DACB to launch in New York and LA with hire of 30-strong team from pair of US firms

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DACB to launch in New York and LA with hire of 30-strong team from pair of US firms

DAC Beachcroft is set to make a major step into the US market, recruiting a 30-strong group of lawyers from two firms to launch in New York and Los Angeles in January.

The firm is taking on four partners and 26 other lawyers and staff from insurance and reinsurance boutique Vogrin & Frimet and national firm Robinson+Cole.

Vogrin & Frimet is an eight-lawyer firm with offices in New York, Los Angeles and New Jersey, while Robinson+Cole is a much larger, full-service firm, with around 400 lawyers across nine US bases.

Name partners George Vogrin and Mike Frimet will join from Vogrin & Frimet with their six colleagues, while partners Lawrence Klein and Gilbert Lee will move over from Robinson+Cole, alongside 20 other lawyers and staff.

All four partners are primarily based in New York, but will spend time in California. Vogrin and Frimet specialise in insurance coverage and reinsurance matters, with particular experience representing global insurers in the London insurance market, while Klein and Lee are insurance coverage specialists, who both previously worked at Sedgwick, the US firm which closed in 2018.

In the short term, the bulk of the team will be based in New York, with the firm expecting to expand the Los Angeles office in future.

‘Continuing our international expansion is one of the key elements of our strategy,’ said David Pollitt, DACB’s managing partner (pictured).

‘Being able to establish operations in the thriving US legal market not only satisfies a key client demand within our insurance practice, but also gives potential for our clients across other areas of our business to benefit from our presence in the US market,’ he continued.

The move follows a series of international office openings for the firm. Over the past nine months, DACB has launched in Hong Kong and Peru, building on last year’s expansion into Milan, Rome, and Buenos Aires.

The firm does also have a representative office in Miami, which it opened in 2016 with the hire of business development manager Sascha Stullenberg from AIG. Since 2017, the firm has also been a member of the four-way Legalign Global alliance with three other insurance-focused law firms – Germany’s BLD Bach Langheid Dallmayr, US firm Wilson Elser, and Wotton Kearney in Australia.

DACB this year posted its tenth consecutive year of revenue growth, with a 9% increase in turnover to £326.5m. Profit before tax saw a 15% increase to £71m, while partner profits rose to £700,000, up 7% from last year’s £652,000.

Managing partner David Pollitt told LB earlier this year that the basis for the firm’s recent international strategy has been to ‘talking to clients about where they see growth and specific needs, and determining how we can support them in those areas’.

anna.huntley@legalease.co.uk

Sidley makes key TMT hire in London as CMS practice head comes on board

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Sidley makes key TMT hire in London as CMS practice head comes on board

Sidley Austin has sealed the hire of CMS TMT head Clive Gringras, a Legal 500 Hall of Famer who has spent his entire career at CMS and predecessor firms Olswang and Nabarro. 

Gringras (pictured) made partner at CMS in 2000 after moving over in the tripartite merger of Olswang, Nabarro and CMS in 2017, before which he was head of technology at Olswang.

He works with some of the world’s largest companies on high-stakes matters including first‑of‑a‑kind disputes and tech-focused cross-border deals.  His experience also includes representing major tech companies in regulatory investigations and litigation, as well as handling internet threat cases involving spam, phishing, tech support fraud, and business email compromise. 

Yvette Ostolaza, the chair of Sidley’s management committee, noted that Gringras’ hire comes as the tech market gains momentum. ‘With regulators expanding their enforcement powers under rapidly evolving technology laws, we expect more clients to turn to Sidley’s global platform across four continents for top-tier strategic legal advice,’ she said. 

London managing partner Tom Thesing added: ‘He is an exciting addition and will help meet the demands of our clients who are faced with the most complex cross-border regulatory, investigation, and transactional matters.’ 

Gringras is the latest in a string of hires for Sidley. Just last week, the firm welcomed partner Tania Bedi from Latham, where she co-chaired the London finance department. In October, Sidley brought on five sponsor-side leveraged finance partners, including Jayanthi Sadanandan and Sam Hamilton following their August exit from Latham, as well as high-yield partners Scott Colwell and Patrick Kwak. 

And the expansion does not appear to be over. Ostolaza told LB back in October that the firm plans to expand its London office with hires in capital markets, high yield, and disputes and investigations, along with further growth in private equity.   

However, the firm has also seen a number of losses this year. Restructuring co-heads Mark Knight and Jifree Cader moved to Davis Polk, while M&A partner Phil Cheveley joined Covington following the departures of Lyndsey Laverack and Jade Williams-Adedeji who left in July to join Covington & Burling’s EMEA private equity team. 

In a statement, CMS thanked Gringas for his contribution to the firm’s TMT practice and wished him the best for the future.

elisha.juttla@legalease.co.uk

‘With an open checkbook, they’ll likely target top talent’ – Davis Polk London scale-up turns heads

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‘With an open checkbook, they’ll likely target top talent’ – Davis Polk London scale-up turns heads

Compared to some of its flashier US rivals, it’s fair to say Davis Polk has not taken the fastest route to building up in the City.

Despite having an office in London for more than five decades, the firm only started practising English law in 2012, and has been relatively cautious about lateral recruiting ever since. Until now.

With the addition of four partners in London over the last six months, the firm has overhauled its strategy in the City, helping to take London lawyer count above 60.

Continue reading “‘With an open checkbook, they’ll likely target top talent’ – Davis Polk London scale-up turns heads”

‘Private credit are the new banks’: Proskauer’s A&O and Cahill hires on the US firm’s ambitious finance push

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‘Private credit are the new banks’: Proskauer’s A&O and Cahill hires on the US firm’s ambitious finance push

Speak to almost any major firm active in the finance space and you’ll hear about private credit. The industry matured as banking regulations tightened in the wake of the 2008 crash, and has surged since banks pulled back on lending after the interest rate hikes from early 2022.

According to merchant banking, global advisory, and asset management firm M Capital Group, the overall size of the private credit market has grown from $1trn four years ago to $1.7trn in 2023.

The market is big, and growing – and law firms want a piece of it.

Continue reading “‘Private credit are the new banks’: Proskauer’s A&O and Cahill hires on the US firm’s ambitious finance push”