Middle East Focus: Light on the horizon

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Middle East Focus: Light on the horizon

Far from immune to the global crisis – but making concerted strides towards immunity in some instances – the Middle East and North Africa region (MENA) has fared similarly to the rest of the world over the last year. That is to say that the universal impact of the pandemic has been felt across MENA, although the paths that the various countries have taken have been disparate.

Middle East

Early lockdowns in several countries helped to contain the number of coronavirus cases, and a number of success stories emerged from the region with Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) – numbers one and two, respectively – frontrunners in rolling out their vaccine programmes. While distinct, both countries have adopted an agile approach to sourcing and distributing the vaccine. Continue reading “Middle East Focus: Light on the horizon”

Shoring up – the Offshore report

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Shoring up – the Offshore report

In what will undoubtedly be remembered as an unpredictable year in more ways than one, offshore firms across the globe leveraged their resilience and diverse practice offerings to weather the storm that 2020 brought. The US-China trade wars and the uncertainty around the EU/UK divorce gave way to the devastation of the global coronavirus pandemic, plummeting oil prices and markets in freefall, and the final throes of Brexit negotiations.

However, the offshore legal sector seemingly managed to duck every blow and avoid every collapse, with 2020 and early 2021 proving to be highly successful years across the offshore market. For Edward Mackereth, global managing partner of Ogier, ‘unprecedented was the word of 2020’, while Christian Luthi, chair of Conyers, states: ‘2020/21 has certainly tested the adaptability of the firm, and Conyers has come through extremely well’. Jonathan Green, global managing partner of Maples, adds: ‘2020 and early 2021 have been very active periods for us, setting new high-water marks in many of our practice areas. Our global teams have delivered without missing a beat, pandemic notwithstanding.’ Continue reading “Shoring up – the Offshore report”

Sponsored briefing: The calculation of individual dismissals under Directive 98/59/EC

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In these turbulent times we are experiencing in the workplace, with a constantly changing legislative framework, the Spanish legal landscape was recently altered by the judgment handed down on 11 January 2020 by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), on collective redundancies (case C-300/19).

Whereas, just before the summer, news was appearing in the Spanish general press and specialised media of local court rulings rendering null and void terminations of employment contracts, where they were based on loss of business linked to Covid-19, now, this judgment handed down by the CJEU in Luxembourg has opened a new possibility for rendering null and void individual dismissals, linked to a tightening of the criteria used to calculate collective redundancy thresholds, under Directive 98/59/EC on the approximation of the laws of the member states relating to collective redundancies. Continue reading “Sponsored briefing: The calculation of individual dismissals under Directive 98/59/EC”

Letter from Iberia – Despite global meltdown, local lawyers remain upbeat

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Letter from Iberia – Despite global meltdown, local lawyers remain upbeat

For most, May 2019 will feel like a lifetime ago, and Iberia is little different. When Legal Business last visited its legal market, the major talking point was the impact of highly-regarded dealmaker Juan Picón’s move from DLA Piper to Latham & Watkins the year before.

Less than 12 months later on 14 March 2020, the Spanish government imposed a national lockdown in response to the Covid-19 crisis. On 29 March, it was announced that, beginning the following day, all non-essential workers were ordered to remain at home for the next 14 days. It quickly became the case that Spain became one of Europe’s worst-affected countries, being the second country after Russia to record half a million cases of the disease. Continue reading “Letter from Iberia – Despite global meltdown, local lawyers remain upbeat”

Letter from… Warsaw: Weil’s withdrawal from CEE marks a new phase, not the end, of international firms’ regional domination

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Letter from… Warsaw: Weil’s withdrawal from CEE marks a new phase, not the end, of international firms’ regional domination

Neglected by foreign advisers for years, the Central and Eastern European (CEE) legal markets enjoyed a few moments of popularity in the press as the decade turned. Most notably, the once-formidable force in the region’s transactional space, Weil, Gotshal & Manges closed its three local branches in Budapest (January 2018), Prague (November 2018) and Warsaw (November 2019).

