‘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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Kirkland & Ellis, Paul Weiss and Slaughter and May are advising on the proposed takeover of the Royal Mail’s parent company, International Distributions Service (IDS), by Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky. 

The deal is a revised non-binding proposal from EP Corporate Group for the remaining share capital of IDS which is not already owned by EP, which at present, holds 27.6% of IDS’s issued share capital.  

The proposal values the entire issued share capital of IDS at approximately £3.5bn.  

EP is being advised by Kirkland, with a team led by corporate partners David Higgins, Dipak Bhundia and Jiri Peterka, alongside antitrust & competition partner Matthew Sinclair-Thomson. 

Paul Weiss is also advising EP, handling financing and structuring aspects of the bid, with finance duo Neel Sachdev and Stefan Arnold-Soulby, leading the firm’s team.

Slaughters corporate duo Richard Smith and Claire Jackson are advising IDS’s management.  

In an announcement to the London Stock Exchange, IDS chair Keith Williams said: ‘The Board is minded to recommend this offer price, which it considers to be fair and reflects the value of GLS’ current growth plans and the progress being made on change at Royal Mail to adapt the business to a significant fall in the demand for letters and growth in parcels.  

‘It is however regrettable that despite four years of asking, the Government has not seen fit to engage in reform of the Universal Service and thus improve our financial position and ensure that Royal Mail could provide an economically sustainable service to the British public.’

holly.mckechnie@legalease.co.uk

The post Kirkland, Paul Weiss and Slaughters lead on £3.5bn Royal Mail takeover bid appeared first on Legal Business.

In another blow for Travers Smith, respected corporate M&A and ECM partner Richard Spedding has left to join Linklaters, on the back of the departure of a private equity duo to Goodwin late last month.

A Legal 500 Hall of Famer for small to mid-cap equity capital markets, Spedding was at Travers or 25 years. Experienced in public M&A and the UK Takeover Code, Spedding recently co-led the firm’s team advising key private equity client Inflexion on its £342m takeover of DWF.

At the end of April Travers also lost private equity duo Ian Keefe and George Weavil, with the pair joining Goodwin’s London base. Both Weavill and Keefe had been at Travers since qualification in 2011, making partner in 2018.

Travers sustained a number of other high profile partner loses in 2023, including its former head of private equity Ian Shawyer, who joined Cleary in May, M&A tax head Jessica Kemp, who joined White & Case in February, secondaries transactions specialists Ed Ford and Sacha Gofton-Salmond, who moved to Simpson Thacher & Bartlett in February, and PE partner Genna Marten (to Linklaters) and financial services partner Samuel Kay (to Dechert) in March.

Elsewhere, Clifford Chance has bolstered its equity derivatives and structured products offering with the addition of former Allen & Overy partner Daniel Shurman. Moving shortly after the completion of the A&O Shearman merger on 1 May, Shurman focuses on structuring and executing strategic equity solutions.

In other magic circle moves, Charles Magoffin left Freshfields as a pension partner for a position as senior counsel at Slaughter and May. In his new role, he will maintain his focus advising employers, pension scheme trustees, financial investors, and institutions on various aspects of defined benefit pension schemes, including restructuring, insolvency, de-risking, liability management and risk transfer.

Linklaters has seen Savi Hebbur depart for the global M&A practice at White & Case. Hebbur leaves the magic circle firm after more than 18 years, notably serving as the head of corporate for the India group. His practice primarily focuses on advising international companies and sponsors on their transactions in India, as well as guiding Indian corporates through international M&A deals across various sectors such as energy and healthcare.

Freshfields, meanwhile, hired Legal 500 mid-large-cap ECM leading individual David Boles into its ECM practice. Boles, who leaves Cooley after four years, also spent a chunk of his career at Latham & Watkins. He will work alongside London-based partners Chris Mort, Doug Smith, Tom Godwin to ‘drive forward’ the firm’s ECM practice, according to the firm.

Moving in the opposite direction, Cooley has hired Norton Rose’s London head of antitrust and competition Mark Simpson.

Speaking to Legal Business about his move, Simpson said: ‘Firstly, the strength of Cooley’s client base in the tech and related industries is very attractive. It is second to none, acting for big tech companies as well as startups, and the firm’s relationships are well-established. Secondly is the emphasis that the firm has put on growing its offering in the competition space and building on its award-winning team in Europe and the US. Thirdly, it has an excellent litigation team in London.’

Caroline Hobson, a fellow partner in Cooley’s antitrust and competition practice, added: ‘Mark’s recruitment is part of a broader strategy to grow the European and global antitrust team and ensure we’ve got the broad range of skills to assist our clients, many of which in tech and life sciences are in the crosshairs of increased antitrust scrutiny.’

McDermott Will & Emery has appointed Fatema Orjela to its transactions practice. Orjela joins the firm from Sidley and is a Legal 500 leading individual for mid-market private equity transactions, as well as a featured mid-tier deal star from LB’s ‘Alphas Revisited’ feature last year.

Orjela has a pan-European cross-sector practice, with experience advising on joint ventures, structured and minority equity investments, leveraged buyouts and strategic mergers and acquisitions. The move reunites Orjela with her former Kirkland colleague Graham White, who moved from Fried Frank to McDermott last month.

‘There were various pulls’, Orjela told Legal Business. ‘Firstly, it was reconnecting with Graham, who used to be a leader of mine when we were at Kirkland together. In some ways I’ve been on a growth journey with Graham, and I know our values align when it comes to technical excellence, how we serve clients, and the cultural issues of how an office should be managed. Secondly, I was blown away by McDermott. The firm has been quiet about what it’s been doing over the past few years in the European market, but it’s experienced five-year plus growth and has an incredible European footprint and many shared clients and synergies for me. The thought of being in an environment that has that dynamism and entrepreneurialism is exciting.’

Over in restructuring, Paul Hastings brought Shearman & Sterling counsel Tom McKay into its restructuring practice as a partner. The move sees the firm continue to build in restructuring after it brought over KKR’s European head of restructuring William Needham and Akin partner Jessica Ling in February, following last year’s hire of Helena Potts, also from Shearman.

