A London team at Covington & Burling led by corporate partner Lucinda Osborne advised AstraZeneca on a potential $2.1bn deal to purchase Spanish healthcare group Almirall’s respiratory unit in a move that sees the company add to its pipeline of asthma products.
Continue reading “Covington and CMS lead on AstraZeneca’s £1.2bn Spanish transaction”
City firm RPC is the latest to reveal its trainee retention rates this summer, and has announced it will keep all 15 trainee solicitors who applied to qualify this year, constituting the second time the firm has achieved a 100% rate since 2010. Meanwhile, CMS Cameron McKenna posted more modest results and confirmed a retention rate of 67.2%, with the firm’s London office keeping the lion’s share of trainees.
Given that I get paid to poke around law firms’ inner workings, it’s not that often that I find it hard to get my head around a law firm but CMS Cameron McKenna in its 2014 form is one such creature. Continue reading “Comment: Cameronics redux – a hard-to-grasp institution that looks set to surprise”
CMS Cameron McKenna plans to utilise the Scottish offices and personnel of new merger partner Dundas & Wilson as a form of northshoring as the top-ten firm unveiled its real estate ‘deal of the century’ with its move into its new Cannon Place offices next year.
The Dundas cost-saving initiative, spearheaded by Camerons energy partner Stephen Millar, who alongside managing partner Duncan Weston and senior partner Penelope Warne led the merger negotiations between the two firms, will see Camerons split the pricing of City-generated deals into work done in London and that which is hived off to Scottish lawyers under the supervision of a partner.
With a takeover of Dundas & Wilson under its belt and a barrage of post-Lehman re-engineering in place, CMS Cameron McKenna hopes it can secure its breakthrough globally and at home. LB investigates a complex beast that some of its own partners don’t understand.
On 10 December the London partners of Dundas & Wilson were called home. Given the dramatic nose-dive that had afflicted Scotland’s proudest legal institution in the previous five years, expectations were that this would herald drastic action to revive its fortunes.
Continue reading “The Programme – how Dundas & Wilson fits into the CMS masterplan”
Given that I get paid to poke around law firms’ inner workings, it’s not that often that I find it hard to get my head around a law firm but CMS Cameron McKenna in its 2014 form is one such creature.
The clichéd view of the firm is of a slow-moving practice struggling with a hard-to-sell international alliance and a classic case of chasing pack malaise – too close to the Magic Circle for comfort, but too big to have the lean focus of a quality mid-tier. Like most clichés there is more than a grain of truth in this view but, as Camerons absorbs Scotland’s most storied law firm Dundas & Wilson, at closer glance the truth looks far more complex and interesting.
Continue reading “Cameronics redux: a hard-to-grasp institution that looks set to surprise”
Nabarro is set to launch an office in Manchester with the hire of a trio of real estate partners from Addleshaw Goddard as CMS Cameron McKenna also announced today (14 May) that it has hired Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) asset finance partner Keith Wilson, who joins to head up the top 10 UK firm’s aircraft finance practice. Continue reading “Nabarro launches in Manchester with hire of Addleshaws trio; CMS brings in BLP partner to head aircraft finance”
CMS Cameron McKenna has called on its fixed-share partners (FSPs) to make a substantial contribution of capital in light of HM Revenue & Customs’ (HMRC) recent overhaul of the way partnerships are taxed.
Members of the junior partnership that fall into band one of the firm’s four-tiered remuneration structure have been asked to contribute around £35,000 to £50,000 each. With 90 partners in this bracket, this means a total capital investment of up to £4.5m.
A partner at the firm told Legal Business: ‘The firm doesn’t necessarily need the money – it’s not a call for borrowings or to meet debt requirements. It’s a call to even out the capital positions across the various levels of the partnership. People were not necessarily happy taking on more borrowings but it hasn’t caused any ructions across the junior partnership.’
Continue reading “CMS junior partners to pay up to £50k in response to HMRC shake-up”
CMS Cameron McKenna and Dundas & Wilson have placed 60 support staff roles at risk following the duo’s recently announced union. Continue reading “CMS and Dundas to cut up to 60 jobs ahead of May merger”
Top ten LB100 firm CMS Cameron McKenna has posted a revenue drop for its UK limited liability partnership (LLP) of 6.6% for the 2012/13 financial year alongside a 12.5% decrease in operating profit, accounts filed at Companies House showed yesterday (14 January).
Turnover fell to £212.6m from £227.6m in 2011/12 financial year while group operating profit slid to £47.7m from £54.5m in 2011/12. Continue reading “LLP latest: CMS Cameron McKenna posts revenue and profit drops for LLP but highest earner remains stable”
