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Withers leads way in major tie-up as Singapore rush continues

HSF, KWM and DLA Piper invest in key South-East Asia hub

Highlighting continued law firm interest in the Singaporean economy and its potential as a hub for South-East Asia, were the announcements in February by a host of Legal Business 100 firms of plans to enhance their presence. Most notably, Withers established a formal law alliance (FLA) with Singapore law firm KhattarWong while Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) also teamed up with a local outfit, King & Wood Mallesons (KWM) confirmed plans to open an office, while DLA Piper secured a coup with the hire of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher’s Singapore partner John Viverito to lead its offering in the city state.

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So much for the rule of law – court fees and undermining the City

Quinn Emanuel disputes veteran Ted Greeno argues that a self-defeating stance on hiking court fees will undermine London

In their piece entitled ‘Strangling the golden goose’ last month, Nigel Boardman, James Shirbin and Andrew Blake of Slaughter and May bemoaned the cost of commercial litigation in England and suggested London’s pre-eminence as a dispute resolution centre might be under threat as a result. In making this argument, they drew upon a report from the World Bank which compared the cost and ease of doing business in 189 countries around the world. One of the activities assessed was enforcing contracts and, for this purpose, the report compares and scores the cost, time and procedures involved in enforcing a claim under a sale of goods contract around the world. The UK is ranked in 36th place, suggesting our courts are relatively uncompetitive.

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Good sports – the in-house counsel getting on the pitch in top-flight sports

Tough regulation and increasingly lucrative commercial deals have allowed in-house lawyers to flourish in sport. Legal Business scouts out the most promising performances

Trying to pin down an interview with the in-house counsel at a sports organisation is like trying to tackle Eden Hazard in full flight. Despite repeated attempts, requests for interviews with legal counsel were rebuffed by a number of big Premier League clubs – with Chelsea, for example, stating that no-one except the club’s board, manager, assistant coach and the players speak to the media.

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Human nature – cutting edge legal work looms for the drugs revolutionising healthcare

As patents for pioneering biotech drugs near expiry, life sciences companies are hunting new and controversial products. Can law firms help clients win the race?

For those close to the biotech industry, the events of a 2006 clinical trial at Northwick Park Hospital in London are etched firmly in the memory. In what was later dubbed the ‘Elephant Man’ trial, six healthy young men suffered catastrophic multiple organ failures within hours of testing a biologic – a drug created by a biological process – intended to treat leukaemia and rheumatoid arthritis. The volunteers became critically ill, including the loss of fingers and toes, after the monoclonal antibody TGN1412 caused near-fatal side effects. The drug was immediately withdrawn from development and its German-based creator TeGenero filed for insolvency four months later.

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Simon says – DLA Piper gears up for a life after Nigel

DLA Piper pushed its regional brands to unprecedented heights under a trailblazing leader only to hit the inevitable grind of global integration. Legal Business meets the man charged with finishing what Sir Nigel started.

‘I had to ask Nigel to stop referring to his standing down as the firm’s Sir Alex Ferguson moment,’ laughs Simon Levine, the man tasked with replacing one Sir Nigel Knowles. ‘I didn’t want to go the way of Moysey.’

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Aftershocks – hard decisions for Swiss lawyers amid a turbulent market

SNB with red sky

When even that most venerable of Swiss industries, watch-making, comes under threat, you know the country has a problem. But this proved to be the case in the early weeks of 2015: global brand Swatch saw its share price slump 15% after the Swiss National Bank (SNB) announced on 15 January that it would abandon the cap on the Swiss franc against the euro that it first introduced in September 2011. Keeping the franc at CHF1.20 to the euro had became increasingly expensive for the SNB, as it sold its own currency and bought up euros, sterling, US and Canadian dollars and yen, usually in the form of government bonds.

Many were shocked by the move, which has left investors worrying that with the CHF now floating against the euro, Swiss companies will struggle to maintain export levels. Swatch chief executive Nick Hayek called the decision ‘a tsunami’ for Switzerland’s economy. Mark Haefele, chief investment officer of UBS, has estimated that the policy will cost Swiss exporters close to CHF5bn (£3.3bn), equivalent to 0.7% of Swiss economic output.

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The 2015 Risk Report – What lies beneath

Law firms have benefited from a relatively settled risk environment, despite a run of crisis-linked claims. But Legal Business’ annual risk survey finds dangers new and old lurking beneath the surface.

On the face of it, news in December 2014 that the number of professional negligence claims against solicitors had tripled in a year, based on research from RPC, was enough to give law firm risk managers and professional indemnity insurance (PII) specialists pause. RPC reported that High Court cases against law firms for professional negligence had increased by 192% from 143 in 2013 to 418.

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Waiting for the other shoe to drop

Law firms have work to do to keep up with market shifts in the post-Lehman world. Here, leading legal industry figures chart the progress so far at a debate organised by Graham Gill.

In December, recruitment consultants Graham Gill hosted the latest in its series of breakfast round tables, which bring together a roster of heavyweight figures from in-house and private practice to discuss the future of the legal profession.

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Important decision of Swiss Federal Supreme Court on intra-group financing arrangements

Bär & Karrer’s Till Spillmann and Luca Jagmetti discuss its practical consequences.

The Swiss Federal Supreme Court ruled in a recent decision that up-stream and cross-stream loans granted by Swiss companies must be entered into on arm’s-length terms. If not at arm’s length, the decision seems to suggest that such loans constitute de facto distributions and may only be granted for an amount not exceeding the lender’s freely distributable reserves. If already granted, it reduces the lender’s ability for future dividend distributions by the amount corresponding to the nominal value of the loan. The court also imposed stringent requirements on satisfying the arm’s length test.

Further, the court raised the question of whether Swiss companies are allowed to participate in zero-balancing cash pools at all.

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The new Swiss perspective on international arbitration

Gentium Law’s Matthew Parish discusses a quiet revolution.

Switzerland is distinctive as a centre of international arbitration. It packs a punch well above its size. Although statistics about arbitration are by their nature confidential, anecdotal evidence indicates the diminutive country of a mere 7.5 million people is host to several hundreds of arbitrations per year. This is a remarkable figure.

The London Court of International Arbitration has perhaps only 150 cases per annum, while the International Chamber of Commerce hosts roughly double that number. In petite Geneva – a mere 185,000 people – arbitration lawyers may be the largest group of legal specialists in the city. Continue reading “The new Swiss perspective on international arbitration”

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Mass hires: Pillsbury sees partners start to move to Winston & Strawn across three offices

Up to 15 lawyers are set to quit from US firm Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman for Winston & Strawn, with the firm’s Abu Dhabi managing partner Stephen Jurgenson, London-based co-head of energy, infrastructure and projects James Simpson and New York-based structured products chief Jeffrey Stern having already resigned from the firm.

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Freshfields plans Manchester hub on radical scale as City leader repositions for changing law market

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer’s decision to jump on the near-shoring wagon with its first low-cost services hub in Manchester is on a scale larger than its peers, with up to 800 support service jobs being transferred – a move which is unsettling some at its Fleet Street headquarters.

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Deal watch: Corporate activity in February 2015

SKADDEN, FRESHFIELDS AND SLAUGHTERS LAND KEY ROLES ON £4.3BN CAN MAKER TIE-UP

Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom advised Ball Corporation on its £4.3bn acquisition of UK-based Rexam, while Slaughter and May covered EU competition aspects. Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer advised Rexam, which boasts Coca-Cola, Red Bull and Heineken among its clients, on the deal.

 

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