Deal View: Five years on – How Akin Gump’s Bingham acquisition turned bust to boom in the City

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Deal View: Five years on – How Akin Gump’s Bingham acquisition turned bust to boom in the City

‘Our team was nearly twice the size of Akin Gump’s London team. There was potential for vulnerability on both sides. They didn’t want their entire lives disrupted by a very large cuckoo in the nest.’ Five years on, restructuring partner James Roome reflects on the potential pitfalls of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld’s 28-partner acquisition of the City arm of his former shop, Boston’s ill-fated Bingham McCutchen.

In contrast to more ostentatious US counterparts, the Texas-bred Akin Gump has since flown under the radar to turn Bingham’s bust into its boom, thanks largely to the trophy restructuring team fronted by Roome. City growth has culminated in a blistering 2018 run as revenue spiked 28% to $123.5m, catapulting it into Legal Business’ Global London top ten firms by revenue. Continue reading “Deal View: Five years on – How Akin Gump’s Bingham acquisition turned bust to boom in the City”

The $50m question – will Akin Gump’s record-breaking City acquisition pay off?

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There was a rushed engagement before the union and there is unlikely to be a long honeymoon for the 26 Bingham McCutchen partners, including ten financial restructuring partners, switching to Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld later this month. Such is the size of the investment the Dallas-bred giant has made, with the total number of lawyers set to transfer across London, Hong Kong and Frankfurt expected to reach around 60, the team led by financial restructuring guru James Roome will have to hit the ground running when they transfer in late October. This is, after all, a team with around $50m in annual revenue, by some yardsticks the largest team hire ever executed in the Square Mile.

The move, which Legal Business first revealed online in early September, shifts virtually all of Bingham’s London arm, minus two partners whose futures are undecided.

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The Friday Edit: Bingham sees $50m team quit, Scots lawyers relieved and GC ethics get a prod

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This is the third edition of our new review of the week, which I am now bitterly regretting as we are going to press today on an 80-page report. But I can’t let the kids down, so here’s a recap and a dash of commentary on the interesting legal things that happened in the last five days.

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Soft H2 debt restructuring market blamed for 12.6% drop in 2013 US revenue for Bingham McCutchen

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When many firms were busy cutting costs and dicing teams in 2008, Bingham McCutchen weathered the economic downturn pretty well thanks to the solid inflow of work in its debt restructuring practice.

Five years later, with corporates finding cash far easier to come by, and Bingham is feeling the pinch after its H2 2013 restructuring work slowed and its revenues for the financial year dropped by 12.6% to $762m from $871.8m in 2012. Continue reading “Soft H2 debt restructuring market blamed for 12.6% drop in 2013 US revenue for Bingham McCutchen”

Asia round-up: Bingham makes funds push in Tokyo while Eversheds launches in Beijing

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The lateral hire market has been particularly active in Asia this week, with some of the most established international players in the region losing experienced partners.

The most notable move came in Japan, where US firm Bingham McCutchen has added seven White & Case lawyers to its investment funds team in Tokyo. Continue reading “Asia round-up: Bingham makes funds push in Tokyo while Eversheds launches in Beijing”

Global firms strengthen white-collar practices

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A number of global firms boosted their white-collar defence practices last month with a spate of hires from US and UK government agencies. The hires come as regulators on both sides of the pond continue to tighten their grip on domestic and international businesses.

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer hired Matthew Friedrich, former acting head of the criminal division at the US Department of Justice (DoJ), to bolster its white-collar practice based in Washington DC.

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