Kirkland & Ellis is overhauling its equity partner exit terms – ushering in new policies to withhold compensation for departing partners, as well as slashing notice periods and speeding up the time it takes those leaving to be repaid their capital.

Partners are understood to have unanimously approved the changes earlier this week (16 July), with the move, first revealed by Financial News, meaning equity partners leaving the firm could potentially see millions in accrued compensation withheld by Kirkland, where average PEP stands at nearly $8m and stars are paid significantly more.

Until now, Kirkland has withheld 55% of equity partners’ annual compensation until the following year. The new policy grants Kirkland the option of withholding this accrued compensation from departing partners altogether. It will be at Kirkland’s discretion whether it chooses to withhold the distributions.

In addition, the firm has also approved a change that will reduce the notice period for exiting partners from 120 days to 60 days, effectively returning Kirkland to the notice period it had prior to 2016.

The firm has also slashed the time those leaving will have to wait for their capital to be repaid from 12 months to three months.

The changes to Kirkland’s exit terms on its partnership agreement come after the firm saw a string of high-profile departures to Paul Weiss in London last year.

Debt finance partner Neel Sachdev and buyout partner Roger Johnson left to launch an English law practice for Paul Weiss, going on to bring in equity partners including Timothy Lowe (tax) and Matthew Merkle (capital markets), as well as several non-equity partners.  For more on Kirkland and Paul Weiss, see LB’s feature ‘Market forces: Paul Weiss, Kirkland and the war for London talent’ . 

With new firms likely having to pick up the cost of any potential profit distributions withheld from new recruits, the overhaul will make it more costly to add lateral teams from Kirkland in future.

Danielle Crawford, a partnership counsel at Forsters, said that in practice departing partners would likely not lose out personally because of the change, with their new firms instead picking up the additional cost of matching the withheld distributions.

She told Legal Business: ‘Talking about the discretion to withhold distribution payments for departing partners is very common across the bigger firms especially Kirkland’s competitors. It makes it less attractive for partners to leave, if a firm wants to poach a partner, they might have to make good that loss to persuade the partner to leave.’

Meanwhile speeding up the time it takes to get departing partners out of the door and to receive their capital back will save Kirkland money and it will also be better for firm culture, according to partnership experts.

‘Prolonged departures are not good for team morale/key firm-client relationships,’ added Crawford. ‘There is also a higher risk that the departing partner can take more business from the firm if they continue with client work for a number of months after they have decided to leave.’

Another partnership lawyer said: ‘When someone is so disaffected it’s best to get them out sooner rather than later rather than having them hanging around for a longer period.’

Partners suggest reducing the notice period and time taken to repay capital could well have been sweeteners for partners to get the changes over the line and boost retention. They also bring the firm in line with other firms, which have increasingly been looking at exit terms. Linklaters for example discussed withholding profit from departing partners before deciding against it.

‘It is increasingly common, particularly for the large, high earning US firms,’ said Jon Haley, head of professional partnerships at Farrer & Co.

He added: ‘It has not historically been common in UK legal partnerships but you do not have to look hard to find similar Bad Leaver mechanisms – whereby retained value in some form or other is forfeited on exit – in other high earning sectors such as private equity and financial services, so in some ways the legal profession could be said to be lagging behind and I suspect others will follow soon.’

elisha.juttla@legalbusiness.co.uk

tom.cox@legalease.co.uk

The post ‘When someone is so disaffected it’s best to get them out sooner rather than later’: Kirkland to hold back pay for departing partners; cut notice period appeared first on Legal Business.

A clutch of major law firms have continued the trend for strong 2023-24 results, with Brodies, Shoosmiths, Clyde & Co and Watson Farley & Williams among the latest to reveal healthy financial figures.

Brodies has today (15 July) posted a 7.5% revenue increase to hit £114.3m, marking 14 consecutive years of growth for the firm after it hit a key milestone last year when it became the first Scottish firm to pass the £100m mark.

After a 6% bump last year, profit held steady with a 1.2% increase from £48.6m to £49.2m. Profit per equity partner (PEP) also stayed flat at £846,000.

Managing partner Stephen Goldie, who replaced Nick Scott in May following Scott’s retirement, said that the firm has made progress across all core practice areas – banking and finance, corporate and commercial, dispute resolution and risk, personal and family, and real estate. ‘Our strategic plans for the next three-year cycle are now underway and we look to the future with confidence, in ourselves and in the resilience and ambitions of the clients that we work with,’ he said in a statement.

Clydes has also posted a strong set of results, with revenue up 10% to £845m, and PEP up by more than 4% to £739,000, with profit up 3% to £174.4m.

The headline turnover increase comes after the 22% increase the firm notched last year, though only 6% of that was ‘organic growth’, with the rest of the bump accounted for by the completion of Clydes’ merger with BLM.

Clydes continued to expand this year, opening new offices in Warsaw and Jeddah in December and May respectively. The UK accounted for 47% of the firm’s total revenue, with the proportion of revenue generated outside the UK a percentage point down on last year’s 54%.

Europe was the fastest growing region with a 17% increase in turnover. The shares accounted for by the US and Asia-Pacific were each down by half a percentage point on last year, to 21.5% and 11.5% respectively. The Middle East and Africa accounted for 12% of the firm’s turnover and Latin America for 2% – the same proportions as last year, while the UK saw 9% growth.

Watson Farley & Williams has also posted double-digit growth of 11%, with revenue at £238.4m, up from £214.7m last year.

Overall profit also rose by 7.2% to £66.8m from £62.3m, with PEP remaining steady at £593,000, a slight increase of 1.5% from last year’s £584,000. Equity partner numbers, meanwhile, went up nearly 6% from 107 to an estimated total of 113.

Commenting on these results in a statement, managing partner Lindsey Keeble said: ‘We continue to build on the successes of previous years with double digit global income growth. With a majority equity partnership, we continue to invest in the firm to build a sustainable business with strength and depth at all levels.’

