Salans hit as nine jump ship for Locke Lord’s City launch
UK firm falls prey to US outfit as banking and real estate chiefs lead seven-partner defection
Stephen Finch
Salans is set to lose seven partners and two consultants to Barlow Lyde & Gilbert’s (BLG) former merger suitor in one of the most audacious raids yet by a US firm on a London practice.
Global banking chief and former global board chair Stephen Finch has resigned from Salans alongside London real estate head Daniel Polden.
They are set to join Locke Lord as part of the Texas-based firm’s London launch, which is being spearheaded by former Salans global managing partner Roger Abrahams.
Consumer finance partners Paula Howard and Bill McCaffrey, consumer finance litigation partner Kevin Heath, corporate partner Graham Spitz and restructuring partner David Grant are also poised to move.
Banking consultant and global cards and payment head Robert Courtneidge is also joining the upstart together with restructuring consultant James Varley. Courtneidge joins as a consultant, Varley as a partner.
Locke Lord is also hiring Rochman Landau partner Joseph Kosky.
Abrahams left Salans’ partnership in May and has since carried out consultancy work for the firm as of counsel. He was global managing partner between 2002 and 2005 and was replaced by current managing partner Dariusz Oleszczuk.
Finch, meanwhile, is still a member of the firm’s global board, of which he was chairman between 2005 and 2009.
The Lawyer reported the potential raid on Salans in the summer (8 August). The US firm said at the time that it had “strong ties to the London legal market” and that its “strategic growth plan includes expansion in the UK as one of our priorities to continue to serve our clients’ needs”.
Locke Lord (previously Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell until its September rebrand) was formed in 2007 out of the merger of Texas-based Locke Liddell & Sapp and Lord Bissell & Brook.
It has had a City office for a number of years as a base for lawyers who come to London on business, but has not had any permanent legal staff in the capital.
“[At the time of the 2007 merger] we immediately had London as one of our strategic goals. It’s been ongoing for three or four years,” said Locke Lord chair Jerry Clements.
We intend on expanding our core group to explore practices that are synergised with the US; energy and insurance are core to the firm, so we expect to expand in London in those areas.”
Locke Lord held merger talks in 2007 with BLG, which has since combined with Clyde & Co.
A Salans spokesperson said in a statement: “We recognise that it’s a part of life that at different times people will want to come and go or change what they’re doing. It’s an integral part of the business cycle and offers opportunities for fresh resources and ideas.”
Readers' comments (15)
Marx | 7-Nov-2011 10:50 am
Wow, this is quite a statement of intent. Seven partners in one go surely hasn't happened for years? I haven't heard of Locke Lord though - are they likely to tak the UK market by storm?
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
PtL | 7-Nov-2011 1:06 pm
Sounds like the name of a S&M porn star.
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Anonymous | 7-Nov-2011 2:30 pm
Argh, Locke Lord you have honoured us with your presence, we shall prepare the whips.
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Kim Philby | 7-Nov-2011 4:17 pm
Lock and load?
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Anonymous | 7-Nov-2011 4:37 pm
This mas exodus may be a blessing in disguise for Salans' London office
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
TheLawMap | 7-Nov-2011 8:27 pm
In many ways the legal market is going through such a revolution here in England and Wales that I am not surprised to see so many moving on to supposedly sunnier pastures. One wishes them the best of luck but I can't help wondering if the grass is really that green on the other side.
TheLawMap
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Anonymous | 8-Nov-2011 10:20 am
The statement from Salans is probably one of the worst I have read in response to such news in ages. I don't know who is more incompetent - the marketing people for writing it or the lawyers for signing it off!
"We recognise that it’s a part of life that at different times people will want to come and go or change what they’re doing. It’s an integral part of the business cycle and offers opportunities for fresh resources and ideas.”
Nine people leaving, coincidentally for the same place, is not people having a 'lifestyle change'. It points to a fundamental flaw in Salans' strategy which obviously didnt have the support of many of the London partners. This is about maybe a third of their London partners if their website is up to date. With such a loss, jobs are surely going to have to go. Support staff beware!
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Anonymous | 8-Nov-2011 7:53 pm
3/9 = dedicated consumer finance and a real estate partner. Based on numbers and areas, it doesn't seem too bad in these markets/times (but who knows about client lists)?
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Anonymous | 11-Nov-2011 8:08 am
"It points to a fundamental flaw in Salans' strategy which obviously didnt have the support of many of the London partners."
So it was definitly nothing to do with the ridiculous amounts of money they were probably offered?
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Anonymous | 11-Nov-2011 8:38 am
The Salans statement, translated into ordinary English means: "These people are a bunch of losers, and we are happy to get rid of them, although we would have preferred a different manner." Under the circumstances they could hardly have been more explicit.
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Anonymous | 11-Nov-2011 8:46 am
The statement that this "mass exodus may be a blessing in disguise for Salans' London office" certainly is the smartest I've read on this topic. Everybody in the market knows that under Finch and Abrahams the London office of Salans was going nowhere. Now Salans really has a chance to build a meaningful UK practice.
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Anonymous | 11-Nov-2011 10:54 am
The problem with Salans's London office is that they made too many lateral hires at partner level who didn't even bring in enough work to for themselves. Those partners then filled in their own gaps by servicing the English law requirements of the firm's overseas offices, work which should have been being carried out at associate level, rather than partner level. Once the work from the overseas offices dried up with the global recession, Salans's London office was accordingly far more exposed than its overseas ones.
Salans's overseas offices are now only interested in the elements that can support those overseas offices, such as corporate law and litigation, and not in its relatively unprofitable domestic work, such as employment and property. What happens to those departments, and the London office overall, remains to be seen, but don't bet against a number of associates and support staff following the partners who are leaviing. Salans really needs a UK merger, but if they didn't manage to achieve that in a boom, it's unlikely they'll do so in a recession.
The split arose through internal differences within the London office. Locke Lord's money might be determining WHERE those people are going, but it's not the determining factor in WHY they're going. Some of the partners leaving have been with the firm, via HRK, for 20 years or more.
Not sure I agree about the London office of Salans going nowhere under Finch and Abrahams. First off, they've not been in charge of London for a long time, but rather have been involved in management at the more global level. Secondly, though they might have taken out more than they should have done, they weren't the only ones doing so, and have always brought in substantial work.
Given the choice of the Abraham/Finch cabal or the Thomas/Salmon cabal, it's clear that a lot of partners are voting with their feet in favour of thosewho bring in work rather than those who talk about bringing in work.
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Adam Smith | 11-Nov-2011 4:17 pm
Finch and Abrahams have "not been in charge of London for a long time"? Couldn't be more wrong - before Locke Lord took this guys off Salans' hands, the firm's London office was known to have a long-standing leadership problem precisely because the HRK old guard (esp Abrahams and Finch) still dominated, despite having less and less fee-earning success of their own.
Salans may well need a UK merger, but however things play out, they are better off without the people who had failed to integrate the London office fully with the rest of the firm.
And to say that it was ok for those leaving Salans to be fleecing the firm without contributing much because some others might have done the same thing, that just sounds like the politics of the playground: "But Mummy, he started it"! And you know what Mummy always says in reply: "Now, now Timmy, I've told you before that two wrongs don't make a right"!
Big challenges ahead for Salans in London but they have some very good people in London and a great network, and at least they are now in a better position to deal with their problems.
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Ab. Jr. | 15-Nov-2011 10:17 pm
Looking forward to see if these guys can really deliver in Locke Lord, or if they will be just managing referrals from the US...
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Anonymous | 16-Jan-2012 3:58 pm
From the frying pan into the fire.
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment