Legal Business

Quinn Emanuel’s Jagusch says modern arbitration has become ‘riddled with rogues and corruption’

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Litigation Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan
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Arbitration today is full of routine corruption and rogue elements disrupting the process, argued Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan’s Stephen Jagusch QC (pictured) at Legal Business‘s International Arbitration Summit in November.

The second annual arbitration event held at The Brewery saw a panel comprising a quartet of silks, including Jagusch, Boies, Schiller & Flexner’s Wendy Miles QC, Fountain Court Chambers’ Brian Doctor QC and 20 Essex Street’s Duncan Matthews QC.

Legal Business

RBS group action settles with Quinn, Stewarts and Mishcon claimants as Signature prepares for trial

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Litigation Mishcon de ReyaQuinn Emanuel Urquhart & SullivanStewarts
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The long running saga that is the £4bn shareholder group action against the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has reached a decisive stage, as claimants represented by Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, Stewarts Law and Mishcon de Reya have settled their case while thousands of claimants represented by Signature Litigation will press ahead for trial next spring.

The RBS 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 alleged that the prospectus on which the rights issue was based was ‘defective’ and contained material misstatements and omissions.

Quinn, Stewarts, and Mishcon, which were instructed by a host of investors, are set to attend a private court hearing this Wednesday (7 December) to manage the logistics of the settlement with the case’s presiding judge, Justice Robert Hildyard.

Stewarts’ disputes partner Clive Zietman wrote a letter to the judge in relation to the hearing, where attached was a court order signed by the trio of settling parties.

Over 30,000 individual investors represented by Signature and Leon Kaye, have decided against settlement and are set for trial on 6 March 2017.

RBS chief executive Ross McEwan said in a statement: ‘We have been very clear that we wanted to deal with as many of our legacy litigation issues as possible during 2015 and 2016.’

‘We are pleased to have reached this agreement and hope that it will be accepted by the remaining claimant groups so that this long course of complex and costly litigation can now be concluded.’

The case has been dogged in controversy since its inception in 2014. In June Legal Business revealed Quinn, Stewarts and Signature were seeking millions worth of costs incurred from the claimants of Mishcon. Mishcon partner Richard Leedham, who took the instruction to lead the institutional clients from Signature last year, filed a costs estimate totalling £700,000 for legal work on the case up until that point. Mishcon settled the issue with the other firms weeks after.

Herbert Smith Freehills continues to represent RBS, with a team lead by partners Adam Johnson, Simon Clarke, Kirsten Massey and James Norris-Jones. The firm itself came under scrutiny after it emerged in June it would likely exceed its previous cost estimate of £92m.

sarah.downey@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

‘Already deep bench’: Quinn boosts Paris offering with Allen & Overy and HSF hires

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Strategic recruitment Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan
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Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan has added to its international bench yet again, with Allen & Overy (A&O) global co-head of arbitration Michael Young alongside the Paris hire of Herbert Smith Freehills’ (HSF) Paris disputes head Isabelle Michou (pictured)

Paris-based Young, who has a focus on energy, chemicals and natural resources disputes, is a vice-president of the ICC Court of Arbitration.

He joins former A&O colleagues Stephen Jagusch and Anthony Sinclair who moved to Quinn to launch the firm’s arbitration practice back in 2012.

Quinn will gain Michou’s experience in international arbitration and international law, with the disputes partner advocating in all major arbitration forums including the International Chamber of Commerce, International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes, London Court of International Arbitration and the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce. Her experience includes representing an oil and gas major company in ICC arbitration proceedings as part of a dispute arising out of the termination of a long-term gas supply agreement

Managing partner John Quinn noted the firm’s international arbitration practice is growing quickly, particularly in Paris. He added: ‘Isabelle is one of the top arbitration advocates in Europe. She will provide more depth to an already deep bench.’

The pair are the latest to join Quinn this month following Macfarlanes’ financial services head David Berman joining its London office in a rare defection from the LB 100 firm.

The new hires will soften the blow of the loss of Quinn’s Moscow-based arbitration partners Ivan Marisin and Vasily Kuznetsov in September to US rival Baker Botts, leaving its ten-lawyer Russia outpost with one full-time partner.

HSF has seen a number of exits over the past few months, including losing a ten-partner project finance team from its Australian offices to US firm White & Case.

A senior partner at White & Case told Legal Business that the departing Australian team controlled around £30m of business, based on an average of billings over the last three years, while HSF put the figure closer to £20m.

madeleine.farman@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

‘A great enhancement to our practice’: Quinn lures Macfarlanes’ Berman in latest City hire

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Strategic recruitment MacfarlanesQuinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan
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In a rare defection from Macfarlanes, financial services head David Berman is set to join Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan.

