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Cyber risk moving up the in-house agenda

General counsel (GC) are increasingly involved in handling cyber security issues at board level, reflecting a more comprehensive shift towards effective risk management, research from Legal Business and PwC has revealed.

In a survey of corporate attitudes to cyber security risk this autumn, which garnered more than 800 responses from a broad mix of senior corporate managers, owners, legal and IT, nearly half (46%) of all GC respondents said they had delivered advice to the board on cyber and data security matters in the last year. Thirty five percent of GC respondents said this occurs on a quarterly basis.

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‘There is a fundamental tension here’: Lawyers nervous about exceptions to professional privilege

With government intelligence agencies and tax authorities coming under a spotlight in recent weeks over the sourcing of legally privileged documentation, justification and potential implications for such action has increasingly generated cause for concern among City lawyers.

It emerged in November that the Investigatory Powers Tribunal had discovered that legally privileged documents may have been targeted by British intelligence agencies MI5, MI6 and GCHQ.

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A&O and Linklaters scale back in Russia as foreign firms feel the brunt of sanctions

Law firms scramble to reposition Moscow practice as EU sanctions hit home Russia’s volatile political environment began to have an impact on international and domestic law firms in Moscow at the beginning of this year, but as 2015 nears, and with multiple rounds of international sanctions imposed on the country, the situation has dramatically deteriorated.

US and EU sanctions on Russia have taken their toll on many located in Moscow, including Allen & Overy (A&O), which offered redundancy packages at associate level in October; Linklaters, which seconded 19 associates into other regions; White & Case, which reduced its Moscow-based headcount across both partner and associate levels; and Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, whose office associate headcount dropped.

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Life During Law: Jason Glover, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett

Clifford Chance (CC) was a great place to be in the 1990s. Geoffrey Howe deserves a huge amount of credit. He instilled that we were on a journey everyone else was seeking to replicate. The car was travelling fast. The concept of delivering that globalisation was a very powerful thing.

I didn’t have a plan but a lot of fortune. I took a view early on that there were hundreds of great technical lawyers and I would never be able to distinguish on just that.

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Guerrillas in our midst: LCIA takes action on award delays and obstructionist tactics

Tom Moore assesses the impact of the new London arbitration rulebook

The battle lines between arbitration lawyers and litigators have long been drawn along arguments of efficiency and cost. The urban myth, somewhat manufactured by arbitration practitioners themselves, that arbitration is more expedient and less costly than its cousin in the courts has long been dismissed, while increasingly the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA) is not only competing with courts for big-ticket cases, but other institutions around the world.

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Not always an ‘easy journey’: Q&A with Jonathan Scott, outgoing HSF senior partner

Tom Moore talks to Jonathan Scott, senior partner and chair at Herbert Smith Freehills, about management, why he’s stepping down early and his worries over the reputation of English law.

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Why have you decided to leave your post early?

We get all the partners together once every two years and, if we ran the election after our November conference, there would be a preoccupation with who would be the next senior partner. If we’re going to spend that money getting everyone together, it’s not the best use of time to be talking about internal issues, so I made a decision, and I want to make it very clear that it was my decision with some internal resistance, that we would have the election beforehand.

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Double-edged – cutting both ways with third party funding

It’s been a turbulent year for third-party funders, from court battles shining a spotlight on risky investments to new entrants and exits. Legal Business scopes the changing landscape for litigation’s bankrollers.

In early autumn, high-flying disputes lawyer Harvey Rands was taking a vacation in upstate New York. While many spend breaks catching up on books and perfecting golf swings, Rands, one of Memery Crystal’s highest billers, held in his possession an embargoed draft of the Excalibur costs judgment, a Commercial Court ruling on one of the most controversial pieces of litigation in recent years. Crucially the ruling, made public on 23 October, found third-party funders liable for indemnity costs in what became a precedent for an industry historically dogged with a controversial reputation.

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The king is dead – hunting out the new breed of dealmakers in banking lawyers sights

The veteran deal bankers have moved on and there’s a new pecking order with US banks and credit funds staking their position in Europe’s leveraged finance market. Legal Business assesses the debt professionals that lawyers want on their speed dial.

‘The crisis hit and Paul de Rome, who was then head of leveraged finance at Citibank, said: “You’ve got to shoot someone – I’ll fall on my sword – take me down.” It was a pure sign of class I thought. He was 50. He’d made his money, and was letting the young ones keep their jobs. Looking back I realise the reason Paul was such a successful old dog was because he knew it was just the first stage of the crisis. When he got shot, all his shares vested and he’s currently a partner in private equity firm EQT, which is THE place to move to.’

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‘Trophy assets’: Bakers and Taylor Wessing lead on Gherkin sale

Baker & McKenzie and Taylor Wessing helped finalise the sale of London’s iconic Gherkin building to the Safra Group for over £700m.

The sale last month of one of London’s most distinctive and recognisable landmarks, the 40-storey skyscraper, located at St Mary Axe in the City’s primary financial district, was placed into receivership in April after one of its owners was placed in insolvency, with big-four giant Deloitte appointed as receiver.

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Evasive Action – Can Olswang live up to its own ambitions?

TMT leader Olswang is hard to pin down these days as profits ebb, reports of discord emerge and a leader suddenly departs. Can the firm push on with its ambitions to take brand Olswang global?