Dentons has also made strategic moves in restructuring by welcoming back partner Sue Moore to lead its UK, Ireland, and Middle East restructuring and insolvency practice, where her career began. After initially departing the firm in 2011, she spent nine years as a partner at Stephenson Harwood, followed by a stint at Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath. Moore is recognised in the Legal 500 rankings for corporate restructuring and insolvency. Dentons also strengthened its disputes team in London with the hire of Freshfields ESG litigation and regulatory partner Alex McGregor.

Elsewhere in the City, investment funds partner Shawn D’Aguiar moved over to join Debevoise & Plimpton in London. Leaving behind Goodwin after seven years, D’Aguiar’s practice focuses on fund structuring and formation, along with advising clients on various fund strategies such as impact and sustainable investing, as well as incentive and carried interest schemes.

Also in London, Nina Howell left King & Spalding for the energy and natural resources group at Reed Smith. Howell joined K&S from Bracewell in April 2022, and is a Legal 500 next generation partner for oil and gas. She specialises in LNG and has experience advising on issues from financing and development to sales and transportation.

‘Reed Smith approached me and it felt like too good an opportunity to miss’, Howell told Legal Business, pointing to the firm’s strong energy sector client base as well as her eagerness to work with LNG specialist James Atkin, who joined Reed Smith from Orrick in 2020.

Howell was also optimistic about the state of the LNG market. ‘After the Russian invasion of Ukraine it became very clear that LNG is going to be a big part of the energy future’, she said. ‘A lot of the big US projects that hadn’t been commercially viable became viable. They’re expanding into Europe, and the buyers are there.’

In litigation, Pinsent Masons has hired litigation and investigations partner Melanie Ryan for its global investigations group in London. Ryan joins from Morgan, Lewis & Bockius where she spent six years, and focuses on financial crime and related civil disputes.

On her move, Ryan told LB: ‘The biggest piece of litigation that London has ever seen is the SKAT fraud litigation which is before the High Court, and that’s being handled by Pinsent Masons. Litigation, regulatory enforcement and investigations are very much at the forefront of its strategy and that’s one of the reasons why it was an attractive proposition for me. There’s a lot of synergies between what I do and historically have done, and what Pinsent Masons is doing and seeking to do as well. The cradle-to-grave servicing offering of the firm is also a major draw. ’

Head of regulatory and investigations Tom Stocker also said: ‘When we looked at our business plan and what we were seeing in terms of market growth, we saw that Melanie fitted the bill perfectly for us. She has this really unique practice that blends regulatory enforcement, financial crime and litigation expertise together. Melanie’s City and cross-border experience is extremely valuable with London being such an important international market.’

elisha.juttla@legalbusiness.co.uk

holly.mckechnie@legalbusiness.co.uk

alexander.ryan@legalbusiness.co.uk

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Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has broken ranks from its Magic Circle peers on associate salaries, increasing newly-qualified (NQ) pay from £125,000 to a new high of £150,000.  

The move puts clear water between the firm and Slaughter and May, Linklaters, ‎A&O Shearman, and Clifford Chance, all which pay their NQ lawyers £125,000.

Freshfields trainees will also benefit from pay increases, with first-year trainee pay rising from £50,000 to £56,000, while second-year trainee salaries are up from £55,000 to £61,000.   

 Commenting on the pay rises, London managing partner Mark Sansom said: ‘We’re committed to embedding a culture that supports our people to deliver their best, knowing their contribution is valued and rewarded. Being part of Freshfields means working alongside the best lawyers in the market and being fairly recognised for excellent client service on the most complex and high-profile legal work.

‘This move follows a year of strong growth for the London business, thanks to the dedication of all our people. It also reflects our confidence in the firm’s continued market leadership across all our London practices, further boosted by the success of the material investments in the US and other markets.’  

The salary hike will pile the pressure on the rest of the Magic Circle to offer competitive renumeration for junior talent, particularly considering the competitive pay packages on offer at their US counterparts.  

Speaking to Legal Business, David von Dadelszen, a director at Jameson Legal, said: ‘Based on previous experience, I imagine the whole Magic Circle will ultimately fall in line. There will probably be some outliers who will say they won’t get into a salary war. But eventually they will end up paying the same as there is such a heated market at NQ level. Nobody will want to feel like they are the poor cousin.’ 

With Paul Weiss already shaking up the City recruitment market with its rapid London expansion, this latest move by Freshfields is set to have even more of a knock-on effect on the Silver Circle and other City firms, as NQs eye up and array of lucrative offers post-qualification.

‘As always, it will impact City firms outside the Magic Circle which don’t pay as much. There will always be NQs prepared to move for money,’ von Dadelszen adds.  

holly.mckechnie@legalease.co.uk

For more, see Market forces: Paul Weiss, Kirkland and the war for London talent

The post ‘Nobody will want to feel like they are the poor cousin’: Freshfields reignites talent war with £150k NQ pay hike appeared first on Legal Business.

With worldwide M&A activity down 17% last year, hitting a decade low, according to data from Refinitiv, 2023 was always going to be a more challenging year for US firms in London. And across the board, growth slowed as firms bucked the ‘stack ‘em high’ trend of recent years, exercising an increasingly cautious approach to investment and recruitment in the capital.

During 2023, total London lawyer headcount across the Global London group (see main table) increased by a mere 1.8%, a significant decrease from last year’s equivalent figure of 9% and far below the pre-pandemic era, which saw 15% growth at Global London firms between 2017 and 2018.

In contrast to 2022, when 72% of Global London firms increased their headcount in London, in 2023 the equivalent figure was 48%, with 10% holding headcount steady and 42% actively cutting back in the capital.

It was a similar story with partner numbers – after 70% of Global London firms increased their partner headcount in 2022, just 52% did so in 2023. Across the 50 firms, total partners rose by 2% last year, compared to 4% in 2022.

While acknowledging that 2023 was a difficult year for the industry, London management at US law firms are, in the main, pleasantly surprised that things were not worse. ‘2023 was not an easy year. The market was saturated with lawyers and work was drying up,’ says Orrick partner Mark Beeley.

