Legal Business

Shearman invests in London as City promotions overtake New York

Posted on |
Partnership promotions Shearman & Sterling
legal-business-default

London provided the bulk of this year’s partner promotions at US law firm Shearman & Sterling, with more lawyers joining its partnership in the City than in the US.

In a notable increase on the size of its promotions round in the City last year, when Shearman made up two partners, the New York-based firm made promotions across its litigation, capital markets, finance, mergers and acquisitions and tax practices. Just four partners were made up in the US this year, all of whom are based in New York, compared to seven made up in 2014 in Manhattan and Washington DC. Globally, 12 lawyers made partner, one down on last year.

Korey Fevzi, who specialises in US financing such as high yield bonds and Term B Loans, was promoted in the City alongside capital markets counsel Marwa Elborai as the firm expands its finance capability in London. The pair have worked for the likes of Goldman Sachs, Barclays and Credit Suisse and have capitalised on the swing towards US-driven financing in Europe deals.

M&A lawyer Matthew Powell, litigator Susanna Charlwood and tax specialist Simon Letherman were also promoted in London. Charlwood, who joined from Slaughter and May in 2013, adds to Shearman’s well-established international arbitration team in London. She is one of four promotions in this practice, representing a third of the round, with Singapore-based Daryl Chew and Paris duo Maude Lebois and Mohamed Shelbaya also made up.

Shelbaya, who has a prominent reputation in North Africa, is expected to relocate to Egypt if Shearman succeeds with its plans to launch there.

Powell, who joined Shearman’s London arm three years ago from Linklaters, specialises in oil and gas M&A and was recently seconded to Iraq-focused oil producer Genel Energy.

Shearman has traditionally been one of heaviest investors in the City legal market, fielding the seventh-largest London practice for a foreign practice by lawyer count with 166 fee-earners, including 33 partners, according Legal Business’s 2015 Global London report. Shearman generated firm-wide revenues of $845m for the 2014 financial year, up 3% annually.

The firm also this year raised its salary for newly-qualified solicitors by £5,000 to take starting pay to £88,000.

tom.moore@legalease.co.uk

Shearman & Sterling promotions in full:

Susanna Charlwood, London, litigation

Marwa Elborai, London, capital markets

Korey Fevzi, London, finance

Simon Letherman, London, tax

Matthew Powell, London, mergers & acquisitions

Richard Alsop, New York, capital markets

Jordan Altman, New York, mergers & acquisitions

Daniel Litowitz, New York, mergers & acquisitions

Ilir Mujalovic, New York, capital markets

Maude Lebois, Paris, international arbitration

Mohamed Shelbaya, Paris, international arbitration

Daryl Chew, Singapore, international arbitration

For more on US firms in London see the Global London debate, Tipping points 

Legal Business

Shearman flags potential conflict at White & Case as US rivals face off in $50bn Yukos arbitration

Posted on |
Corporate Shearman & SterlingWhite & Case
legal-business-default

Shearman & Sterling has raised a potential conflict of interest issue at White & Case (W&C) in its representation of Russia’s bid to annul the $50bn arbitration award against it over the collapse of oil giant Yukos.

In a motion to recuse or disqualify a US district judge on 19 November before the district court of Columbia, Yukos shareholders Hulley Enterprises, Yukos Universal and Veteran Petroleum alerted the court that they were ‘investigating prior attorney-client relationships’ between them, their affiliates, and W&C.

‘The facts underlying the prior relationships (which date back to at least 1999 and appear to involve matters raised by W&C in this proceeding) are being investigated as quickly as possible, but due to the passage of time and the intervening confiscation of most of the relevant documents by agents of the Russian Federation, petitioners may not be in a position to make a final determination whether to seek disqualification of W&C for several weeks,’ the court filing said.

