Legal Business

White & Case’s City office wins first work from CVC as PE house leads on $2bn Alvogen acquisition

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Corporate Simpson Thacher & BartlettSlaughter and MayWhite & Case
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White & Case, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett and Slaughter and May have all won roles as CVC Capital Partners, Vatera Healthcare and Singaporean sovereign wealth fund Temasek teamed up to buy a controlling stake in pharmaceutical firm Alvogen.

Although White & Case has an historic relationship with CVC stateside, this is the first work led out of London for the European private equity fund that led on the deal for the consortium. The firm’s team was led by partners Ian Bagshaw (pictured) in London and Oliver Brahmst from New York and included New York partner Brian Smarsh, plus Justin Wagstaff and Marcus Booth, both in London.

Bagshaw told Legal Business the deal played to the firm’s strengths: ‘It was one of those deals where you needed to be strong in New York and strong in London to get the deal away as the M&A was done in the US while I could lead the deal and the investment work out of London.’

The deal, which reportedly values Alvogen at $2bn, saw a club of investors including CVC, Temasek and Vatera Healthcare purchase a controlling stake in the pharma company from Pamplona Capital Management. Simpson Thacher led for Alvogen and Pamplona with a team including Peter Martelli in New York and Clare Gaskell in London. Lowenstein Sandler provided additional advice to Pamplona, which only bought its stake in the company with operations in 35 countries last year.

Bagshaw added: ‘Ultimately, it was a complex deal because of the nature of the consortia and the different drivers within it meant there were a number of points of view to reconcile. The deal played to the strengths of the firm, as Alvogen’s revenues are US but the growth areas are Central Europe and Asia. We were able to look at the due diligence in the US, and then when it comes to looking at comparable issues in Romania or Korea or Taiwan, we had teams on the ground to apply local knowledge.’

Those other point of views saw Slaughters win a role acting for Temasek with a team led by Nigel Boardman while biotech/pharmaceutical investment specialist Vatera was advised by Wilkie Farr & Gallagher.

The company has over 200 projects in development and registrations plus 350 marketed products. Aztiq Pharma, an investment vehicle led by Alvogen’s chief executive Robert Wessman, is retaining a stake while Pamplona will also keep a small stake.

CVC has previously turned to a raft of firms for its corporate work including Clifford Chance and Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton.

michael.west@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Slaughters’ leadership race starts as senior partner Chris Saul confirms plans to stand down and retire

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Leadership Slaughter and May
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Part of a wider changing of the guard, Slaughter and May is preparing to elect a new senior partner following partners being informed that incumbent Chris Saul (pictured) is to step down from the position and retire from the Magic Circle firm.

After eight years at the helm, Saul will retire from Slaughters once his term as senior partner comes to an end on 30 April 2016. He will step down after nearly four decades at the firm, having joined as an articled clerk in 1977, and three decades as a partner after being made up in 1986.

Saul told Legal Business: ‘My term ends at the end of April next year and so next spring there will be another senior partner. My mission, as always, is to keep the firm moving forwards by keeping relationships as fresh as possible, developing new relationships and winning all the mandates that we can. In due course a [succession] process will unfold with internal timelines.’

Having made his name handling corporate, M&A, private equity and securities work, Saul took on a five-year term as senior partner in 2008 and was handed a three-year extension in 2013.

Saul’s successor is set to inherit a 700-lawyer firm which is the most profitable in the City. While the firm has stuck to its traditions in an age when rivals have sought to globalise, instead setting up a best friends network of law firms to cover cross-border work, Saul has looked to internationalise the firm’s client base and expand in Hong Kong during his time as senior partner.

His replacement will be the third leader of the firm in 15 years, with Saul’s predecessor Tim Clark having served a seven-year term starting in 2001. The firm’s next senior partner will be handed a five-year term with a partnership vote expected to take place in early 2016.

Saul’s retirement follows that of elder statesman Paul Olney as practice partner at the end of 2014 and Graham White as executive partner in 2013. Then disputes head Richard Clark was elected as White’s replacement, while David Wittmann, who was just finishing the firm’s trainee programme in 1990 when Olney was made a partner, became practice partner at the start of 2015.