Revenue was also up at Charles Russell Speechlys, where a 13% bump took turnover to £218.3m after a 9% increase last year.

Profit was up by more than 20% to £45.9m, while PEP went up more than 30% to hit £661,000, comfortably offsetting last year’s 3% dip.

The firm’s UK offices generated £174.4m (a little under 80%), with £43.9m from overseas. International revenue growth was faster than the firmwide average, at 15%, with the Luxembourg, Paris, and Switzerland offices singled out as strong performers. The firm also reported 30% revenue growth in Asia, boosted by lateral hires and the July launch of its Singapore office.

‘Our results this year paint a picture of sustained growth’, said managing partner Simon Ridpath in a statement. ‘The fact we continue to see strong revenue and profit numbers and investments back into the firm bodes well for the future, and we remain fully confident in our strategy.’

The firm’s strategy still has private capital as a ‘core focus’ according to Ridpath who also mentioned the ‘raft of senior lateral hires across the firm’, referencing the 22 partners the firm has taken on since the last financial year.

At Shoosmiths, meanwhile, revenue ticked up 5% to push the firm over the £200m mark for the first time to hit £206.7m. Profit was up 5% to £66m, while PEP jumped 16% to £781,000.

Though the increase in turnover was slightly below both the 7% the firm posted last year and the previous year’s 8%, the firm exceeded last year’s performance on profit, which increased 3% last year, and PEP, which went up by just £1,000. The corporate and litigation departments both outperformed the wider firm at 15% and 12% growth respectively, while real estate stayed flat.

elisha.juttla@legalbusiness.co.uk

alexander.ryan@legalbusiness.co.uk

tom.cox@legalease.co.uk

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Skadden London head Richard Youle on a year in management and scaling up London Skadden-style.

‘We’ve had a massive amount of change in the last year,’ says Skadden London head Richard Youle as he sits down to discuss his first year at the helm of the City base.

Youle, who took over as Skadden’s London head from Pranav Trivedi in July 2023 while also maintaining his global co-head of private equity post alongside Ken Wolff in New York, says much of the change has been around how the office and practices are organised.

‘We’ve seen some people step-up into new heads of practice-areas and we looked at the size and shape of our teams and promoted and recruited, where appropriate, to ensure we continue to be a great place to work and can continue to attack the market as powerful challengers,’ he explains.

Practice changes have included Legal 500 leading individuals Katja Butler and George Knighton becoming co-heads of Skadden’s UK corporate practice, while Kate Davies KC has taken over as head of the firm’s international litigation and arbitration group.

The firm has also added a number of lateral partners, including two former Linklaters partners: capital markets partner Noel Hughes, who joined in December, and financial regulatory partner Sebastian Barling, who joined in March this year. Meanwhile the banking practice welcomed  Sebastian FitzGerald from Willkie Farr & Gallagher in January.

‘We’re not Real Madrid signing the best player in the world every year, that’s not what we do,’ says Youle, explaining that growth across the firm’s practices is always strategic.

The firm may not recruit as many laterals as rivals such as Kirkland & Ellis, Latham or Paul Weiss but it has increased lawyer count by 62% since 2019, making it the tenth largest firm in LB’s Global London 2024 table by headcount with 227 fee earners. The tally means that within the top 10, Skadden has seen the second biggest increase in lawyer count over the five year period, behind Kirkland.

Youle says he’s applying some of the experience he’s gained on deals to build the office further. He jokes: ‘I never knew coming in that you could scale an office in the same way as you can scale a deal, which I’ve done for donkey’s years, so it was a nice surprise.’

He is keen to stress that lateral recruitment is less important to the firm than internal promotions, which most recently saw Jisun Choi appointed as a tax partner and Nicholas Adams promoted to partner in the UK disputes team, which has seen David Edwards leave to join Simpson Thacher and white collar partner Elizabeth Robertson leave to launch new investigations firm Robertson Pugh Associates.

‘Homegrown talent is most important,’ he says. ‘While I anticipate growth for our office – it will be a considered and strategic mix of lateral hires that fit with our culture and promoting through the ranks.’

Discussing his strategy for the past year, Youle says each practice in the office has been looking at how they can ‘win’.

He adds: ‘I run deals for a living and my leadership style is to break things down into very small pieces.

‘What we’ve done as an office is we’ve really broken things down, both with professional services and practices – working out where we need to position ourselves for the next 10 years of growth.’

When asked how he’d define winning, Youle responds: ‘Winning for me is continuing to ensure we have a laser-focus on client development and client relationships – right from our professional staff, through to our trainees and our partners.’

‘We are nothing, if not for our clients and our people – so I want to ensure we are continuing to provide our clients with that differentiated service, and also providing our people with an engaging environment within which to work and develop.’

In the past year, Skadden has secured a number of notable mandates, including advising BlackRock on its $3.2bn acquisition of UK investment data group Preqin and advising International Paper on its $7.2bn acquisition of FTSE 100 packaging company DS Smith, alongside Slaughter and May and Sidley.

Looking back on the firm’s successes, Youle maintains that the team’s biggest achievement is ‘how we’ve challenged ourselves on culture around the office.’

He says that the firm introduced Skadden Spirit, a campaign focused on promoting its core values through cultural ambassadors, with over 30 ambassadors within the firm already participating.

‘Ambassadors help decide how we are going to focus on a particular core value every few months – whether that be motivational speakers or events or even making small tweaks to our existing offerings including our affinity groups and well-being initiatives,’ concluded Youle.

elisha.juttla@legalbusiness.co.uk

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Linklaters has become the first magic circle firm to announce its 2023-24 financial results, breaking through the £2bn mark for the first time after a double digit increase in revenue.

The firm confirmed record revenue and profits, with revenue climbing 10% from £1.901bn last year to £2.1bn, and pre-tax profit climbing 10.3% to £942m, from last year’s figure of £854m.

This translated to an 8% increase in profit per equity partner (PEP) to £1.9m while average profits across all partners climbed to £1.8m.