Russia was ordered to pay $50bn to the majority shareholders in Yukos Oil Company, once Russia’s largest oil producer, by an arbitral tribunal sitting in The Hague in 2014. It was the largest arbitration award in history and 20 times larger than the previous record. Recognition and enforcement of the award in the courts, however, is expected to take about a decade and will generate millions of dollars in legal fees. Proceedings are taking place across various jurisdictions, including Belgium and the US.

W&C was instructed by Russia to coordinate the country’s defence against enforcement and annulment proceedings across at least three jurisdictions on the case, while Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton and Baker Botts acted for Russia in the original tribunal where the award was made against it.

Shearman as well as local law firms assisting it in the recognition and enforcement of the award, are now investigating whether W&C has a conflict of interest in representing Russia. The firm is known to have represented Yukos around the time of the oil giant’s collapse a decade ago, with W&C chairman Hugh Verrier one of the company’s advisers.

W&C Washington DC-based arbitration partner Carolyn Lamm is leading Russia’s defence in the US, with David Goldberg leading proceedings in London and Markus Burianski heading the defence in Germany. Russia has also instructed Brussels-based Albert Jan van den Berg of Hanotiau & van den Berg in a bid to have the award set aside at the seat of arbitration, The Hague.

Shearman’s team in the US, led by veteran litigator Henry Weisburg and the firm’s deputy head of litigation Richard Schwed, already successfully petitioned district judge Amy Berman Jackson to recuse herself from hearing a request to enforce the Yukos award against Russia in Washington DC over ‘cumulative connections’ with Lamm, as the pair were mothers to children at the same school.

Shearman head of international arbitration, Paris-based Emmanuel Gaillard, who alongside public international law chief Yas Banifatemi is coordinating the enforcement after securing the $50bn award for the majority shareholders in Yukos Oil Company in July 2014, has instructed Stephenson Harwood to enforce the award in the English courts and Dutch firm De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek for proceedings in the Netherlands.

A spokesperson for Stephenson Harwood told Legal Business: ‘The issues with regards to the potential conflict of interest in relation to W&C are currently being investigated by the claimants.’

Stephenson Harwood’s head of commercial litigation, John Fordham, is leading proceedings to seize assets in the UK with support from litigator Ros Prince. Stephenson Harwood has instructed David Foxton QC and Paul McGrath QC of Essex Court Chambers as counsel.

W&C would not comment on the matter. 

tom.moore@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Ropes, Shearman and Slaughters win key roles on Liberty Global’s proposed acquisition of Cable & Wireless

Posted on |
Corporate Ropes & GrayShearman & SterlingSlaughter and May
legal-business-default

Ropes & Gray, Shearman & Sterling and Slaughter and May have landed key roles on the proposed £5.5bn acquisition of Cable & Wireless Communications (CWC) by Virgin Media owner Liberty Global.

Both Ropes and Shearman acted as legal advisors to Liberty, with London partners Robert Haak and Jane Rodgers co-leading for Ropes, which worked on financing aspects.

Haak said: ‘Our work with Liberty is always a great team effort – collaborating closely with their in-house finance lawyers, Ruchi Kaushal, Nina Alitalo and Ian Johnston, and always working within a very tight time limit. We have again demonstrated our ability to operate seamlessly across both bank and bond products on complex acquisition finance transactions.’

The Shearman team advising Liberty focused on corporate aspects and included Manhattan M&A partners George Casey and Robert Katz and London based M&A partners Jeremy Kutner and Laurence Levy. New York-based partners Laurence Bambino, Doreen Lilienfeld and Alan Goudiss advised on tax, corporate governance and litigation matters respectively while Washington partner Ethan Harris also provided tax advice.

Wragge Lawrence Graham & Co worked alongside Shearman, advising Liberty on UK pensions aspects of the transaction, with a team led by Jason Coates and Paul Feathers.

Liberty’s financiers were advised by Allen & Overy and Latham & Watkins. Goldman Sachs, which was among Liberty’s financial advisers, instructed Skadden, Arps Meagher & Flom with a London team led by Michal Berkner that included partners Michael Hatchard and Scott Hopkins, with support from New York partner Paul Schnell.

