Legal Business

Promotions round-up: Bond Dickinson and Kingsley Napley promote three as Kennedys makes up female trio in round of four

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Partnership promotions KennedysKingsley NapleyWomble Bond Dickinson
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In the latest round of LB100 firm promotions, Kennedys made a 75% female promotions round as three out of four of its new partners were women while both Bond Dickinson and Kingsley Napley bolstered their practices with a trio of new partners.

Three of Kennedys’ promotions were based in London with insurance liability lawyer Anne-Marie Hodges, insurance specialist Samantha Silver and marine insurance and shipping disputes expert Jonathan Evans all being made up to partner, along with Cambridge-based clinical negligence specialist Amanda Mead.

The firm now has 169 partners with over a quarter female and has made a number of international moves this year, establishing a presence in Moscow, forming a joint law venture in Singapore and opening offices in Scotland.

Kennedys’ senior partner Nick Thomas says: ‘While we continue to welcome talent from outside the firm, nurturing our people and ensuring they have the opportunity to develop their careers at Kennedys is key to the growth of the firm and our future success.’

Meanwhile, national firm Bond Dickinson made up three in its 2015 round across its Bristol and Newcastle offices.

Two joined the firm’s partnership in Bristol with Andrew Harding promoted in real estate and Alastair Mitton promoted to IT Partner in its technology practice. Harding has focused on developing Bond Dickinson’s real estate investment and development offering with a focus on the hospitality and leisure sector, while Mitton’s primary experience has been on large IT and technology projects that have a strong regulatory bias, as well as data protection.

In Newcastle, Kevin Bell was been promoted as a corporate finance partner within the firm’s transport and infrastructure sector team. He advises on heavy and light rail franchise and concession bids, franchise mobilisations plus commercial and regulatory matters for train operating companies.

Also making up three was litigation-focused Kingsley Napley. The firm spread its promotions across practice areas with private client lawyer Simon Hardy, corporate & commercial specialist Anthony Macpherson and family law expert Claire Wood all making the grade.

Hardy specialises in Court of Protection work acting for individuals who lack the capacity to manage their property and affairs, as well as being responsible for Kingsley Napley’s professional Deputyship service. Macpherson’s experience spans a range of corporate transactions including M&A, joint ventures, shareholder agreements, corporate finance and private equity deals while Wood has focused on divorce and separation issues as well as drafting pre and post-nuptial agreements.

michael.west@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

LB100: The Second Quartile – Close Hauled

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Financial results 2013/14 Stephenson HarwoodWomble Bond Dickinson
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It’s an unforgiving environment, but 2014 once again shows the well-captained mid-tier outfits sailing free.

‘I’m a great believer that you can always do better and however good a particular year was, you have to exceed that. And we are far from perfect.’ So says Simon Beswick, managing partner at Osborne Clarke (OC), one of the strongest performers in the Legal Business 100 (LB100) this year.

The Bristol-based firm saw turnover rise 26% in 2013/14 – the largest single increase in the LB100 – and has seen revenue rise by 69% since 2009.

Legal Business

Crown Estate halves coastal and rural property panel with appointment of Burges Salmon and Bond Dickinson

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The Crown Estate has halved its rural and coastal portfolio and Windsor Estate legal panel from four to two, re-appointing Burges Salmon and Bond Dickinson but not Clarke Willmott or Thomas Eggar, the sovereign property portfolio announced today (1 April 2014).

Both re-appointed firms have been instructed for five years from April 2014 by the estate, which manages a diverse property business valued at more £8.6bn, at which time a further review of requirements will be planned.

Burges Salmon will take responsibility for representing The Crown Estate across its rural assets, which together form one of the largest portfolios of agricultural, forestry and common land in the UK. The firm will also take responsibility for The Crown Estate’s Windsor Estate which includes Windsor Great Park, forests, residential and commercial properties, golf courses, a racecourse and tenanted agricultural land.

Bond Dickinson will represent The Crown Estate across its coastal holdings in England, which includes around fifty per cent of the foreshore and interests in ports, harbours, marinas and other commercial coastal developments.

Vivienne King, The Crown Estate’s director of business operations and general counsel said: ‘Both Burges Salmon and Bond Dickinson are business partners which have consistently provided us with an excellent legal service throughout our relationship, so we are delighted to be continuing to work with them following the outcome of our competitive tender process. Both firm’s sector specific expertise and understanding of our business will be a real asset as we continue to deliver on our long term commercial objectives.’

William Neville, who will act as the lead partner at Burges Salmon said: ‘We are very pleased to be appointed to provide advice on these important portfolios in the food, farming and land sector. Sian Edmunds, who joins the partnership on 1 May, and partner Alastair Morrison will lead our team of experts drawn from across the firm and will work closely with The Crown Estate’s managing agents at Knight Frank, Carter Jonas and Smiths Gore.’