The firm highlighted its UK and US operations as standout performers, stating that both had posted their best-ever results. Its US revenues climbed by 24%. Linklaters’ most recent Companies House filing for the financial year ending April 2023 showed that the firm’s global revenue included £823.1m from the UK and £122.2m from the Americas.

Linklaters managing partner Paul Lewis told Legal Business: ‘We’ve been very strong globally – we’ve had our best year ever in the UK and US, Europe has been very strong and, notwithstanding a challenging market in China, you can look across the firm and it’s been strong across the board.’

‘We want to be bigger in the US’, he added, pointing to the January hire of a six-lawyer M&A team from Shearman & Sterling as a statement of intent. Led by Legal 500 Hall of Famer for $1bn-plus M&A deals George Casey, the team also includes partners Heiko Schiwek and Gregory Gewirtz.

‘The team hire in January has been a real success on all fronts. That was the start and by no means the end and we are actively looking to hire more. We’ve changed the system so that we have the ability to pay at very competitive levels,’ Lewis continued.

Discussing the practice drivers for the firm’s growth, Lewis said: ‘As part of our strategy, we’ve focused on six areas: high-end M&A, contentious mandates, complex financings, restructuring and insolvency, energy transition and tech. We’ve focused on investing in those areas, including lateral hires and partner elections, and when I look across the piece at the results, we’re on track and those investments are working.’

In the deals arena, Linklaters is advising UK drinks maker Britvic on its takeover by Carlsberg for £3.3bn, opposite Baker McKenzie. The firm is also advising UK homebuilder Barratt Developments on its proposed £2.5bn merger with Redrow, as well as multinational packaging group Mondi on its £5bn acquisition of DS Smith.

In restructuring, Linklaters’ team advised Crédit Agricole on the cross-border restructuring of global engineering and construction business McDermott International. Meanwhile, in disputes, the firm took on competition litigation mandates for Visa and has also been advising Experian on data protection related challenges.

Linklaters elected 27 new partners and 49 new counsel in its most recent promotion round, meeting its 40% global gender diversity target for female partner promotions, and its 15% target for under-represented minority ethnic partners (UK and US). The firm also recorded 55,000 hours globally on pro-bono work – its highest ever.

However the firm has seen a number of exits over the last year, with public M&A partner Dan Schuster-Woldan and antitrust partner Nicole Kar both leaving to join Paul Weiss’s ambitious London office.

Although Linklaters has changed its partner remuneration structure to make it easier to compete with high-paying US firms, Lewis stressed that competition goes beyond money.

He said: ‘It’s not all about money. It’s about doing the best work for the best clients. We are in 21 jurisdictions, and we can offer high-end, elite advice in all the places we are in. That is a competitive advantage because you’re trying to do the big complex, cross-border matters and that’s where we excel, with our seamless network making the difference.’

‘We’re focused on what we can deliver rather than worrying too much about what others are doing,’ he concluded.

elisha.juttla@legalbusiness.co.uk

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A trio of Pinsent Masons international arbitration partners are set to leave the firm for Greenberg Traurig, Legal Business can reveal.

Jason Hambury, former global co-head of international arbitration at the UK-based firm, is making the move to Greenberg with fellow partners Gurmukh Riyat and Clea Bigelow-Nuttall.

Hambury has been at Pinsents since 1996 after joining from Allen & Overy, while Riyat has also been at the firm for over 20 years, training and qualifying in 2003-05. Bigelow-Nuttall has been at the firm for almost 10 years, making partner in 2022.

All three have significant experience in the energy and infrastructure sectors. Hambury, who is ranked as a leading individual in the Legal 500, has worked for African states and governments, while Riyat’s notable recent work has included defending an international joint venture contractor in ICC arbitration proceedings over claims worth more than $250m. 

Bigelow-Nuttall, a Legal 500 next generation partner, previously spent five years as a foreign registered lawyer at the Paris Bar, joining Pinsents from French boutique Derains & Gharavi in 2015 after qualifying at Hogan Lovells.

In a statement, Pinsents said: “We thank Jason, Gurmukh and Clea for their contribution to the firm and we wish them well for the future. We are proud of the progress made in our international arbitration team this year, highlighted this week by the appointment of Sylvia Tonova and Chloé De Jager to the ICC International Court of Arbitration.”

Tonova, who joined Pinsents from Jones Day in March last year, now co-leads the firm’s international arbitration team alongside Doha office head Pamela McDonald.

At Greenberg, the London international arbitration practice is currently led by Mohammed Khamisa KC, who joined from Mishcon de Reya in 2020, and who has a particular focus on the Middle East. He works alongside of counsel Leith Ben Ammar.

The news comes after the US firm announced two weeks ago that it had hired Cadwalader real estate finance partner Duncan Hubbard as a shareholder in its City finance and restructuring practice. 

elisha.juttla@legalbusiness.co.uk

alexander.ryan@legalbusiness.co.uk

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On the eve of a general election that looks set to promise a wipeout for the Conservative Party and the first Labour government in 14 years, LB checked in with a range of City partners across a variety of practice area to gauge the temperature of the UK legal industry, find out what they think will change, what won’t, and what to watch out for.

Things can only get better?

‘As of now, the polls suggest that if Labour achieve the same majority as Tony Blair did in 1997, it would be a good result for the Conservatives.’ This from Paul Butcher, director of public policy at Herbert Smith Freehills in London, sums up prevailing sentiment among not just the legal community but the wider media.

Indeed, the BBC’s poll tracker shows Labour poised to secure 40% of votes cast, with the Conservatives languishing at 20% – a stunning reversal in fortunes for the two parties after the Conservatives roared to victory in 2019 with 43.6% of the vote to Labour’s 32.1% and a majority of 80 seats. Now, The Economist predicts that Labour will emerge with 434 seats – more even than it won in 1997.

Polls can of course be wrong. But things do not look good for the Conservative Party – and not a single partner interviewed for this feature expressed any scepticism about a Labour victory.

‘Like everybody else, we’re expecting a Labour government’, says Quinn Emanuel London co-managing partner Ted Greeno (pictured).

Given the near unanimous expectation of a Labour victory, it is encouraging that the market view on the party is broadly positive – if not wildly enthusiastic. ‘I view this election as relatively benign, especially from the perspectives of the financial services and legal sectors’, says Latham & Watkins corporate and capital markets partner Mark Austin. ‘Unlike the last election, we now have two relatively centrist main party leaders and parties.’

Views in the finance community are similar, says McDermott London managing partner Aymen Mahmoud: ‘The usual measure of market reaction to a change in government is any movement in treasury or gilt markets. The fact that we haven’t seen one tells us that whichever party wins the election will be pro-business and, in the case of the Labour government, pro-worker.’

This is at least in part the result of a concerted effort by Labour. ‘Labour has been courting the business community over the last couple of years, really listening to what it needs’, notes Katy Colton (pictured, below), head of the politics and law group at Mishcon de Reya.

Down to brass tax

However, opinions on the Labour manifesto are not unanimously positive, with tax one particular area of concern – and not just the proposals for VAT on private school fees. ‘The Chancellor made a surprise announcement a while ago about cracking down on nondoms, but Labour has committed to going further, whilst at the same time pledging to tax carried interest to income tax instead of capital gains tax, which will have implications for the private equity industry’, says Colton.

These proposals raise the spectre of what Colton calls ‘an exodus of high-net-worth individuals’. Other partners, meanwhile, point to the risk that tax increases could discourage investment into the UK. This would be especially damaging as Labour has acknowledged that it will struggle to finance even its more modest proposals for change, and has placed economic growth at the core of its pitch to voters. The party has spoken too about closing loopholes in the tax regime, but partners are sceptical that there are enough loopholes to close to garner the kinds of revenues that Labour needs.

Still, Butcher points out that the tax issue is ‘heavily derisked for businesses compared to 2017 or 2019’. ‘They will find ways of raising taxes,’ he explains, ‘As under either party they will always find taxes or allowances not subject to promises. However, they are far more pro-business and pro-private sector investment. Their vision involves a more interventionist approach and more co-investing. Nevertheless, they embrace private investment, which will be reassuring.’

Employment is another area where the two parties diverge. Says Colton: ‘There are changes that are going to be interesting for employment lawyers, with Labour promising to increase day-one rights for workers and to remove some of the restrictions on unions, while the Conservatives are saying they’ll increase restrictions.’

Butcher agrees: ‘Concerns are much less acute than they were with Jeremy Corbyn in 2017 and 2019, but it will be a very different government to the current one. They will want to intervene much more in the economy. For example, in employment rights, they propose what they frame as the biggest upgrade to workers’ rights in a generation.’

However, he also makes sure to temper expectations: ‘Admittedly, it would also be the only upgrade in a generation.’

Powering up

Of course, much of what any incoming government does will be dictated not by its ideology or priorities but by its response to long-term challenges. The struggle between energy security and energy transition looms particularly large here.

‘Whatever the make-up of the new government, it seems inevitable that legislation will be enacted to bring forward regulatory change, especially in the energy and infrastructure sectors’, says Vinson & Elkins London corporate head Ben Higson. ‘The new government will inevitably need to continue balancing the need for energy security and the drive to net zero: brought into sharp focus, I think, as real progress will need to be made during the five-year term on both fronts.’

Here, too, though, there is no sense that a Labour government will mean a radical break with the status quo. ‘Labour has a ‘moonshot’ proposal to decarbonise the electricity system by 2030,’ says HSF’s Butcher. ‘This could help focus efforts on issues like planning, as achieving this would be impossible without planning reform. This urgency also means they need to proceed with current plans rather than implementing new reforms. In energy, this is likely positive, as we have a good strategy for encouraging investment. Investors will likely welcome such stability over constant changes. Labour’s emphasis on quick implementation should reassure investors and could facilitate progress if executed well.’

Both Higson and Butcher point to nuclear power as one key area to watch for signals from the incoming government. Butcher expects that Labour ‘will be just as supportive as the current government. They recognise the reality that decarbonising by 2050 necessitates a significant amount of nuclear power; current technologies cannot achieve this alone.’ But he does not discount the possibility of further action: ‘The current government has established a solid foundation. Now, reforms to planning are needed to move forward, offering Labour a great prize if they can seize it. Currently, they appear as committed as the current government. However, I would urge them to go even bolder with the UK’s nuclear ambitions.’

Contentious matters

On the disputes front, Quinn’s Greeno is optimistic that a change in government will not present any unwelcome upheaval for litigators. ‘There’s no particular reason to think that anything’s going to change, at least in the short term’, says Greeno of the commercial litigation market. ‘Hopefully, the legislation on litigation funding pending when the election was called will be picked up and carried through by a Labour government. It’s pretty uncontroversial and in everyone’s interests to assist with access to justice.’

However, the dangers of an underfunded court system remain. Says Greeno: ‘We all know that the criminal justice system is crumbling due to lack of funding. One would have hoped, perhaps, that, as a former Director of Public Prosecutions, Keir Starmer would be alive to the risks of doing nothing to reverse that. None of the parties seem to think there are any votes in supporting a properly funded justice system, but as we see more years long delays and miscarriages of justice, I think this topic will gain more political traction.’

It is unclear what any government could do to relieve the stress on the system without an influx of cash. Increasing court fees would be ‘self-defeating’, argues Greeno, because ‘it would inevitably discourage some litigants from coming to London’, potentially sacrificing enormous funds. ‘Whatever the amount of revenue that would be raised by such a measure, a significantly greater amount would be lost if only one major case went elsewhere.’

The problem may be a hard one to solve. But that does not mean that the new government should shy away from it. For Greeno: ‘All governments are happy to talk about the rule of law, but they continue to take it for granted by underfunding the courts.’

