Legal Business

Simmons breaks into growing legal product market with start-up tool targeting hedge funds

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Innovation Simmons & Simmons
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Seeking to turn the City’s next big hedge funds into clients, Simmons & Simmons has entered the growing legal product market with a package to guide hedge fund managers through the increasing regulatory burden attached to creating and launching a financial firm.

With some of the firm’s biggest clients having only emerged in the 2000s, during the last major wave of financial spin-offs and hedge fund start-ups, Simmons is seeking to attract the next wave of hedge fund managers and traders going solo with a legal navigation tool. Labelled LaunchPlus, the project drew in around 50 Simmons lawyers to produce a four-step kit to launching and growing a hedge fund.

The brainchild of asset management and investment funds partner Devarshi Saksena, LaunchPlus is set to go live today after 18 months of development. The legal guide is split into four sections: get started, launch, operate and grow. The get started phase will be available for free, helping hedge fund start-ups avoid a barrage of legal fees before they’ve even opened for business.

The launch, operate and grow phases of the program will only be available to Simmons clients. Saksena, who led a team that included Simmons financial services head Richard Perry and Brevan Howard adviser Simon Whiteside, said at a launch event last night: ‘We have a strong commitment to the start-up market, no other law firm has anything vaguely similar and it’s an exciting development. The service will evolve and expand based on client feedback and changes to the regulatory requirements.’

With a raft of funds launching in the City this year, including Brevan Howard Asset Management co-founder Chris Rokos with Rokos Capital Management and Ziff Brothers trader David Fear with Thunderbird Capital, LaunchPlus, will cover a range of topics from where to domicile to dealing with the Financial Conduct Authority.

Perry added: ‘We have designed this resource to help today’s emerging investment managers tackle the considerable number of decision points and workstreams involved in setting up from scratch. Simmons & Simmons LaunchPlus provides essential resources to help start-up managers get to grips with these challenges.’

‘Our clients are some of the largest and best known European hedge fund businesses – many have been our clients since they were start-ups themselves. Simmons & Simmons LaunchPlus brings together our years of unparalleled experience working with start-up funds in a highly convenient and cost effective way for new clients.’

The march of the regulators has led law firms to produce new tools to guide clients through an increasingly complex business landscape, with new technology risks and opportunities adding to the demand for law firms to create spin-off products. DLA Piper’s Blue Edge Lab launched CyberTrak at the start of the year to shape clients’ cybersecurity risk strategies around the world.

tom.moore@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Dealwatch: US trio’s City teams take lead roles on GHG’s £1.5bn three-year debt restructuring alongside Simmons and CC

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Finance Clifford ChanceSimmons & Simmons
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Teams at the London offices of Paul Hastings; Weil, Gotshal & Manges, and Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy all took on key roles in the three-year negotiations over Simmons & Simmons-client General Healthcare Group’s (GHG) £1.5bn debt restructuring.

The original £1.6bn debt, which was secured by 35 private hospitals in the UK, was broken into a £960m senior loan package, which had a large portion securitised, and £660m in junior debt while there was also a swap agreement. The restructure, which closed 29 May after a nearly month long process, saw junior lenders inject new money to repay senior lenders and take over the equity in the deal while part of the long-term swap was unwound with the addition of a super-senior loan tranche.

In the restructure talks, Paul Hastings represented Capita Asset Services which acted on behalf of the senior lenders. Capita was servicer to the £960m senior loans held by a syndicate including two commercial mortgage-backed securitisations (CMBS) known as Theatre Hospitals No 1 and No 2 which saw the firm lead on obtaining approval for the deal from the CMBS noteholders.

The London-based team was led by partner Charles Roberts and included partners Michelle Duncan and Arun Birla. Roberts told Legal Business: ‘It was one of the most unusual closings I’ve seen as a result of the CMBS vote procedure and the steps required for terminating the swap and creating a new term loan from the resulting break cost.’

Roberts added: ‘We’ve been involved in some of the largest deals of this type involving CMBSs, such as Fleet Street 3 and the GRAND CMBS, this was the most complex one we’ve ever seen by far and it was interesting to be involved in the process.’

The junior lenders, which included private equity house KKR, on the deal were represented by a team at Milbank led by European financial restructuring practice chief Nick Angel and included partner Peter Newman.