Saul added: ‘It was a five-year term and the firm graciously extended me for three years so that’s a decent slug of time and it’s been great. I’ve been an incredibly lucky person and I’m actively thinking about what I’ll do next.’

tom.moore@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

CC matches peers in associate salary race – both Slaughters’ £70k NQs and Links’ 3 year PQE pay

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Salaries Clifford ChanceLinklatersSlaughter and May
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Clifford Chance has revealed its 2015 pay bands for newly-qualified (NQ) lawyers, matching the £70,000 NQ rates of Slaughter and May while also meeting Linklaters’ higher salaries for those with two and three year post-qualified experience (PQE).

Although the increases, which took effect from 1 May 2015, are smaller in percentage terms than those released so far by its Magic Circle peers, CC is matching the higher of the rates being offered to qualified lawyers by either Slaughters or Linklaters.

It sees NQs receive a 4% boost from £67,500 a year to £70,000 with up to a 20% bonus being paid. The band receiving the largest percentage increase comprises lawyers with three years PQE, who will receive £98,500 – a 5% increase on 2014. CC lawyers with over a year’s post-qualified experience will potentially receive up to 30% of their base salary as a bonus.

Trainees are also seeing their pay increase with year-one recruits being paid £42,000, up 4%, and year two trainees getting a 4% bump to £47,300 – a figure which is higher than that announced by rivals so far.

David Bickerton, London managing partner, said: ‘We have had a very strong performance over the last year, winning instructions on many pieces of high-profile and complex work, generating excellent results for clients and maintaining our leading position in this highly competitive market. This performance provides us with a strong platform to embark on our vision of becoming the law firm of choice for the businesses of today and tomorrow.

‘To do this, we need to retain our relentless focus on delivering the best advice to our clients in a way that responds to their priorities and needs. I believe that only the best, most motivated team will do if we are to deliver our exciting strategy. Today’s salary increases and bonuses are recognition of the high quality of our lawyers, and the critical role they will play in the success of that strategy.’

The new salary bands are as follows:

Trainee year 1: £42,000

Trainee year 2: £47,300

NQ: £70,000

PQE year 1: £75,500

PQE year 2: £88,000

PQE year 3: £98,500

michael.west@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Slaughters starts salary race with £70k for NQs

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The yearly contest to attract new talent has started with Magic Circle duo Slaughter and May and Linklaters both making salary hikes of over 5% for junior lawyers, while Hogan Lovells kept pace by bumping its junior pay up to match Slaughters’ £70,000 newly-qualifieds’ (NQs) salary.

Although Linklaters reported its NQs received a £3,500 pay increase to £68,500, this was still behind Slaughters, which has traditionally been a bellwether of trainee and associate salaries among the Magic Circle and gifted an 8% wage bump to NQs, taking them to £70,000. However, Linklaters’ salary bands were increased more aggressively higher up the associate ladder as both two and three-year post-qualification experience (PQE) lawyers were given sizeable salary increases that topped Slaughters.

Legal Business

Dealwatch: Bakers wins role alongside Slaughters on Equinix’s £2.35bn takeover of Freshfields client Telecity

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Corporate Baker McKenzieFreshfields Bruckhaus DeringerSlaughter and May
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Slaughter and May teamed up with a Baker & McKenzie team led out of London to help US data giant Equinix in its £2.35bn takeover bid for UK rival and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer client Telecity.

Telecity, which was in talks to merge with Dutch peer Interxion before Equinix stepped in, instructed Freshfields’ Julian Makin and Ben Spiers to handle its sale. London-based Makin, a corporate partner who co-heads Freshfields’ mining and metals team, was heavily involved in the company’s listing on the main market of the London Stock Exchange and the firm was also advising on the company’s proposed Dutch takeover with Latham & Watkins acting for Interxion.

Meanwhile, Slaughters advised the Californian data company on the acquisition which involves paying 572.5p and issuing 0.0327 of new Equinix shares for each Telecity share – a 27% premium to Telecity’s closing price on 6 May. Its team was led by corporate partners Richard Smith and John Papanichola and included finance partner Matthew Tobin and competition specialist Philippe Chappatte. Cravath, Swaine & Moore acted for Equinix in the US, while De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek advised in the Netherlands and Hengeler Mueller in Germany.

