Pinsent Masons is continuing its sustained international expansion drive with a new Australian arm in Perth and the hire of four infrastructure and energy partners from Norton Rose Fulbright (NRF).
The UK law firm’s new Perth branch, to open in the autumn, will be its third Australian office after Sydney and Melbourne and its fifth international launch in the last 18 months.
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Pinsent Masons picked up the key advisory mandate as embattled British construction company Carillion was handed a lifeline this summer thanks to the award of two contracts worth £1.3bn on the High Speed Two (HS2) project.
Carillion is to build two sections of the UK’s second high-speed rail project from London to Birmingham along with its joint venture partners Kier Group and France’s Eiffage Génie Civil, which will take at least five years to complete.
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China remains one of the most challenging markets to operate in profitably but the lure of its huge economy continues to lure investment from leading law firms with Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) this week announcing the recruitment of three projects partners from Pinsent Masons.
The move – touted as positioning HSF for the Asian giant’s huge infra plans – sees the firm recruit Pinsents head of China Hew Kian Heong, who leaves Pinsents after 22 years. The Beijing-based construction and engineering specialist has advised China’s National Development and Reform Commission and is also an experienced arbitrator.
He is joined by fellow partner Ellen Zhang, who joins HSF after 14 years at Pinsents. She worked in the UK law firm’s London, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Beijing offices, before becoming leading partner of the project and finance Asia-Pacific team. Construction law expert Michelle Li also transfers with all three joining as partners. She spent 15 years at Pinsents and has been based in China since 2005, mainly advising Chinese state-owned enterprises.
HSF now has 27 partners and over 170 lawyers across its Beijing, Hong Kong and Shanghai offices. The Anglo Australian law firm is seeking to take advantage of projects generated by China’s so-called ‘Belt and Road’ initiative to boost trade by improving connections and infrastructure through Europe and Asia.
‘Our firm has already captured a healthy amount of Chinese project and investment work generated by China’s $900bn “Belt and Road” initiative,’ said HSF chief executive Mark Rigotti (pictured). ‘Adding the transactional and disputes experience on complex projects offered by Hew, Ellen and Michelle will complement our existing team perfectly.’
The announcement that HSF is hiring in China comes one day after the news that it has lost a 12-lawyer real estate team in Paris to CMS.
A spokesperson for Pinsents confirmed that three partners will be leaving the firm, adding: ‘While we’re always sorry to see colleagues move on, our platform in Asia-Pacific and strategic focus on Chinese outbound investment has never been stronger. That gives us significant scope for further investment in what remains a key market.’ The top 25 UK law firm also pointed to the fact that its revenue in Asia-Pacific has grown by around 87% in the past three years, and it retains a team of 55 staff in China.
With growing pressure on firms to increase efficiency in the delivery of legal services through technology, as many as 100 legal personal assistant (PA) roles at Pinsent Masons are at risk of redundancy following a consultation launched by the firm.
The consultation will end by November and could affect any of the firm’s UK offices.
The role of team coordinator will be affected by the consultation, however Pinsents will create new PA manager roles, as well as around 50 new team administrator roles, which team coordinators will be eligible to apply for. Pinsents currently operates on a ratio of four and a half fee-earners to every PA.
In a statement the firm said that it has invested significantly in technology and ‘other resources’ and as a consequence ‘resourcing levels among PA staff and the needs of the business are no longer aligned’.
A spokesperson added: ‘For that reason we will be entering into a consultation with our PA team. While it is hard to be precise about the outcome of the consultation at this point, we have not ruled out the reallocation of resource or redundancy of some roles. We will do everything possible to support those impacted during what we recognise is an unsettling time.’
News of Pinsents’ consultation follows a similar move recently by insurance firm BLM.
In June BLM cut 50 overall business support roles following the firm’s investment in technology and flexible working among lawyers. It is understood that voluntary redundancy was offered was to over 300 employees in the firm.
And last October, 180 staff at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer were offered voluntary redundancy as part of a London secretarial support staff review that was expected to bring headcount in the City down to about 160.