‘We swung it around in the back half of the year, though, thanks to our ruthless sector focus,’ he adds. ‘Renewables really caught fire.’

‘2023 was not an easy year. The market was saturated with lawyers and work was drying up. We swung it around in the back half of the year, though, thanks to our ruthless sector focus. Renewables really caught fire.’ Mark Beeley, Orrick

Skadden London managing partner Richard Youle strikes a similar tone: ‘It turned out to be a really good year – but it was never a year where you felt real confidence in what was coming, when or how.’

This uncertainty is a recurring theme among many others in management positions. ‘It was a different year in that you saw a choppier transactional market and a more robust market in disputes and investigations. You saw increased advisory work and regulatory work for sure. Some of the restructuring work picked up significantly. So, it’s a different mix,’ says Sidley London managing partner Tom Thesing.

Sticking to their guns

Many managing partners were keen to label the quieter period as an opportunity for the sensibly minded to consolidate and maintain their positions. ‘One of the key things for any firm investing in a market is to do it in a sustainable way,’ says Stephen Kensell, London managing partner at Latham & Watkins. ‘You want to have a long-term return on investment. Once the glow of publicity dies down, how are you ensuring that all the moves you make integrate into the business, remain relevant to the client, and become embedded in your firm? These are challenges when you’re growing quickly, ensuring that what you’re doing is cohesive and isn’t a disconnected group of high-performance individuals. You want to have a team all going in the same direction,’ he adds.

In the face of a turbulent market, the best course of action may well be to buckle down and maintain a consistent client strategy. ‘We have one of the most recognised and respected corporate and private capital practices in London,’ says Mike Francies, co-managing partner of Weil’s London office. ‘A key strategic objective is to maintain that position.’

Fried Frank London managing partner Ashar Qureshi makes a similar point: ‘We expect to continue to grow in London. But are we ever going to be comparable in size to the Magic Circle or to some of the bigger US firms in London? I would doubt that.’

A more flexible focus may offer short-term wins, but it is unlikely to result in long-term dividends, argues Mayer Brown London managing partner Dominic Griffiths: ‘Certain markets were down, but it’s a matter of sticking in those markets and staying close to the clients for when the market comes back– it is cyclical. We are well hedged at Mayer Brown.

‘There were more deals in the midmarket and that is what we also focus on. If you just go trophy hunting for the big deals, you can do one or two, but it’s hard to get consistent work unless you are predominantly a big-ticket New York based firm focused solely on private equity. We have a growing PE practice but are also dedicated to continuing to serve a broader client base including increased volumes of work from private credit and high margin bank work.’

Power plays

Paul Weiss’s onslaught on the London market has of course been one of the biggest stories of the year (for more, see our Paul Weiss and Kirkland feature ‘Market forces – Paul Weiss, Kirkland and the war for London talent’). Following Cravath’s English law launch in February 2023, Paul Weiss was left as the only elite US firm in London without such capabilities, but the months since the seismic hires of debt finance rainmaker Neel Sachdev and M&A heavyweight Roger Johnson from Kirkland & Ellis have proved transformational for the London office.

‘Certain markets were down last year, but it’s a matter of sticking in those markets and staying close to the clients for when the market comes back.’ Dominic Griffiths, Mayer Brown

With 19 partner hires under its belt, the firm has rarely been out of the headlines of late, with Sachdev and Johnson leading the charge to build up a considerable English law practice in double-quick time, recruiting a series of partners from other top-of-the-market firms.

This strategic power play only serves to underline that despite the slowdown in growth, the London legal market retains its significance for US headquartered firms.

Once the good times return, market commentators are confident of bounceback in investment.

‘US firms in London used to be happy to let the London office be,’ says Beeley. ‘They now want the London office to look like the New York office. And they’re unlocking the global war chest to make that happen. For us, it’s all about global alignment.’

Highest climbers

Based on lawyer headcount alone, the fastest growing Global London firm year-on-year is Vinson & Elkins, where London headcount increased by a pacy 41% from 46 last year to 65. Notable lateral hires in 2023 included two partners from Milbank: energy transactions and projects partner Kilian de Cintré and energy and infrastructure finance partner Chris Taufatofua.

Despite those moves, Milbank saw London partner headcount increase by 9% on the back of the March 2023 acquisition of Dickson Minto’s London private equity team, comprising six partners, one special counsel and 14 associates.

‘We’re really pleased with the way last year went. It’s been a big year for the firm and the London office in particular,’ says London co-managing partner Andrej Wolf. ‘We welcomed the Dickson Minto team who are now fully integrated, so much so that it feels like they have always been an integral part of the London office.’

Fellow London co-managing partner Tom Canning is equally enthusiastic about the office’s growth, particularly regarding how it is enabling them to work on cross-practice matters. ‘We’re the perfect size to do that – big, but not too big. So, we’re able to effectively go where the work is. If there’s a significant restructuring, which we need corporate lawyers on, we need finance lawyers on, then we’re very well equipped to do that,’ he says.

‘The US and UK elections may cause some disruption to deal making as markets await the outcomes.’
Justin Stock, Cooley

At Cleary, which saw 12% headcount growth, corporate partner Tihir Sarkar described 2023 as ‘a very big year’.

‘We’re expanding – there’s been a lot of growth,’ he says. ‘There’s a lot of faith backed with investment to facilitate that growth in London from the firm, and that momentum continues. Then on the back of that, we’ve also been building up our associate base across the office practices, particularly in private equity and related finance. It’s a very significant moment in the history of our London office which was established way back in 1971.’

Despite being one of the most conservative firms among the Global London cohort, with just 2% headcount growth over five years, London partner count grew by a notable 25% during 2023, with the London office welcoming high-profile partner hires including Travers Smith private equity head Ian Shawyer and Edward Aldred, the former co-head of Linklaters’ financial sponsors leverage finance practice.

Sarkar’s corporate colleague Nallini Puri adds: ‘It’s not a secret that historically we’ve been very slow when it comes to lateral hiring. In fact, historically we’ve very rarely hired laterally. But there’s been a real change in sentiment in the past few years and last year was a turning point for London. We’ve got a very strong practice, but we weren’t where we wanted to be in some areas and our lateral hires helped fill those gaps.’