Cited by The Legal 500 as ‘calm, pragmatic and highly knowledgeable’, Berman joined Macfarlanes investment funds and financial services group in 2009 as a partner from Dresdner Kleinwort bank where he served as managing director and other senior level roles in legal, compliance and front office functions.

He advises a variety of financial institutions on both buy-side and sell-side on regulatory and compliance issues, and frequently advises boards and senior management teams on regulatory issues of strategic significance. Berman’s hire follows Quinn’s launch of its long-anticipated corporate crime practice in London through the hire of Covington & Burling partner and former Serious Fraud Office (SFO) prosecutor Robert Amaee.

Managing partner John Quinn (pictured) said: ‘David’s unique background in finance, regulatory matters and internal investigations make him the perfect fit for our white collar and investigations practice. It is the fastest growing practice area in the firm and much of it is cross-border and much of it with a UK and EU component. Having a white collar lawyer in the UK with deep regulatory experience is a great enhancement to our practice.’

Macfarlanes senior partner Charles Martin said he was sorry to see Berman go, adding: ‘He is leaving for a very different platform and new challenges. We wish him well.’

Last week Quinn lost Moscow-based arbitration partners Ivan Marisin and Vasily Kuznetsov to US rival Baker Botts, leaving Quinn’s ten-lawyer Russia outpost with one full-time partner.

To soften the blow, Quinn has brought over Russian counsel Kirill Parinov, as managing partner of its Moscow office from mining firm Norilsk Nickel where he served as group general counsel. The office is also served by partner Nick Marsh who splits his time between London and Moscow.

Quinn continues its lateral hiring spree however, as last week it emerged the firm is in talks to hire a team from Shearman & Sterling’s Brussels arm, including office head Stephen Mavroghenis and competition partner Trevor Soames.

sarah.downey@legalease.co.uk; madeleine.farman@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Quinn dealt major Moscow blow as arbitration duo head to Baker Botts

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CIS and Russia Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan
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Typically on the receiving end of partner moves, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan has lost Moscow-based arbitration partners Ivan Marisin and Vasily Kuznetsov to US rival Baker Botts, leaving Quinn’s ten-lawyer Russia outpost with one full-time partner.

Marisin headed Quinn’s Moscow office, and has represented Russian and foreign clients on corporate, banking and foreign investment disputes. Before joining Quinn, he led Dechert’s disputes team in Russia, the CIS, and Eastern Europe, and was previously head of disputes practice of Clifford Chance’s Moscow office, which he joined in 1992, acting as senior and managing partner from 2000 through 2010. Kuznetsov is also formerly of Dechert and Clifford Chance, and has been representing domestic and international clients in litigations and arbitrations since 2002.

Key roles for the pair include defending the Russian Chess Federation in a dispute over participation of the Russian women’s national team, successfully concluding the case before the Court of Arbitration for Sport and allowing full team participation.

Marisin will play a ‘key role’ in managing the firm’s Russian disputes offering while Kuznetsov is set to co-chair Baker Botts’ international disputes practice.

‘They have a deep seated understanding of the Russian legal system,’ said Andrew Baker, managing partner of Baker Botts. ‘They will both add significant value for our Russian and international clients and their arrival also speaks to the commitment that we have made to continue to grow our international network.’

Maxim Levinson, partner-in-charge of the Moscow office, added: ‘Ivan and Vasily’s expertise will enable us to build upon the services we offer our clients in areas such as energy, technology, banking and finance, real estate and construction, and aviation.’

To soften the blow, Quinn has brought over Russian counsel Kirill Parinov, as managing partner of its Moscow office from mining firm Norilsk Nickel where he served as group general counsel. The office is also served by partner Nick Marsh who splits his time between London and Moscow.

Parinov acts on cross-border litigation, international arbitration, complex financial disputes, disputes arising from M&A transactions, and FCPA and global anti-corruption disputes.

Quinn continues its lateral hiring spree however, as last week it emerged the firm is in talks to hire a team from Shearman & Sterling’s Brussels arm, including office head Stephen Mavroghenis and competition partner Trevor Soames.

sarah.downey@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Quinn Emanuel in talks to take on Shearman’s Brussels partnership

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Europe Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & SullivanShearman & Sterling
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Disputes leader Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan is in talks to hire a team from Shearman & Sterling’s Brussels arm, including office head Stephen Mavroghenis and competition partner Trevor Soames.

