10 January 2005
The Lawyer
‘Dakar won’t start’
Lawyers love a challenge. So when technology lawyer Gavin McGinty and property specialist Andrew Todd, of Pinsent Masons and McGrigors respectively, were given the chance to take part in the mammoth Plymouth to Dakar Rally, they jumped at it.
A New Year, a new management headache
It’s a story to put fear into the heart of any law firm management team. After two years of re-engineering, Linklaters probably thought its most turbulent times were over. But it’s now facing a move which can only be described as bold, from four former partners to dissolve the entire global partnership.
Addleshaw Goddard - UK 100
Turnover: £125.2m
Addleshaws in double banking scoop for AIB & NM Rothschild
Addleshaw Goddard’s burgeoning City acquisition finance practice was handed an early Christmas present after scooping two new banking clients – Allied Irish Bank (AIB) and NM Rothschild & Sons.
Allen & Overy - UK 100
Turnover: £652m
Anderson Strathern - Rising 50 - 2005
Turnover: £12m
Ashurst - UK 100
Turnover: £197m
Barlow Lyde & Gilbert - UK 100
Turnover: £78.2m
Battens - Rising 50 - 2005
Turnover: £8.8m
Beachcroft Wansbroughs - UK 100
Turnover: £81.8m
Beaumonts lands Paris player Cabinet Garnault
Aviation specialist Beaumont and Son has sealed a takeover of Paris firm Cabinet Garnault.
Berwin Leighton Paisner - UK 100
Turnover: £102m
Bevan Ashford - UK 100
Turnover: £50.5m
Bird & Bird - UK 100
Turnover: £71.9m
Birkett Long Solicitors - Rising 50 - 2005
Turnover: £5.7m
Birketts - Rising 50 - 2005
Turnover: £7m
Boyes Turner - Rising 50 - 2005
Turnover: £8.4m
BPE Solicitors - Rising 50 - 2005
Turnover: £8.6m
Brachers Solicitors- Rising 50 - 2005
Turnover: £11.5m
Burness - Rising 50 - 2005
Turnover: £14.9m
Cairn Capital lands new legal chief
Asset management company Cairn Capital has hired a senior lawyer from Banque AIG to lead its new legal team.
Campbell Hooper - Rising 50 - 2005
Turnover: £9.5m
Careers: in brief
The majority of legal professionals claim to be fatigued with the long-hours culture, according to research by recruitment and HR consultancy Hudson.
Careers: people
Mishcon de Reya has announced the appointment of Oliver Goodwin as its new head of planning and environmental. Goodwin joins from Campbell Hooper, where he was head of planning. His group will form part of Mishcon’s property team.
CC hires finance director after a year’s search
Clifford Chance has appointed a new finance director after searching for a year. Stephen Purse succeeds Christopher Merry, who quit in November 2003 for headhunting company Whitehead Mann. For the last year Clifford Chance has had an interim finance director, William Barnes. Purse has been finance director at Management Consulting since November 2001. Merry was finance director at Clifford Chance ...
CC junior assistant fights own firm in court
A Clifford Chance junior assistant in Paris is taking on his own firm to defend his right to act as a trade union representative.
CC sends Cornell to NY to turn around US operation
Clifford Chance is set for a radical overhaul of its US practice as managing partner Peter Cornell relocates to New York this month to work with US managing partner John Carroll.
Christmas bleatings
Belated thanks go out to Parmalat’s legendary in-house counsel Bruno Cova, who trumped all those eChristmas card senders with this little beauty from last year: “Working for a bankrupt company gives me the privilege of not having Christmas cards to send around. I still do have, however, plenty of colleagues and friends that I like to remember at this time of the year. To you and your loved ones, my very best wishes for Christmas and 2005. Bruno.”
Christmas mammaries
The award for the least politically correct Christmas card goes to entertainment specialist David Wineman. Modesty prevents Tulkinghorn from publishing said item, but suffice it to say that the missive featured two attractive – and undeniably bare-breasted – ladies frolicking in the snow. Gleaming delightedly from a rear window was none other than music partner Irving David. Also bare-breasted.Yum.