A period of uncertainty

The macro-economic threats which plagued 2023 largely look set to continue into 2024, with managing partners expressing caution about how this will play out for the legal industry.

The geopolitical situation remains tense with the continuation of the Ukraine conflict, the outbreak of war in Gaza, and an increasingly unstable relationship between the US and China, as trade wars pick up pace.

Meanwhile, upcoming elections across the globe are raising the prospect of yet more uncertainty and change. Cooley London managing partner Justin Stock says: ‘The US and UK elections may cause some disruption to deal making as markets await the outcomes.’

Thesing takes a similar view: ‘There are a number of upcoming elections that can sometimes be a bit of a distraction as you wait to see what their outcome is and whether policy changes are going to affect any parts of the market.’

Inflationary pressures are beginning to come under control, but a reversal is not off the table, creating more questions for businesses. Likewise, interest rates currently appear more settled, but they are still higher than at any time in recent memory, with market confidence taking some time to recover. ‘Interest rates continue to act as a break on deal flow activity, particularly in private equity, but when rates do turn, we expect a significant upswing in transactions,’ Stock adds. ‘The capital markets in the UK and Europe look like they may take a bit longer to recover than the market had originally hoped.’

A possible reprieve on this front does little to abate the reality that law firms are now operating in an increasingly challenging environment. ‘There are some better fundamentals, but it is an unstable and changing world,’ Youle says. ‘What we have to do is believe in our clients, believe in our people and the businesses that we’re in, and position our firm to differentiate ourselves in a hugely competitive marketplace. All those pressures and threats exist for everybody.’

The bigger picture

When looking at headcount growth over a five-year period, the fastest-growing firms include Simpson Thacher (133%), Goodwin (131%), Willkie Farr & Gallagher (125%) and Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan (69%).

Commenting on his firm’s growth, Goodwin London co-chair Ajay Pathak says: ‘We’ve made some investments in strategic areas that complement our existing practices, so we have expanded our capabilities in the secondaries and credit funds area, but also building on the success that we’ve had in developing our disputes practice by bringing in [former Cadwalader partner] Mark Beardsworth to head up our investigations and enforcement practice, as well as continuing to develop around our core competencies. This focus has meant that in a challenging transactional environment, our business remains quite resilient.’

‘In London, we focus on four principal areas, namely private equity, real estate, technology and life sciences. The area we’ve developed more recently is on the contentious side because we didn’t have that capability in the UK a few years ago, and we’ve seen significant growth both in that and on the antitrust side. Similarly, on the transactional side, we continue to be very active across our core industry areas, as our focus on going deep in those industries has served us well,’ he adds.

‘We have always pursued a measured, “quality over quantity” approach to lateral recruitment. If it takes us considerable time to find the right fit in a particular area, then so be it.’
Tom Sprange KC, King & Spalding

Goodwin’s impressive growth is acknowledged by peers in the market, with one managing partner at another Global London firm saying: ‘Goodwin has always caught my eye – over the past decade they’ve grown to over 200 lawyers in London, and have done so while maintaining, outwardly at least, a culture that people are attracted to.’

Other strong performers on a five-year metric are Kirkland & Ellis, with a 65% headcount increase, Paul Hastings (62%), Skadden (62%), Gibson Dunn (60%), Proskauer (55%) and King & Spalding (50%).

In this bracket, managing partners placed an emphasis on conscientious, steady recruitment. King & Spalding managing partner Tom Sprange KC says: ‘We have always pursued a measured, “quality over quantity” approach to lateral recruitment.

If it takes us considerable time to find the right fit in a particular area, then so be it,’ he says. ‘Since the start of 2023 we have added four senior hires – restructuring partner Patrick Schumann, employment partner Tessa Cranfield, high yield partner Peter Schwartz and former DPP, Sir Max Hill KC. In that time, we’ve also made up five London lawyers.’

Proskauer London co-head Steven Davis tells a similar story. ‘We’re conservative whilst opportunistic. If we have this conversation again in two years’ time you will likely see steady growth over that period. We have momentum and we are going to maintain that.’

Crystal ball gazing

Despite concerns over myriad headwinds facing law firms, managing partners remain resolute on the importance of their London platforms. ‘It’s the hub of our international practice and a strategic pillar for the firm globally,’ says Akin London head Sebastian Rice. ‘Every firm has a different strategy when it comes to Europe; some have a presence in many regions. We’ve taken the approach that the focus of our talent is on London, and we work with great independent firms across Europe.’

White & Case London executive partner Inigo Esteve tells a similar story: ‘If you look at our revenue for the last five years, London has increased by nearly 32%. That’s an accurate reflection of the importance of the office in terms of how it contributes to the firm as a whole.’

For Qureshi, London is a market that is: ‘extremely global – it’s unique in that way, a true cross-border market, a destination’.

‘London is arguably the second biggest legal market in the world, so it will probably always have a bigger headcount than our other European offices.’
Richard Youle, Skadden

Youle adds: ‘London is arguably the second biggest legal market in the world, so it will probably always have a bigger headcount than our other European offices. We’re well positioned in the market, and we’re looking to grow our London office and get deeper into certain practice areas. We see it as an amazing platform for investment.’

And so while investment for many Global London firms may be temporarily on pause, London will unquestionably remain a core strategic focus – with 2023 likely to be a blip rather than a blemish. LB

Legal Business would like to thank Mayer Brown for its sponsorship of the Global London report.

Return to the Global London contents.

holly.mckechnie@legalease.co.uk

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Lateral hiring saw a notable pickup during the first quarter of 2024, with partner moves across sectors from litigation to corporate, finance, and restructuring, to ESG, energy and competition.

Global London firms were especially busy during this period, often to the detriment of their Magic Circle peers. While Paul Weiss has been making headline-grabbing hires, Skadden, McDermott, Kirkland & Ellis, and Paul Hastings have also seen considerable movement over the last two months.

Litigation and regulatory

Paul Hastings strengthened its investigations, white collar, complex litigation, and arbitration practices with a double hire from Latham & Watkins. Oliver Browne, who was at Latham for 18 years, serving recently as the London co-chair of the litigation and trial department, will be joined by his colleague Stuart Alford KC. Alford specialises in white-collar crime and was at Latham for seven years. Before joining the firm, he spent four years at the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) as head of banking fraud.

