Ropes & Gray news, updates and analysis | Page 4 of 5

In line with other US firms that have sustained robust City growth and after bolstering its headcount by 17%, Ropes & Gray has increased its London office revenues by 30% in 2014, bringing them to around $64m.

Much of the firm’s growth is down to the firm’s finance practice, which has seen a steady flow of work come in the areas of banking, high yield, mezzanine and direct lending as companies looked increasingly to the US for finance or demanded US-style terms in London.

In addition, its budding private equity practice started to break City ground this year, both with the hire of Phil Sanderson from Travers Smith who officially joined in January, as well as scoring its biggest mandate from widely desired private equity client Bain Capital.

The firm advised Bain Capital Europe on its acquisition of CRH’s clay and concrete businesses in the UK and United States in a transaction worth £414m in December last year; and represented Bain Capital in its planned acquisition of TI Automotive in January. Although no London partner directly manages the relationship with Bain, partners Will Rosen, Bill Mone, and John Newton all maintain professional contact with the client.

The firm’s drive to boost its offering is backed by the growth in headcount, which rose 17% from 83 fee-earners to 97 in 2014, of which 24 are partners. This is after total fee-earner headcount shot up 48% from 56 lawyers in London in 2013. In addition to hiring Sanderson, the firm also added Monica Gogna from Pinsent Masons in August 2014, and Carol Hopper from Allen & Overy in January 2015, and is set to move to larger offices at 1 Ludgate to accommodate its growing headcount.

Over 2015, the firm is looking to its government enforcement practice to be the biggest growth driver in the City over the next year. Co-head of the firm’s finance practice group Mike Goetz told Legal Business: ‘The US are at an advantage here, as so much of the enforcement activity has been in the US with the SEC, and the DoJ. Now, with the new regulatory regimes in the UK, and with the anti-bribery act, not only in Europe but in Asia and Africa also, this area has become a constant source of work for law firms, and US firms are very well placed for it.’

Other goals are to grow its real estate practice as well as expand its securitisation offering in the City. At present, the firm’s City team has 14 partners in corporate/finance, three in bankruptcy/insolvency, two each in disputes, real estate, investment management and private investment funds, and one tax partner.

Last week both Weil, Gotshal & Manges and Covington & Burling revealed solid growth rates in their London offices with Weil’s outpost seeing revenues rise 10% to $125m while Covington was up 7% to $64m in the City.

jaishree.kalia@legalease.co.uk

Ropes & Gray is set to relocate to 1 New Ludgate, almost double its current office space, on the back of a rising headcount and expanding practice areas.

The firm will move its City headquarters from 5 New Street Square, where the firm was a sub-tenant of Taylor Wessing, to the new pre-let 45,210 square foot space from Land Securities, on a twenty-year lease in September 2015. The new office can accommodate up to 180 lawyers and Ropes confirmed it plans to grow to between 120-150 lawyers by 2017.

The decision to upsize comes as the firm aims to balance the London office’s practice groups, become better aligned with its US practice offering.

‘We have seen the potential pitfalls of growing a US firm in London and learnt. The full service is a busted model – clients don’t want that. We outsource employment and pensions,’ said Maurice Allen, Ropes & Gray’s London senior partner.

The firm expects London revenues to be up 35% this year, an increase of five percentage points from last year. The firm now currently offers corporate and private equity; finance (including banking and high-yield); funds formation; tax and regulatory; asset management; and restructuring (including distressed assets).

‘When we first came into London, our aim was to establish three core business areas: private equity, finance, and funds and restructuring. We are now conscious to build a balanced practice that can serve a mix of clients including banking clients and private equity funds,’ added Allen.

The firm is also looking to boost its tax and real estate offering, as its funds and private equity groups continue to expand. Ropes made a significant hire in August this year when it hired heavyweight private equity partner Phil Sanderson from Travers Smith, and last year recruited former Allen & Overy finance partner Mark Wesseldine from Fried Frank in May. However, the firm lost high-yield expert Jonathan Bloom who quit to join rival US firm Jones Day’s London office in September 2014, although he was the only partner to leave the firm’s office this year.

Ropes’ London office is only four years old and ranks 16^th in Legal Business’ Global London list. In that time the firm has grown from setting up with four lawyers to over 80 and around 40 other members of staff. In 2012, total London office headcount was 97, which has almost doubled to 145 in 2014. Partner headcount during the same period has grown 33% from 18 to 24, while associate total has risen 42% from 43 to 61.

Mike Goetz, London managing partner at Ropes & Gray, said: ‘The physical location of the new premises gives us a fantastic vantage point for our client base. It is perfectly located between both the financial centre of The City of London and the funds community predominately based in-and-around Mayfair.’

jaishree.kalia@legalease.co.uk