Burges Salmon has a close relationship with the organisation, having been reappointed to its urban panel in 2011 as well as winning a spot on the rural panel in 2007.

Associate Matthew Sims led the firm’s mandate advising on the £31m sale of the group’s Honda depot in January 2014.

Norton Rose Fulbright (NRF) and Bond Dickinson were reappointed to The Crown Estate’s energy and infrastructure panel last July, cutting the body’s previous specialist panel from five to two in a move to consolidate ‘legal advice across an extremely diverse portfolio,’ according to The Crown Estate.

NRF, which was one of only two firms appointed to the Crown Estate’s first energy panel in 2008, advises on its activities in offshore wind, carbon capture, wave energy, natural gas storage and emerging technologies such as biomass, while Bond Dickinson advises on the estate’s marine aggregates business and its interest in transmission and pipelines, with chairman Nick Page acting as relationship partner to the client.

The estate, whose objectives are to maintain and enhance the value of the sovereign estate as laid down by parliament under The Crown Estate Act 1961, pays its profit to the Treasury each year: in 2012/13 this was £252.6m. Over the past ten years The Crown Estate has paid over £2bn to the Treasury.

Francesca.fanshawe@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Revolving doors: Bird & Bird, Bond Dickinson and Simmons all make lateral moves

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Strategic recruitment Bird & BirdSimmons & SimmonsWomble Bond Dickinson
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The appetite shown by global elite firms to hire laterally at the start of the year has spread wider in the City, as Bird & Bird, Bond Dickinson, Simmons & Simmons and US firm Sedgwick have all been in action recently.

Bird & Bird secured the hire of partner Sven-Michael Werner from rival firm Taylor Wessing to its China corporate practice. Werner, who speaks Mandarin, has over 12 years’ experience practising Chinese law and will be based at the firm’s Shanghai office. He has a focus on M&A and foreign direct investment, particularly advising European clients investing into China.

‘Sven-Michael’s extensive experience in our key sectors of technology, media and life sciences, as well as with major fashion brands, makes him a good fit for our growing corporate practice in China,’ said Marcus Vass, head of Bird & Bird’s China transactional group.

Bird & Bird has also appointed Air Arabia general counsel Anna Anatolitou as a partner across both its UAE offices. Prior to that she was at Norton Rose and has over 13 years’ experience as an aviation and dispute resolution lawyer.

‘Now Anna has joined, we have practical capability in the Middle East to advise airlines, insurers, lessors and investors on all legal issues. Our international aviation sector group has grown considerably over the past ten years and will continue to keep growing,’ said Paul Briggs, co-head of the firm’s aviation group.

Meanwhile another Global 100 firm, Simmons & Simmons, has also scored a coup with the hire of Reed Smith’s head of investment funds for Europe and the Middle East, Dale Gabbert.

Gabbert advises fund managers and financial institutions on the establishment and running of all classes of alternative investment funds, including hedge funds, private equity funds and credit funds.

‘Dale’s appointment will add further scale to our private funds practice, and we are looking forward to him joining this growing team,’ said Colin Leaver, Simmons’ asset management and investment funds sector head.

On the domestic front, Bond Dickinson brought in high regarded intellectual property (IP) expert Patrick Cantrill as partner from top-tier Leeds firm Walker Morris, where he was head of its IP department. The Legal 500 describes him as having an ‘incredible wealth of experience’ illustrated by having over 30 years’ of experience managing IP portfolios for blue chip and international organisations.

‘He is one of the most accomplished lawyers in his field and he will be a first-rate addition to our intellectual property and media practice,’ said Bond Dickinson chairman Nick Page. ‘We look forward to working with him as we develop our presence in London and internationally,’

Finally, US firm Sedgwick brought in DLA Piper insurance litigation partner David Murphy into its London office earlier this month. His experience spans a variety of classes of business, including property, energy, engineering, mining and credit insurance.

Murphy’s practice is truly international. He has represented London market and global insurers in analysing insurance claims and coverage issues arising from numerous jurisdictions around the globe, including Thailand, Colombia, Australia and Peru.

david.stevenson@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Bond Dickinson wins AIG tender for volume contract work

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Following a competitive tender process between five of its panel law firms, AIG has awarded its bulk contract work to Bond Dickinson, as the insurance giant’s general counsel for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Chris Newby focuses his team on more strategic, higher level legal work.

AIG concluded its main panel review in September, appointing a 25-strong list of advisers, including Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Berwin Leighton Paisner and DLA Piper.

A secondary tendering process was conducted among five panel firms for the job of updating and modernising hundreds of medium risk, high-volume but low-value contracts with AIG’s providers.

Bond Dickinson was awarded the contract in November, offering out-of-London rates on a fixed price per contract basis.

‘It will help drive consistency and volume discounts if they know they’re going to get 1,000 contracts.’
Chris Newby, AIG

Speaking ahead of the result of the tender (see profile, page 22), Newby told Legal Business: ‘The bulk stuff (low value/high volume) will be outsourced to a law firm. They are tendering for that work at the moment. It will help drive consistency and volume discounts if they know they’re going to get 1,000 contracts.’