Clifford Chance - UK 100
Turnover: £950m
Clyde & Co - UK 100
Turnover: £96m
CMS Cameron McKenna - UK 100
Turnover: £167m
Contract killers
The legal relationship between employers and employees is constantly evolving and in the UK can be confusing, but a recent ECJ decision provides some clarity. By Tim Johnson
Crutes Law Firm - Rising 50 - 2005
Turnover: £6.7m
Darbys - Rising 50 - 2005
Turnover: £6.5m
Davies Lavery Solicitors- Rising 50 - 2005
Turnover: £10.4m
Dawsons - Rising 50 - 2005
Turnover: £9m
Dechert raids Swidler’s NY, DC offices
Husnara BegumDechert has made a dra-matic swoop on US firm Swid-ler Berlin’s New York office with the hire of 57 corporate and litigation lawyers, including 27 New York partners. A further eight lawyers will join from the firm’s Washington DC headquarters.
Denton Wilde Sapte - UK 100
Turnover: £174m
Dewey promotes eleven to partnership
Dewey Ballantine has made up 11 lawyers to member or partner status.
DLA - UK 100
Turnover: £275.4m
DLA invokes Freedom of Information Act for Pernod
DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary has sent the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) a Freedom of Information Act request in the Pernod Ricard case, in what is one of the first example of the act’s use by a lawyer.
DLA Piper raids Herbert Smith to kickstart French securities practice
DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary has made its first hires since its formation on 1 January.
Druces & Attlee lands insolvency partner from rival
City firm Druces & Attlee has bolstered its insolvency practice with the hire of a corporate recovery partner from rivals Reid Minty.
Employed barristers vent their ire on the Bar Council
The Bar Council has been slammed by employed barristers who, in a new survey, accuse it of treating them like “second class citizens”.
Eric Robinson Solicitors - Rising 50 - 2005
Turnover: £7m
Eversheds - UK 100
Turnover: £296.2m
Field Fisher Waterhouse - UK 100
Turnover: £47m
First Choice counsel leads tsunami recovery mission
First Choice Holidays’ director of legal affairs Andrew John helped play a key role in steering the company through the immediate aftermath of the tsunami.
Fishburns - Rising 50 - 2005
Turnover: £7m
Foot Anstey Sargent- Rising 50 - 2005
Turnover: £10.6m
Forsters - Rising 50 - 2005
Turnover: £14m
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer
Turnover: £785mProfit per equity partner: £675,000 Equity spread: £256,000-£853,000 Net profit: £350mProfit margin: 45 per cent
Freshfields conspicuous by absence as M&S invites panel pitches
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer will be specifically excluded from Marks & Spencer’s (M&S) review of external advisers after the firm was barred from acting for Philip Green on the entrepreneur’s failed bid for the retailer last summer.
FSA enforcement chief quits for Deutsche Bank
The Financial Services Authority’s (FSA) director of enforcement Andrew Procter has quit the City regulator to join Deutsche Bank.
Furley Page - Rising 50 - 2005
Turnover: £6.3m
Gateley Wareing - Rising 50 - 2005
Turnover: £14.8m
Grapevine
A nice stocking fillerAnother Slaughters win: Morgan Stanley, which is advising Euronext on its battle for the London Stock Exchange (LSE), recommended its client to use Slaughters as its lead legal adviser on the deal, displacing Cleary in the process.
Gresham opts for Hammonds on Penn Pharmaceuticals exit
Hammonds has secured Gresham Private Equity Solutions as a new client following the hire of Wragge & Co partner Peter McLintock last June.
Hammonds - UK 100
Turnover: £136m
Hammonds adds four to partnership board
Hammonds has elected four partners to its new partnership board. UK partners Patrick Somers and Bernhard Gilbey will join Brussels office head Konstantinos Adamantopoulos and German partner Frank Walter-von Gierke on the newly-formed board. Managing partner Peter Crossley, senior partner Richard Burns, finance director Laurence Campbell and two non-executive directors will also sit on the board. The partnership board will be responsible for strategy, performance and expenditure. The non-executiv
Harbottle & Lewis - Rising 50 - 2005
Turnover: £13.2m
Harvey Ingram Owston - Rising 50 - 2005
Turnover: £10.1m
Hearsay
Which managing partner of a US firm’s London office has been told to ease off on the work levels because his high billing is scaring off potential new recruits?
Henderson Boyd Jackson - Rising 50 - 2005
Turnover: £10.5m
Henmans - Rising 50 - 2005
Turnover: £6.8m
Herbert Smith - UK 100
Turnover: £243m
Hogan takes on two partners in London with CMS and Landwell captures
Washington DC-based law firm Hogan & Hartson has bagged two new partners for its London office with the addition of CMS Cameron McKenna’s water practice head Richard Temple and Landwell’s head of insurance Jennifer Donohue.
Holman Fenwick & Willan - UK 100
Turnover: £48.4m
Howrey ploughs $1m into tsunami relief efforts
Howrey Simon Arnold & White has pledged to donate $1m (£531,000) to the Indian Ocean tsunami relief efforts and is urging other firms to make similar contributions. Managing partner and chief executive officer Robert Ruyak (left) said: “Our hope is that other major firms will consider joining us at this level in attempting to meet this extraordinary ...
Howrey Simon acquires Houston litigation boutique
Howrey Simon Arnold & White has merged with Houston-based litigation boutique Clements O’Neill Pierce Wilson & Fulkerson.
IBB Solicitors- Rising 50 - 2005
Turnover: £10.6m
Insurance giant Marsh hires GE compliance chief for new role
Marsh & McLennan, the insurance broker at the centre of New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer’s bid-rigging investigation, has appointed its first chief compliance officer.
Irwin Mitchell - UK 100
Turnover: £91m
Irwin Mitchell senior partner awarded CBE
Irwin Mitchell senior partner Michael Napier has been recognised in the New Year’s Honours List for his work promoting pro bono. Napier, the Attorney General’s Pro Bono Envoy, becomes a CBE. Other lawyers honoured included last year’s Lord Mayor of the City of London, Linklaters partner Robert Finch and former Hammonds ...
Ius laboris forms joint venture with EEF
International employment law alliance ius laboris is joining forces with manufacturers’ organisation EEF to provide overseas labour law advice.
Job lot
The Working Time Directive has failed to curb the UK’s long-hours culture. Rebecca Harding-Hill on the European Commission’s plans to restrict the opt-out clause
Jones Day HK corporate ace quits for client
Jones Day’s Hong Kong office has lost senior corporate partner Steven Goodman to leading Asian telecoms company Pacific Media.As first revealed on www.thelawyer.com (5 January), Goodman has joined Pacific Media as an executive director and group legal adviser with effect from 5 January. He will also take up the role of company secretary.
Knight & Sons - Rising 50 - 2005
Turnover: £6.2m
KSB Law - Rising 50 - 2005
Turnover: £7.5m
Landmark secures BBC man for chief executive role
Landmark Chambers has hired its first chief executive, Joel Hagan, who joins from the BBC.Patrick Lawson QC, a barrister at the 62-tenant planning and public law set, said Hagan’s arrival will help "ensure [the set] continues to maintain [its] competitive edge".The arrival of Hagan, who was head of the BBC’s technology consulting practice, follows the move last year of Lawrence Graham’s ...
Latham star quits for Tennenbaum Capital Partners
The former global co-chair of Latham & Watkins’ M&A practice has joined Tennenbaum Capital Partners as a managing partner.
Law Soc ups certificate fee to meet extra costs
The practising certificate fee looks set to rise again next year following the Law Society Council’s approval of a £94.8m budget for 2005 at its last council meeting.
Lawrence Graham - UK 100
Turnover: £58.6m
Ledingham Chalmers- Rising 50 - 2005
Turnover: £12.5m
Legal Widow
Subjudice spent the holidays trawling the web – “for my English project, duh!” – and has given me the results to read over. I won’t enthral you with ‘How individuals and groups differ in their use of language’, but I was reassured that all the cult websites she visited really were for research, and that she wouldn’t suddenly come out of her bedroom wearing a kaftan. She couldn’t let anything that dull take all her money and her personality as well, because a passion for McFly has done it already
Lester Aldridge - Rising 50 - 2005
Turnover: £13.5m
Lex Mundi boosts Advisory Council by four
Lex Mundi has added four new in-house lawyers to its Client Advisory Council.