As part of the review, PAs were given the option to apply to become executive assistants, a role which involves more responsibility and pay. If PAs were unsuccessful in applying for that role, they were given the choice to either remain as a PA or take voluntary redundancy. Around 40 PAs were promoted to executive assistant in January.
After a subdued 2015/16 financial year, Pinsents broke the £400m barrier with revenues up 11% from £382.3m to £423.1m in 2016/2017. Profit per equity partner (PEP) jumped 14% from £552,000 to £625,000. Excluding the impact of currency fluctuations, the firm achieved like-for-like turnover growth of 7%.
Meanwhile the firm’s 2015/16 LLP accounts, published in January, showed that key management compensation increased 2% from £5m to £5.1m.
International law firms have returned from the summer break in acquisition mode, with Berwin Leighton Paisner, Bird & Bird, Taylor Wessing, Reed Smith and Pinsent Masons all hiring in London and Asia, while Sidley, Dentons and Osborne Clarke are expanding their continental European footprint.
Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) has this morning (11 September) announced the appointment of three new international disputes partners to further strengthen its litigation and corporate risk (LCR) practice.
George Burn joins BLP from Vinson & Elkins as head of international arbitration later this month, while Gavin Margetson, formerly of Herbert Smith Freehills, has been hired to lead the firm’s regional arbitration hub in Singapore. Based in London, Richard Chalk is an international disputes and investigations partner, who was previously at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in London and Hong Kong.
BLP global head of LCR Nathan Willmott said these appointments are a direct result of a recent LCR strategy review. ‘The strategy review was an important milestone for us as a department. With so many of the team involved, it’s meant our future really is a collective effort. These hires all demonstrate our intent to get on with the job and start delivering on a global scale’.
Bird & Bird has added to its equity capital market capabilities with the hire of Clive Hopewell and Adam Carling from Charles Russell Speechlys (CRS).
Hopewell will lead the practice expansion in London, building on the Middle East contacts made while heading CRS’s operations in Bahrain. Speaking to Legal Business, he said: ‘Bird & Bird has a very substantial presence in Europe, Asia and Australia. The firm has an established office in Abu Dhabi and an established presence in Dubai. I’ll go there two or three times a year to help introduce them to clients.’
Carling has experience in Africa and has advised on mining deals on the continent. Neil Blundell, head of Bird & Bird’s London corporate group, said the hires would ‘further increase our reputation in the mining and oil and gas sectors’.
Meanwhile, Taylor Wessing turned to Paul Hastings to bring Mark Rajbenbach into its real estate team.
Keith Barnett, head of real estate at the firm – which now has more than 60 lawyers in its core London real estate group and more than 100 working on real estate across the London base – said the addition of Rajbenbach was ‘very exciting for our team, particularly in corporate real estate and the hotels area’.
Rajbenbach was at SJ Berwin & Co before joining Paul Hastings, and his clients have included Invesco Real Estate, Starwood Capital, Evans Randall, Hilton, London & Regional, Schroders and RRAM Energy.
Elsewhere, Reed Smith has hired Leith Moghli as a partner in its global private equity and investment funds practice in London. Moghli left Kirkland & Ellis in April, where he had been a salaried partner since October 2014 in the funds practice.
Pinsent Masons has appointed Chris Richardson to lead its new forensic accounting service (FAS). He joins the firm after 16 years in the fraud investigations team at EY.
In Brussels, Sidley Austin has hired Wim Nauwelaerts from Hunton & Williams. Nauwelaerts advises on EU and international data protection and privacy compliance, including preparation for the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
He told Legal Business: ‘Sidley Austin is one of the prominent firms in Brussels and I am very excited about the prospect of expanding their global data protection practice.’
Also in Europe, Dentons strengthened its M&A and capital markets practices with the addition of Shaohui Zhang, who joins as head of the China desk in Luxembourg from Allen & Overy, and Antonella Brambilla in the corporate and M&A practice in Milan from local firm Chiomenti.