Corporate partner Andrew Jolly led for Slaughters, to advise longstanding client CWC. The team also included financing partner Ed Fife, competition partner Jordan Ellison, pensions and employment partner Roland Doughty and tax partner Sara Luder. Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison provided support to Slaughters on financing aspects of the transaction, with a team led by managing partner and global head of securities Mark Bergman.

Slaughters previously advised CWC when it sold its 55% interest in Monaco Telecom to a private investment vehicle in 2014. The firm also advised the telco as it built a strategic alliance with Columbus Networks in 2013.

The acquisition by Liberty, which also owns brands such as Ziggo, Unitymedia, Telenet, UPC, and VTR, is still subject to approval.

Liberty has been highly acquisitive in recent years, turning to Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer last July when it purchased BskyB’s 6.4% stake in the UK broadcaster ITV.

kathryn.mccann@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Shearman abandons defined-benefit scheme to defuse pensions time bomb

Posted on |
Salaries Shearman & Sterling
legal-business-default

While some US law firms have long ignored mounting pension liabilities, relying on annual profits to pay retirees, Shearman & Sterling has become the latest firm to alter its pensions system to limit future payouts. 

Shearman’s 200-strong partnership has voted to remove defined-benefit pensions for future partners, a plan that typically hands retirees an annual payment based on a percentage of their final ‘salary’.

The change was introduced in the middle of October and affects any new partner, whether a promotion or a lateral hire.

New partners will have retirement payouts capped to a five-year period, rather than the uncapped pension plans that often continue until the retirees’ death. Shearman global managing partner David Beveridge told Legal Business: ‘We did have defined-benefit plans that extended into the future but we’ve shifted it [for new partners].’

The change also means the firm will pay pensions for new partners into a plan while they work, rather than relying on firm profits to cover pensions once staff retire.

‘This means we do not have payments go on forever, but people are paid while they work and can save in a US-qualified plan,’ said Beveridge.

‘The theory is that we will have paid them in advance into a US-qualified benefits plan so they manage their own retirement as opposed to having the firm do it.’

Amid fears that the cost of living is rising faster than the profitability of some law firms, Shearman has also changed key provisions so that pensions are paid according to whichever is lower of the consumer price index or growth of firm earnings. Previously, pensions were solely linked to the consumer price index.

The new scheme also makes it easier for older partners to retire early. Shearman’s previous partnership agreement, which only had pension provisions for staff who had worked at the firm for 30 years, has altered so that partners who want to retire earlier can do so without risking their pension arrangements.

Beveridge concludes: ‘In 20 years we might think that what we’ve done today is outmoded but maybe we’ll say, “Boy, thank God we did it”, as it’s a better approach and it’s easier to make these types of changes when your firm is doing well. We find this is more attractive to laterals and more closely matches people’s expectations about the workplace today.’

tom.moore@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Perspectives: Emmanuel Gaillard

Posted on |
Litigation Shearman & Sterling
legal-business-default

In a small resort called La Féclaz in the Alps, a lawyer was sitting next to me in the restaurant telling stories about criminal law. I said then: ‘That’s what I’m supposed to do.’ I was just going through the motions before that and being made miserable by studying maths.

I spent two summers at Rockefeller Plaza being a New York lawyer when I was 30 at a two-partner law firm called Layton & Sherman. They were typical New Yorkers… always in pinstripe suits! I had never been to Manhattan. I lived near the Upper West Side and I was going out in jazz bars and going downtown meeting artists.

Legal Business

Shearman abandons defined-benefit scheme to defuse pensions time bomb

Posted on |
Financial management Shearman & Sterling
legal-business-default

While some US law firms have long ignored mounting pension liabilities, relying on annual profits to pay retirees, Shearman & Sterling has become the latest firm to alter its pensions system to limit future payouts.

Shearman’s 200-strong partnership has voted to remove defined-benefit pensions for future partners, a plan that typically hands retirees an annual payment based on a percentage of their final ‘salary’.