Weil Gotshal led for Barclays which was a counter-party to a swap with GHG as well as heavily involved in the securitisations and other senior loans. Its team was led by City restructuring partner Adam Plainer and structured finance specialist Jacky Kelly but also included finance partner Brian Maher, litigator Jamie Maples, and head of London real estate Rupert Jones.

Sidley Austin acted for the other main swap counter-party Dresdner bank – now part of Commerzbank – while Clifford Chance led for the two further counter-parties Bank of Scotland and Mizuho with a team including finance partner Jessica Littlewood. Simmons took on the role advising GHG with a team comprising partners Peter Manning and Richard Cook, though this was limited as GHG decided not to lead the restructure negotiations.

michael.west@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Revolving doors: Simmons welcomes back a partner from Cadwalader as Nabarro hires from McGuire Woods

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Strategic recruitment CMS UKSimmons & Simmons
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Last week saw a range of firms bolstering key practices areas with a capital markets partner returning to Simmons & Simmons, Nabarro building its disputes resolution group, Jones Day hiring a team in The Netherlands while Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) made a significant appointment.

Targeting disputes work emanating from Eastern Europe, Nabarro added Adam Greaves, a partner specialising in commercial international litigation and arbitration, particularly fraud cases and white collar crime investigations, to its dispute resolution practice. Joining the London office from US firm McGuireWoods, he has focused on cases from the region, particularly Russia and Ukraine, as well as US and British government investigations into alleged corruption abroad. He has also worked on anti-corruption compliance systems.

Jonathan Warne, Nabarro’s head of Dispute Resolution, said: ‘With increased investment from Eastern Europe flowing into South East Asia, there is a clear opportunity for Adam to develop new lines of business for Nabarro with our growing team in Singapore as we look to extend our disputes offering in the region.’

Meanwhile, Simmons & Simmons welcomed back an old partner, expanding its financial markets practice in Hong Kong with David Neuville who left the firm in 2007 for Jones Day. Neuville spent five years at Jones Day as a partner before moving to Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft in 2012. He specialises in capital markets, both equity and debt, working for issuers and underwriters on global offerings of securities.

Back in Europe, Jones Day announced it was hiring Aldo Verbruggen as a partner in its Amsterdam office along with two lawyers, Hansje van den Noort and Tessa van Roomen, all from Houthoff Buruma. The trio will join the firm’s corporate criminal investigations practice with Verbruggen, who previously served in the Dutch Public Prosecutor’s office, well regarded for his experience in high-profile cases involving corporate criminal law.

Luc Houben, partner-in-charge of Jones Day’s Amsterdam office, said: “Increasingly, companies and financial institutions are faced with highly sensitive internal and external investigations, often with multi-jurisdictional dimensions. Aldo is one of the most prominent lawyers in the Netherlands in the field of corporate investigations and corporate criminal law.’

Finally, BLP announced the appointment of Nathan Willmott as new Departmental Managing Partner of its litigation and dispute resolution team. Willmott joined the firm in 2007 and takes over from Jonathan Sacher who will now lead BLP’s Insurance Sector Group from 1 June. Oliver Glynn-Jones takes over Willmott’s role as head of BLP’s commercial dispute resolution group while Graham Shear is becoming head of international for the litigation team.

michael.west@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Simmons & Simmons votes through new business plan targeting stronger US links and looking after the ‘crown jewels’

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Simmons & Simmons
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In a unanimous vote, Simmons & Simmons has voted through a new three-year business plan with a focus on strengthening referral relationships in the US, transforming its partner-client relationships and committing to a set of firm-wide values.

The strategy, which will run from 1 May 2015 through to 30 April 2018, will place greater structure around which US firms partners refer work to, in the hope of forging stronger relationships. Simmons currently has an alliance in place with finance boutique Seward & Kissel, but directs work to upwards of 50 firms in the US. Jeremy Hoyland (pictured), who was recently re-elected as the firm’s managing partner until the end of April 2019, told Legal Business: ‘We have been trying to develop relationships with US firms. It’s still by far and away the largest legal market and we’ve felt our profile there has been too low. We have a laissez faire attitude to referrals and that means that we have a diffuse impact on US firms’ perception of us.

‘That’s an unmanaged process and we want to manage it better. We want to have relationships with a smaller number of firms where there is some genuine peer-to-peer relationships. We think that would deliver better service for our clients and encourage more referrals coming our way than we get at the moment.’

