Akin Gump has made impressive strides in the City over the past eight years. With James Roome, the driving force behind its fêted City restructuring practice set to retire, can the firm continue its London trajectory?
The 2014 Bingham McCutchen deal that brought James Roome to Akin Gump is described as ‘one of the transformative events’ by the firm’s chair, Kim Koopersmith (pictured). In the first full year after his arrival, City revenue more than doubled, jumping from $35.8m in 2014 to $91m in 2015. And far from being a one off, London revenue has since grown 65% to hit $150.4m for 2021 – significantly outpacing Akin Gump’s global revenue growth of 31% over the same period.
‘What has happened in the last eight years has wildly exceeded our expectations,’ says Koopersmith. ‘We’ve been able to not just have a significant team come over but have that team be completely integrated into the law firm.’
Roome has played no small role in this. Credited for being at the helm of the restructuring practice that has driven much of the growth, as senior partner and member of the firm’s management committee, he also contributed heavily to the integration of the office. Now, some are questioning the impact his retirement might have. As one City restructuring partner at a rival firm notes: ‘It’s going to be very hard to replicate James Roome, who is a huge personality, excellent work generator, anchor of the London office and glue for that team.’
‘What has happened in the last eight years has wildly exceeded our expectations. We’ve been able to not just have a significant team come over but have that team be completely integrated into the law firm.’ Kim Koopersmith, Akin Gump
It is particularly hard to ignore these concerns following several recent (albeit rare) departures of former Bingham partners. From the restructuring team, Sam Brodie left for Shearman & Sterling in March 2021 while Christian Halàsz, who joined Bingham in 2010, left Akin Gump for German Euro Elite firm Gleiss Lutz’s London office in February. This summer, homegrown partners Lois Deasey (also from the restructuring practice) and tax partner Sophie Donnithorne-Tait left for Weil and Macfarlanes respectively.
While these changes could be ascribed to a heated recruitment market with recessionary trends driving competitors’ strategies, the London office’s dip in growth similarly signals a transitional period for the practice. Far from its striking revenue boost of 28% in 2018, its 2020 hike of 19% was bookended by just 1% growth in 2019 and 2021.
Sebastian Rice, head of the London office, explains this as a period of consolidation of strategic hires intended to build on the firm’s global areas of strength in London (including private equity, corporate and finance). ‘In 2021, we added a number of partners in different areas, so it was then about consolidating that. Now obviously with the market being very turbulent, we are seeing some exciting growth.’
2021 hires include that of finance partner Clare Cottle, who arrived in May from Weil; international trade partner Naboth van den Broek, who joined from WilmerHale in September and splits his time between London, Geneva and Washington DC; and former Latham & Watkins partner Stephen Brown, who joined in December from employment boutique Icon Law.
Continuing its acquisitive streak in 2022, the firm added ESG and energy sector partner Alex Harrison and structured finance partner Dasha Sobornova, who joined in June 2022 from Hogan Lovells and Mayer Brown, respectively.
Despite boosting the firm’s wider London presence, which is now at 128 lawyers including 47 partners (up nearly 40% in five years from 93 including 37 partners in 2017), Rice notably rests his expectation of upcoming growth on a downturn, again putting Roome’s legacy restructuring practice in the spotlight.
Notwithstanding its losses, The Legal 500 top-ranked financial restructuring team retains considerable bench strength, including against its peers. Led by veteran Barry Russell, the 13-partner practice includes a next generation – James Terry and Liz Osborne – that the market already recognises for their enviable profiles.
Osborne (described as ‘world-class’ by The Legal 500) adds: ‘We have a really strong bench at partner level but also at counsel and associate level as well. We’ve got a great bank of brilliant counsel and associates who have worked with us for a long time and we’ve got a number of senior counsel who are very ambitious, so there is a great pipeline of partners coming through.’
The practice has also gone some way to prove its resilience with a string of high-profile instructions against a backdrop of fewer bankruptcy and restructuring cases across 2020 and 2021, dubbed the ‘calm before the storm’ among restructuring veterans. A team, led by Russell, advised on the $6bn global restructuring of Nordic Aviation Capital Designated Activity Company, resulting in a Chapter 11 restructuring that completed in June. This brought together restructuring, finance, corporate and tax practitioners across its global network. Other recent highlights include acting for creditors in the restructuring of Travelex (led by Osborne) and in the $1.9bn restructuring of Swissport (led by Terry) (for other standout matters, see box).
Now these high-profile instructions have come to an end, Russell expects to continue to win high-profile mandates as the calm subsides: ‘The market generally is quite quiet, but if you talk to any of our clients, everyone sees storm clouds on the horizon. If you just watch BBC Breakfast in the morning you can see all the economic indicators of that, from interest rates, energy costs, supply chain issues, inflationary trends both in Europe and in the US. All those factors will likely contribute to a substantial amount of restructuring activity as early as the autumn.’
‘The market generally is quite quiet, but if you talk to any of our clients, everyone sees storm clouds on the horizon.’ Barry Russell, Akin Gump
According to Osborne, the practice is already starting to see this come to fruition. ‘At the start of the year, clients had very short worry lists in terms of possible new names needing restructuring, but now we are doing some quite serious debt review work on six or seven names for clients that they think might actually now be heading towards a restructuring.’
While market sentiment is that Roome’s retirement marks the end of an era for Akin Gump in London, the firm is confident the legacy he has left will continue. As Koopersmith concludes: ‘It is a real testament to the strength of the team and James’s vision that the clients are institutionalised, and that the practice is institutionalised into the firm. There is a wealth of talent and connections to our clients that make the transition seamless.’
Akin Gump London restructuring practice – significant matters
2020-March 2021: Advised an ad hoc group of creditors of Premier Oil on the merger of Premier Oil with Chrysaor Holdings and the restructuring of Premier Oil’s $2.7bn of debt. (Led by Barry Russell and Lois Deasey)
2020–January 2022: Advised an ad hoc group of new secured noteholders on the $1.3bn financial restructuring and Chapter 11 case of offshore drilling contractor Seadrill New Finance. Akin Gump had previously advised an ad hoc committee of bondholders in connection with the prior Chapter 11 cases of the Seadrill Group in 2018.
(Led by James Terry)
2021-April 2022: Advised an ad hoc committee of senior secured noteholders on the further deleveraging and reorganisation of commodities trader Noble Group, which included the transition of ownership of a significant part of Noble to the noteholders. This follows the high-profile, $3.5bn multijurisdictional reorganisation of Noble, completed in December 2018 and on which the Akin Gump team also advised.
(Led by Barry Russell and Lois Deasey)
2021-June 2022: Advised on the negotiation and implementation of the global restructuring of Nordic Aviation Capital Designated Activity Company (NAC), the largest lessor of regional aircraft in the world, acting for holders of private placement notes issued by NAC Aviation 29 Designated Activity Company and guaranteed by Nordic Aviation Capital Designated Activity Company.
(Led by Barry Russell, Emma Simmonds and New York-based partner David Botter)
2020–July 2022: Advised VIP II Blue BV, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Vitol Investment Partnership II, on its $2.3bn takeover of Vivo Energy by way of a scheme of arrangement. (Led by corporate partner Harry Keegan)