A total of five partners are negotiating with Quinn, constituting the entirety of Shearman’s Brussels partner ranks. With Mavroghenis leading the discussions, the other partners involved are Soames, Geert Goeteyn, Miguel Rato and Matthew Readings. Goeteyn and Readings are based in Shearman’s London and Brussels offices. It is expected that associates may follow the team to Quinn.

Soames, who specialises in merger control, monopolies, state aid and cartel investigations, joined Shearman in 2009 from the Brussels arm of the now-defunct Howrey, taking a team of four partners and 13 associates with him.

The Brussels office had previously proved to be a headache for Shearman, when earlier in 2009 it was left without a partner locally after antitrust lawyers Annette Schild and Silvio Cappellari departed for Arnold & Porter. News of the current Quinn talks were first reported on Rollonfriday.

Should the team sign on the dotted line, it will serve as a major boost to Quinn’s Brussels offering, which was launched in 2014. Despite by its expansive standards seeing a poor financial year globally in 2015, with revenue down 6% to $1.042bn and profit per equity partner falling 10% to $4.42m, Quinn continues its strategy of expansion via laterals.

Quinn bolstered its antitrust capabilities in London this year, having hired DLA Piper UK competition head Kate Vernon in March. Other laterals included Herbert Smith Freehills’ James Bremen as its chair of the construction practice and Clyde & Co litigator Paul Friedman as part of a bid to expand its Israel practice.

sarah.downey@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

A&O defeats Quinn as $575m Progas energy claim against Pakistan thrown out

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Litigation Allen & OveryQuinn Emanuel Urquhart & SullivanWithers
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Allen & Overy (A&O), Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan and Withers have advised as a tribunal convened under the UN Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) threw out two parallel investment treaty claims worth about $575m against Pakistan made by Progas Energy.

In a legal wrangle that lasted five years, the Progas group of companies and Ali Allawai, formerly the Iraqi Minister of Finance, alleged that regulatory measures around liquid petroleum gas (LPG) pricing in the country forced the auction of its LPG import terminal at Port Qasim in Karachi after it became insolvent.

The London-seated tribunal presided by chair Yves Fortier QC, Judge Charles Brower and J Christopher Thomas QC dismissed the case after spending 10 days presiding over hearings in 2015.

Pakistan turned to A&O which has been working on six separate cases for the country over the last several years. Judith Gill QC led teams on both claims with partners Jeff Sullivan, Marie Stoyanov, Andrew Battisson. The firm is also currently advising Pakistan several other disputes, including a claim brought by Turkish power-ship company Karkey Karadeniz worth over $2bn, made after Pakistan seized its ships.

The Magic Circle firm is also helping Pakistan defend a multi-billion dollar claim brought by Australian mining company Tethyan Copper Company in relation to a mining concession in the Balochistan Province of Pakistan.

Quinn partner David Orta advised Progas on its claim with a team led by Steven Madison, Tai-Heng Cheng, Daniel Salinas-Serrano alongside Withers partner Hussein Haeri who has overseen the case over the last five years.

Other recent disputes mandates for Quinn include representing a group of US investors bringing a $100m claim against Mexico after its government seized and closed six casinos across the country in 2014, and the firm is bringing the first major US-style class action in the English courts against MasterCard.

madeleine.farman@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

‘The biggest gun in town’: MasterCard picks Freshfields to defend landmark £14bn class action

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Litigation Freshfields Bruckhaus DeringerQuinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan
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MasterCard, which is facing a £14bn lawsuit in the first major US-style class action in the English courts, has replaced its longstanding legal team at Jones Day with Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer as it looks to add firepower to its defence.

MasterCard has hired Jon Lawrence, one of the UK’s leading competition litigators, to duel with Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan as the US litigation powerhouse prepares to bring a £14bn claim against the financial services giant on behalf of British consumers hit with ‘illegal’ charges.

Nick Cotter, a litigation partner at Jones Day, was originally handling MasterCard’s defence but the firm has been replaced in favour of Freshfields. Jones Day has been one of MasterCard’s go-to firms for its mounting pile of litigation over interchange fees, and while the firm continues to act on many of these claims, it missed out to Freshfields in a tender process for this case. A leading City litigator told Legal Business: ‘MasterCard has brought in the biggest gun in town to defend them.’ Lawrence’s client list includes the London Stock Exchange, Lloyd’s of London and Ericsson.

The claim, over anticompetitive fees MasterCard charged to process card payments, was originally thought to be worth £19bn but has since been adjusted with the estimated damage to UK consumers now believed to be between £14bn and £15bn.

The biggest claim in UK legal history is expected to be filed within the next fortnight. It will be one of the first to be filed under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, which allows ‘opt-out’ class action-style claims to be brought for the first time in the UK. It was previously hard to bring consumer claims against corporates in the UK as each individual would have had to ‘opt-in’ to the claim.