Hoyland is hopeful that forging better links with US firms will also improve the firm’s merger options in the long-term too. He adds: ‘We think there will be more transatlantic consolidation, there are some very good US firms out there we’d like to think would be good potentials but there’s an awful lot for us to do ourselves. But I’m sceptical that something will happen in the short-term.’

The firm is also looking to drive a narrower focus, zoning in on asset management and investment funds, energy and infrastructure, financial institutions, life sciences and telecoms and media and technology. The strategy also expands the preferred list of clients and improves how partners manage their clients.

‘There is more we can and should be doing with the institutionalised client list and make more of the client-partner role,’ said Hoyland. ‘We’ve been looking at what some other professional services firms do and if you look at what it means to be a client-partner at PwC, it’s the thing you write on your gravestone, and the greatest achievement of your career. We don’t have that sort of mind-set and we need to move further in that direction. That comes with responsibilities. We want to look after the crown jewels and deepen those relationships wherever we can.’

A new scheme is being introduced to have a longer line of partners handling core clients, with deputies being brought in to ensure smooth succession of relationships and help broaden the amount of business secured from key clients. The firm currently operates three client lists, with a strategic account programme, or SAP, containing clients it holds a broad relationship with, followed by priority client and investment client lists.

Simmons will also be rolling out a set of firm values, a process being headed by senior partner Colin Passmore that is set to conclude at the end of this month. Hoyland said: ‘There’s a lot about Simmons that is distinct and there’s benefit in capturing that and using it as a way so that we don’t lose what is precious. Like everybody else we’ve been pushing to improve profits in an increasingly challenging market and having some balance is a good thing.’

tom.moore@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Partner promotions: Simmons makes up 13 partners in bumper round as Charles Russell Speechlys promotes five

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Partnership promotions Charles Russell SpeechlysSimmons & Simmons
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Continuing the trend of increased partner promotions this year, Simmons & Simmons has promoted 13 lawyers to partner in its biggest round since 2011. Meanwhile Charles Russell Speechlys made up five in its first round since its merger.

Simmons’ promotions round is much expanded on last year, when eight lawyers made the grade, with nine being made up in the City alone in 2015. By practice, the firm moved to promote lawyers servicing the finance sector with three financial markets litigators made up alongside lawyers from its financial services and financial markets teams. Also in the UK, Alistair Hill, who helped to launch the firm’s banking practice in Bristol in May 2013 when he joined from Linklaters, was made partner.

While there were three lawyers made up in continental Europe last year, the firm focused on the Middle East and Asia this time around. There was a double promotion in Hong Kong, with employment lawyer Sarah Berkeley and corporate specialist Seung Chong joining the partnership, while Dubai-based financial markets lawyer Ahmed Butt was made up after helping to launch the firm’s second office in Saudi Arabia through its alliance with Hammad & Al-Mehdar.

Simmons’ senior partner Colin Passmore, said: ‘These promotions are fully in line with the firm’s business plan and they recognise the range of talent that exists across our practice areas that has been key to our growth over the past few years. I am particularly pleased that over half of our new partners joined the firm as trainees.’

Elsewhere, Charles Russell Speechlys made up five lawyers in its first round since its merger in November. The firm promoted lawyers across its private client, real estate, corporate, restructuring and commercial practices. Christopher Page, senior partner at Charles Russell Speechlys, said: ‘The merger has made this a very busy year, but we have never lost sight of fact that it is the quality and dedication to client service of our people that drives our continued success.’

The new partners at Charles Russell Speechlys:

Sally Ashford, private client, Guildford

Suzi Gatward, real estate, London

Jonathan Morley, corporate, Cheltenham

Hanh Nguyen, corporate restructuring and insolvency, London

Jonathan Walters, commercial, London

The new partners at Simmons & Simmons:

Angus McLean, intellectual property, London

Ania Rontaler, corporate, London

Emma Sutcliffe, financial markets litigation, London

Nick Colston, financial services, London

Paul Baker, financial markets litigation, London

Robert Allen, financial markets litigation, London

Stephen Moses, litigation, London

Vicky Wickremeratne, employment, London

Nick Skerrett, tax, London

Alistair Hill, banking, Bristol

Ahmed Butt, financial markets, Dubai

Sarah Berkeley, employment, Hong Kong

Seung Chong, corporate, Hong Kong

tom.moore@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Building the team: Proskauer Rose hires Simmons M&A partner as it targets City PE market

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Strategic recruitment Proskauer RoseSimmons & Simmons
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Matt Rees, an M&A partner at Simmons & Simmons focusing on private equity, has resigned from the firm to join Proskauer Rose later this month.