Dentons Italy managing partner Federico Sutti told Legal Business: ‘In Italy we see signs of recovery in equity capital markets. Antonella has the standing and the experience to allow Dentons to play a role in this in the near future.’
Finally, Osborne Clarke has announced the opening of a new office in Stockholm, led by Fredrik von Baumgarten and Henrik Bergström. Von Baumgarten joins from his own firm Baumgarten Byström Rooth & Partners and was previously a partner at Nordic firms Hannes Snellman and Vinge, while Bergström was previously at Bird & Bird.
Simon Beswick, international chief executive at Osborne Clarke, said: ‘Not only is Sweden the third most active M&A market in Europe and growing faster than most other European economies, it’s a key market for many of our core sector clients.’
The Sweden office means the firm now has 25 international bases in Europe and Asia.
With August drawing to a close, London’s simmering lateral hire market is already heating up again with DLA Piper, Pinsent Masons, Kirkland & Ellis and Debevoise & Plimpton among the firms bringing in new partners.
At DLA Piper, the firm’s finance team made its first hires since Maurice Allen’s appointment in March as a consultant, appointing ex-Kirkland & Ellis and Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher partner Philip Crump in London and Kirkland partner Doug Murning.
The appointment of the high-profile veteran Allen was touted as part of a bid to push DLA’s City finance practice up the food chain. Crump’s practice covers traditional sponsor and lender side leveraged finance as well as special situations and private deals for alternative credit providers. Murning, who will initially split his time between London and Hong Kong, is focused on leveraged finance and restructuring.
DLA’s international head of finance and projects Martin Bartlam said: ‘Phil is extremely knowledgeable and highly thought of in the leverage finance market. Doug is a well-reputed finance lawyer who provides immense energy, enabling us to further service the growing markets in Europe and Asia.’
Kirkland, meanwhile, was characteristically active in the transfer market through August, hiring Ropes & Gray investment funds specialist Anand Damodaran. The appointment adds to a striking recent run of recruitment between the two US leaders, unquestionably two of the most successful and ambitious US firms bred outside of New York over the last decade. Damodaran is the sixth partner Kirkland has taken from Ropes in the last two weeks following the hire of a five-partner investigations and government enforcement team from Ropes’ offices in the US, UK and Asia. The team compromised Chicago managing partner and global anti-corruption co-chair Asheesh Goel and Zachary Brez. Chicago anti-corruption partner Kim Nemirow, London-based Marcus Thompson and Cori Lable in Hong Kong made up the remainder of the group.
Pinsents also made a double City hire, boosting its corporate finance practice with Julian Stanier and Gareth Jones from Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP), a duo specialising in advising investment banks, corporate brokers and other intermediaries. Recent work includes acting for BCA Marketplace (formerly Haversham) on its £1.2bn reverse takeover and Sanne Group on its IPO.
Elsewhere, Debevoise has hired Legal 500-ranked insurance transactional and regulatory lawyer Clare Swirski from Clifford Chance in London. The New York-bred law firm has long been established as one of the US’s most prominent industry specialists in the insurance sector.
Debevoise presiding partner Michael Blair said Swirski would be advising some of the firm’s largest institutional clients. He added: ‘Our insurance practice is centred on strong teams in key financial centres, which we have reinforced in recent times with promotions in Hong Kong and London. The arrival of Clare is the latest step in that strategy, bringing as she does a wealth of experience and a deserved reputation as one of the sharpest lawyers in the market.’
Further afield, Dentons has made another hire from Baker McKenzie in its recently-launched Amsterdam branch, bringing in corporate partner Kuif Klein Wassink. The firm had only just recruited a four-lawyer team to launch its tax practice in the city. Dentons, which operates as Dentons Boekel in the Netherlands, also hired two partners from Clifford Chance’s energy team – David Griston in Amsterdam and Petr Zákoucký in Prague.
A clearer test of the appetite for top level European recruitment will emerge in September, but indications so far are that major firms are shrugging off concerns over the City and the UK economy to keep spending.