‘David is in back to back meetings every day for the next four weeks,’ says the Olswang staffer. ‘It would be just impossible to set up a call.’

The Legal Business correspondent listens to another evasive response after again asking to speak to Olswang’s then chief executive David Stewart. It’s not very convincing.

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Freshfields, Linklaters and Taylor Wessing advise on United Biscuits sale to Turkish buyer

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Linklaters and Taylor Wessing have taken the leading roles representing the sale of UK-based United Biscuits to Turkey’s largest food and beverage company Yildiz Holding.

The British food manufacturer – which makes McVitie’s, Jaffa Cakes, Hobnobs and Penguins, and Jacob’s Cream Crackers and Twiglets – will be acquired from private equity owners The Blackstone Group and PAI Partners by Yildiz for a reported £2bn.

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Baker & McKenzie and DLA Piper bet on Mexico’s growing legal market

DLA combines with local firm while Baker & McKenzie boosts its Mexican office

Mexico’s legal market has seen steady growth as President Enrique Peña Nieto’s package of reforms, including widespread tax breaks and the opening up of the energy sector to foreign companies, liberalises the economy. Last month saw both DLA Piper and Baker & McKenzie seek to capitalise on that growth by making strategic hires to broaden their offerings.

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How was it for you? – the people and events that defined the profession over 25 years of Legal Business

25 years ago Legal Business was launched to chronicle a rapidly changing profession in the wake of Big Bang. We look back to identify 25 defining figures, events and trends that shaped a world-beating profession.

The curious nature of the legal industry means that as radically as things seem to change, they stay the same. In January 1990 the City was still being defined by the Big Bang de-regulation of London’s financial services market, even though boom was rapidly turning to bust. Leading City law firms were still basically domestic practices built around English practices with limited branch networks. An elite City law firm would not have generated much more than £100m in a good year. That scale and internationalisation would change in the coming decade – for all the talk of supposedly radical upheaval in the modern legal industry – the shake-up in the profession seen in the 1990s at the very least matches and probably outdoes anything that has happened since the turn of the millennium.

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City comp scheme to create first panel

The Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS), the UK’s statutory compensation scheme for customers of authorised financial services firms, is currently undergoing a tender process to create its first-ever legal panel.

The FSCS, which is funded by levies authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and the Financial Conduct Authority, handles the majority of claims in-house, but has in the past turned to James Roome’s restructuring team, now at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, and litigators at Herbert Smith Freehills and Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan.

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Shaping the industry – the veterans’ view on what mattered in the last 25 years

Legal Business asked more than 20 legal heavyweights to name the defining moments that shaped the profession since the launch of Legal Business.

Wim Dejonghe, managing partner, Allen & Overy

On globalisation in law:

‘Domestic firms going global – this has been the main event of the last 25 years. That started in the mid-1990s and there has been no way back. Baker & McKenzie was a pioneer of the globalisation trend. It has done extremely well in its market. Two firms that have come from a regional base and developed well include DLA Piper – coming from [the English regions] is impressive – and Latham & Watkins from LA. Given their position 25 years ago and where they are now, these three firms come to mind.’
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The Last Word – Reflections and looking ahead

Senior figures provide personal perspectives on a changing industry for our 250th edition

Working with Salz

‘I worked for Anthony as an associate. In order of descending seniority, Phil Richards, me and Will Lawes were his “bag carriers”. It was an exciting time. During the 1980s our M&A team were the new kids on the block and the firm was undergoing a reputational transition from a traditional Bank of England adviser to a push-the-envelope transactional adviser. By the 1990s, Freshfields was the go-to firm.

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November sees introduction of new immigration rules

Rahul Batra of Hudson McKenzie details the changes.

The written ministerial statement laid in the House of Commons on 16 October 2014 by James Brokenshire, Minister of State for Immigration and Security, and in the House of Lords by Lord Bates, outlined a number of changes to the UK Immigration Rules.

Tier 1 (Investor) Category – Investors must now invest more

As of 6 November 2014, the minimum investment threshold has been raised to £2m. However, any successful investor visa applicants that applied before that date are covered by the current £1m investment rules. New investors can no longer allocate 25% of their investment into UK assets. The entire £2m will need to be invested in UK trading companies, or UK government bonds (previously 75%). The loan option has also been removed and topping up of investments accounts are no longer required if the invested amount falls below the required level. However, if investments are sold, they will need to be replaced within the same reporting period. Yet another change is that entry clearance officers are being empowered to refuse investors if they have reasonable grounds to believe the funds were obtained unlawfully, or if they have concerns about the character and conduct of the party ‘providing the funds’ – this could extend to those gifting the funds to the investor.

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Innovation: a driving force in reshaping the legal sector

Baker Tilly’s George Bull sets the scene for change.

Visiting clients in Chicago a few years ago, I saw in bright lights the title of a show at one of the city’s theatres: The Male Intellect: an oxymoron? When I returned to the UK, my wife had only one question: ‘Why the question mark?’

So it is with innovation and law firms. With management teams and advisers alike, urging firms to innovate to succeed, even to innovate to survive, Axiom Law in its latest advertisement simply observes: ‘Innovative lawyers. No longer an oxymoron.’

This demonstrates how far the legal service sector has come. What some have seen as the perfect storm of regulatory reform, financial uncertainty and client demands is being embraced by other legal service providers as the perfect laboratory for innovation and change.

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