Legal Business

‘A sad day’ – Slaughters’ pioneering deal veteran Frances Murphy passes away

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Frances Murphy, the City’s most prominent female deal lawyer who in 2008 became the first female head of corporate at Slaughter and May, passed away last night after a long illness.

In a statement issued this morning (26 May), Slaughters senior partner Steve Cooke said: ‘This is a very sad day. The news was received with great sorrow by everyone here. Frances was one of the most outstanding corporate lawyers in the City and made an exceptional contribution to the firm. She held the respect of the business community and had a huge reputation in the global legal market. We will really miss her. Our thoughts are with her family.’

Murphy was one of the City’s best known corporate lawyers, having joined Slaughters in 1981, becoming a partner in 1990. She built a wide practice and acted on a string of high profile transactions at Slaughters, representing some of the London firm’s largest clients, including General Electric, Banco Santander, Alliance Boots and Burberry.

In 2008, Murphy became Slaughters’ first female head of corporate, a post she held until 2014. While major law firms have made efforts to improve gender diversity at partner level, in the core area of M&A work, partner ranks have remained overwhelmingly male. Murphy was active outside the profession in a range of roles, including the 30 Per Cent Club – which launched in 2010 with a goal of achieving a minimum of 30% women on FTSE 100 boards, and once chaired the Network for Knowledge, a City networking group for women. She was also on the board of trustees for Great Ormond Street Hospital.

tom.moore@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Associate pay: Slaughter and May releases muted salary increases

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Salaries Slaughter and May
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Slaughter and May has released underwhelming associate salary increases, ranging between 2% and 5%, following its annual pay review.

The firm has increased its pay scales for trainees and associates following an annual review, with the new rates taking effect on 1 May.

Salaries for newly qualified lawyers are up 2.1% from £70,000 to £71,500, while associates with one year’s post-qualified experience (PQE) will see their salaries go up to £79,000 from £75,500.

Further up the scale, lawyers at the firm with two and three years’ PQE will each get a £3,250 pay boost to take annual pay up £90,250 and £99,750 respectively. For those with two years’ PQE, this represents a 3.7% salary increase on the £87,000 on offer last year. For those with three years’ PQE, it is a slightly lower increase of 3.4% on the £96,500 paid out last year.

Trainees will pocket an extra £1,500 at Slaughter and May this year, with first year trainees set to earn £42,500 and second year trainees set to earn £47,500.

With City salaries rising as competition for talent heats up and more profitable US firms expand in London, Slaughter and May lifted bonuses for high-perfroming junior lawyers to between 9%-16% of salaries at Christmas, up on the 7.5% to 15% range at the end of 2014. However, it is lagging behind an increasing number of firms when it comes to pay in the City, with US firm White & Case increasing salaries by 20% last year to hand newly-qualified lawyers £90,000 a year.

Magic Circle rival Linklaters ramped up associate take-home pay last month after a lengthy review of its remuneration, with newly-qualified lawyers set to take home at least £81,000 next year including bonus, compared to the £68,500 basic salary on offer in 2015. High performers will on average earn £91,000 including bonuses. One year’s PQE lawyers at Linklaters will take home £90,000 on average from 1 May, with associates at two and three years’ PQE set to receive £100,000 and £111,000.

tom.moore@legalease.co.uk

 

Slaughter and May salary review in full:

 

Trainee year 1: £42,500 (£41,000) +3.66%

Trainee year 2: £47,500 (£46,000) +3.26%

Newly qualified: £71,500 (£70,000) +2.14%

One year’s PQE: £79,000 (£75,500)+ 4.64%

Two years’ PQE: £90,250 (£87,000) +3.74%

Three years’ PQE: £99,750 (£96,500) +3.37%

Legal Business

Steel deal: Forsters and Slaughters lead as Tata sells first chunk of UK business

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Forsters lined up against Magic Circle firm Slaughter and May on Tata Steel’s deal to sell its European long products business to UK investment house Greybull Capital.

The deal covers seven sites making steel used in construction, including Tata Steel’s steelworks in Scunthorpe, and offers a glimmer of hope to some 4,000 employees after the Indian industrial group’s decision to offload its UK business. Greybull will also pick up two mills in Teesside, an engineering workshop in Workington, a design consultancy in York, and associated distribution facilities, as well as a mill in northern France.

The UK steel crisis is the result of a number of factors, including high energy prices and an influx of cheap Chinese steel, but this deal maintains the historic Scunthorpe site home to British steelmaking for over 125 years. Greybull will rename the business British Steel.

Slaughter and May, a long-time adviser to Tata Steel, was instructed on the deal. London-based corporate partner Gary Eaborn is leading a team that includes finance partners Ian Johnson and Andrew McClean, real estate partner John Nevin, tax partner Gareth Miles and IP partner Cathy Connolly.

Forsters, which advised Greybull Capital on its last big deal in 2014 when it took a 90% stake in no-frills airline Monarch, is again advising the investment house on its deal for Tata Steel’s long products business.

Craig Thompson, a London-based M&A partner, is leading on the deal with support from the firm’s head of banking Victoria Edwards and commercial real estate partner Helen Streeton.