Pinsent Masons has picked up the key advisory mandate as embattled British construction company Carillion was handed a lifeline last month thanks to the award of two contracts worth £1.3bn on the HighSpeed 2 (HS2) project.
Carillion is to build two sections of the UK’s second high-speed rail project from London to Birmingham along with its joint venture partners Kier Construction and France’s Eiffage Genie Civil, which will take at least five years to complete.
The integrated support services company was among the first to be awarded contracts on the controversial HS2 line, including North Portal Chiltern Tunnels to Brackley (worth £724m) and Brackley to Long Itchington Wood Green Tunnel South Portal (worth £616m). Pinsents client Balfour Beatty also picked up £2.5bn worth of contracts on HS2.
The contracts were awarded not long after Carillion suffered a steep fall in its share price in July following a profit warning. However shares rose almost 21% after the HS2 contracts were announced.
HS2 is the second high-speed route in the UK, after the completion of HS1 between London and the Channel tunnel, which costs £5.8bn and opened in 2007. The government expects the first phase of construction to be complete by 2026, and the second phase to begin in the mid-2020s and will increase capacity and improve journey times between the two cities.
Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) continues to advise HS2 via global head of infrastructure Patrick Mitchell, alongside global co-lead of the non-contentious and engineering practice, Nicholas Downing, and commercial law partner Adrian Clough.
Slaughter and May also has a close advisory relationship with Carillion and was appointed to its roster along with Pinsents in 2015. The Magic Circle firm advised the construction group in 2014 on its proposed £3bn merger with UK rival Balfour Beatty led by corporate partners William Underhill and Kathy Hughes, although talks were abandoned after a third takeover offer was rejected.
Pinsent Masons and Carillion did not comment.
Pinsent Masons is continuing its extensive international expansion of late with a new Australian office and the hire of four infrastructure and energy partners from Norton Rose Fulbright.
The firm’s new Perth base, to open in the autumn, will be its third Australian office after Sydney and Melbourne and its fifth international launch in the last 18 months.
Norton Rose Fulbright’s Australian arm will see the departure of four partners, comprising construction and engineering specialists Rob Buchanan and Matthew Croagh, projects partner Adrienne Parker and arbitration expert Bill Ryan.
The firm’s Australian head David Rennick said: ‘In less than two years, Pinsent Masons has established itself among the preeminent infrastructure firms in Australia and enhanced its reputation across the Asia-Pacific region. Our strong growth and high calibre of work is being recognised and we are delighted to be able to attract a stellar team of fellow specialists to join us in expanding our business into Perth. The appointments also present an opportunity to expand further into the energy sector.’
Norton Rose Fulbright Australia’s managing partner Wayne Spanner connected the partners’move to Pinsents with NRF’s imminent combination with Australian law firm Henry Davis York, announced in June and expected for the second half of the year.
‘Some people will want to adopt a different course and we wish them well,’ he said. ‘This sort of thing is a common occurrence in mergers.’
He added: ‘We’ve had a strong, positive response from clients during our many conversations with them about what the combination would offer their organisations.’
Pinsents launched in Australia in 2015 and has since acted on infrastructure and energy mandates, including the AUD$15bn Melbourne Metro Project. The firm also advised First Solar on its project finance acquisition and development of a 48MW solar power plant and Samsung C&T on the AUD$2bn Roy Hill mining dispute.
The firm’s legal resourcing hub Vario will also begin operating in Australia, its first base outside the UK.
Pinsent Masons has invested heavily in its international operations in 2017. In June, the firm announced plans to launch in Dublin and the acquisition of diversity and inclusion specialist Brook Graham. In May, it entered Spain and South Africa with new offices in Madrid and Johannensburg.
In the last 18 months Pinsents has also expanded in Germany, opening an office in Dusseldorf and acquiring boutique Munich firm Mayrhofer & Partner.