Making the 10 minute trip from One Ropemaker Street to the US firm’s new offices in Heron Tower, Rees becomes the 17th partner at Proskauer Rose’s City office. His arrival follows that of well-known leveraged buyout lawyer Steven Davis, who joined in December from King & Wood Mallesons, having been head of corporate at SJ Berwin up until the firm’s merger with the Asian giant.

It is understood that Rees will link up with Davis’ growing private equity team and provide a bridge to Proskauer Rose’s rainmaking investment funds team, headed by Nigel Van Zyl which has HgCapital as a major client.

Rees departs Simmons after seven years, having joined from O’Melveny & Myers in 2008 and making partner in the process. He specialises in advising hedge funds and private equity houses on corporate finance and M&A mandates and is known for his work for Europe’s largest pension fund manager APG, advising the company on its creation of a £350m real estate fund in the UK in 2013, and Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC Special Investments on its European M&A work.

Proskauer Rose, which currently has 41 lawyers in the Square Mile, took an 18,000 sq ft lease in Heron Tower late last year to double its London office space to accommodate up to 100 lawyers.

tom.moore@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

One up, one out: Simmons promotes finance partner as it loses another to Squire Patton Boggs

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Strategic recruitment Simmons & SimmonsSquire Patton Boggs
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Squire Patton Boggs has hired Simmons & Simmons‘ acquisition finance partner John Hayward as it sets out to expand its roster of banking and private equity clients. Meanwhile, Simmons made a New Year promotion to its partnership.

Hayward, who took a five-partner banking team to Simmons & Simmons from Berwin Leighton Paisner in 2011, has been tasked with securing bank loan mandates as liquidity in the European finance market picks up. Hayward was head of leveraged finance at BLP for the eight years leading up to his exit and held client relationships with Barclays Bank, HSBC, Lloyds Bank and The Royal Bank of Scotland.

Since 2008, Hayward has taken on an increasing amount of real estate finance. An influx of investment in the London real estate market, with Middle Eastern and Asian investment groups spending billions of pounds to acquire prime property, means he can expect to pick up work from Squire Patton Boggs’ eight-partner real estate team in London. The firm believes one of the benefits of its merger last year will come from legacy Squire Sanders’ European real estate team and Patton Boggs’ strong funds group in the Middle East.

Jim Barresi, global head of Squire Patton Boggs’ financial services group, said: ‘Financial Services is an area of strategic investment and expansion for our firm globally as we build our capabilities to meet the needs of a sophisticated, much valued and ever-increasing client-base. With John Hayward in London we are opening up valuable new opportunities in the UK domestic market and also for our clients located in the Middle East and elsewhere.’

Squire Patton Boggs hired three finance partners in London last year, hiring asset finance specialist Paula Laird from Wragge & Co, structured finance partner Mark Thomas from Addleshaw Goddard, and debt capital market specialist Tom Cerdan from White & Case, where he was a senior associate.

Andrew Knight, EMEA chief, added: ‘John’s appointment is the latest in an ongoing programme of growth and lateral hiring for our practice.’

It is a case of one in, one out for Simmons & Simmons, which made a surprise promotion earlier this month with the election of finance lawyer Matthew Pitman to the partnership in London. He specialises in investment funds, in particular private funds.

tom.moore@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

‘Doing more for the large clients’: Simmons & Simmons posts 8% rise in revenue

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Financial results 2014/15 Simmons & Simmons
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Top-20 UK firm Simmons & Simmons has seen revenue rise 8% for the first six months of the 2014-15 financial year with income, buoyed by the recovery in bank lending for M&A and financial regulatory work, increasing from £130m to £140m.

The strongest performance came in the UK, with managing partner Jeremy Hoyland (pictured) telling Legal Business that the firm is ‘outperforming the market’. Simmons & Simmons’ aggressive international expansion went up another level yesterday with the launch of a five-lawyer office in Luxemburg coming on the back of openings in Beijing and a second office in Saudi Arabia.

Hoyland added: ‘It’s been less about new clients but doing more for the large clients. We’ve seen an increased number of transactions for the banks in the last six months and I’m keen to get all of the income growth to filter into the profits and holding costs as flat as we can.’

The rise in half year revenue repeats last year’s performance for the period which saw income rise from £121m to £130m. That heralded Simmons & Simmons’ return to growth in 2013/14 with the firm seeing a 7% rise in revenue to £268.6m for the 12 months to 30 April 2014 and an increase in PEP of 5% to £550,000.

tom.moore@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

‘Naturally delighted’: Jeremy Hoyland re-elected as Simmons & Simmons managing partner

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Leadership Simmons & Simmons
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Simmons & Simmons’ partnership re-elected Jeremy Hoyland as managing partner after an uncontested election, seeing him begin a second four-year term on 1 May 2015.

Hoyland (Profile), who beat Germany chief Hans-Hemann Aldenhoff to become managing partner in April 2011, had a difficult start in the role, with volatile profitability during the early 2010s, Hoyland oversaw a strong financial performance in 2013/14, achieving a 7% increase in revenue to £268.6m and a 6% rise in profits per equity partner to £553,000.

In a statement, Jeremy Hoyland (pictured), managing partner, said: ‘I am naturally delighted to be re-elected for a second term and look forward to working with our partners and staff as we continue to make progress on our strategic objectives.’

Speaking to Legal Business, Hoyland added: ‘We’ll broadly continue what we have been doing. We’ll focus on the sectors as I believe on building on our strengths so we’ll be looking to build those out. There’s a sense of momentum about the firm at the moment and that’s a big positive.’

Hoyland has been at Simmons & Simmons since joining the firm as a trainee in 1989. He became a partner in 1997 before departing his post as head of finance to replace litigator Mark Dawkins as managing partner.

Senior partner Colin Passmore said: ‘Jeremy’s reappointment as managing partner is very much deserved. He brings focus, rigour and determination to the role and I am delighted he is looking after our interests for another term.’

tom.moore@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Partner exits pile up: Edwards Wildman loses leading Hong Kong insurance partner to Simmons & Simmons

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Asia Simmons & Simmons
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Having been plagued with a series of partner departures from London, Edwards Wildman Palmer has now taken a hit to its Hong Kong offering with the departure of insurance partner Martin Lister, who established the office in 2006, to Simmons & Simmons. Simmons, meanwhile, has also expanded its Africa group with the appointment of Paul Bugingo from Dentons, where he served as co-chairman of the firm’s Africa committee.

With 30 years experience in the insurance sector and specialised in M&A, regulation and compliance, Lister joined Edwards Wildman from local firm Deacons in November 2005 before establishing its Hong Kong office a year later. Acknowledged as a leading individual by Legal 500, he has previously advised the Hong Kong government on various public consultations in relation to the insurance industry and was closely involved in the establishment of the Securities and Futures Commission in 1989. The firm’s insurance practice in the region serves clients including Transamerica Life Insurance and Zurich Insurance Group.

Lister’s exit follows that of IP partner Kenneth Choy who left for local firm Choy, Cheung & Co in August, and corporate partner John Lo who moved to CWL Partners, which operates in association with US firm Nixon Peabody and the mainland Chinese Hylands Law Firm, in June.

On the hire, Simmons & Simmons’ insurance group head James Pollock said: ‘As insurance corporate activity and regulation in Asia and other international jurisdictions increases, Martin’s arrival will add further strength to our existing offering, and our insurance team across the firm.’

‘His experience in this area will be invaluable to our international practice, and to our clients, whose ability and ambitions to expand in the region are, now more than ever, dependant on advice from an experienced and well-regarded regulatory and corporate counsel on insurance issues.’

London departures have also been rife for the Boston-headquartered firm, including partners Ben Goodger to Osborne Clarke, Niall McAlister to Olswang, Stuart Blythe to CMS Cameron McKenna, Shawn Atkinson to Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, David Ramm to Morgan Lewis Bockius, and Eero Rautalahti whose next move is unknown.

Redundancies have also started from that office, albeit in small numbers, affecting one lawyer and four staff so far.

Simmons, meanwhile, also continues to build its presence in Africa. Having formed an alliance with Fasken Martineau in early August, a move which provides ‘immediate access to leading Africa practices’, the firm yesterday (12 November) confirmed the hire of Paul Bugingo from Dentons who had helped lead that firm’s Africa ambitions.

sarah.downey@legalease.co.uk