Meanwhile, Ashurst has strengthened its disputes and investigations offering with the hire of Legal 500 Hall of Famer for white-collar crime, Judith Seddon. Moving from Dechert, Seddon has built a practice advising corporate clients in some of the most complex and high-profile investigations conducted by the SFO and Financial Conduct Authority in the UK and by global prosecuting authorities. Previously, she has been a partner at Ropes & Gray and Clifford Chance (CC).

Skadden made a play for former Linklaters partner Sebastian Barling who has now joined the firm’s financial institutions regulatory group. A Legal 500 Next Generation partner for financial services: non-contentious and regulatory, he has experience advising financial services clients on UK and EU regulations. His move adds to Linklaters’ woes, with the firm seeing an exodus of partners in 2023. Twelve partners left the firm last year according to Edwards Gibson’s annual partner moves report.

Corporate

Senior private equity partner Graham White left Fried Frank to join McDermott. White was Fried Frank’s managing partner until 2017, and head of the firm’s private equity practice until his departure. He moved to Fried Frank in 2014. While at Kirkland he was considered to be the de facto head of the London office after joining from Linklaters in 2006. In a statement, McDermott managing partner Hamid Yunis said that White ‘will work closely with me, our London transactional heads and our global senior leadership to help grow the firm’s presence and transactional capabilities in the UK market and provide senior level support to our practices.’

McDermott also hired Cooley cross-border M&A head Michal Berkner in February, further bolstering its transactional practices in London. Moving from Cooley, her clients include strategic and private equity buyers and sellers in public and private transactions and she led the cross-border M&A practice, including negotiated and unsolicited transactions and joint ventures. She is recommended in the Legal 500 for her work on mid-market deals and her experience covers the life sciences, healthcare and technology sectors.

Paul Weiss continued to plough ahead with its London expansion plans, appointing private equity M&A specialist Oliver Marcuse to its partnership. Marcuse, who made partner at CC in May 2022, has experience acting on transactions from leveraged buyouts to secondaries for clients including CVC and Cinven. He undertook a secondment at the latter.

The firm also appointed Matthew Hearn to its London M&A practice. Formerly at Linklaters, where he made partner last year, the move is Paul Weiss’ fourth partner hire from Linklaters, following Dan Schuster-Woldan in January, Nicole Kar in December, and Will Aitken-Davies in September.

Simpson Thacher & Bartlett made a double hire from Weil, taking Paul Hibbert and Emma Serginson. Both are infrastructure financing specialists, ranked as Legal 500 Leading Individuals in this practice area.

Elsewhere, Reed Smith strengthened its private equity and corporate transactions group in London, appointing Tom Whelan from McDermott. He was formerly the head of the firm’s private equity and corporate transactions group.

Fried Frank bolstered its London private equity practice with a triple hire from Goodwin. Christian Iwasko, Michelle Tong, and Priya Rupal join the firm after a three year stint at Goodwin, bringing with them experience at Sidley and Kirkland.

King & Spalding appointed senior capital markets partner Peter Schwartz from Paul Hastings. After spending nearly a decade at Paul Hastings, the move sees Schwartz reunite with his former colleagues Richard Kitchen, Amin Doulai, and Alon Blitz, who moved to King & Spalding in 2022.

In New York, Freshfields made headway with its US strategy, hiring private equity M&A partners Neal Reenan and Ian Bushner from Latham.

Reenan joined as global co-head of private capital alongside Charles Hayes in London and Arend von Riegen in Frankfurt. Prior to joining Latham’s Chicago office in March 2020, he spent 17 years at Kirkland.

Meanwhile, Bushner joined the firm as head of US private capital. He also did a stint at Kirkland, joining in 2014, and helping to set up the firm’s Boston office in 2017.

Finance

In March, prior to the A&O Shearman tie-up going live, Shearman & Sterling’s Europe managing partner and EMEA finance team leader Ward McKimm announced his retirement from the firm.

‘Shearman & Sterling and Ward McKimm jointly confirm that, after a nearly 30-year career as a leading high-yield and leveraged finance lawyer based in London, he has decided to retire,’ a firm statement said.

A member of the Legal 500 Hall of Fame for high-yield finance in London, McKimm joined Shearman’s New York office in 1997 before relocating to London in 1999 and making partner in 2015. He moved to Kirkland in 2011, then to Freshfields in 2015, before rejoining Shearman in 2018. He was instrumental in positioning the merger.

‘A&O has an international outlook, its IP network across Europe and the US provides exciting opportunities for my practice and me generally.’
Gemma Barrett, Allen & Overy

Meanwhile, Allen & Overy (A&O) added John Goldfinch as a partner in its global structured finance practice. Goldfinch, who joins from Milbank ahead of the A&O Shearman merger, is a structured finance specialist with a particular focus on collateralised loan obligations.

He is joined by a team of four Milbank senior associates: Adrian Kwok, Peter West, Eleanor Cripps and Alexandra Wells. A&O has positioned private capital as a key strategic focus for the firm, with its private capital revenue growing by over 60% over the past two years.

Kirkland hired Legal 500 Leading Individual Marwa Elborai from A&O. Elborai, who joins the firm’s London capital markets team, is US qualified, and focuses her practice on high-yield bonds, complex corporate financings and leveraged finance transactions. She joined A&O, after moving from Shearman.

Kirkland also added Alex Amos to its London investment funds group. Moving from Macfarlanes, he is experienced in structuring alternative investments and working with real assets and other strategies across various fund products. Kirkland also bolstered its debt finance practice with the hire of partner Vanessa Xu from A&O. Xu, whose practice specialises in advising financial sponsors on cross-border leveraged finance transactions, is a Legal Business one to watch for debt finance.

Meanwhile, CC has appointed Blake Jones to its finance team. He joins from Paul Hastings, having previously worked at Linklaters.

Elsewhere, David Irvine, Linklaters’ co-head of leverage finance, has moved to Gibson Dunn, with his private equity and cross-border financing expertise set to strengthen the firm’s finance practice.