Thompson told Legal Business: ‘Politicians were interested in the deal but we just carried on quietly negotiating with Tata, who were very fair to negotiate with. We tried to ignore the political pressure, we’re lawyers – not politicians.’

He added: ‘Greybull are good investors. They invest in good management teams and know how to turn businesses around. They stick with them, they’re not rapacious private equity; they’re very responsible investors. There was some negotiation [over the British Steel brand] but Tata realised it was very important to the long steel business and were very gracious about it in the end.’

The UK Serious Fraud Office confirmed on Friday (8 April) that it opened a criminal investigation in December 2015 into activity at Speciality Steels, a UK business unit of Tata Steel.

tom.moore@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Outgoing Slaughter and May senior partner Saul to launch mediation boutique

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Slaughter and May’s longstanding leader, Chris Saul, will launch a mediation boutique once he retires from his role as senior partner on 30 April.

Saul, who is retiring from the UK’s most profitable law firm after eight years at the helm, is planning to launch a mediation firm later this year. In what is an unusual move for a corporate lawyer, Saul will set up a mediation consultancy called Christopher Saul Associates this autumn to provide dispute resolution advice to corporates. Saul registered the new firm with Companies House at the start of March.

Legal Business

News in brief – April 2016

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Corporate Bird & BirdFasken MartineauReed SmithSlaughter and May
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REED SMITH REPLACED AS SIEMENS REFRESHES PANEL

Last month Eversheds and Osborne Clarke were reappointed to Siemens UK’s legal panel, while Addleshaw Goddard replaced Reed Smith, following a review. The new panel will last for three years.

Legal Business

Life During Law: Chris Saul, Slaughter and May

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Every time my father got a promotion we had to move. It trains you to fit in with new crowds. He worked for the Midland Bank. We lived in Carlisle, Shropshire, Birmingham, Kingston-upon-Thames and Manchester. It focused me on academic work as each new school had a different syllabus so I was always catching up.

I used to stand in our garage handing my father spanners. My favourite car in my youth was the Lancia Aurelia B20 GT, which was one of the classic Pininfarina designs of the ’50s. They were the embodiment of high-quality engineering. I went through a severe Lancia-buying phase in my 20s. I bought five!

Legal Business

Outgoing Slaughters senior partner Saul to launch mediation boutique

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Slaughter and May‘s longstanding leader, Chris Saul (pictured), will launch a mediation boutique once he retires from his role as senior partner on 30 April.

Saul, who is retiring from the UK’s most profitable law firm after eight years at the helm, is planning to launch a mediation firm later this year. In what is an unusual move for a corporate lawyer, Saul will set up a mediation consultancy called Christopher Saul Associates this autumn to provide dispute resolution advice to corporates. Saul registered the new firm with Companies House at the start of March.

The new firm will be based in London and provide classic pre-litigation mediation, including when parties fall out over joint venture agreements. Christopher Saul Associates will also mediate boardroom disputes, advise stakeholders in family-owned businesses struggling with generational change and guide professional services firms through difficulties around governance structures.

Saul told Legal Business: ‘Although mediation tends to be the preserve of disputes lawyers I hope that, with my transactional experience and the additional perspectives gained from being involved in law firm management, I will be able to bring a weathered ear to a range of difficult situations.’

Saul, who will be replaced as Slaughter and May senior partner by longstanding head of M&A Stephen Cooke, will also become a member of the UK Takeover Panel’s Hearings Committee when he steps down at the end of the month. He has recently joined the boards of the Leverhulme Trust, a UK charity that spends around £50m a year on talented young people in need of financial support, and the English National Ballet.

He will be retiring from Slaughter and May after nearly four decades at the firm, having joined as an articled clerk in 1977. He has been a partner for over three decades, having been made a corporate partner in 1986.

tom.moore@legalease.co.uk

For more on Chris Saul’s career, see ‘Life During Law‘

Legal Business

London calling: Slaughter and May resumes City focus with bumper promotion round of ten

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The latest to release its partnership promotions, Slaughter and May has announced ten promotions all in the City, a big bump on last year’s round of four.

While last year the firm made up two males and females, only one female associate made the cut this year. The promotion round will bring the number of female partners at the firm to 24 while there are 91 males.

Corporate was the practice area to see the biggest set of promotions, with corporate practitioners Murray Cox, Paul Mudie and Victoria MacDuff all making the cut.

Financing associates Oliver Wicker and Oliver Storey, were also promoted, as was financial regulation specialist Nick Bonsall.

Disputes saw two partner promotions with Richard Jeens and Damian Taylor both making partner while solicitor William Turtle was made partner in the competition practice. Commercial real estate associate Richard Todd was also made up.

The focus on City promotions comes as no surprise for the London headquartered firm which also made all of its promotions in London last year. In 2014 the firm made up seven in London, while also making two separate, out of step promotions of two practitioners in Hong Kong in July that year.

Slaughter and May incoming senior partner Steve Cooke (pictured) said: ‘Our new partners have already established a strong track record of providing excellent advice to our clients. They will make an important contribution to the continuing growth of our practice.’