The change was introduced in the middle of October and affects any new partner, whether a promotion or a lateral hire.

Legal Business

Clifford Chance and Shearman deliver advice on Italy’s €4bn post office IPO

Posted on |
Corporate Clifford ChanceShearman & Sterling
legal-business-default

Clifford Chance (CC) and Shearman & Sterling have landed lead advisory roles on the floatation of Italy’s post office, in an initial public offering expected to be valued between €8 and €10bn, allowing the government to raise up to €4bn from its partial privatisation.

Italy’s treasury plans to list up to 40% of Poste Italiane to cut public debt and enable Prime Minister Matteo Renzi to cut taxes as promised.

CC and local firm Brancadoro Mirabile are acting as legal advisers to the Italian post office, with Gianni Origoni Grippo Cappelli & Partners serving as legal adviser to the selling shareholder, Italy’s Ministry of Economy and Finance. CC’s Italian administration law head Aristide Police led a team including corporate partner Paolo Sersale and disputes partner Carlo Felice Giampaolino, as well as corporate senior associate Stefano Parrocchetti.

Shearman & Sterling and Chiomenti Studio Legale are legal advisers to the offering’s global coordinators and to the joint book runners. Shearman & Sterling declined to provide details on the team involved in the transactions.

CC’s last high profile Italy deal involved advising on the $7.7bn bid by China National Chemical Corp to buy Italian tire-maker Pirelli, a deal aimed to give Chinese investors a significant foothold in Italy’s manufacturing industry. Linklaters and Latham & Watkins also advised on that deal. 

 sarah.downey@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Shearman hires Freshfields head of telecoms Miller in push to broaden City M&A offering

Posted on |
Corporate Freshfields Bruckhaus DeringerShearman & Sterling
legal-business-default

Shearman & Sterling has hired Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer’s co-head of telecoms, media and technology, Frank Miller, as the firm bids to pull in a greater array of M&A in the City.

Miller, who also spearheads the Magic Circle firm’s efforts in Israel, is the type of hire Shearman has been looking for in London. A longstanding corporate partner with a presence in the private equity (PE) space, Miller is qualified in both US and English law, and will strengthen Shearman’s M&A offering in the City. He leaves Freshfields after 16 years, having joined in 1999 from New York-based Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz and made up to partner four years later.

Having previously been lacking in senior corporate partners, European head of M&A Laurence Levy aside, Shearman’s London office has worked to build a strong offering in the past two years. Miller’s arrival comes as part of a gradual build-up of the firm’s City corporate bench, which has seen a three-partner team arrive in the middle of 2013 led by Weil, Gotshal & Manges’ PE heavyweight Mark Soundy, and, this time last year, Ben Rodham join from Addleshaw Goddard. The firm now has six mainstream corporate partners in London.

While Miller will primarily handle mainstream corporate work, having built a steady stable of clients that includes healthcare giant Colgate-Palmolive, drinks company PepsiCo and engine maker Rolls-Royce, his work for Freshfields’ PE team will also help Shearman build in that space. Having already gained momentum from becoming a preferred adviser to PE house Bridgepoint at the end of last year, Shearman will benefit from Miller’s experience advising the Magic Circle firm’s longstanding clients CVC and Cinven. He also advised Permira on its sale of Dutch animal-nutrition business Provimi to Cargill for $2.14bn in 2011, and is known for advising ketchup maker Heinz on its takeover by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway and Brazilian private equity firm 3G Capital in 2013.

Creighton Condon, Shearman’s senior partner commented: ‘We are delighted that Frank is coming to Shearman & Sterling, with increasing M&A activity, we envision significant opportunities in London, Europe and globally to support our clients on their critical M&A transactions.’