As the only major Wall Street firm with sizeable CEE coverage (excepting obviously White & Case’s very different model), there were specific reasons behind Weil’s withdrawal. These included a strategic move to focus on the key money centres (the firm also left the Middle East in 2017), a huge amount of local government-related work exposing it to the political turmoil and a large domestic client base not inclined to pay the fee levels demanded by the US elite. Continue reading “Letter from… Warsaw: Weil’s withdrawal from CEE marks a new phase, not the end, of international firms’ regional domination”

Letter from… Brussels: Brexit convulsions prove no problem for Brussels hands as the age of tough antitrust enforcement proves a boon

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Letter from… Brussels: Brexit convulsions prove no problem for Brussels hands as the age of tough antitrust enforcement proves a boon

In mid-October, when Legal Business decided it would dedicate this column to analysing the Belgian legal market, there was still the outside chance that it would appear in our first post-Brexit issue. By the time the piece was written a few days later, the UK Government had conceded defeat on its pledge to take the country out of the EU by the end of the month, triggering yet another delay to the process.

Not that the Brussels legal elite was surprised. Located in offices a few metres from the rooms where the Brexit negotiations have dragged on for almost three years, local counsel have had more than enough time to prepare for possible outcomes – deal? No deal? No Brexit? ‘After the referendum people were concerned about what would happen, but things have smoothed down,’ notes Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer local head Vincent Macq. ‘I don’t think there is any firm that sees it as a concern now.’ Continue reading “Letter from… Brussels: Brexit convulsions prove no problem for Brussels hands as the age of tough antitrust enforcement proves a boon”

Africa rising – Foreign firms strive to cover the booming continent

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Africa rising – Foreign firms strive to cover the booming continent

Joe Andrew, the architect of Dentons’ global strategy, is not known for pulling his punches. As such, his stance on staffing the African practices of international law firms is typical: ‘Why would you look to Europe or the US? It’s parochial, it’s a residue of colonialism, and it borders on racism.’

The firm’s chair warms to his theme. ‘There are 54 countries on the continent, and to different degrees they’re all experiencing an incredible democratisation of information. There’s talent everywhere. We don’t agree with our competitors who believe that the best way to service clients is to hire people from Europe.’ Continue reading “Africa rising – Foreign firms strive to cover the booming continent”

Offshore: Deal or no deal?

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Offshore: Deal or no deal?

Protracted arguments over Brexit have led a divided Britain to the point of exhaustion. In the months leading up to the June 2016 referendum, offshore firms were concerned about the potential impact of a ‘Yes’ vote – although perhaps less so than some of their onshore counterparts. Even before the financial crisis, there had been a continued diversification by larger firms in the major offshore jurisdictions away from a reliance on the UK economy.

Since the referendum, offshore firms in the British Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories have been dealing with the problems of continued uncertainty that Brexit has created for their clients and advising them in relation to investment opportunities that may arise once it is eventually resolved. Continue reading “Offshore: Deal or no deal?”

International round-up: Bakers launches fourth low-cost hub in Argentina as Cooley targets capital markets with Hong Kong office

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International round-up: Bakers launches fourth low-cost hub in Argentina as Cooley targets capital markets with Hong Kong office

Baker McKenzie is pushing on with its profitability drive having picked Buenos Aires for its fourth business service centre some five months after putting an estimated 350 London-based support staff under consultation.

On the other side of the Pacific in an unusually expansive move, Cooley has today (12 March) confirmed it will open in Hong Kong after hiring Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom’s corporate partner Will Cai. Continue reading “International round-up: Bakers launches fourth low-cost hub in Argentina as Cooley targets capital markets with Hong Kong office”

Letter from… Moscow: Apocalypse now beckons as sanctions and turmoil batter foreign lawyers in Russia

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Letter from… Moscow: Apocalypse now beckons as sanctions and turmoil batter foreign lawyers in Russia

Remember the days when Russia was the El Dorado of the Western legal elite? Potent New York outfits like Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom forged hugely lucrative businesses catering to Russian clients, while oligarchs and their top-dollar disputes were regulars in London’s commercial courts.

Just half a decade on and those days seem a distant memory. Chat informally with local partners and, once you get past the party line about it not being so bad, it is clear they are spending increasing chunks of their working lives merely trying to stay in the game. Continue reading “Letter from… Moscow: Apocalypse now beckons as sanctions and turmoil batter foreign lawyers in Russia”