Linklaters - UK 100
Turnover: £720m
Linklaters and CC take top spots in Euro M&A rankings
Europe’s premier independent firms have made a spectacular showing in the M&A league tables, according to two pieces of research released this month.
Linklaters threatened with global dissolution
Sacked German partners fight back citing breach of partnership agreement
LJ Potter appointed new Family Division head
Lord Justice Potter has been appointed as the new president of the High Court’s Family Division.
Lovells - UK 100
Turnover: £377m
Lovells launches dedicated Spanish IP practice
Lovells has launched a dedicated Spanish intellectual property practice by relocating Hamburg-based partner Burkhart Goebel to the firm’s burgeoning Madrid arm.
Lovells merciless in profits drive as twenty-five partners get axed
Lovells’ management has pushed through one of the biggest one-off redundancy programmes ever seen at a City law firm. As first revealed on www.thelawyer.com be-fore Christmas, the firm is to axe 25 partners in a bid to improve its flagging profitability.
Lovells sees off claim against Merrill Lynch
Lovells is celebrating after winning last year’s most publicised employment case, successfully defending a multimillion-pound sex discrimination claim for Merrill Lynch.
Macfarlanes - UK 100
Turnover: £67m
Main M&A surveys agree on the firms – but not the order
Just like the January sales, the publication of M&A league tables seem to come earlier every year.
Masons - UK 100
Turnover: £62m
Matthew Arnold & Baldwin - Rising 50 - 2005
Turnover: £9.1m
McClure Naismith- Rising 50 - 2005
Turnover: £11m
MoFo raids Weil Gotshal for corporate stars
Morrison & Foerster has raided the London office of US rival Weil Gotshal & Manges for two corporate partners.
Moore & Blatch- Rising 50 - 2005
Turnover: £10.9m
Morton Fraser - Rising 50 - 2005
Turnover: £10m
Nabarro Nathanson - UK 100
Turnover: £87.3m
Nabarros lands Salans corporate star
Nabarro Nathanson has recruited corporate partner Graham Stedman from Salans.
Negotiating fees: know your worth
Blindly slashing fees is not the way to win work. Kate Fleming reports on providing value for money
Nelsons - Rising 50 - 2005
Turnover: £14.96m
Norton Rose - UK 100
Turnover: £205m
Norton Rose and Wacks Caller wait on bankrupt ‘Plumber’ fees
Norton Rose and Wacks Caller must wait to see whether or not they can recoup debts from former client Paul Davidson, the bankrupt businessman known as ‘The Plumber’.
Norton Rose halves German turnover with Cologne sale
Norton Rose halves German turnover with Cologne sale" /Norton Rose has seen its German turnover cut in half following the completion of talks that see the firm’s Cologne office move to CMS Hasche Sigle.
Olswang - UK 100
Turnover: £59.4m
Orrick launches Taiwan operation
US firm Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe has opened an office in Taiwan to provide IP services to technology clients there.
Osborne Clarke - UK 100
Turnover: £64.6m
Pannones targets record turnover for 2005
Pannone & Partners recorded a turnover increase of 15 per cent for the first six months of 2004-05 and is on target for a record £32m for the full year. The employment department has increased income by 35 per cent, with the litigation team following closely behind with a 34 per cent increase. The firm has seen steady growth over the last few years, with turnover increasing by £4.8m (19 per cent) between 2003 and 2004. First revealed on www.thelawyer.com 4 December
Paris Smith & Randall - Rising 50 - 2005
Turnover: £9.61m
Petering Piper?
A New year, a new name. But what’s this? The new, improved DLA already appears to have lost something over the Christmas break. A call to the London office was answered thus: “Good afternoon, DLA Piper.” Whither Rudnick? And Grey? Carey? And what’s the betting on Piper lasting the year?
Pinsents - UK 100
Turnover: £91.7m
Reynolds Porter Chamberlain - UK 100
Turnover: £47m
Richards Butler - UK 100
Turnover: £87m
Richards Butler hit by Latham raid on litigation
Richards Butler’s litigation group has been rocked by the loss of a second rainmaker in the space of two months.