Stable door

The feeling from the City’s corporate lawyers is that pre-election jitters from clients are, to date, relatively limited. The period since Rishi Sunak announced the election on 22 May has seen some businesses hold off on making any major moves until the new government comes in. But most define this as the usual waiting period that comes before any major election.

‘The timing is helpful’, says Austin, ‘because getting it done by mid-July means businesses and investors can confidently plan for the rest of this year and the first half of next year.’

Across the board, observers expect and hope for certainty. ‘It remains to be seen how the new government may impact the M&A markets’, says Higson. ‘But, at the least, a five-year term should provide some stability for businesses and investors going forward.’

A&O Shearman UK managing partner Denise Gibson (pictured) concurs: ‘The UK is in desperate need of substantial investment in this county’s physical, digital and social infrastructure, and its people. The country is also craving stability in decision-making.’

For Colton, ‘Having an election, regardless of the outcome, is a good thing for the business of law, because there’s been so much uncertainty, and an election will give us more certainty in terms of who the next government will be.’

Butcher is encouraged on this point: ‘Stability has become the prevailing trend. Politics seems to be returning to a more normal state post-Brexit and post-pandemic. We are moving to a situation resembling more typical political dynamics, and I hope this leads to improved legislation – but time will tell.’

Alexander.ryan@legalbusiness.co.uk

Anna.huntley@legalbusiness.co.uk

Elisha.juttla@legalbusiness.co.uk

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McDermott Will & Emery partner Ranajoy Basu, recently named Environmental/Sustainability: Private Practice Champion of the Year at the Legal 500 ESG Awards, discusses how he learned to leverage his structured finance expertise to support ESG causes in emerging economies

I am the seventh-generation lawyer in my family. From my father, I learnt a tremendous work ethic, yet he always remained fully committed to his family and friends. Likewise, my grandfather, no matter how busy, never failed to spend time with family. They both taught me to give 100% effort in my work and take pride in it, but also to make time for others and always keep the door open.

I had a watershed moment in 2006 where I realised that my expertise in securitisation and debt capital markets could be used towards development finance. The development finance sectors have historically been bank led, but very early on I was fortunate to work on a couple of transactions which demonstrated that you could tap the broader capital markets into development finance.

I was very fortunate that I worked on the first development impact bond called ‘Educate Girls’. This was for the education of children in a very remote part of Rajasthan in India, which was fascinating because the financing work was all cross-border. In many ways, that’s where some of my thinking started, but stemming from that, there came many opportunities.

I worked on the International Finance Facility for Education (IFED) transaction which remains one of the largest cross-border education financings for children around the world. I realised that this area of law was not only incredibly rewarding but also allowed me to apply my transactional structuring legal skills towards mobilising finance from all around the world to target critical issues like education and clean water. This is especially relevant now, as the ESG market has grown rapidly over the last decade, along with the need for interventions requiring financing, all against the backdrop of the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

It’s very difficult to pick out a single deal but if I had to I would say the Global Islamic Fund for Refugees with the UNHCR. Given the tremendously complex issues around displaced persons around the world, it has a one-of-a-kind financial structure, which has got a number of innovations. That model is not just going to be replicated for other causes like education, sanitation and housing but also to directly impact millions of refugees around the world.

When I was really a junior, I thought I wrote the perfect email, but it had a big mistake. I wrote an email to about 20 people on our transaction but instead of saying ‘If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out,’ I forgot the ‘hesitate’, so it read: ‘if you have any questions, please do not contact me’.

Another time I made a mistake by walking into a meeting room and having a 15-minute conversation about environmental finance with the wrong person. My clients were next door, but it’s funny because the person I was talking to was so interested in what I was discussing that she asked if we could meet up separately. It was hilarious.

If I wasn’t a lawyer, I’d probably choose a path focused on social change. I’ve always been drawn towards the bigger issues in this world, and I always find that if you follow your passion, everything else follows you in a way. I have some friends in the United Nations as well.

My management style is to encourage empowerment. Having worked with some amazing lawyers and leaders in the City, I’ve learnt that you don’t always need to monitor leaders, but you must empower them. As a practice group leader, it’s about creating opportunities for others to be able to have a platform to demonstrate their passions and ability to work hard. It’s very much about being collaborative and when you encourage that environment, there’s no shortage of ideas. Given my experience, of course I can deliberate on certain issues, but my message to everyone in leadership is to always follow a path of empowerment.

My team would describe me as approachable, friendly and extremely passionate about being part of the fabric of change. You don’t need to be a partner at a law firm to effect change. Sometimes I see juniors with drive and an instinct to want to be part of change, and I will always encourage that and work with people to inspire them to get out of their comfort zone. Complacency can very easily set in when you’re doing well at any level. My advice would be to never be complacent and rest back on great achievements but to try and push those boundaries even further. Hopefully for my part I can inspire people to do that.

Outside of work, I’ve got a tremendous passion for LEGO and strategic board games. I construct these huge Star Wars LEGO sets with my son. We don’t have any space in the house because of the size of these things! I’ve got two sons and I spend a lot of time with them. I’ve also got a library of board games in my house. Usually on a Sunday, no matter what we’re doing, there are friends and family at my house playing games. LB

elisha.juttla@legalease.co.uk

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McDermott Will & Emery has built its London real estate bench today with a dual hire from Fried Frank, including the firm’s former head of European real estate.

McDermott has announced today (26 June) that Darren Rogers and Devina Rana have joined the firm’s transactions practice group as partners.

Rogers (pictured) previously led the European real estate practice at Fried Frank, where he spent nearly seven years with Rana, who was special counsel. The pair also moved together to Fried Frank from Ashurst in 2017.

Harris Siskind, the global head of McDermott’s transaction group, emphasised that strengthening the firm’s real estate practice has been a ‘long-standing goal’ in London. ‘We are thrilled that Darren and Devina are joining the team as they complement and enhance our global real estate offering and will support our strategic outlook,’ he said.

Rogers’ focus is on equity-related investment matters, including real estate capital markets transactions, major London leasing joint ventures, and mixed-use development projects, while Rana brings experience in handling high-value investment transactions for UK, US, and broader global clients, along with real estate finance expertise.

The duo’s expertise complements real estate finance partner Usman Khan, who joined the firm last year from Kirkland & Ellis.

Commenting on the hires, newly appointed London managing partner Aymen Mahmoud said: ‘Darren and Devina are excellent real estate lawyers and will further enhance our real estate capabilities in London and beyond, dovetailing neatly with our wider global practice to offer our clients a solution across-geographies.’

Mahmoud highlighted that the new hires complement the firm’s cross-border growth strategy, citing recent additions like White, Chris Kandel from MoFo, and Fatema Oreja from Sidley, and indicated plans for further strategic hires in the near future in an interview with LB last month.

Less than two weeks ago, the firm also saw leadership changes with Matthias Kampshoff appointed as its new Germany managing partner, succeeding real estate partner Jens Ortmanns.

elisha.juttla@legalbusiness.co.uk

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US West Coast firm becomes latest to target London tech transactions market with eye-catching hire of ex-White & Case dealmaker

West Coast firm Perkins Coie has become the latest US player to set up shop in London, launching a technology-focused corporate practice led by former White & Case, Linklaters and Clifford Chance partner Ian Bagshaw (pictured).

The move marks a return to law for Bagshaw, who left White & Case – where he was global co-head of private equity – in 2021.

As office managing partner at Perkins, he will initially lead a team of six lawyers in London, all of whom previously worked at White & Case. Three of the group were previously based in Prague – Jan Andrusko, who joins as European head of M&A, fellow corporate partner Jan Stejskal and senior counsel Jan Jakoubek. Former White & Case associates Craig Fagan and Barry O’Driscoll are also joining as partners after spells in-house.

With 21 offices worldwide, this is Perkins Coie’s first international office outside Asia, where it has three offices, with the rest located across the US.

Looking ahead, Bagshaw said the firm plans to grow in multiple practice areas, with an emphasis on aligning its strengths with the wider US practice, including private capital investment, tech transactions, privacy and litigation.

Instead of opening offices across Europe like Paul Weiss, which recently launched in Brussels after its London launch, Perkins Coie intends to use London as the central hub for its European operations. ‘We want to build a European team in London, with one culture and one form of training for everyone,’ explained Bagshaw.

The firm will initially focus on advising high-growth tech companies, their founders, mid-market private equity funds, and family offices in corporate transactions, complementing its US tech focus. The firm last year represented Microsoft in its acquisition of Fungible, a tech startup specialising in hardware and software platforms for data centres, as well as its acquisition of video game developer Activision Blizzard King, and also works with other key clients such as Amazon and Stripe.

Perkins’ decision to invest in London comes amid a busy time for the UK startup scene, with UK startups raising $21.3bn in 2023, the third highest annual total on record, according to data provider Dealroom.

So far in London, Bagshaw and his team have advised Highview Power, an energy storage pioneer, in securing a £300m combined debt and equity investment for the first commercial-scale liquid air energy storage plant in the UK, alongside firms such as White & Case, Orrick, and Hogan Lovells.

The move comes after fellow West Coast tech-focused firms Cooley and Wilson Sonsini both put down roots in London over the past decade – Cooley in 2015 and Wilson Sonsini in 2018.

According to a partner at another US firm, the interest of West Coast tech firms in London ‘mirrors that of West Coast VC funds’.

‘A decade ago, there were few West Coast funds or tech firms in London, but the recent growth is fostering a US-like ecosystem in the UK, with these firms playing a significant role in shaping the city’s tech industry.’

The Perkins London team is currently working from a base in Fitzrovia but is looking at a move into more substantial offices in the City, with 22 Bishopsgate – home to US firms including Cooley, Skadden and McDermott – reportedly the likely destination. ‘Our headcount is focused on being at the right level for the volume of client work we generate. We are not going to build a law firm like its 1999,’ Bagshaw adds.

After having previously worked at much larger firms, there has been some surprise in the market about Bagshaw’s choice of Perkins for his return to law, after three years which have seen him take up a number of board roles and chair Zero Gravity, a UK tech startup aimed at enhancing social mobility for students.

Bagshaw said he was enthused by the prospect of building up a practice, rather than returning to a bigger firm. ‘The European tech scene has grown fast and really matured, and there are not many firms who can make it a priority from a client perspective. The same thing happened with private equity in the early noughties – this is a classic business opportunity,’ he said.

‘My priorities have changed – I now want to build a “mission business” with a clear purpose. For me, the purpose is as big a motivator as the commercial mission, to be honest,’ he added.

‘I looked at different opportunities and I’ve learnt a lot since I left White & Case. I love the startup culture and scaling a business, working with founders and growth capital investors – I enjoy being with them on their journey.’

elisha.juttla@legalease.co.uk

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‘The personality types attracted to law often highly value accuracy and delivering the “perfect” answer, but that single-minded goal can be almost impossible in our business – it’s something that can be detrimental to your health and your relationships with your team and family.’

As Hogan Lovells’ UK managing partner Penny Angell explains, the challenge of reconciling Type A personalities with work/life balance is a puzzle that most top law firms have not yet solved.

And it is an issue that has come to the fore again in the wake of the death of Pinsent Masons banking partner Vanessa Ford in September last year. Ford’s death was the latest in a number of tragedies involving partners at leading commercial firms, highlighting both the pressure that lawyers are under and the fact that support for those struggling is still not as available as it should be.

For those working on high-stakes M&A deals, like Ford – who was known professionally as Vanessa Heap – the pressure can be particularly immense, given the long hours and unpredictable nature of the work.

Ford, who was 47, had been working 18-hour days on the high-profile acquisition of Everton Football Club, and was struck by a train in east London after consuming a significant amount of alcohol in the midst of an ‘acute mental health crisis’.

Despite increasing discussion around mental health in law over recent years and efforts by firms to put support such as advice lines in place, figures from industry mental health charity LawCare highlight the growing scale of the problem.

The charity saw a 24% increase in the number of legal professionals contacting it for support between January and August 2023 compared with the previous year, reinforcing the impression that firms’ efforts so far are not enough, even though there has been a marked increase in the openness of many partners to share stories about how stress and mental health issues have affected them personally in a bid to reduce stigma.

It is notable that during research for this feature many leveraged finance and M&A partners declined to speak to Legal Business; here though, we share the experiences and tips for dealing with stress from some of the deal lawyers who were happy to speak.

‘Dealing with stressful situations is about knowing when you need to be pragmatic but also when you need to hold your ground and not be intimidated by an overly pushy partner on the other side.’
Penny Angell, Hogan Lovells

Stress testing

With long hours, demanding clients and exacting expectations par for the course, high stress levels are an inevitable part of the job for any lawyer, but even more so transactional lawyers. Indeed, for many deal lawyers the adrenaline rush that comes with operating in these environments is one of the key attractions.

‘If you’re not comfortable doing the big M&A deals, then it’s the wrong job for you. You need to be able to handle the intensity, help your associates through that intensity and help your clients as best you can, so they don’t feel stressed,’ says Lisa O’Neill, co-head of Milbank’s London corporate team.

‘For some people stress is not by definition bad – it’s a spectrum,’ adds Gavin Davies, head of Herbert Smith Freehills’ (HSF) global M&A practice, who points out that for some it is definitely a motivating factor.

‘Without it, I wouldn’t get out of bed in the morning, and with the right amount I am at my most energised. It’s just when there’s a bit too much that I need to check myself,’ he adds.

But continuously elevated stress levels can take a toll on even the most resilient partners, particularly if combined with stress outside the office.

Simpson Thacher private equity partner Clare Gaskell, for example, once had to take nearly two months off work as a result of a combination of personal and professional stress. Recounting her experience, she says: ‘I took seven weeks off work. It was not something I initially wanted to do, but it was important. The team stepped up to make sure everything was handled. When I came back, I made some adjustments, and now I feel much better equipped to manage stress.’

As a result of her own experiences, making sure the rest of her team has access to support has become particularly important to Gaskell. ‘We’ve had others in the team who struggled with managing stress. It’s really important to acknowledge if you’re not able to carry on and need a break, then as a team we need to be there for one another,’ she adds.

This dual pressure of professional and personal issues hitting at the same time is cited as a key stress point by many spoken to for this feature. Ford, for example, was trying to balance her heavy workload with life as a mother of two children and had also lost her father the previous year.

Angell recounts an incident during a deal closing as a seven-months-pregnant junior partner. When her team turned up at the offices of the law firm acting for a borrower in the middle of the night to sign off documents, the other side refused to provide a redline showing changes from previous versions of the documents, or to tell them which provisions had been amended over the course of the last 24 hours.

Forced to speed re-read the documents, with frequent interruptions from the other side’s senior partner, Angell took a stand. ‘The senior partner advising the borrower was breathing down my neck every five minutes, saying “Why haven’t you signed it off yet? My clients want to sign and go home to get some sleep”.’

‘I just took a deep breath, and pointed out that it would have been a lot quicker if they had provided the redline comparison, and that given it was 3am and I was seven months pregnant, I was also very keen to go home and get some sleep,’ Angell explains.

‘Dealing with stressful situations like this is about knowing when you need to be pragmatic but also when you need to hold your ground and not be intimidated by an overly pushy partner on the other side,’ she adds.

‘The first thing to do is to try to anticipate when deals might become stressful and put measures in place to reduce the impact of potentially stressful situations.’
Victoria Sigeti, Freshfields

Taking control

If a lawyer is working as many as 18 hours a day or pulling all-nighters, there’s no way that their job isn’t impacting their personal life. Even when it isn’t as intense as that, it can be hard to switch off.

When asked whether he has ever noticed work impacting his mental health, Latham & Watkins London private equity partner Paul Dolman replies: ‘I would say no, my wife would probably say yes. She knows me well enough to recognise when I go into a tunnel and become completely focused on work. Even when I’m in the room, sometimes I’m not present.

‘To cope with this, I try to avoid looking at my phone in the evening when I’m with my wife and children so that I am truly present with them, rather than just physically there but mentally elsewhere.’

But while it is never going to be possible to avoid stress as a deal lawyer, it is possible to take steps to cope with it better.

Top of the list is making sure family, friends and colleagues are aware if you are feeling the pressure. As McDermott’s new London managing partner and co-head of London transactions Aymen Mahmoud highlights: ‘I have tried to surround myself with people who prioritise empathy, among my friends, my colleagues and my clients – and I have been incredibly fortunate in being able to speak with deeply kind and empathetic people during my greatest moments of stress.’

Gaskell also encourages talking about problems with friends and family, but points out that this can be hard to achieve if your anxiety is greatest at night, in which case it’s important to have an alternative way to calm yourself down. ‘It’s really critical to talk to people about things. My worst stress is in the middle of the night when I can’t talk to other people, so I put on a podcast as a distraction.’

Transactional work is by its nature less predictable, but there are still some areas that are within your control and this is where many partners suggest focusing.

Angell explains: ‘I’m not saying I don’t get stressed: I do – but I am better at focusing on what I can actually control. There are always things you can’t control, and stressing about them isn’t going to help because you can’t change them. So, focus on the things you can change.’

Nallini Puri, M&A partner at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, echoes this sentiment, adding that releasing your emotions can help manage stress, but it is important to balance it with a practical mindset if possible. ‘I am not embarrassed to admit that I’ve had a bit of a cry at times – it can be quite therapeutic!’ However, she adds: ‘I am quite a practical person and I think that’s helpful when you’re dealing with stressful situations because then you can try and think logically about the best way to handle it, rather than letting your emotions take charge.’