For international due diligence and the corporate reorganisation work required, Equinix turned to Baker & McKenzie’s London-based global head of reorganisations, Kirsty Wilson, and finance partner Lynn Rosell Rowley.

Telecity has 39 data centres in 11 European countries and has customers including Spotify and Facebook. Equinix, whose in-house team consisted of general counsel Brandi Galvin Morandi and EMEA general counsel Peter Waters, said the deal, which comes amid growing demand for cloud storage in Europe and consolidation in the sector, would give it ‘increased network and cloud density to better serve customers’ and a footprint ‘to attract customers and pursue the emerging enterprise opportunity’.

tom.moore@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Linklaters reveals NQ salaries of £68,500 – under Slaughters but tops it with 3 year PQE band

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Salaries LinklatersSlaughter and May
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Linklaters has revealed its salary bands for junior lawyers in London with newly-qualifieds (NQs) receiving a £3,500 pay bump to £68,500 while those with three year post-qualified experience (PQE) had a 5% increase to £98,500.

Seat 1 trainees also had a 5% jump to £42,000, up from the £40,000 received last year while the band to receive the greatest percentage increase was two year PQE which gained 7.3% on last year rates and will be paid £88,000. Rounding out the increases, those with one year PQE had a 5% boost to £74,000.

On Wednesday (20 May), Hogan Lovells revealed it was matching Slaughter and May’s pay for NQs of £70,000. But while Linklaters’ NQs lose out in their first year in comparison with Slaughters and Hogan Lovells lawyers, those with three year PQE are better off by £2,000 with Slaughters paying £96,500. The difference is also apparent in trainee rates with Slaughters and Hogan Lovells both offering £41,000.

Simon Branigan graduate recruitment partner at Linklaters, said: ‘Coupled with strong performance-related bonuses – which we pay across all levels – and which for a significant majority have, in percentage terms, been in double figures on a scale that can realistically reach 35% of salary, we believe that our compensation is extremely competitive and an important factor in attracting and retaining some of the brightest and best talent in the market.’

tom.moore@legalease.co.uk, michael.west@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

£70,000 NQ salary: Hogan Lovells matches Slaughter and May as legal salary race reaches new heights

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Salaries Hogan LovellsSlaughter and May
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Hogan Lovells has bumped up the salaries of its newly qualified lawyers by £5,000 to £70,000 in a move that will see it again match the salary on offer at Magic Circle firm Slaughter and May.

In a hike that is more than double the pay rise given to newly qualified lawyers at Hogan Lovells last year, when salaries rose by £2,000 to £65,000, Hogan Lovells becomes one of the top-paying law firms in the City.

The £70,000 salary for newly qualified lawyers is 15% higher than what was on offer just four years ago, when a newly qualified lawyer at the firm would earn £61,000 a year.

Meanwhile, the rates for trainees will also increase to £41,000 for first year trainees, £1,500 up on last year, while second year trainees will earn £2,000 more to reach £46,000.

With sharp growth at US firms offering £100,000 salaries in the City, the steep rise in salary at Hogan Lovells generates more heat in the battle for talent. Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, which has yet to announce its salary bands for the new financial year, was the highest paying Magic Circle firm for newly qualified lawyers in 2014, pegging their salaries at £67,500.

Slaughter and May started the salary review season at the end of last month when it announced NQs would recieve £70,000 while those with three years experience would get £96,500.

tom.moore@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

A&O, Freshfields and Slaughters land key roles on biggest-ever all-UK deal

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Corporate Allen & OveryFreshfields Bruckhaus DeringerSlaughter and May
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Shell offers £47bn for BG Group

The proposed £47bn acquisition of BG Group by fellow energy major Shell saw a trio of Magic Circle firms land leading roles, as Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Slaughter and May and Allen & Overy (A&O) advising on what constitutes the largest UK-to-UK deal ever.

Slaughters is acting for Shell, supported by Cravath, Swaine & Moore on US corporate law and allied firm De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek on Dutch aspects of the deal. Corporate partners Roland Turnill, Hywel Davies and Rebecca Cousin are leading Slaughters’ team, which Turnill told Legal Business started ‘working in earnest’ on the transaction as far back as Christmas. Finance partner Matthew Tobin is also working on the deal alongside tax specialist Steve Edge, competition partners Bertrand Louveaux and Jordan Ellison and pensions and employment partners Jonathan Fenn and Roland Doughty.