Restructuring

Paul Hastings bolstered its European financial restructuring group in London with the addition of Jessica Ling. Joining from Akin, she focuses on advising bondholders, ad hoc committees, credit funds, hedge funds, institutional investors, and insolvency practitioners in complex cross-border restructurings and special situations.

‘I was attracted by the prospect of working alongside talented colleagues as well as the entrepreneurship and collaborative spirit senior management have for the firm’s European and broader global financial restructuring practice. I am excited for the opportunity to grow my own cross-border, creditor-side restructuring practice on the elite platform that the global firm offers,’ she said.

IP

Gemma Barrett has joined A&O’s IP practice, moving from life science specialist, Bristows. ‘A&O has an international outlook, its IP network across Europe and the US provides exciting opportunities for my practice and me generally,’ Barrett said.

ESG and energy

Kirkland appointed Rebecca Perlman to its ESG and impact practice group in London as a partner. This follows a 12-year stint at Herbert Smith Freehills from Perlman, where she headed the firm’s UK, US, and EMEA operations and was global head of sustainable and impact investment.

Meanwhile, Mayer Brown bolstered its global energy group with the appointment of former CC partner, Massimo Amoruso, to its global energy group.

Antitrust

Paul Weiss launched a Brussels practice in April with the hire of antitrust partners Richard Pepper and Ross Ferguson.

Moving from Macfarlanes, Pepper has experience advising on cartel and behavioural investigations, global merger control and foreign direct investment. He advised Dow on its merger with DuPont and Telefónica on a joint venture with Liberty Global to form Virgin Media O2.

Ferguson, who moved from Simpson Thacher, has built a practice focusing on cross-border transactions, EU Foreign Subsidies Regulation filings, antitrust investigations and foreign direct investment reviews. His standout mandates include advising Refinitiv on its acquisition by the London Stock Exchange Group and KKR on its acquisition of ContourGlobal.

holly.mckechnie@legalease.co.uk

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Eversheds Sutherland, Allen & Overy and Womble Bond Dickinson were among the major winners at the inaugural Legal 500 UK ESG Awards 2024, which welcomed more than 400 guests to the InterContinental London Park Lane on 24 April.

The evening saw Eversheds win ESG Firm of the Year after impressing the judges with consistently strong entries across all three ESG pillars, while the firm also took home the DE&I: Law Firm Initiative of the Year for Eversheds Unlocked, which has now supported approximately 1,300 students since its inception in 2008.

ESG Champion of the Year went to Linklaters’ Rachel Barrett, who leads the global ESG practice at the magic circle firm., while Womble Bond Dickinson’s Charlotte von Sicard won ESG rising star for her pivotal role transforming her firm’s sustainability practices, improving the firm’s EcoVadis Sustainability Rating from Bronze to Gold.

The Lifetime Achievement Award for Women in Law went to Irwin Mitchell’s London head Alison Eddy, for her tireless work advocating for women during her near 30-year career at the firm. She became the firm’s first female regional managing partner in 2012 and established its D&I board and led its gender equality network.

Latham & Watkins’ Paul Davies was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Environmental Award. Qualifying as Slaughter and May’s first dedicated environmental law associate in the 1990s, he is now global co-chair of the ESG practice at Latham.

Allen & Overy won two practice area awards for clean energy and sustainable finance, with impressive work across carbon credit best practice, green infrastructure securitisations, and sustainability-linked refinancings, as well as undertaking high-value mandates in the green hydrogen and battery project segments, while Clifford Chance won the practice area award for environmental protection due to its critical work with the Coalition for Rainforest Nations.

In the in-house categories, Swiss Re and Clifford Chance won DE&I: In-house Initiative of the Year, while Standard Chartered GC Sandie Okoro (pictured, above) was honoured as DE&I: Champion of the Year after last year establishing a diversity taskforce with four of the bank’s key legal advisers – Allen & Overy, Eversheds Sutherland, Simmons & Simmons and Sullivan & Cromwell – to foster diversity and inclusion within the legal profession.

Elsewhere, McDermott’s Ranajoy Basu was awarded Environmental/Sustainability: Private Practice Champion. Basu was one of the lead architects of the International Finance Facility for Education and is also lead council to the UN in launching a landmark Global Islamic Fund for Refugees.

Katharine Landells, family partner at Withers, won Private Practice Champion of the year for her work to improve the gender balance of barristers conducting private financial dispute resolution meetings.

At the Bar, winners included 3PB’s Alice de Coverley, who took the Disability/Neurodiversity: Bar Champion of the Year award, while the Ethnicity: Champion of the year award went to Elaine Banton at 7BR.

Legal 500 UK ESG Awards winners in full:

Best Environmental/Sustainability Strategy – The Legal Charter 1.5

Best Law Firm Advisory Team: Clean Energy – Allen & Overy

Best Law Firm Advisory Team: Environmental protection – Clifford Chance

Best Law Firm Advisory Team: Sustainable finance – Allen & Overy

Environmental/Sustainability: In-house Champion (individual) – Gurdeep Boparai, Coventry Building Society

Environmental/Sustainability: Bar Champion (individual) – Estelle Dehon KC, Cornerstone Barristers

Environmental/Sustainability: Private practice champion (internal) – Jon Bower, Womble Bond Dickinson

Environmental/Sustainability: Private practice champion (client-side) – Ranajoy Basu, McDermott

Disability/Neurodiversity: Best initiative to Attract and Retain talent – Burges Salmon

Disability/Neurodiversity: Private Practice Champion of the year (Individual) – Francesca Cadoux-Hudon – Stephenson Harwood

Disability/Neurodiversity: Bar Champion of the year (individual) – Alice de Coverley, 3PB