While this is not for a highly strategic service, according to Newby, the bulk work contract is still viewed as important because it minimises an important risk for AIG and it is a good way of cementing the insurer’s relationship with Bond Dickinson.

The move comes after the insurance giant – which nearly collapsed a few years ago, precipitating one of the largest turnarounds in US corporate history – has introduced a far more process-driven approach to instructing external law firms, including creating a global legal operations centre. This new function is run by a mixture of lawyers and procurement specialists charged with managing the panel and law firm relationships and provides detailed information about day-to-day legal spend.

Legal Business

Bond Dickinson wins AIG tender for volume contract work

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Merged regional giant beats four rivals for out-of-London mandates

Following a competitive tender process between five of its panel law firms, AIG has awarded its bulk contract work to Bond Dickinson, as the insurance giant’s general counsel for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Chris Newby focuses his team on more strategic, higher level legal work.

AIG concluded its main panel review in September, appointing a 25-strong list of advisers, including Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Berwin Leighton Paisner and DLA Piper.

A secondary tendering process was conducted among five panel firms for the job of updating and modernising hundreds of medium risk, high-volume but low-value contracts with AIG’s providers.

Legal Business

Revolving Doors: SJ Berwin corporate heavyweight Harris to Hogan Lovells as Bingham and Bond Dicks make key hires

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Just weeks away from its merger with King Wood & Mallesons, SJ Berwin corporate heavyweight Ed Harris is leaving for Hogan Lovells as Bingham McCutcheon also raids Jones Day to build its London competition team and Osborne Clarke’s remaining two-partner private client team joins Bond Dickinson.

Harris, who will move across to Hogan Lovells on an unknown date as a result of ongoing negotiations with management, has been at SJ Berwin since 2007 and has advised a number of high profile clients including Terra Firma, Pantheon Ventures Investindustrial, EQT, Actavis and Constellation Software Inc.

Harris advised Duke Street on its €45m stake during the refinancing of European payment network Payzone in 2010, acting again for the private equity investor last year on the acquisition of a stake in insurance law firm Parabis Group.

Elsewhere, Jones Day London competition chief Frances Murphy, whose clients include AstraZeneca, The London Metal Exchange, Ryder Systems, Sanofi-Aventis, SES and WL Ross, joins US firm Bingham McCutcheon’s antitrust, competition and trade regulation practice group in London, bringing the office’s competition headcount to three.

‘Frances is a terrific addition to our strong team of antitrust lawyers worldwide,’ said senior litigator Richard Taffet. ‘Her arrival underscores Bingham’s commitment to growing our competition law practice in Europe. Frances is known for her entrepreneurial focus, client service, and ability to help build a top-tier global antitrust presence. Her arrival further enables us to leverage our US and Japanese antitrust and competition law practice to quicken the pace of cross-border coordinated antitrust representations for clients.’

Murphy’s arrival at Bingham is pointed to by the firm as a sign of the increasing diversification of its London office – following as it does the hire of Herbert Smith Freehills investment funds partner Thiha Tun – as well as the investment in its wider antitrust practice, which globally has grown by eight partners in five years.

Meanwhile, top 35 national firm Bond Dickinson has grown its private wealth sector with the hire of Osborne Clarke’s former two-partner private client team as the latter firm restructures its private client offering.

Partners Mark Woodward and Robert Drewett – who advise on estates, trusts and inheritance tax work – will move across to 700-lawyer Bond Dickinson with their associated teams as Osborne Clarke looks to recruit a small new private wealth group, which is closer aligned with the firm’s corporate focus, in particular entrepreneurs and high net-worth international clients.

This comes just a few months after Osborne Clarke private client partner Sandra Brown left the firm with part of the business to join Michelmores in May this year.

Head of private wealth at Bond Dickinson, David Dale said: ‘This is a fantastic opportunity to significantly expand our wealth management expertise with the acquisition of a superb team with an excellent track record and reputation in the market place.’

francesca.fanshawe@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Redundancy woes: Bond Dickinson and Watson Farley are latest major law firms to review support staff roles

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Redundancy consultations continue to dog the City’s top 100 firms as Bond Dickinson and Watson, Farley & Williams last month became the latest to reveal they have placed a number of support roles under review.

In August, Bond Dickinson began a consultation process that will see up to 7% of its support staff made redundant. The newly-merged 700-lawyer firm – a combination of Newcastle-based Dickinson Dees and Bristol-headquartered Bond Pearce that went live on 1 May – said it intends to ‘discuss a proposal to review the support teams and how they should be shaped to best support the needs of Bond Dickinson’.

It added that ‘the proposals, if accepted, would see approximately 7% of support staff roles being made redundant and voluntary redundancy enhancements have been offered to all affected staff’.