The case stems from interchange fees MasterCard charged British retailers to process card payments, which the claim alleges were passed onto customers through higher prices. If the claim is successful, every UK consumer stands to be eligible for hundreds of pounds in compensation, unless they explicitly opt-out of the lawsuit. These US-style class actions require a representative, which in this case is former chief financial services ombudsman Walter Merricks.

Quinn Emanuel, which has brought similar claims in the US, has been handed a £40m war chest by Chicago-based Gerchen Keller Capital, the world’s largest litigation funder, to bring the landmark class action. Gerchen Keller Capital will therefore take a slice of any potential damages. Boris Bronfentrinker, a star hire by Quinn Emanuel in 2014 from London competition litigation boutique Hausfeld & Co, is the lead partner working on the claim. He is working alongside Kate Vernon, a recent addition from DLA Piper.

MasterCard lost a decade-long legal battle over interchange card fees in 2014 when Europe’s top court, the Luxembourg-based European Court of Justice, ruled the company had breached competition rules by abusing its dominant market position with the charges. Because MasterCard’s fees have already been found to be illegal by the European Commission, this follow-on claim needs to prove the damage consumers suffered as a result of MasterCard’s anticompetitive behaviour.

tom.moore@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Casino investors move chips from White & Case to Quinn as they sue Mexico for $100m

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Litigation Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & SullivanWhite & Case
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A group of US investors have instructed disputes powerhouse Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan to bring a $100m arbitration claim against Mexico after the government seized and closed all their casinos in 2014.

B-Mex and nine investors have filed a $100m claim against Mexico at the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) after their six casinos across the country were seized and closed two years ago.

The group of investors, which includes former investment banker Gordon Burr, founded B-Mex (also known as Exciting Games) in 2005 and rapidly built up a portfolio of casinos in Mexico. A showcase casino in Naucalpan launched in 2006 with 830 slot machines, a restaurant and music venue, and more sites followed.

The US investors claim Mexico ignored court orders preventing the state from ‘from impeding or otherwise hindering operation’ and invalidated a 25-year casino permit through arbitrary, non-transparent administrative actions by the gaming authority and arbitrary, non-transparent judicial proceedings. The group argue that Mexico’s gaming authority has allowed other Mexican casino companies in like circumstances to continue operating their casinos, while the Mexican government implemented retaliatory and discriminatory measures aimed at harassing and extracting profits.

The investors had originally instructed White & Case to handle the dispute, but ahead of bringing the claim at ICSID switched to Quinn Emanuel. David Orta, who heads Quinn Emanuel’s international arbitration practice in Washington, DC and Latin America, has been instructed by the US investors alongside Daniel Salinas.

Mexico has not yet appointed outside counsel.

tom.moore@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Quinn makes City white-collar crime play with hire of former SFO prosecutor Amaee

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Strategic recruitment Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan
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Disputes powerhouse Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan has launched a long-anticipated corporate crime practice in London through the hire of Covington & Burling partner and former Serious Fraud Office (SFO) prosecutor Robert Amaee.

Amaee will join later this month as head of Quinn’s white-collar and corporate investigations practice in London to lead its assault on the market. Managing partner John Quinn (pictured) said ‘white-collar crime work has been the biggest growth area for our firm in recent years’ and that the firm’s ‘goal is to be able to offer white-collar and investigations representation in every major venue’.

Amaee leaves Covington & Burling’s London office five years after joining from the UK’s SFO, where he had stints as head of anti-corruption and head of proceeds of crime. He made partner in 2012, just a year after joining the Washington DC-based firm.

A big name hire to carry Quinn’s push into the white-collar crime space, Amaee led civil settlements during his time at the SFO with Johnson & Johnson over bribery allegations in Greece, resulting in a $77m global settlement, and Macmillan Publishers over unlawful conduct in Africa that led to an £11.2m payout.

During his time at the SFO, Amaee also served as head of international assistance, spearheading the fraud fighter’s push for better co-operation with international agencies including the UK Financial Conduct Authority, City of London Police, UK Ministry of Justice, US Department of Justice, US Securities and Exchange Commission and the World Bank. He played a key role for the SFO on the UK Attorney General’s working group tasked with drafting prosecutors’ guidance on the UK Bribery Act, which entered force in 2011.

Richard East, London co-managing partner at Quinn, said: ‘It is no secret that the UK regulators and their counterparts around the globe are becoming increasingly active. Adding Robert will help us better serve clients who have come to the attention of the UK authorities.’

tom.moore@legalease.co.uk