Ethnicity: Champion of the year (Individual) – Elaine Banton, 7BR

Ethnicity: Best Initiative to Attract and Retain Talent – Burges Salmon

Governance: Initiative/Team of the Year –  Accenture

LGBTQ+: Initiative of the Year –  Osborne Clarke

LGBTQ+: Champion of the Year (Individual) – Oscar Davies, Garden Court Chambers

Lifetime achievement award (women in law) – Alison Eddy, Irwin Mitchell

Lifetime achievement award (environmental) – Paul Davies, Latham & Watkins

Mental health & wellbeing Initiative of the Year –  Weightmans

Pro bono initiative of the year – Fifth Day

Social Mobility: Best Initiative to Attract and Retain Talent –  City Century

Social Mobility: Best Initiative to Attract and Retain Talent (outside London) –  Browne Jacobson

Social Mobility: Private Practice Champion of the Year (individual) – Jacky Kelly and Rob Powell, Weil

Social Mobility: Bar Champion of the Year (individual) – Nick Vineall KC, 4 Pump Court

Women in Law: Best Initiative to Attract and Retain Talent – Dentons

Women in Law: Best Initiative to Improve Female Representation within Senior Ranks – Osborne Clarke

Women in Law: Private Practice Champion of the year (individual) – Katherine Landells – Withers

Women in Law: Bar Champion of the year (Individual) – Lucy Barbet, 11KBW

DE&I: In-house Initiative of the Year – Swiss Re and Clifford Chance

DE&I: Law Firm Initiative of the Year – Eversheds Sutherland

DE&I: Champion of the Year (individual) – Sandie Okoro, Standard Chartered

 DE&I: Rising Star of the Year – Akil Hunte, PPL 

 ESG: Firm of the Year- Eversheds Sutherland

 ESG: Champion of the Year (individual) – Rachel Barrett, Linklaters

ESG rising star- Charlotte von Sicard, Womble Bond Dickinson

 Social mobility: In-house Champion of the year (individual) – Barry Matthews, Pennon Group

Disability/Neurodiversity: In-house Champion of the year (individual) — Matthew Yates, Whitbread

Women in Law: In-house Champion of the year (Individual) — Kirin Kalsi, E.ON UK

Click here for more information on the event

holly.mckechnie@legalbusiness.co.uk

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Paul Weiss, Kirkland, and Skadden were all active in London lateral hires this week, with two partner exits from Linklaters amid the moves.

In the latest of a flurry of high-profile hires, Paul Weiss has launched a Brussels practice with the appointment of antitrust partners Richard Pepper and Ross Ferguson.

Pepper moves from Macfarlanes, where he advised on cartel and behavioural investigations, global merger control and foreign direct investment. Key mandates for Pepper include advising Dow on its merger with DuPont and Telefónica on a joint venture with Liberty Global to form Virgin Media O2.

Previously at Simpson Thacher, Ferguson’s practice focuses on cross-border transactions, EU Foreign Subsidies Regulation filings, antitrust investigations and foreign direct investment reviews. He advised Refinitiv on its acquisition by the London Stock Exchange Group and KKR on its acquisition of ContourGlobal.

The firm also brought Matthew Hearn, partner at Linklaters since last year, into its London M&A practice. The move marks the firm’s fourth partner hire from Linklaters, following Dan Schuster-Woldan in January, Nicole Kar in December, and Will Aitken-Davies in September.

Also hiring from Linklaters was Skadden, which hired Sebastian Barling into its financial institutions regulatory group. Barling made partner at Linklaters in 2018 and is recognised as a Legal 500 next-generation partner for financial services: non-contentious and regulatory. He comes to the firm with broad experience advising financial services clients on a wealth of UK and EU regulations.

Hearn’s move to Paul Weiss and Barling’s to Skadden add to a rising total of departures from Linklaters, which lost a total of 12 partners in London in 2023, according to Edwards Gibson’s annual partner moves report.

Meanwhile, Kirkland & Ellis has bolstered its debt finance practice with the hire of partner Vanessa Xu from Allen & Overy. Xu, whose practice specialises in advising financial sponsors on cross-border leveraged finance transactions, is a Legal Business one to watch for debt finance. Dual-qualified as a solicitor in England and Wales and as an attorney and counsellor-at-law in New York, Xu joins other recent hires to Kirkland’s London office, including October arrivals Ian Barratt and Sinead O’Shea, and Marwa Elborai, who is set to join this month.

Elsewhere, Lewis Silkin has added to its commercial disputes offering, with the addition of litigation partner Duran Ross. A Legal 500 rising star for commercial litigation: premium, Ross trained at Lewis Silkin before moving to Linklaters and then to boutique disputes firm Hausfeld. His client book includes major banks, startups, sports brands, founders, family offices, high-net-worth individuals, and insolvency practitioners.

Speaking to Legal Business about his move, Ross said: ‘I trained at the firm back in the day, between 2011 and 2013, and I stayed at the firm for two years post qualification. More recently the disputes practice at Lewis Silkin has been growing and there was an opportunity to come back. There’s lots of growth at the firm, and it feels like coming back home.’

While Ross is a general commercial practitioner, he identifies tech disputes as a key market trend. ‘Tech disputes have been a growth area over the last ten years, and crypto disputes are here to stay. The tech space is rife with disputes: changes in management, new software, new legal issues around AI and copyright. It’s definitely a growing area,’ he said.

Clyde & Co has appointed contentious construction partner Robin Wood to its projects and construction practice. Moving from CMS, Wood, a solicitor advocate, has considerable experience working across the transport, infrastructure, water, electricity transmission, energy, chemical process plants, dredging and marine construction sectors.

In private wealth, Charles Russell Speechlys has strengthened its international offering with the addition of partner Amira Shaker-Bortman. Moving from McDermott Will & Emery, Shaker-Bortman’s client base is primarily based in the Middle East, where she advises Ruling Family PEPs and their corporate structures, alongside other ultra-high-net-worth individuals and family offices.

She has a particular focus on advising ultra-high-net-worth female individuals, to empower them to best manage their assets.

‘My clients are primarily a mixture of Middle Eastern high-net-worth individuals and PEPs. Given the fact that Charles Russell Speechlys is a top-ranked private client firm, with a big investment into the Middle East region, I felt it was a perfect alignment of the strengths and interests of our respective clients,’ Shaker-Bortman said.

Discussing market trends in the private wealth space she added: ‘There is a move to formalise the arrangements of private wealth. There is a remarkable generational shift where Middle Eastern female, ultra-high-net-worth individuals are exercising control and direction over their assets. These clients need advisors that understand their cultural needs but are also commercially savvy.’

