Eversheds has bolstered its Manchester offering with the hire of an eight-lawyer contentious construction team from McGrigors just months before the Scottish firm is due to tie the knot with Pinsent Masons.
McGrigors’ Manchester chief David Moss and construction disputes partner Paul Giles joined Eversheds in March, along with six additional lawyers. The team provides combined expertise in the energy and utilities sectors.
Moss and Giles moved to McGrigors in August 2010 from Hammonds shortly before it merged with Squire, Sanders & Dempsey. Moss previously led the international construction and engineering group at Hammonds.
A statement from McGrigors in response to the departure of the team, which had ‘made a significant contribution to the firm’, cited conflict issues as the reason behind the move.
‘It is a strong team and makes a powerful force in the region.’
Simon Chamberlain, Eversheds
It said: ‘As a result of a conflict arising from the recently announced merger between McGrigors and Pinsent Masons, David Moss, Paul Giles and their team will be leaving McGrigors to join Eversheds.’
Part of the hiring spree also saw Eversheds sign up Addleshaw Goddard infrastructure, projects and energy partner Nigel Proctor in Manchester. The firm turned to Proctor because of his reputation as a non-contentious lawyer, especially in the water sector. Eversheds told LB that it was Proctor who mentioned that the McGrigors lawyers were looking for a move when he was talking to the firm.
Northern construction head Simon Chamberlain and London and South East construction head Simon Oats said talks to bring over the McGrigors team transpired just before Christmas.
‘It is a key strength for the firm and we are aiming for 30% growth. We are looking to increase our exposure in energy work, especially in renewables, new nuclear and internationally,’ said Oats. ‘At the same time we were also looking at bolstering our disputes practice and the McGrigors team was known to be particularly strong for contentious work in the energy area.’
Manchester has become a highly competitive and fragmented market recently, with continuous rumors of potential mergers and moves between firms running rife. ‘We were keen to press on quickly to hire them. No doubt they were an attractive potential hire to other firms,’ said Oats.
‘In North West terms, it is a strong team and makes a very powerful force in the region,’ said Chamberlain. ‘People realised this team was on the market but probably didn’t realise where they would go. It will change forces in the construction law market and will come as a challenge to our peers – we now have a three-partner strong team.’
According to competitors, it comes as no surprise that the McGrigors contentious construction lawyers have moved on as a number of conflicts have arisen due to the Pinsents merger. The team, as well as Eversheds, is well known to act for United Utilities and Balfour Beatty. They also were clients at McGrigors. The lawyers moving over to Eversheds acted for United Utilities while lawyers going to Pinsents acted for Balfour Beatty.
Hopefully this will balance out what may transpire to be a significant client loss of retailer Asda for Eversheds.
Eversheds was known for its tight links with the supermarket giant and predominantly advised on corporate and real estate matters. However, in 2010 the firm failed to make it onto Asda’s general corporate panel and is currently not tendering to be reinstated.
‘We are still doing some run-off construction work for Asda but we’re not on the tender,’ said Oats.
Of the new team hire, Chamberlain said: ‘On the ground, this move will have a large impact and shake up the market. We have already put a tender in to a major client.’
In terms of developing a successful construction law team in the North West, much depends on the current economic climate. The construction industry in the region has struggled to maintain significant workloads, with the public housing sector feeling the biggest hit, according to a quarterly report by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. While work levels are a vast improvement on the doldrums of late 2008 and most of 2009, activity is still down (see graph, below).