It is the second time in six months that Shearman has taken a corporate partner from the Magic Circle, with Clifford Chance’s Robert Masella joining the firm’s New York office in April.

tom.moore@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

‘Of strategic importance’: Dechert enters Saudi Arabia with Hassan Mahassni association as Shearman opens in Dubai

Posted on |
Middle East and Africa DechertShearman & Sterling
legal-business-default

After Saudi Arabia’s liberalisation of its capital markets, Dechert has established a presence in the Kingdom by forming an association with the Law Firm of Hassan Mahassni. Shearman & Sterling also bolstered its presence in the Middle East with a new office in Dubai.

Founded in 1970 and based in Jeddah, Hassan Mahassni focuses on corporate, commercial and finance work including joint ventures, M&A, project finance, Islamic finance and capital market transactions.

The Saudi firm has a top-tier rated disputes practice by The Legal 500 as well as having recommended teams in banking and finance, corporate and projects. The firm has worked with clients including Saudi Binladin Group and Huggies manufacturer Kimberly-Clark.

Dechert chief executive Daniel O’Donnell said the association was, ‘of strategic importance’ to the firm and added: ‘We are committed to enhancing our offering in the Middle East and in working with Hassan and his team; I think we can achieve great results for our clients.’

The Global 100 firm is also looking to build its capital markets practice, which is led by partner Camille Abousleiman, after having won several mandates in H1 2015 including Egypt and Tunisia return to US markets. Abousleiman said ‘With the liberalization of the capital markets in Saudi Arabia, we are delighted that the association with Hassan and his team will allow us to participate in the growth and development of this market.’

There has been a spate of office openings in the Kingdom as it reformed its economy. DLA Piper opened it second office in the country in Jeddah with plans for a third in April this year following Baker & McKenzie which last year also opened its second outpost in the city. Meanwhile Clyde & Co launched in Riyadh in September 2014 as did Charles Russell and Simmons & Simmons.

Meanwhile, Shearman announced today that it was opening an office in the Dubai International Financial Centre. The outpost will be staffed by the firm’s regional managing partner Marwan Elaraby but there are no current plans to build headcount further with the firm saying that Abu Dhabi would continue to be its regional base with the new outpost allowing ‘the firm to offer clients more flexibility and better access to a major regional financial and commercial hub’.

michael.west@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Shearman boosts arbitration practice with partner hires in London and Hong Kong

Posted on |
Litigation Shearman & Sterling
legal-business-default

In a fillip to its international arbitration practice, Shearman & Sterling has hired the US Department of State’s Jeremy Sharpe (pictured) in London and Nils Elisasson in Hong Kong from Nordic firm Mannheimer Swartling.

Sharpe joins from his role as chief of investment arbitration at the US State department’s Office of the Legal Adviser where he led a six-lawyer team that represented the government in investor-State and State-to-State disputes arising under international investment agreements.

Eliasson previously headed Mannheimer’s disputes practice in Asia. A specialist in commercial and investment treaty arbitration with a focus on oil and gas cases, he has previously served as a legal officer at the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law.

Shearman’s senior partner Creighton Condon said: ‘We are very pleased that two top-tier international arbitration lawyers have joined our firm. Nils and Jeremy are outstanding additions to Shearman & Sterling and will reinforce a practice that is already considered the gold standard globally.’

The firm’s global head of arbitration, Emmanuel Gaillard, added: ‘The addition of Jeremy and Nils to Shearman & Sterling further consolidates a stronger-than-ever International Arbitration practice at Shearman & Sterling. They both bring to our team unique skills and experience, a deep knowledge of the market, and tremendous market recognition which our clients value.’

The firm’s international arbitration team secured the two largest awards ever issued in international arbitration: a landmark $50bn award in favour of the majority shareholders of the former Yukos Oil Company against Russia; and a $2.47bn award in favour of the Dow Chemical Company relating to a failed joint-venture dispute in Kuwait.

Other high profile arbitration moves of late includes Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) longstanding arbitration partner Matthew Weiniger QC to Linklaters, who is set to join the Magic Circle firm’s disputes team that already boasts HSF alumni Christa Band.

sarah.downey@legalease.co.uk