Eversheds Sutherland has appointed DLA Piper veteran Barney Smedley to its restructuring practice. Smedley, whose standout mandates include advising on various phases of the Mamas & Papas turnaround and the insolvencies of the Beales department store group, joins recent lateral hires to the firm’s commercial practices including Tim Fosh, Kiran Arora, Walid Salib, and Ben Davis.

Meanwhile, Fieldfisher has hired pensions partner Oliver Reece from PwC. Reece brings with him a team that includes directors Lindsay O’Farrell and Daniel Fowler and associate, Larisa Gordan. He headed PwC’s pensions legal team for 18 years, having worked previously at the Pensions Regulator.

In international moves, Ashurst has bolstered its corporate offering with the appointment of Nicolas Bombrun as partner to its Paris office. A former Shearman & Sterling partner, Bombrun specialises in the energy sector, particularly nuclear, and the biotech and technology sectors.

holly.mckechnie@legalbusiness.co.uk

alexander.ryan@legalbusiness.co.uk

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Following a less than stellar 2023, M&A activity in Q1 has picked up pace as market confidence grows, according to data compiled by Dealogic.

During Q1, global M&A volume increased by 34% compared to Q1 2023, with total deal value reaching $839.2bn.

Taking the top spot for legal advisors ranked by global M&A volume was Skadden, which achieved a 20% market share, with 46 deals worth a total of $170bn. The firm moved up three spots from last year’s ranking, knocking Sullivan & Cromwell from first place.

Discussing his firm’s success, Lorenzo Corte, global head of Skadden’s transaction practices, told Legal Business: ‘We are seeing a resurgence of large M&A dealmaking and a growing pipeline of M&A deals, reflecting a renewed confidence in dealmaking as well as the adaptability of market players.

‘With inflation and interest rates appearing to settle, companies have started to capitalise on strategic opportunities and we’re cautiously optimistic that this momentum of dealmaking will continue for the rest of the year.’

Paul Weiss took second place in the global rankings, with 19% market share and 37 deals, and a total value of $159bn. The remaining spots in the top five were taken by Wachtell, with an 18% market share, Sullivan & Cromwell, with a 14% market share, and Kirkland & Ellis, with a 12% market share.

Last year the top five places were taken by Sullivan & Cromwell, Wachtell, Goodwin, Skadden, and Kirkland. Goodwin has fallen out of the top ten in this year’s ranking.

This year’s global top ten was dominated by US firms, with not a single UK firm making the ranking. Last year Freshfields took tenth place, with a 6% market share – but this year the firm does not feature. Cravath and Gibson Dunn are the two new entrants, in ninth and tenth place respectively.

In the UK rankings, meanwhile, Slaughter and May took first place after ranking eighth last year. The firm achieved a 33% market share with a total deal value of $26bn across ten deals. It was followed by Linklaters in second place, which achieved a 29% market share across ten deals with a total value of $23bn. Skadden placed third, with a 13% market share, followed by White & Case and Sullivan & Cromwell, each with a 12% market share.

Key deals for Slaughters in Q1 included advising ELIQUENT Life Sciences on its acquisition of international regulatory consultancy RApport Global Strategic Services, and advising motoring and cycling products distributor Halfords on its entry into strategic partnership with tyre distributor Bond International, alongside the disposal of select existing tyre supply operations to Bond International.

Speaking to Legal Business, Slaughters’ co-head of corporate and M&A Simon Nicholls said: ‘We’ve been very busy this quarter as the market sees a cautious return to more dealmaking. Our success shows the strength of a broad and well covered client base, and we’re delighted to have helped our clients realise their ambitions. And there’s been real variety in that work – carveouts, agreed mergers, and bid defence – which has been good to see.’

As the markets begin to stabilise, firms will need to build on the growth of Q1 in Q2 and beyond, taking advantage of normalising interest rates and inflation. However, with ongoing geopolitical conflicts around the world, European growth near zero, and the UK slipping into recession at the end of 2023, dealmakers may well find themselves once again buffeted by external forces. In this environment, capitalising on the successes of Q1 will be a vital endeavour for firms eager to make the M&A comeback more than a temporary reprieve.

holly.mckechnie@legalease.co.uk

The post ‘A cautious return’: M&A activity picks up pace as Skadden and Slaughter and May top global and UK rankings respectively appeared first on Legal Business.

Slaughter and May has made up five new partners in its latest round of promotions, a 50% drop from last year’s round of ten.

Four of the new partners are based in London, with the final addition in Brussels.

In London, disputes and investigations associate Ross Francis-Pike, private equity associate Aleezeh Liaqat (pictured, left), financial institutions senior counsel Tom Peacock and competition senior counsel Tina Zhuo (pictured, right) will all join the partnership on 1 May.

Meanwhile, in Brussels, competition lawyer Alexander Chadd has been promoted to partner from senior counsel.

Standout mandates for Chadd include advising Elanco on its acquisition of Bayer’s Animal Health business, and advising Ball Corporation, on its acquisition of Rexam. Liaqat’s recent work includes advising Corsair Capital on the acquisition of a majority stake in MJM Holdings. Peacock previously advised Tata Steel on £7.5bn worth of derisking, as well as advising RSA Group on a £6.5bn derisking of two of RSA’s main defined pension schemes with PIC. Meanwhile, Zhuo has advised Google on several investigations and market studies and advised John Wood Group on its acquisition of Amec Foster Wheeler.

The promotions are in line with diversity and inclusion targets set out by Slaughters in 2021, in which the firm committed to its global equity partner promotions being 40% female by 2027, with at least 15% of London and Brussels promotions between 2020 and 2025 to come from ethnic minority backgrounds.

This year’s cohort is 40% female, with the same percentage coming from an ethnic minority background.

Steve Cooke, Slaughter and May senior partner said: ‘I am very pleased to announce the election of five new partners. Each will make a valued contribution to their respective practice area and to the continued success of the firm.’

The promotions take Slaughters to 106 partners worldwide.

holly.mckechnie@legalease.co.uk

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