represented by Signature Litigation.

The action is brought against the bank’s former chief executive Fred Goodwin and three other directors, and relates to a rights issue in April 2008, in which RBS sold its shares at £2 per share. The claimants allege that the prospectus on which the rights issue was based was ‘defective’ and contained material misstatements and omissions.

The nine pension investment subsidiaries are suing Government-owned RBS for £420m in damages through nine of its pensions and investment management subsidiaries, in what is considered the first class-action style dispute in the English courts. Having gone on the record in court last week, Mishcon de Reya disputes partner Richard Leedham is now leading the case for claimants connected to Lloyds Banking Group.

Those claimants include Scottish Widows, Scottish Widows Unit Funds, Pensions Management (SWF), Scottish Widows Unit Trust Managers, Clerical Medical Investment Group, St Andrews Life Assurance, Clerical Medical Managed Funds, Halifax Life and HBOS Investment Fund Managers.

A spokesperson from the RBS Shareholders Action group said: ‘It’s always been a surprise that Lloyds, a part state-owned bank, should wish to be involved in an action group against another majority state owned bank, and so their wish now to go their own way and to terminate their contract with the action group is not entirely unexpected.

‘This changes nothing in relation to this group’s determination to obtain justice for our members, and we are delighted with the progress we are making following the appointment of Signature Litigation.’

In November last year Bird & Bird lost its high-profile advisory role on the dispute following a disagreement over fees, a significant instruction that was given to Fladgate.

By early August this year funding for the case had run out, according to a lawyer close to the dispute. As such, disputes boutique Signature had won the instruction from the shareholders and had helped secure third-party funding for the case, led by founding partner Graham Huntley.

It is a long-running and complex dispute: with a hearing on liability scheduled for December 2016, there have been eight case management conferences as of this month before Mr Justice Hildyard QC.

The RBS Shareholder Action group is the largest of three currently in dispute with RBS, with the others represented by Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan and Stewarts Law.

Herbert Smith Freehills continues to defend RBS in both cases, with a team lead by partners Adam Johnson, Simon Clarke, Kirsten Massey and James Norris-Jones.

sarah.downey@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Revolving Doors: Pinsent Masons, Dentons and Mishcon make key appointments

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Strategic recruitment DentonsMishcon de ReyaPinsent Masons
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Pinsent Masons, Dentons, Mishcon de Reya,  and Crowell & Moring are among a raft of firms which have made key appointments in past weeks. 

Pinsent Masons has expanded its technology media and telecoms team with the addition of Reg Dhanjal as a partner, he joins the firm from DAC Beachcroft where he made partner in 2012.

Staying in the TMT area, Dentons has strengthened its London team by employing Taylor Wessing’s head of communications Tracey Sheehan, to bring the number of lawyers in the London TMT team to more than 40.

Crowell & Moring has picked up DLA Piper’s head of healthcare Jonathan Lisle to head the firm’s London corporate practice. Lisle’s practice focuses on general private M&A across all sectors and has experience in cross-border M&A.

Simmons & Simmons has expanded its international IP group by hiring Baker Botts partner Mark Heaney. Heaney specialises in computers, electronics and telecommunication.

Howard Kennedy has appointed high profile lawyer Jonathan Metliss as a consultant. The former founding partner of SJ Berwin is also a consultant at Nexus Investment Ventures. Howard Kennedy chief executive Ian Harvey said: ‘Jonathan has long been a friend of the firm, and we are thrilled to have him as part of our team. His approach very much echoes our own and his contacts are unrivalled.  He will be a real asset to the firm.’

National firm DWF has appointed Eversheds partner James Lupton to its public sector team based in Manchester. Lupton has more than 15 years’ experience and specialises in legal issues which arise in delivering public private partnerships.

In the US Cahill Gordon & Reindel has announced Pierre Gentin, formerly of Credit Suisse AG, has joined the firm as partner in its New York litigation practice group. He had served as global head of litigation and regulatory investigations for the bank. In Washington Kirkland & Ellis has appointed Mario Mancuso to lead the national security and committee on foreign investment in the United States practice.

In non-legal appointments, Mishcon de Reya has taken SJ Berwin’s IT director Simon Kosminsky and appointed him chief information officer.  Hogan Lovell’s chair Nicholas Cheffings will succeed Allen & Overy senior partner David Morley as chairman of diversity movement Prime next year when Morley retires at the end of his term as senior partner at A&O. 

victoria.young@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Life During Law: Kevin Gold, Mishcon de Reya

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My career has been one of misfortune for others and fortune for me. I had two senior partners that died – one was very young, Alan Rosin at Bayer Rosin – he was in his 40s, I was about 30. As a result of his death, which was a huge tragedy, I inherited a practice.

Bayer Rosin was a unique firm. The partners were either South African or East African. South Africa was just coming through apartheid and so on his death the opportunities presented themselves. Many firms wanted to merge with us as we had a strong practice in the region. One was Mishcon… I brought about half the firm with me, others went their own way. The second person was the then-senior partner Martin Bayer. He came to Mishcon but died a few years after we joined.

Legal Business

Revolving doors: Mishcon loses City funds chief to OMM as firms bulk up in Asia

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Strategic recruitment Eversheds SutherlandMishcon de ReyaO'Melveny & Myers
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O’Melveny & Myers (OMM) made a strategic move last week as it continues to ramp up its City office with the hire of Mishcon de Reya’s co-head of funds and financial services while Eversheds also looked to bolster its London presence. In Asia, Morrison & Foerster made a high-profile hire when it recruited Winston & Strawn’s Asia head of litigation.

Eve Ellis re-joins OMM, having previously been counsel in the firm’s investment funds group. She left the firm in 2010 to make partner at Charles Russell and then moved to Mishcon in May last year. Focused on UK and EU regulatory matters affecting funds and financial institutions, Ellis’ client base revolves around private equity but also covers real estate, hedge and emerging market funds, and institutional investors.

The second recruit to the firm’s London office, she will join new European corporate head and private placement specialist Andrew Weiler, who also starts today (3 August), from White & Case.

Eversheds, after having seen a swathe of real estate partners exit to King & Wood Mallesons following William Naunton and Clive Jones, has also expanded in London, improving its planning offering with the hire of a partner and three associates.

Morag Thomson, who was senior partner at Marrons before its merger with Shakespeares in 2013, joins the firm as partner along with a senior associate. Eversheds has also recruited a principal associate from Bircham Dyson Bell, Richard Marsh, and a senior associate from Forsters, Matt Nixon. Thomson covers both contentious and non-contentious work and specialises in major projects and infrastructure developments.

Meanwhile, MoFo boosted its Asia practice with Winston & Strawn’s regional head of litigation Adrian Yip.

Yip, who had been with the Chicago-bred firm for five years, has a broad range of experience in Hong Kong and Greater China, covering arbitration, criminal prosecutions, competition law and corporate investigations. He joins with 3 associates as the US firm looks to build up its Hong Kong disputes team – to that end it has also relocated Craig Celniker, chair of its disputes practice from Tokyo in 2013.

The move mirrors Yip’s arrival at Winston & Strawn, which he joined in 2010, also with three associates, after five years at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe.

Ashurst joined MoFo in building up its Asia offering with the addition of Andrew Digges in its Singapore office. Digges, who makes partner in the move, joins from Allen & Overy where he was a foreign legal consultant at the Magic Circle firm’s associated office in Jakarta, Ginting & Reksodiputro.

Digges will join the firm’s resources and infrastructure team with 15 years’ experience garnered on South East Asian project work, in particular advising on Indonesian power deals.

The firm’s head of resources and infrastructure, Mark Elsey, commented: ‘Resources and infrastructure is an area of key strategic focus for the firm. Andrew is a seasoned and highly regarded practitioner who will add significant depth to our offering in this area in the Asia region as well as further enhancing our market leading global platform.’

michael.west@legalease.co.uk