Cooke, who officially takes the senior partner post on 1 May, has already indicated he would retatin the firm’s City focus when he takes up his five-year term.

Slaughter and May is the second Magic Circle firm to release its partner promotions, as last week Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer said it would promote 16 to the partnership.

The promotions take effect on 1 May.

victoria.young@legalease.co.uk

The full list of partner promotions is as follows:

Nick Bonsall, financial regulation, London

Murray Cox, corporate, London

Richard Jeens, dispute resolution, London

Victoria MacDuff, corporate, London

Paul Mudie, corporate, London

Oliver Storey, financing, London

Damian Taylor, dispute resolution, London

Richard Todd, commercial real estate, London

William Turtle, competition, London

Oliver Wicker, financing, London

 

Legal Business

Slaughters elects new M&A head to replace incoming senior partner Cooke

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Slaughter and May has chosen Roland Turnill (pictured) as head of the firm’s M&A practice, replacing new senior partner Steve Cooke.

In an appointment which will take effect on 1 May this year, Turnill will succeed Cooke who was M&A head at the UK’s most profitable law firm for more than 15 years. In January Cooke was given a five year term as senior partner, to replace the retiring Chris Saul.

Turnill trained at Slaughter and May and became a partner in 2004. He has a broad commercial and corporate finance practice spanning public takeovers, private acquisitions and disposals and public equity offerings. Recent transactions include advising Vodafone on the merger of its Dutch operations with those of Liberty Global and Royal Dutch Shell on its £47bn combination with BG Group.

Turnill said: ‘My focus will be to ensure that we continue to earn the trust that clients place in us and develop the exceptional talent and commitment that exists within our team.’

Saul said: ‘I am delighted that Roland has been elected as head of our M&A practice. He is an outstanding corporate lawyer, respected by clients and colleagues alike.’

Incoming senior partner Cooke has told Legal Business he will retain the firm’s City focus when he takes up the role later this year.

Cooke said: ‘There’s not a day goes by when I don’t think: “Why can’t we get more clients?” We will always try to do better. There’s no glass ceiling where we can’t do any better.’

He added: ‘Our culture is one of our great strengths. Being a real partnership, and maintaining the engagement and enthusiasm of partners, is critical to who and what we are. I wouldn’t want to mess with that.’

For more on Slaughter and May see: ‘The new boy – can Ryde & co keep Slaughters’ deal team on top? ‘

 

Legal Business

Asia round-up: Olswang and Bird & Bird build offerings while Slaughters Hong Kong partner Hyman retires

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The past week has seen changes for several UK-headquartered firms in Asia with Olswang appointing a new Asia managing partner and Bird & Bird making two lateral partner hires, as corporate partner Neil Hyman retires from Slaughter and May‘s Hong Kong office.

TMT firm Olswang has appointed a new Asia managing partner with corporate partner Andrew Stott taking over from Rob Bratby who headed the region for past four years. Olswang confirmed that Bratby will return to the London office to ‘take up a global telecoms and emerging markets role’. Bratby joined Olswang from US firm Mayer Brown as partner in 2008 where he worked in the City for almost four years before relocating to Singapore in 2012.

Olswang’s new Asia head Stott has been with the firm since 2002 and advises companies, financial institutions and individuals on international public and private M&A, investment deals and strategic joint ventures. Stott also has experience in working on multi-jurisdiction transactions across Europe, North America and Asia. His new role will take effect from 1 May 2016.

Olswang chief executive Paul Stevens commented: ‘We look forward to welcoming Rob back in London. His return to the UK was part of the firm’s plan from the outset, and we are very grateful to Rob for helping to build a robust and client-centric business in Singapore from which our team can grow further.’

Elsewhere, Slaughter and May Hong Kong corporate partner Hyman is due to retire from the partnership on 30 April. Hyman joined the firm in London in 1986 and was made a partner in the corporate practice in 1995. He then transferred to the firm’s Hong Kong office in 2001.

Some of his recent transactions include advising Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation on its $4.95bn acquisition of Wing Hang Bank; and representing international healthcare group Bupa on the acquisition of Quality HealthCare Medical Services, the largest private clinic network in Hong Kong, for $355m, from Fortis Healthcare.

Meanwhile, Bird & Bird is building its Asia Pacific teams with two new dispute recruits as Jonathan Choo joins from Olswang, and Robert Rhoda joins from RPC.

According to the firm, the ‘appointments represent a major boost to the firm’s rapidly growing Asia-Pacific dispute resolution group’ and places the firm ‘among the strongest arbitration teams in the Asia-Pacific region covering both contentious and non-contentious work’.

Choo will be based in Singapore and previously headed Olswang’s Asian arbitration and dispute resolution practice and also co-headed the international arbitration group. He has experience of a range of significant disputes and arbitrations both in Singapore and overseas.

Rhoda joins from RPC’s Hong Kong office, where he was a member of the commercial disputes group focusing on international arbitration. Rhoda has experience of high-stakes international arbitration matters, as well as advising on commercial litigation and regulatory matters in both London and Hong Kong.

jashiree.kalia@legalease.co.uk