The 1,600-lawyer firm has also strengthened its global teams through a spate of laterals this year: it hired three partners from Gowling WLG to bolster its Munich office in February and a new head for its corporate offering within the financial sector, Hammad Akhtar, from Ashurst in January.
When the Perth office opens, the firm will have 24 offices worldwide.
After a subdued 2015/16 financial year, Pinsent Masons has broken the £400m barrier with revenues up 11% from £382.3m to £423.1m in 2016/2017.
Profit per equity partner (PEP) jumped 14% from £552,000 to £625,000. Excluding the impact of currency fluctuations, the firm achieved like-for-like turnover growth of 7%.
According to the firm, 85% of Pinsents revenues came from its five global sectors: advanced manufacturing and technology, financial services, real estate and energy and infrastructure.
Advanced manufacturing and technology was the main contributor to revenue at 21%, while financial services was the second largest contributor at 20%.
The remaining 15% of revenue came from areas such as contentious tax litigation, where the clients do not fit into a particular sector.
Pinsents Masons managing partner John Cleland told Legal Business that the firm had invested a lot over the last 12 months, including opening its first office in in Johannesburg, expanding Pinsents legal resourcing hub Vario into Australia, and acquiring diversity and inclusion consulting company Brook Graham.
It had also managed to grow profitability. Pinsents also increased the number of equity partners from 164 to 172 globally.
As well as investment, Cleland said the firm had been ‘pretty innovative’, and still produced a double digit increase in profitability.
‘The PEP number has gone up but we have even more equity partners. The fundamentals of what we have been doing have delivered a sufficiently good performance that we can also invest. It still means there is a double digit increase in the PEP. That is the main thing.’
Cleland highlighted Germany, Australia and Asia as regions that were doing particularly well.
‘We have been involved in some of the largest and most complex projects in Australia – such as the $15bn Melbourne Metro project and acting for Samsung C&T on the $2bn Roy Hill Iron Ore Mining dispute – one of the largest disputes in Australia.’
In terms of client appointments, over the last twelve months the firm has been appointed or reappointed to a number of panels, including AIG, Diageo and Dixons Carphone.
Pinsents also renewed its sole adviser mandate with energy giant E.ON.
In March, the firm announced that it had acquired a minority stake in New Law outsourcing business Yuzu, which was founded in January by former Colt group general counsel Robin Saphra.
kathryn.mccann@legalease.co.uk
Pinsent Masons has hired Scottish rival Maclay Murray & Spens’ financial services head David Young (pictured) to Pinsents’ Edinburgh and London offices, as it grows its funds and finance offering.
Young’s clients have included Scottish Widows, Lloyds Banking Group, Railways Pension Scheme, Aberdeen Asset Management, Dalmore Capital, Martin Currie, Threadneedle and Lothian Pension Fund.
He qualified and has spent his career at Maclays, where he was made up to partner in 2009, when he set up and led the firm’s alternative fund practice in Scotland.
Specialising in fund structuring, formation and investment for investors and fund managers, Young also advises on as asset management regulation.
Global group head of finance and projects, Michael Watson told Legal Business: ‘David’s a fund and financial regulation partner of some repute in the UK’. He has expertise in the financial services sector, ‘one of our key sectors’. He also ‘does a lot of work with funds that operate in the infrastructure and energy markets which are very important to us’ as an area of growth, Watson said.
‘Our goal is to be a market leader in infrastructure, energy and financial services sectors. That means we want to support clients across all different skill sets in different sectors’, he added.
Alexis Roberts, Pinsents’ financial services’ head, said that the UK funds market was an active industry in which the firm had a long-term commitment and continued to invest.
Young’s appointment comes shortly after Pinsent Masons announced last week that it will open in Dublin with the hire of a three-partner team. That office will initially focus on the financial services and technology sectors. Investment funds partner Gayle Bowen joined from Walkers, boosting the firm’s finance team, alongside data protection and IT partner Andreas Carney from Matheson and corporate partner Dennis Agnew from Bryne Wallace.
Pinsents recently acquired a diversity specialist company.
Madeleine.farman@legalease.co.uk