Freshfields partner Victoria Sigeti agrees, adding that it’s important to take a proactive rather than reactive approach to potential problems. ‘The first thing to do is to try to anticipate when deals might become stressful and put measures in place to reduce the impact of potentially stressful situations,’ she says.

Over at Latham, Dolman, somewhat counter-intuitively advocates for starting a long working day earlier, to clear the decks before the rest of the office gets in. ‘I get up at about 5am and am at my desk by 6 or 6.30. That works for me because it gives me at least two hours before anybody else comes online, so I can clear any work I wasn’t able to do the night before. By 9am, I’m starting with a clean sheet of paper, I’m up to date, and that helps my stress levels go down because suddenly I’m back in control.’

It’s also important to take time for yourself – no matter how busy you may be and no matter what you choose to do with this time. As Sigeti comments: ‘Key for me has been working out what makes me happy and helps me relax. That is a combination of family and friends, proper downtime on weekends and holidays and good diet, exercise and fresh air. I try to find ways to build all of those things into my regular routine and, to the extent I end up not getting enough of any of them for a period, am proactive in making a plan to rebalance things.’

Angell, meanwhile, takes much of the summer off to be with her family. ‘I take off the whole month of August, which has always been a way of giving back to my family. I always try to make every important school or family event but inevitably with my role, there are certain times when I can’t. But August is my time. I turn off my laptop and my work phone, and I do not check emails.’

McDermott leveraged finance partner Chris Kandel favours more immediately accessible methods – relaxing at the end of a stressful day through film and music: ‘I actually enjoy the stress of deals. I think the fact I enjoy it makes it easier to deal with. However, sometimes I come home after fighting the good fight all day long and it’s hard to then relax. I have a wide range of tastes. Unfortunately, one of them is violent films, and watching violent films helps me unwind. I also like listening to a wide range of music. When stressed I have to confess I come home and listen to heavy metal.’

‘We’ve all been conditioned to have such high expectations of ourselves and there’s a fear of failure or fear of not being able to keep up. So, it can be quite tricky to identify it in other people.’
Clare Gaskell, Simpson Thacher

Protective measures

While many firms, including Pinsents, have 24/7 mental health support lines, this alone is not enough of a safety net. For partners it means that it isn’t just about managing their own stress, it’s also important for them to monitor their teams and help more junior lawyers develop their own strategies to cope.

Even then, identifying all of those who are struggling, can be difficult. ‘Most people conceal their stress to a degree,’ says Kandel. ‘There’s a desire to look professional. To the outside world the delivery of legal services is like a smooth, unemotional machine. The reality is everyone is scrambling behind the scenes, but the goal of law firms is to look absolutely on top of it.’

‘It’s tricky,’ admits Gaskell. ‘We’ve all been conditioned to have such high expectations of ourselves and there’s a fear of failure or fear of not being able to keep up. So, it can be quite tricky to identify it in other people. There have been times I’ve only realised after the event that people have been struggling. I always try and say please speak up earlier and I try to check in with people and make myself accessible.’

There are sometimes telltale signs that an individual is having difficulty managing their stress levels though, says Dolman, who trained as a mental health first aider while at Travers Smith. ‘There are different ways you can tell when people are feeling real stress. One is a change in personal behaviour; for example, someone who is usually very available you can’t get hold of, or mood swings, irrational behaviour.’

It is also about making sure that the office environment is open enough for employees to feel comfortable speaking up when they are struggling.

‘Active listening is something to think about, particularly when everyone is working at full pace,’ HSF’s Davies explains. ‘It’s very easy to ask someone how they are, to get the reflex response of “fine thanks”, and plough on. Pausing to check that they really mean it can be important in those moments.’

Partners should also be mindful of how stressors shift throughout life and be aware that what might trigger a minor stress response in one employee may have an outsized effect on another. ‘It may be that a thing that might not cause stress at one moment causes huge stress at another,’ Mahmoud explains. ‘This makes empathy incredibly important – to be able to first of all listen, and then to look at someone else’s situation or experience, to reflect on it and to think how they might feel about it,’ he adds.

‘It’s very easy to ask someone how they are, to get the reflex response of “fine thanks”, and plough on. Pausing to check that they really mean it can be important in those moments.’
Gavin Davies, HSF

Talking openly about their own stress is one way partners can help foster a more open working environment that encourages associates or others with a firm to speak up.

As Sigeti comments: ‘As with many of the things that go into making our firms places that people want to work in and feel able to be themselves, it is up to partners to be as open as they are able to be themselves when they are feeling stressed or when their balance is not right, so as to role model to others that they are not alone in finding things tough.’

Puri adds: ‘Having a culture where people feel comfortable talking openly about such issues is important. You need to be aware of what your own triggers are, and also watch out for your colleagues. I would hope that if someone here was feeling stressed about something then they would feel comfortable talking about it.’

Crucially though, as Ford’s death highlights, someone needs to be looking out for partners’ mental health too. Her death, like those of former global chair of Baker McKenzie, Paul Rawlinson in 2019 and legacy SJ Berwin partner Catherine Bailey in 2009, underline the need for better mental health support within the legal profession, where the long hours and pressure are still accepted by many as part and parcel of the job, despite shifting attitudes towards mental health.

Pinsents confirmed that it has started engaging with lawyers, clients, peer firms and external organisations to help identify ways to improve working life and mental health support but a spokesperson admitted: ‘Impactful and lasting change within a complex global profession will take time.’

Whatever solution the firm comes up with it’s imperative that it includes partners as well as associates.

‘There’s a lot of focus on associate well-being, and there’s probably less focus on partner well-being – if I’m being honest,’ concludes Dolman. ‘I think partners are seen as having more ability to determine the amount of work they are doing, and sometimes that is certainly not the case.

‘Obviously, there have been some cases of partners who haven’t managed to handle the stress, so I think there should be a focus on partners as well across the profession.’ LB

elisha.juttla@legalease.co.uk

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