Addleshaw Goddard’s launch of an Oman office has been overshadowed by allegations from the former firm of the two partners it is hiring that the duo breached their partnership agreements.
Trowers & Hamlins yesterday (14 January) confirmed the departure of Oman partners Charles Schofield and Roger Byrne and claimed it had terminated their membership of the firm.
It claimed the duo had taken shares in a company set up in the country with a competitor while they were working for Trowers. It is unconfirmed whether the competitor was Addleshaws or another firm.
A Trowers spokesperson said in a statement: “We can confirm that Charles Schofield and Roger Byrne, two junior partners in Oman, have left the firm with immediate effect.
“We discovered that they have taken shares in a company set up under the Foreign Investment Law in Oman with a competitor while they were working for us, and they have left following the termination of their partnerships for breach of the partnership agreements.”
The Foreign Investment Law enables foreign companies to form a local company owned at least 55 per cent by local entities.
Addleshaws today (15 January) announced the pair are set to join the firm as it launches its base in the country through an exclusive association with local lawyer Nasser Al Habsi.
The firm declined to comment on the allegations from Trowers, but managing partner Paul Devitt said in a statement: “Roger, Charles and Nasser are very well respected in their specialist fields and their experience, combined with our growing reputation in Dubai, will provide us with a strong foothold in a strategically important and growing market. Extending our footprint, and introducing additional transactional expertise in projects, finance and corporate, to complement our current strength in litigation will be instrumental in increasing the firm’s market share in the Gulf region.”
Byrne, a banking and project finance specialist, and corporate partner Schofield will lead the base alongside corporate lawyer Al Habsi, with whom they worked while at Trowers in Muscat. The office is set to open in February subject to regulatory approval, its second in the Gulf region after it raided Trowers to hire Andrew Greaves last year for its Dubai launch (11 July 2012).
Schofield was Trowers’ Oman head of corporate and joined the firm in 2005 from an Australian firm. Byrne, a former partner at Australia’s Clayton Utz, moved to Trowers from Australian corporate advisory house Charter Pacific Capital in 2008.
The double exit, first reported on legal website RollonFriday, leaves Trowers with two Oman partners in the form of disputes specialist Majid Al Toky and oil, gas and infrastructure lawyer Edward Rose.
Schofield and Byrne could not be contacted for comment.
Readers' comments (10)
Trowers at sea(view) | 15-Jan-2013 11:00 am
The mass exodus of partners from the Dubai office has left it almost rudderless. Even the two partners hired with much fanfare just two years ago have gone.
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Anonymous | 15-Jan-2013 1:24 pm
How uncouth to air one's dirty laundry in public...
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Ex-Trowers | 15-Jan-2013 1:30 pm
Good old Trowers - making headlines for all the wrong reasons.
Well done Charles and Roger. I guess the re-branding of Trowers didn't quite make it attractive enough for you to stay.
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
PR Guru | 15-Jan-2013 2:06 pm
Sounds to me like the partners in question were clearly determined to leave anyway, hence the (alleged) setting up the new entity (presumably for Addleshaws), which was simply an advance step before actually leaving Trowers.
Trowers trying to describe this as sacking partners for breaking the rules is absurd and reflects very poorly on them (not the partners who left). It just makes Trowers look like very bad losers in a game they have not been playing very well for some time.
(And whoever does their PR needs far better advice...Rule 101 of law firm PR: You never attack leaving partners.)
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Anonymous | 16-Jan-2013 4:46 am
"How to Lose Clients & Alienate Employees" textbook stuff.
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Anonymous | 16-Jan-2013 9:26 am
Come on. You simply can't go around breaching your contractual obligations in this way. Trowers are in the right - though I might not have been so combative in public.
I think we can expect more of this kind of thing (i.e the Trowers response) in future as life gets toughter.
I wouldn't be surprised if the SRA are interested in the conduct of the Partners - it seems a wilful breach.
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Ex-Trowers | 16-Jan-2013 2:17 pm
@anonymous 9.26am
Trowers may well be in the right. Then again given the huge numbers of associates the partners have ruthlessly cut in the last few years, it may just be a case of "what goes around, comes around".
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Anonymous | 18-Jan-2013 11:05 am
It is likely that these partners had already handed in their notice and this was a cost-saving exercise by Trowers to avoid paying these partners amounts to which they would have been entitled. It simply reconfirms that the partners are better off out of there.
I cannot believe that what is left of this firm in the Middle East can seriously service client's needs.
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Anonymous | 3-Feb-2013 10:05 am
The Middle East practice has been without a coherent strategy for years and those being promoted through the ranks are rightly perceived as ruthless self-promoters. Trowers is either run by an old boys' club or by those who play by these rules. Charles Schofield and Roger Byrne are excellent lawyers and if Trowers could not see fit to reward or draw within the fold its best and brightest, it only has itself to blame for the inevitable. What's left for Trowers? Commercial real estate? How long will it be before they start to smell the roses ...
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Ex-Trowers II | 26-Feb-2013 1:50 pm
I left Trowers during the 2007-2008 exodus. We just couldn't watch the historic "causy" brand being undermined by a very closed group who hardly knew anything about the Middle East.
We too suffered from a very bitter "sportsmanship" row.
Question to T&H "International" partners and HR - when will you admit that you got it wrong? knowing is half the battle..I guess you guys will never know!
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment