Following its landmark combination with Dentons to create a 7,500-lawyer legal giant, legacy Dacheng is restructuring its practice to reduce the number of profit pools from 15 to five.
Continue reading “Dentons shakes up profit-sharing arrangement in China”
Following its landmark combination with Dentons to create a 7,500-lawyer legal giant, legacy Dacheng is restructuring its practice to reduce the number of profit pools from 15 to five.
With Dentons striving to integrate what is now the world’s largest law firm by employee headcount, the China arm of the firm, headed by senior partner Jinquan Xiao, has carried out a reorganisation to create increased profit-sharing between the firm’s 44 Chinese offices.
Continue reading “Reform underway as Dentons shakes up profit-sharing arrangement in China”
‘In our worldwide business, the volume of mergers is at a record high. However, in Switzerland we can talk about a stagnation of deals,’ says Guy Vermeil, managing partner of Lenz & Staehelin. His downbeat assessment of the domestic M&A market is supported by last year’s numbers. As the broader Swiss economy stalled with GDP growth of only 0.8%, KPMG’s annual transactional review labelled 2015 as ‘troubled for the M&A market in Switzerland’. Transaction volume declined 17% compared to 2014, from 420 to 350 deals, while the aggregate value of completed M&A with a Swiss component fell 55% to $84.9bn.
Benedict Christ, co-head of M&A at Vischer, identifies removal of the currency peg as a particular problem: ‘There was certainly no growth in M&A, that’s probably mostly due to the appreciation of the Swiss franc in early January [2015], which made it considerably more expensive for foreign investors. The hit we took from the appreciation was probably not as bad as it could have been, but this will certainly continue to have an effect on the markets.’
Continue reading “Red dragon, white cross – Can Chinese money kickstart Swiss markets”
Continued interest in European assets by Chinese investors peaked last month, as Simpson Thacher & Bartlett and Davis Polk & Wardwell landed key roles on China National Chemical Corporation (ChemChina)’s $43bn bid for Swiss seeds and pesticides group Syngenta – in what will be the largest-ever acquisition by a Chinese firm.
Simpson Thacher advised state-owned ChemChina on M&A, acquisition finance and regulation with a team led by partners Alan Klein, Shaolin Luo, Chris May and Sinead O’Shea, alongside Swiss corporate leader Homburger. Davis Polk and another top-tier Swiss player, Bär & Karrer, acted for Syngenta. Davis Polk’s team included partners Louis Goldberg and Oliver Smith, with John Reynolds providing regulatory advice; Ronan Harty and Jon Leibowitz advising on competition law; and Avishai Shachar advising on tax.
Continue reading “Wall Street elite go head to head in largest ever Chinese acquisition”
Allen & Overy and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer are among a handful of UK firms to win spots on The Chinese Ministry of Commerce’s (Mofcom) new legal panel.
Continue reading “Magic Circle firms join Chinese Ministry of Commerce’s bulked up legal panel”
Weil, Gotshal & Manges has bolstered its Shanghai office with the hire of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer’s New York-qualified corporate partner Charles Ching.
Continue reading “Weil makes China lateral move with acquisition of Freshfields’ Ching”
Tony Lin sizes up the world’s most lawyered firm and asks what Dentons’ much-hyped tie-up with Dacheng can deliver
Size clearly matters to Joseph Andrew and Elliott Portnoy, the respective chairman and chief executive of Dentons, the international law firm that in January announced a surprise ‘combination’ with Dacheng Law Offices. After all, the tie-up with China’s largest law firm by headcount creates the world’s most lawyered firm.
Continue reading “No playbook for Dentons’ bold China tie-up”
Having sought to upgrade its finance practice in New York since the 2010 union of Lovells and Hogan & Hartson, Hogan Lovells has made a senior hire to its Manhattan arm with the addition of Ronald Silverman from Bingham McCutchen.
Firms set to create a 6,600-lawyer, $1.7bn law firm giant
In a bid to create the world’s largest firm by lawyer headcount, Dentons is to combine with China’s biggest firm, Dacheng Law Offices, to form a 6,600-lawyer giant operating under a Swiss verein structure.
With offices across over 50 countries, combined revenues will be in the region of $1.7bn. At the end of the financial year 2013/14, Dentons’ turnover was $1.3bn, while Dacheng confirmed that its revenues currently stand at $400m, although revenues were reported to have hit just RMB1.78bn ($287m) in the 2013 financial year. The firm will have revenue per lawyer of $257,000, compared to $769,000 across the Global 100. Both partnerships confirmed the tie-up in late January, although at the time of press, both firms were awaiting approval from Chinese regulators.
Continue reading “Dentons becomes world’s most lawyered firm with Dacheng tie-up”
DLA Piper, Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy and Sidley Austin have all completed partner raids on rivals in Asia as they seek to expand their presence in the region.