Legal Business

Slaughter and May raises associate pay with NQs getting £5,000 boost

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Associates Slaughter and May
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Traditionally a bellwether of trainee and associate salaries among the Magic Circle, Slaughter and May has made significant hikes to the salaries it pays junior lawyers.

Again the first Magic Circle law firm to publish its salaries for the next financial year, taking effect on 1 May, newly qualified lawyers at Slaughters will receive £5,000 more than last year, rising 8% from £65,000 to £70,000 as competition for talent hots up in the City.

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer was the highest paying Magic Circle firm for newly qualified lawyers in 2014, pegging their salaries at £67,500. Demand for talent has increased in recent years following the expansion of US firms in the City, with newly qualified lawyers at Davis Polk & Wardwell paying £100,000 a year.

Large increases have been built into all of the pay scales, with the biggest percentage rise coming for those that are two years’ qualified, with salaries going up from £79,000 to £87,000, a rise of over 10% while those with three years under their belt will receive £8,500 more than in 2014, with salaries rising by over 8% to £96,500.

Trainee salaries only marginally moved up, with a rise of just over 2% build into first year trainees to take their annual income up £1,000 to £41,000 and £46,000.

Richard Clark, executive partner of Slaughters, told Legal Business: ‘Our intention is always to make sure our lawyers are properly remunerated in accordance with the market so there is an element of market referencing as you would expect.’

The rise follows a bumper payday at the end of last year when the firm increased Christmas bonuses across the board. Associates between 4.5-6.5 PQE took home bonuses of 15% at the end of 2014, compared to 12% at the end of 2013.

The new salary bands are as follows:

Trainee year 1: Up 2.5% from £40,000 to £41,000

Trainee year 2: Up 2.5% from £45,000 to £46,000

Newly qualified: Up 7.7% from £65,000 to £70,000

One year’s PQE: Up 7.9% from £70,000 to £75,500

Two years’ PQE: Up 10.1% from £79,000 to £87,000

Three years’ PQE: Up £8.4% from £89,000 to £96,500

tom.moore@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

A €350bn asset manager: Slaughters and Links lead on Santander and UniCredit’s asset management merger

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Corporate LinklatersSlaughter and May
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Slaughter and May and best friend firm Uría Menéndez plus Davis Polk & Wardwell in the US were instructed by Santander to combine its asset management arm with Linklaters-client Unicredit’s Pioneer Investments to create one of Europe’s biggest asset managers.

In a move that will see the banks improve their balance sheets to meet more stringent rules doled out by the European Central Bank. The deal sees Santander and UniCredit each take a 33.3% stake in the new company, with private equity houses Warburg Pincus and General Atlantic taking the remaining 33.3% stake in what will be called Pioneer Investments. The transaction values Santander Asset Management at €2.6bn and Pioneer Investments at €2.75bn.

Pioneer Investments’ operations in the US will be hived off into a separate company owned by UniCredit, which will take a 50% stake, and Warburg Pincus and General Atlantic .

The Slaughter and May team advising Santander on the deal is led by corporate and commercial partners Mark Zerdin, Michael Corbett and Roland Turnill, who became a star in the City in 2013 when he ran Vodafone’s $130bn disposal of its stake in Verizon. Uria’s team was led by partner Antonio Herrera while Luigi De Ghenghi led for Davis Polk.

Meanwhile UniCredit turned to a Linklaters team led by Carlton Evans and Italian boutique Gianni, Origoni, Grippo, Cappelli & Partners which was led by Roberto Capelli.

While Santander is known to use a host of firms in the City, including Magic Circle rival Linklaters, Slaughters has for some time been the bank’s go-to firm for major M&A work. Turnill arranged for Santander to acquire 318 of the Royal Bank of Scotland’s UK branches in 2010, but the deal fell through two years later and the British bank instead spun-off TSB Bank to meet demands placed on it by regulators. He was recently instructed by Shell to lead a team that helped it to complete the largest oil and gas M&A since 1999, acquiring BG Group for $70bn in April.

tom.moore@legalease.co.uk