Ricksons Solicitors - Rising 50 - 2005
Turnover: £9.6m
Robert Muckle - Rising 50 - 2005
Robert Muckle
Rosenblatt - Rising 50 - 2005
Turnover: £8m
RPC advises Swedish client on Mexican deal
One of Reynolds Porter Chamberlain’s (RPC) big-gest deals of last year was a Mexican acquisition for a Swedish client involving no English law whatsoever.
Safe investment
Making sure JO Hambro complies with regulations across the pond is the driving force for Hannah Marshall. By Husnara Begum
Salans - UK 100
Turnover: £87.2m
Salt in the wound?
New regulations on employment disputes are far too complicated. Andrew Chamberlain reveals how both employers and employees could lose out
Separated at birth
Denton Wilde Sapte’s head of financial institutions Howard Morris was thought ‘too nice’ to cut the mustard as chief executive. But the Al Capone lookalike proved everybody wrong, emerging victorious in the firm’s recent elections. Now it’s down to Morris to demonstrate that he is more than just a dead-ringer for somebody who knew exactly how to bring warring factions ...
Shadbolt & Co - Rising 50 - 2005
Turnover: £9m
Shoosmiths - UK 100
Turnover: £54.6m
Simmons & Simmons - UK 100
Turnover: £178.3m
SJ Berwin - UK 100
Turnover: £99.2m
SJ Berwin boosts Paris with Simmons partner
SJ Berwin has poached Simmons & Simmons finance partner Colin Millar to develop its Paris practice. Millar, an acquisition finance lawyer, has a French leveraged buyout practice servicing clients such as ABN Amro. The former Simmons man joined SJ Berwin last Monday (3 January).
Slaughter and May - UK 100
Turnover: £248m
Steeles - Rising 50 - 2005
Turnover: £7.5m
Stephenson Harwood - UK 100
Turnover: £58.6m
Steptoe & Johnson opens in New York
Washington DC-based Steptoe & Johnson has opened a New York office with two new partners.
Stevens & Bolton- Rising 50 - 2005
Turnover: £11.1m
Stones Solicitors - Rising 50 - 2005
Turnover: £6.7m
Survey shows law firms’ business confidence is on a three-year high
Business confidence among the UK’s leading law firms is at a three-year high, claims accountancy firm Smith & Williamson.
Tarlo Lyons - Rising 50 - 2005
Turnover: £8.5m
Taylor Vintners- Rising 50 - 2005
Turnover: £11.38m
Taylor Wessing - UK 100
Turnover: £64m
The Smith Partnership - Rising 50 - 2005
Turnover: £7.5m
The work-life quiz
Paul Matcham, head of construction, Maples Teesdale
Thomson Snell & Passmore - Rising 50 - 2005
Turnover: £10.3m
Toff at the top
The most delightful Freshfields email of last year came courtesy of top poshie Hugh Crisp. In a missive mistakenly addressed to the entire partnership headed ‘Plentiful before lunch and scarce thereafter’, Crisp regaled the firm with his tale of a grouse-shooting trip with former colleague Mr Peck. “212 in all, Peck shot brilliantly, the rest less so,” the email went. “Good to see that our diversity champion really knows his stuff,” quipped one Freshfields wag.
Tollers - Rising 50 - 2005
Turnover: £7.2m
Top silks fail to help Argos and Littlewoods
Argos and Littlewoods lost out in their appeal against the Office of Fair Trading’s (OFT) ruling in the toys and games price-fixing case despite drafting in top-rate competition silks from Brick Court Chambers.
US judge brands DLA Piper partner ‘despicable and disgraceful’
A Kansas judge has denounced the behaviour of a DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary partner as “despicable and disgraceful”.
Warner Goodman & Streat - Rising 50 - 2005
Turnover: £9.02m
Watson Burton - Rising 50 - 2005
Turnover: £14m
Where are they now?
Some have moved to US firms. Some have stayed with the UK elite. Wherever they are, they’ve all moved up the career ladder. The Lawyer reports on the Hot 100s of the past
White & Bowker Solicitors
Turnover: £5.8m
Withers - UK 100
Turnover: £52.4m
Withy King Solicitors - Rising 50 - 2005
Turnover: £8.6m
Wragge & Co - UK 100
Turnover: £79.3m
