Amanda GillHello and welcome to the Fides Weekly Update. Take a look at this week’s key trends, moves and developments in legal and compliance.
Tweet us @Fides_Search to let us know your thoughts.
This week:
Movers & Shakers
Panel Watch
John Lewis to Prioritise Innovation and Diversity in Upcoming Panel Review
Appointments
Goodwin names long-time managing partner as new chairman
Dentons Appoints First Female US Managing Partner
A&L Goodbody appoints second female chair
Former Addleshaws partner takes top legal job at Royal Mail
Deliveroo names new GC following exits
Moves
O’Melveny Loses Another London Partner as A&O Merger Looms
O’Melveny & Myers London funds partner Eve Ellis is leaving to join Ropes & Gray in the office’s third partner departure in the space of a month.
WFW hires director of Clifford Chance’s Africa Group
Titus Edjua joins the energy and infrastructure practice of Watson Farley & Williams following 13 years at the Magic Circle firm
Brown Rudnick loses real estate partner in London
Omega Poole, formerly a legal director at CBRE, joins Mishcon de Reya as a partner in the City
Hogan Lovells hires managing director from UBS
UBS managing director and global head of group investigations governance, reporting and whistleblowing management Arwen Handley to join the financial services litigation practice of Hogan Lovells
DLA Piper makes seventh lateral hire in Dublin
Litigation & Regulatory partner Caoimhe Clarkin joins from local firm A&L Goodbody
Eversheds Adds Hong Kong Technology Practice Leader From Big Four’s PwC
Rhys McWhirter leaves PwC’s Hong Kong affiliate law firm Tiang & Partners to join Eversheds as a consultant and a leader of the firm’s technology, media and telecommunications practice
Mergers & Alliances
DAC Beachcroft Launches in Northern Ireland with Alliance Firm Takeover
Office Openings & Closings
Clifford Chance Paris Trio Form New Firm
Partner Promotions
Diversity Plummets in Bumper Clyde & Co Partner Promotions Round
HSF Misses Female Partnership Target in Latest Promotions
Clydes laments poor gender record in latest promotions
Other
Baker McKenzie Global Chair Dies
Hello and welcome to the Fides Weekly Update. Take a look at this week’s key trends, moves and developments in legal and compliance.
Tweet us @Fides_Search to let us know your thoughts.
This week:
1. Sanctions violations lead to over $1 billion fine for Standard Chartered
Standard Chartered has agreed to pay $1.1bn (£843m) in settlement fees for both violating US sanctions against Iran and inadequate financial crime controls.
The total amount exceeds the $900m initially set aside for the expected sum, and it combines penalties issued from authorities residing in both the UK and US, including the DoJ, New York Department of Financial Services, Manhattan district attorney, Department of Treasury, Federal Reserve and the FCA.
This fine marks an end to a five year-long investigation into sanctions breaches by StanChart and culminated in various extensions to a seven year-long deferred prosecution agreement (DPA). The DoJ claims the DPA will end once bank has “admitted and accepted responsibility for its criminal conduct”, likely in 2021.
According to the FT, the emerging markets bank violated US sanctions placed on not only Iran, but also Myanmar, Cuba, Sudan and Syria, highlighting one example where dollar payments were processed for a correspondent bank supposedly related to the Isis terrorist group, as understood from an investigation by the FCA.
Examining the banks financial crime controls, the FCA found highly lax procedures, particularly in the UAE, where on one occasion an account was opened for a consulate with over £500,000 in cash from a suitcase.
Most of the bank’s wrongdoing occurred in its Dubai branch and London HQ. In the UAE, a former StanChart employee has pleaded in New York state court to sanctions-related violations, and an Iranian customer of the Dubai branch has been criminally charged in Washington D.C.
Meanwhile in London, the bank has been found of multiple AML failings by its UK Correspondent Banking business during the period from November 2010 to July 2013. Mark Steward, Director of Enforcement and Market Oversight at the FCA, said:
‘Standard Chartered’s oversight of its financial crime controls was narrow, slow and reactive. These breaches are especially serious because they occurred against a backdrop of heightened awareness within the broader, global community, as well as within the bank, and after receiving specific attention from the FCA, US agencies and other global bodies about these risks.
There have been numerous sanctions fines reported over the last decade. Here are some of the most high-profile in recent years:
2. Paul Hastings launches new cross-disciplinary AI practice
Paul Hastings has launched a new Artificial Intelligence group with analysts and data scientists from Booz Allen Hamilton.
Lawyers and technologists from the group will join forces to help clients face the legal issues surrounding the use of artificial intelligence, and address its impact across different industries.
The practice is co-chaired by London-based European data privacy and cyber security head Sarah Pearce, and US litigation partner Robert Silvers based in Washington DC. Mr Silvers formerly served as the Assistant Secretary for Cyber Policy at the Department of Homeland Security under the Obama administration.
The 40-lawyer team gathers specialists advising on data privacy and cyber-security, employment, technology transactions, fintech, IP, trade controls, class action and litigation. The technologists in the team were previously absorbed from consultancy Booz Allen Hamiltion in 2017/18, and operate out of Washington DC and Atlanta.
After realising a set of common concerns were arising from the deployment of artificial intelligence across a range of industries, the firm set to establish a cross-practice team to help its clients navigate the issues. This includes the application of emerging technology to new business lines, as well as the governance and ethical considerations of using AI.
The practice will both take on existing matters from the plethora of partners involved and generate its own work out of tech developments in client companies.
The creation of the practice reflects broader efforts in law firms to help clients navigate the issues associated with disruptive technologies. Earlier this month, Norton Rose Fulbright launched its technology consulting practice led by computer scientist and Professor Peter McBurney.
EY in its recent acquisition of Pangea3 from Thompson Reuters, and onboarding of Riverview Law and its disruptive software Kim Technologies last year, also marks a turning point in the use of technology to deliver legal managed services.
Movers & Shakers of the week
Appointments
Sky UK Names Former Olswang Partner as General Counsel
Sky has promoted former Olswang partner Claire Canning to the role of general counsel for its U.K. and Ireland operations
Davis Polk Hong Kong Partner Moves In-House to Flagship Airline Cathay Pacific
Davis Polk & Wardwell Hong Kong partner Paul Chow will leave the firm and join Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd., Hong Kong’s flagship carrier, as its group general counsel.
Linklaters Shakes Up Finance and Projects Management
Linklaters has made its third senior appointment in the firm’s finance and projects division this year, with London partner Daniel Tyrer set to become the firm’s new global head of projects this May.
Moves
Pinsents Finance Trio Defects To Eversheds
Pinsent Masons’ head of financial products and payments Tony Anderson has led a three-lawyer defection to Eversheds Sutherland, joined by consultant Henry Burkitt and associate Charlie Clarence-Smith.
Cooley LA Private Equity Team Heading to Sidley
Mehdi Khodadad, along with colleague Joshua DuClos, have joined Sidley Austin’s Century City office.
Macfarlanes Hires Third Partner In Two Months
Macfarlanes makes its third lateral hire of 2019 with former Ropes & Gray special situations partner Peter Baldwin joining the team
Australia’s Mills Oakley Recruits Former PwC Lawyers as Partners
Former PwC directors Shaun Whittaker and Tony Rutherford join Mills Oakley as partners in Melbourne, in the latest in the battle for talent between the Big Four accounting firms and law firms in Australia.
Stewarts adds firepower in tax disputes with partner hire
Tax litigation partner James Le Gallais joins Stewarts law with Tax directors Lisa Vanderheide and Sarah Stenton from BDO.
Reed Smith innovation supremo exits for AI platform
Reed Smith’s innovation manager Alex Smith has joined artificial intelligence services provider RAVN as Global Product Lead
Office Openings & Closings
Gordon Dadds Picks Up Gibraltar Law Firm as Expansion Continues
Linklaters eyeing Low-Cost Centre Expansion
Partner Promotions
Allen & Overy Promotes Head of Fuse To Partner In 34-Strong Round
Female Partner Count Jumps Sharply For City Trio In Latest Promotions Round
Eversheds Sutherland Moves Towards 30% Gender Target With Latest Promotion Round
Taylor Wessing and Addleshaw Goddard Announce Partner Promotions
Mishcon adds fourth business services professional to partnership
Inclusion and Diversity
Linklaters Opens UK Flexible Working To All
Law Firms Unaware of Which Diversity Initiatives Work, Research Finds
Hello and welcome to the Fides Weekly Update. Take a look at this week’s key trends, moves and developments in legal and compliance.
Tweet us @Fides_Search to let us know your thoughts.
This week:
1. Gender pay gap reporting: Interview with Innes Miller, Co-founder and Chief Commercial Officer of paygaps.com
We caught up with Innes Miller, Co-founder and Chief Commercial Officer at paygaps.com, for his views on the second round of gender pay gap reporting. Click here to read the full interview.
2. Culture of compliance case study: BNP Paribas brings conduct front and centre
As front office compliance becomes a significant theme in the banking sector, BNP Paribas introduces a number of chief conduct and control officers into its front-line business.
Chief compliance officer of the Americas Eric Young has overseen the rollout of a conduct programme that embeds conduct officers, usually associated with back office compliance functions, into first-line businesses. In an interview with Reuters, Young explains:
“They walk the trading floor; they walk the different parts of the business because they are either ex-traders, ex-sales people, and so they know an issue when they see one or hear one… For example, they might hear a trader or sales person on their phone and it just doesn’t sound right. Prevention is in some ways often more important than detection.”
The French lender has hired a number of these individuals into its wealth management division, and given them the responsibility of monitoring and identifying behaviours that could put the institution at risk.
Tools such as big data and analytics have proliferated in the world of compliance, allowing businesses to become much more accurate with the reporting of fraud and financial crime. However, data isn’t as effective in counteracting issues relating to misconduct and non-compliant behaviour. Acting pre-emptively on the front line when these actions could first be identified is still dependent upon human judgement and intervention.
Implementing conduct and control officers is just one of numerous changes the French bank is making to overhaul its internal culture of conduct and compliance. Another method used to tackle high risk behaviour is to link it to financial compensation and promotions. BNP has set behaviour criteria that all employees must adhere to, and this is monitored by human resources and risk management. “In some cases, bonuses have been cut for those who have not made the grade”, said Young.
Furthermore, to reach director and managing director level, a segment of candidate interviews now focuses on behaviour and conduct, ensuring that all senior employees adhere to the bank’s code of conduct. The bank has also introduced a ‘permanent control committee’, which twice a year assesses senior executives and certain individuals identified as ‘material risk takers’, on whether they are behaving appropriately.
The bank’s overhaul of its attitude towards conduct comes as a result of a remediation plan put together in 2014 as part of a settlement with the U.S Department of Justice (DoJ) over U.S. sanctions violations, which also resulted in a $8.9 billion penalty. The bank was also fined $350 million in 2017 by the New York Department of Financial Services for illegal foreign exchange related conduct.
Click here to read the full Reuters interview with BNP Paribas’ chief compliance officer Eric Young
Movers & Shakers of the week
Panel Watch
Five Firms Awarded £16M Government Legal Panel Contract
Moves
Weil Gotshal hires Clifford Chance partner in Paris
Weil, Gotshal & Manges has hired Benjamin de Blegiers from Clifford Chance in Paris as a private equity and M&S partner
Second Akin Gump partner heads for Dechert
Akin Gump partner Sarah Smith will join Dechert’s finance practice in London
Office Openings & Closings
Norton Rose Fulbright closes its office in Colombia
Dentons absorbs Australian firm Gadens’ Adelaide branch
Inclusion & Diversity
Linklaters expands reverse mentoring scheme to all partners
HFW boosts number of women on global management board
Technology & Innovation
EY acquires Thomson Reuters managed legal services arm
Slaughters and five US firms are latest to back legal tech startup Reynen Court
Bird & Bird creates new online platform for start-ups
EY poised to swoop for Thomson Reuters’ managed legal services arm
Partner Promotions
Dentons reveals 25 new UK and European partners in latest promotions round
Penningtons Manches makes up seven lawyers to partner
Pinsent Masons makes 15 global partner promotions
Freshfields promotes eight City lawyers to partner in expanded round
We caught up with Innes Miller, Co-founder and Chief Commercial Officer at paygaps.com, for his views on the second round of gender pay gap reporting.
Paygaps.com helps organisations improve their diversity and gender pay gap performance by providing insights and easy to use resources for organisations to use to analyse and report their pay gap data.
First things first Innes, are you seeing firm’s report earlier and with more accuracy this year?
In short, no. We have tracked reporting figures from this and last year, and of this date in March 2018, 6,666 firms had reported compared to 4,426 firms today.[1] So it is evident that many companies have left in later than last year, most probably due to Brexit and Brexit uncertainty.
There will be an element of strategic reporting too – organisations withholding the publication of their gender pay gap reports, or working with others to issue on the same day. It’s very disappointing when organisations choose to do this though, as they are not taking the legislation seriously and acting as if they have something to hide.
In terms of accuracy, there are still inaccurate reports being issued. I can’t fully comment on this until all the reports are submitted, but based on some of the numbers we’re seeing, organisations are still reporting inaccurately.
Across the board, have you seen gender pay gaps go up, down or stay the same?
So far there has been a marginal 0.3% improvement on the median gender pay gap. The bonus pay gap has seen a much bigger improvement of 20.8%, although this could be because many of the organisations with the highest bonus gaps – such as financial services – are yet to report.
Nevertheless, some companies have realised that their bonus payments are out of alignment through conducting pay reviews. It also highlights the need to get women into more roles that pay high bonuses, such as client service or sales roles traditionally dominated by men.
What factors impact the pay gap within an organisation?
Bonus payment, pipeline and talent management, lateral talent, career paths of males and females to name a few. Organisations need to identify the issues that are preventing women from reaching the upper echelons of their business.
The motherhood penalty – and assumptions around this – are a clear factor too, in which instance, firms need to do the best of their ability to ease the transition of women back into work after maternity leave.
How could gender pay reporting in the UK be improved?
Current legislation could be improved in a number of ways.
Partner pay needs to be added to the legislation. The BEIS committee’s consultation report on the gender pay gap reporting offers some valid recommendations as to why this should be done.
Firms should also have to provide more data around different job levels, similar to the approach taken in Australia. Here employers can choose one of two options ; i) unit level data, or ii) aggregated data which requires a breakdown of job levels for managers and non-managers data. Adopting a similar approach here in the UK would bring greater understanding and transparency around pay gaps.
Organisations should also have to publish their action plans for closing the gap. Although there has been a lot of talk about what businesses are doing internally, publishing an action plan gives something firms can commit to that would result in meaningful change. Each organisation should report their key aims for closing the gap, and have listed the executive(s) accountable in the organisation for doing this. However, this raises the question as to how this would be monitored.
The legal sector is seeing the reporting of other types of pay gap, such as ethnicity, disability and sexuality? Have you seen this trend across any other sectors?
The Big 4 consulting firms are ahead in their reporting of other kinds of pay gaps. For example, they have all reported on ethnicity. But apart from this, the voluntary disclosure of this information has been very limited.
Firms need to recognise the advantage of diversity to better utilise the talent they have, as well as making the business more attractive to diverse talent when considering whether or not to report this data.
In some instances, we have seen the mean hourly pay gap narrow, but the median increase? What does this tell us?
Mean figures are radically impacted upon by outliers, such as senior figures getting remunerated disproportionately, where median figures are more representative of what actually is going on in firms.
A rise in the median suggests a lack of pipeline management across quartiles, most likely a higher number of men in the top quartile who continue to be remunerated highly.
Last year, law firms were lobbied by the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) Committee to voluntarily include partner pay figures as part of their calculations. Do you feel this is a meaningful step forward?
Reporting partner pay is a meaningful step forward as it gives a better representation of the true gender pay gap within firms. This is not to say it is necessarily an easy or straightforward task, with equity partners paid a share in the firm’s profits and losses and also have their yearly pay amount decided by a remuneration committee.
Saying this, law firms should display leadership and do the right thing in this instance. The government have announced that there is to be no changes to the gender pay gap legislation for 5 years, but continued press and buyer pressure – such as the open letter signed by 170 US GC’s to campaign for greater diversity amongst their legal suppliers – means that there are other good reasons why law firms should report on this.
Many firms are saying that it is going to take a few years for the initiatives they introduced to address their gender pay gap to ‘bed in’. Do you feel that this is a valid response from businesses?
Initiatives will definitely take time to bed in as there is no quick fix to this. There needs to be a lasting commitment from leadership teams to close their gender pay gaps, as these will likely change over before organisations start to see any real progress in narrowing their gaps.
Some organisations have played a numbers game. Some asset managers for example hired female non-executive directors to address their gender pay gap at board level, and to demonstrate to investors they were making progress on the issue. However, a flurry of hiring is only a superficial fix and does not equal long term change and the need for greater equality at all levels in the organisation.
Are there any other trends you have seen with the reporting of this years’ data?
Organisations are still treating gender pay gap reporting as a compliance exercise, rather than seeing it as valid reason to drive positive change within their business. Once organisations realise the importance of being a good organisation to work for and with, only then will we see the numbers really start to change.
Gender pay gap reporting is an opportunity for firms to step back and think about what they are really doing to make an impact. Law firms themselves should also display leadership on this issue, given the fact that they are advising their clients on how to accurately report this data.
[1] Interview conducted on Thursday 28th March 2019. All statistics correct of that date.
Hello and welcome back to the Fides Weekly Update. Check in here to find out what’s been happening in your industry this week. Scroll down to read our regular feature Movers & Shakers of the week.
We love to hear from our readers! Feel free to get in touch on LinkedIn or Twitter
This week:
1). FCA issues record fine to Goldman Sachs for MiFid reporting errors stretching a decade
Goldman Sachs in London has landed a £34.3m fine from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) for misreporting more than 220m transactions over a 10-year period.
The fine is the largest handed out by the UK’s financial watchdog for transaction-reporting failures under MiFid, topping the £27.6m fine UBS received earlier this month by the regulator for similar errors.
The FCA said on Thursday that the bank had failed to provide “accurate and timely reporting” on more than 213m transactions between November 2007 and March 2017. The bank then reported 6.6m transactions that it did not, in fact, have to. This is equivalent to about 15% of the total of Goldman’s transactions over the same period.
Specifically, the failings related to Goldman’s change management processes, its maintenance of the counterparty reference data used in its reporting and how it tested whether all the transactions it reported to the FCA were accurate and complete.
The FCA has been cracking down on sloppy reporting of data, which it uses to spot market abuse and financial crime. Goldman is now the 14th company the FCA has fined over Mifid reporting failures.
The regulator has also dished out penalties to UBS AG, Merrill Lynch International, Deutsche Bank AG, RBS, James Sharp & Co, Plus500UK, City Index, Société Générale, Commerzbank AG, Instinet Europe Limited, Getco Europe Limited, Credit Suisse, Barclays Capital Securities and Barclays Bank.
Goldman co-operated with the FCA and agreed to settle, qualifying for a 30 per cent discount on a fine that otherwise would have been £49m.
Tougher transaction reporting rules were introduced after the financial crisis in 2008 to prevent market abuse. Banks are meant to report details such as the product traded and information on the price, quantity and venue of the trade, the counterparty, and any client information.
The relevant Mifid rules were replaced by a tougher investor protection regime known as Mifid II in January 2018, which is intended to improve transparency.
The fine comes at an uncomfortable time for Goldman Sachs which was recently caught up in the Malaysian 1MDB corruption scandal.
Mark Steward, the FCA’s executive director of enforcement, said: “The failings in this case demonstrate a failure over an extended period to manage and test controls that are vitally important to the integrity of our markets.
“These were serious and prolonged failures.”
Former director of investigations at the FCA and current partner in Brown Rudnick’s global white collar crime and regulatory investigations group Jamie Symington added:
He added: “The FCA stresses in this latest case that it feels it has given the industry considerable support with getting transaction reporting right, and has explained its importance to market and firm surveillance.
“In recent years the FCA has invested heavily to develop market surveillance technology, but that is reliant on firms providing good quality data.”
2). DLA continues to face repercussions from major cyberattack
Having been crippled for almost two weeks by a ransomware attack that cut access to all phones and computers, DLA Piper is still dealing with the aftermath of the NotPetya outbreak. Two years on, the firm now looks to battle out a dispute with insurer Hiscox after DLA was denied a multimillion-dollar insurance claim.
Initial reports in The Times stated the reason DLA was denied the claim was due to an “act of war” exclusion clause. It has been identified that the June 2017 cyberattack was initiated in Ukraine, possibly by a Russian state entity, which could therefore be defined as a ‘warlike action’.
However, a Hiscox spokesperson has recently released a statement arguing different reasons for the dispute: “They don’t have the right cover. The dispute we are in with DLA Piper is about a cyber policy and has nothing to do with a war exclusion.”
As a result of the same ransomware outbreak, Cadbury owner Mondelez is also suing its insurer Zurich over its denied $100 million claim for damage. These cases will be the first serious legal disputes over how companies can recover the costs of a cyberattack, which will likely set precedents to come as the risk of cybercrime progressively rises.
Due to the rise of both the frequency and severity of cyberattacks on global organisations, insurers are building cyber-specific insurance policies, which has become a growing market over the last few years. Currently around 80 per cent of cyber insurance policies are held by US businesses, a market now worth up to $3bn.
The NotPetya attack on DLA Piper shined a spotlight on the vulnerabilities of global law firms’ IT systems and their susceptibility to cyberattacks. In response to this, GCHQ’s National Cyber Security Centre released a report outlining the key cyber threats to the UK legal sector. Citing phishing attacks, data breaches, ransomware attacks as the main threats specific to the legal sector, the report provides practical guidance on how to mitigate these risks as well as highlights the areas that are most ripe for exploitation.
3). Movers & Shakers
Panel Watch
Insurance firm Zurich awards seven law firms places on its updated UK legal panel
Appointments
Fieldfisher’s Condor undergoes management reshuffle and sets growth plans following partner exits
Linklaters Managing Partner Voted In With Reduced Term
Moves
Proskauer global transactional practice takes another hit
Funds partner Andrew Shire departs Proskauer Rose’s London office to join Kirkland & Ellis. His departure comes a day after the firm lost a 20-strong transactions team to Kirkland, announced yesterday.
Taylor Wessing bolsters Polish outfit with team hire
Taylor Wessing has hired Corporate partner Andrzej Mikosz into the firm’s Warsaw office. He joins from K&L Gates, bringing with him counsel Jakub Pitera, who will join as a partner, along with two associates.
CC looks in-house to replenish PE team
Clifford Chance has added Toby Parkinson as a partner in its City office. He joins from real estate asset manager OMERS Infrastructure where he served as a legal director.
Bakers Botts makes addition to its Brussels practice
Former A&O counsel Leigh Hancher joins Baker Botts in Brussels to advise on EU energy regulatory law.
Ashurst expands construction disputes offering in the Middle East
Pinsent Masons partner Bill Smith departs the firm to join Ashurst’s Dubai office, sitting in the firm’s global dispute resolution practice.
Financials
MoFo global turnover drops 2% whilst London office sees financial growth
Mammoth growth for Simmons’ flexible resourcing unit as revenue soars by 230 per cent over the last year
Inclusion & Diversity
Bird & Bird increases efforts on diversity initiatives to focus on improving gender parity within the firm
Innovation and Technology
A&O reveals startups set to join newest round in its Fuse incubator
Hello and welcome back to the Fides Weekly Update. Check in here to find out what’s been happening in your industry this week. Scroll down to read our regular feature Movers & Shakers of the week.
We love to hear from our readers! Feel free to get in touch on LinkedIn or Twitter
This week:
1). FCA dishes out record-breaking fine for decade-long compliance failure
Swiss bank UBS has been hit with the largest fine related to transaction reporting failures imposed by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
For breaches spanning from November 2007 to May 2017, the UK watchdog has fined UBS £27.6 million. These breaches include the misreporting of information in relation to 87 million transactions, as well as wrongly reporting a further 50 million transactions over the 10 year period.
In breach of legacy MiFID I requirements, the Swiss bank had not put in place adequate systems and controls to report transactions. The FCA’s executive director of enforcement Mark Steward stresses the importance of these tools: “If firms cannot report their transactions accurately, fundamental risks arise, including the risk that market abuse may be hidden.”
Errors were made on the reporting of transactions such as equity derivatives, trades for portfolio managers and prop traders, and credit default swaps.
Thankfully for UBS, their cooperation with the investigation granted the bank a 30 per cent discount on the penalty, which could have ultimately amounted to almost £40 million.
A number of big banks have previously been fined for transaction reporting, although this penalty is by far the largest levied by the FCA for this form of misconduct. Prior to this, the largest and most recent transaction reporting penalty was Merrill Lynch’s £13.2 million fine in April 2015. This was on account of inaccurately reporting 25 million transactions and its failure to entirely report 121,000 transactions.
This fine is the latest in a spate of bad press for UBS. This week the bank posted the weakest revenues in recent history from its investment banking unit. Compared to Q1 last year, figures were down by roughly a third, whilst the bank’s core wealth management business saw revenues fall by 9 per cent, the FT reports.
Furthermore, female bankers at UBS have been making statements on the bank’s poor management of those returning from maternity leave, specifically the unfair cuts made to their bonus packages, sustained even after a number of years of returning to employment.
2). SRA Finalises plan for foreign solicitor qualification in event of a no deal Brexit
The Solicitor’s Regulation Authority (SRA), the UK’s legal regulator, confirmed changing the rules regarding how non-UK solicitors will qualify to practice in England and Wales ahead of a no-deal Brexit.
Under current legislation, EU lawyers are able to apply for exemptions on a topic by topic basis from the Qualified Lawyers Transfer Scheme (QLTS), which all foreign-qualified lawyers must sit to qualify in England and Wales.
This affords them the same rights as individuals in England and Wales who have completed their LPC, and qualified Barristers looking to transition their practice, although currently no such exemptions are offered to lawyers from beyond the EU.
The QLTS is split into two parts: a 5 hour 30 minute multiple choice test (MCT) designed to assess candidate’s knowledge of the law and how it is applied in England and Wales, and an Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) to test candidates transactional and dispute resolution skills, client relationship skills and professional values, behaviours, attitudes and ethics.
However, in the event of a ‘no-deal’ Brexit, which remains the default legal position unless a withdrawal agreement is secured, this system would have to change as under World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules – which the SRA would now need to adhere to – the regulator cannot offer preferential treatment to some nationalities over others.
The solution implemented will allow all foreign lawyers to apply for exemptions of the QLTS, but these would only be offered on the basis that they cover the entirety of either or both parts of the test (the MCT and/or OSCE). Whether exemptions are granted will continue to depend upon a case-by-case review of that lawyer’s qualifications and experience.
Whatever the outcome of the Brexit negotiations, arrangements for solicitors from Scotland and Northern Ireland will continue unchanged, and EU-based lawyers wishing to apply under the current exemptions regime can still do so providing their application is received before the date any no deal Brexit becomes effective.
3). Movers & Shakers
Panel Watch
Amazon demands firms show “added value” in European review
Appointments
Dechert Ushers In New All-Male City Leadership Line-Up
Locke Lord appoints new London Managing Partner
Moves
Linklaters Dispatches Top Partner to U.K. Financial Watchdog To Bolster Expertise
Linklaters sends top disputes partner Gavin Lewis on six month secondment to Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
DWF Hits Dentons For First Post-IPO Partner Hire
DWF has made the first hire post-IPO with the recruitment of Dentons real estate finance partner Brendan Slack.
Dechert hires Akin Gump funds partner in London
Akin Gump investment funds partner Thiha Tun has joined Dechert’s London office
Pinsent Masons to Launch Flexi-Lawyer Service Vario in Hong Kong With Former Axiom Asia Head
Kirsty Dougan joins Vario as Asia managing director based in Hong Kong.
Bird & Bird makes Big Four hire in Hamburg
Hartmut Horner joins Bird & Bird as a partner from Deloitte’s Swiss business, where he was general counsel in the firm’s consulting group
Morrison & Foerster Adds Investigations and Corporate Governance Partners in Germany
Roland Steinmeyer and Patrick Späth join from WilmerHale in Berlin
Mergers & Alliances
Addleshaws and U.S. Firm Held Merger Talks Last Year
Big Four’s Deloitte to Expand Its Hong Kong Law Firm
Office Openings & Closings
Milbank Grows London Footprint By 30 Percent With New Office
Partner Promotions
Slaughters Slashes Partner Promotions Round Making Up One Lawyer
Financials
Kirkland poised to keep top spot as highest-grossing law firm as PEP hits $5m and revenue jumps 18%
Weil Gotshal London Revenue Jumps 14% As Firm Hits New Highs
Profits Per Partner Hit $5 Million at Paul Weiss
Diversity & Inclusion
Baker McKenzie Sets Target for London BAME Workforce in Latest Pay Gap Report
65 UK and European GCs Sign Letter Calling For Law Firms to Improve Diversity
Bird & Bird Pays Female Partners More, Latest Gender Pay Report Shows
Innovation and Technology
Italian Law Firm Enters Partnership with Fintech Association
Hello and welcome back to the Fides Weekly Update. Check in here to find out what’s been happening in your industry this week. Scroll down to read our regular feature Movers & Shakers of the week.
We love to hear from our readers! Feel free to get in touch on LinkedIn or Twitter
This week:
1. Brookfield buys majority stake in Oaktree to become one of the world’s largest alternative asset managers
Brookfield Asset Management announced on Wednesday that it was buying a majority stake in Oaktree Capital Management in a $4.7 billion deal, creating one of the world’s largest alternative asset managers.
Brookfield will acquire a 62 per cent stake in Oaktree, with the combined businesses having about $475 billion of assets under management and $2.5 billion of annual fee-related revenue.
Lead competitor Blackstone Group reported $472 billion at year-end, although this did not include debt owed to the firm which would increase AUM to $650 billion a spokesperson said.
The deal will bolster the credit business of Brookfield, which has traditionally focused on real estate, infrastructure and renewable power. It also provides Oaktree, a specialist in distressed debt, exposure to assets that thrive in turbulent economic times.
The decision by Oaktree, led by 72 year old billionaire Howard Marks, comes after a sustained period in which its stock has underperformed the broader market. Shares in the firm, which has $120bn in assets under management, are 13% down over the past 5 years and have performed disappointingly since the firm floated it on the public markets in 2012.
Both companies will continue to operate as independent businesses, while Marks will join Brookfield’s board of directors. However, the terms of the transaction allow Brookfield to take full ownership of Oaktree by 2029.
This could spur further investment industry deals as alternative asset managers face pressure to broaden their offerings as institutional investors seek to make big allocations to fewer firms.
Oaktree is the second U.S. alternative asset manager to sell itself in recent years, since Fortress Investment Group agreed to be acquired by Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp for about $3.3 billion in 2017.
2. Another week, another law firm IPO…
As DWF commences its first day of trading on the London Stock Exchange today, news this week has focused on the outcomes for the firm partners, with various members of senior management expected to fare well as a result of the listing.
Releasing 26% of its share capital to the public, DWF partners will retain majority share, but will have their lock-in period amended to allow for 20% of their capital to be released after the first year of trading. Offer price for the available 26% has been set at 122 pence a share, which values the business at £366 million – the highest law firm listing value in the UK to date.
Some of the key members due to make £1m+ from the IPO include:
DWF Managing partner Andrew Leaitherland expects this deal to allow the firm to achieve a greater scope of international reach and scale, capitalising on its ability to offer tech-driven alternative legal services in response to high client demand for more flexible solutions. The firm’s prospectus also highlights its “high quality client base across variety of sectors” and “an understanding of client needs in an international context” as a further strategic target for growth, delivering repeat client revenue.
Although law firm IPOs are becoming relatively commonplace in today’s marketplace, securing a premium listing on the Main Market is a ground-breaking move in the UK legal sector, with all previous law firm IPOs having executed flotations on the AIM Market.
The first ever law firm listing took place in 2007 by Slater & Gordon, with Gateley floating on London AIM market in June 2015. In 2017, two further firms announced their intentions to go public, as Gordon Dadds and Keystone Law both joined the LSE’s AIM in August and November respectively. The most recent law firm IPO was made by Rosenblatt, whose first day of trading began in May 2018.
Clifford Chance and Allen & Overy advised on the DWF IPO, with Stifel Nicolaus and Jefferies operating as joint bookrunners.
Movers & Shakers of the week
Appointments
Jones Day appoints partner Anna Cartwright to lead London corporate practice
Clifford Chance hires Tiernan Brady as first Global Head of Inclusion
Taylor Wessing hires Martin Lewis as new chief financial and operating officer from CBRE
Paul Hastings Names Olivier Vermeulen as New Chair of Paris Office
Law school supremo Peter Crisp to head up new ULaw Hong Kong venture
Moves
Banking partner joins White & Case after only two years at King & Spalding
Fergus Wheeler makes the move to White & Case from US rival King & Spalding
Latham & Watkins Strikes Again With Magic Circle Hire
Linklaters insurance partner Victoria Sander is set to join Latham’s London base next month
Ince & Co makes team hire in Hong Kong
Ince & Co’s Hong Kong office has hired partners Eric Lui and Ian Lo and a team of more than 10 fee earners from local firm ONC Lawyers, including senior disputes associate Alfred Lau, who will join in April as a partner.
Mergers & Alliances
Allen & Overy and O’Melveny Hone In On Key Merger Terms
Office Openings & Closings
Crowell & Moring Enters Asia, Hires Away Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner’s Shanghai Team
Bakers accelerates efficiency plans with fourth back office launch
Partner Promotions
Linklaters Hits 20 Percent Female Partnership Via Largest Promotion Round Since 2007
Financials
DWF Floats For £95m But Misses Value Target
Baker McKenzie Adopts Black Box System for U.S. Equity Partner Pay
Mayer Brown Revenue Jumps as Firm Boosts New York Practice, International Work
Debevoise posts record financials globally and in the City
Inclusion & Diversity
Orrick Ousts Paris Partner After Investigation Into Inappropriate Conduct
A&O rolls out ‘appraisal app’ to let associates get real-time feedback
Taylor Wessing buys Headspace wellness app subscription for all staff
Innovation and Technology
Norton Rose Fulbright responds to fintech boom with practice launch
Other
Willkie Farr co-chair “placed on leave of absence” in wake of admissions scandal
In celebration of International Women’s Day 2019, we have decided to profile the most inspirational women in our Network. These women are not just exceptional in their own right, but have been role models in furthering the debate for greater gender equality in the legal and financial services sectors.
They have supported, mentored and pulled up female lawyers around them, called out and educated others on unconscious bias and have taken to the stage to publicly advocate for equal opportunity. All whilst building phenomenally successful careers, with many balancing this with also raising a family.
Today we share their stories and celebrate their achievements to raise awareness in creating a more gender balanced world.
Amanda Gill
Amanda Gill is a Managing Director at Deutsche Bank, and head of the Global Credit Trading and Emerging Markets Legal Team.
She is a passionate advocate of gender equality in legal and financial services, encouraging her team members and other women at the bank to play to their strengths, be open-minded and authentic.
Amanda mentors junior female lawyers within Deutsche Bank’s London and Birmingham offices. Having benefitted from a mentor herself, Amanda is keen for others to understand the importance of self-awareness and it’s role in tackling unconscious bias. She has also been a member of Deutsche Bank’s gender diversity network, dbGO.
To increase awareness of D&I within her team, Amanda introduced a ‘D&I moment’ to the end of each of her team meetings last year. These give team members an opportunity to explore and share different aspects of D&I. Examples from recent meetings include a general knowledge D&I quiz, an overview of the most recent research findings into reducing the gender pay gap and thoughts on the impact on communities of failure to accept cultural and social differences.
Amanda is also a member of the Law Society’s in-house division committee, which helps develop, promote and represent the needs of lawyers in house.
Stephanie Pagni
Stephanie Pagni is an inspirational female leader with a stellar in-house legal career. 
Moving from magic circle firm Allen & Overy, Stephanie joined the group litigation function at Barclays in 2005, later taking responsibility for the litigation services at Barclays Capital. She was the architect of the bank’s first class global litigation and regulatory enforcement group, uniting disputes and investigations capability across different business lines into a single global team. This created greater scope for internal progression, and allowed Barclays to coordinate a team of highly skilled lawyers at a time of increased global regulatory scrutiny. The team were credited for tackling some of the highest profile disputes to have hit the financial services sector.
Stephanie joined Barclays Legal Executive Committee in 2014 and has since transitioned to a General Counsel role. As General Counsel for Barclays UK, one of the most recognised UK brands, she is accountable for leading the UK Legal function to support Barclays ring fenced bank in its strategic objectives.
Stephanie supports various diversity initiatives, and acts as a role model for her team in balancing work and family life. She is an active supporter of the BLD Legal Launchpad, which works to provide access to the Legal profession primarily targeted at ethnic minority Law students and non-Law students at university in the UK. She also champions technology and innovation in the legal sector, spearheading the launch of LawTech innovation hub Eagle Lab in 2018.
Sasha Scott
Sasha Scott has become a leading influencer promoting workplace inclusivity in the legal, banking, professional services and financial sectors.
She is the founder and managing director of the Inclusive Group, a consultancy specialising in mindfulness coaching and tackling the complexities of unconscious bias. Sasha educates senior management on the commercial drivers behind reducing bias within an organisation and the critical need to promote and sustain inclusive workplace cultures.
Having spent the first ten years of her career working in a high performance investment banking unit at Credit Lyonnnais, LIFFE and then UBS, Sasha is aware of the issues and challenges for women in such a non-diverse environment. With this experience, Sasha exited the industry to launch the Inclusive Group and in 2016, spent considerable time in the US to expand her knowledge and refine her skills which keeps her at the cutting edge of her field. She is passionate about inclusion and helping embed and measure belonging within business.
Sasha’s insights have earned her a prominent reputation in the market. A regular panel speaker across the globe, Sasha advises on a range of diversity issues. She has also featured in numerous publications, such as The Times, The Guardian, City AM, The Lawyer and Law Gazette, and also made an appearance on the BBC.
Suzanne Szczetnikowicz 
Suzanne Szczetnikowicz is a Senior Associate in the Project, Energy and Infrastructure Finance Group at Milbank in London. Suzanne has extensive experience advising project sponsors and lenders in the development, financing and restructuring of significant, cross-border and strategic projects and joint ventures globally across a broad range of energy and infrastructure sectors. She most recently co-led the team advising Athens International Airport on a landmark concession extension financing, which completed this month.
A passionate advocate for the advancement of women in the legal profession, she was a 2014 co-founder of the Women In Law London Network (WILL), and joined the advisory board of Thomson Reuters Transforming Women’s Leadership in the Law (TWLL) programme when it launched in London in 2017, alongside some of the most influential advocates of gender balance in the sector. In 2017, she was honoured with a ‘Rising Star’ award by WeAreTheCity for her contribution to raising awareness of gender equality, one of only 5 winners in the legal category. She was also a 2017 Finalist in the First 100 Years Inspirational Women in Law awards and was featured as an Inspirational Woman in the City by Brummell magazine. Suzanne continues to be highly involved with the D&I and wellbeing agenda at Milbank.
Suzanne is a regular panel speaker, including featuring at the TWLL programme’s inaugural conference, participating on a panel addressing what law firms need to do to attract and retain women. In September 2018, she also led a plenary session at the Women in Law Summit on how female associates can get their voices heard from early on in their careers.
In March 2017, Suzanne’s long-standing interest in classical music led her to join the Board of Trustees of Aurora Orchestra.
Vicky Wickremeratne
Vicky’s career has provided her with an invaluable awareness of obstacles for gender balance in the legal and finance industries.
She secured a training contract at top flight law firm Linklaters, and practiced employment law in London for 10 years before joining Goldman Sachs in Asia, where she was promoted to managing director. Vicky returned to London in 2013, where she re-joined UK law firm Simmons & Simmons and was quickly promoted to partnership.
Working at a leading global investment bank, at the same time as raising a family, allowed Vicky to advocate for equality by acting as a role model for other women in her industry.
As a partner at Simmons & Simmons, Vicky has worked hard to promote fellow women in the firm, trying to break down perceived barriers amongst her peers, as well as both mentoring and sponsoring up and coming lawyers. Vicky is an LGBT Ally and Chair of the Simmons & Simmons Allies Network.
Her ability to view the diversity debate from both the law firm and client side has made Vicky an excellent contributor to thought leadership around this topic, bringing a unique perspective to the multitude of issues facing a business when seeking to attain a diverse workforce.
Hello and welcome back to the Fides Weekly Update. Here you’ll find a summary of what’s been happening in your industry this week.
For a brief round-up of the key developments, scroll down to take a look our regular ‘Movers & Shakers of the Week’ feature.
We always love to hear from our readers! Feel free to get in touch over LinkedIn or Twitter.
This Week:
1. Regulator efforts to discourage the use of dark pools had ‘limited success’
Following the first anniversary since the launch of MiFID II, Europe’s financial regulator has looked into its success in curbing the amount of dark pool trading as part of its annual ‘Trends, Risks and Vulnerabilities’ (TRV) report.
Under the MiFID II directive, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) devised and implemented a temporary cap on trading volumes in dark pools, with an aim to guide investors to trade on public exchanges. The report confirms that the cap led to a considerable fall in trading, where volumes in dark pools were only 1 percent of the total traded in August 2018, compared to 7 percent six months earlier.
However, the cap was lifted in September and caused dark pool activity to bounce back to 5 percent, demonstrating continued investor interest.
Dark pools can present disadvantages for public investors as prices are hidden on dark pool trades until after completion, by which point the public investor is in a worse trading position.
In order to remedy this without prohibiting dark pools, which are important tools for institutional investors to carry out sizeable trades, regulators decided to place a temporary cap on the total volumes of trading that can take place per individual stock in a dark pool.
ESMA was given a deadline of 3rd March to submit feedback to the European Parliament on the impact of its volume cap mechanism. It’s now expected that the regulator will have to amend its rules given the cap has proved an ineffective solution in dissuading investors in the long-term.
Also featured in the report were concerns around the risks of individuals investing in risky products, such as virtual currencies and Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs), as well as high level market risk pertaining to uncertainties from ongoing Brexit negotiations.
Access ESMA’s full TRV report here.
2. Law firm research indicates the most effective initiatives to increase gender equality at your firm
Preliminary results released by Thomson Reuters Transforming Women’s Leadership in Law (TWLL) programme and legal research platform Acritas, reveal that not all initiatives to increase gender diversity in law firms are effective.
By correlating female retention rates with the diversity initiatives implemented at participating law firms, the study hopes to identify the most effective practices for driving greater gender equality in law firms.
The initiatives with the greatest positive impact on female retention include: mandatory female representation on pitching teams, publicly declaring gender targets and having a quota for the number of female candidates on partnership promotion rounds.
On the other hand, women-only groups and networks were shown to be the least effective, most likely because such initiatives fail to engage the wider firm and lack the social accountability of the above policies.
Acritas chief executive and TWLL UK Advisory Board member Lisa Hart Shepherd said: “[The project is] about giving leadership and the diversity heads in law firms, and general counsel, some evidence to say, ‘these are the things you have to have in place to enable diversity’.
“We want to help the market as a whole to identify something it can truly embrace to encourage diversity.”
The data so far has been collected from 30 law firms, including three of the five magic circle firms, most of the ‘silver circle’ firms, and some European firms. The project is now calling for more to take part – especially top 100 firms – during the coming weeks.
The complete findings of the joint research between Thomson Reuters and Acritas will be published later this year.
3. Movers & Shakers of the week
Panel Watch
National Grid Set to Overhaul U.K. Legal Panel
Appointments
SFO appoints first female general counsel
Moves
Rare Partner Moves at Macfarlanes as it Loses Two and Hires One
Macfarlanes is set to lose two of its private client lawyers, including its private client property head Tristan Ward, while picking up another partner from Charles Russell Speechlys
Dentons makes Brexit move with trade group launch
Firms secures hire for new group aimed at helping Dentons to win national and cross-border investigation work ahead of Brexit
Schillings’ prized family team departs en masse from firm
Schillings is to lose its seven-strong family team, led by partner Davina Katz, who is launching her own firm
Mayer Brown targets corporate with Hogan Lovells Asia hire
Mayer Brown has hired Hogan Lovells corporate partner Steven Tran as it continues to flesh out its corporate practice in Hong Kong.
Freshfields Recruits Top CFIUS Official as Washington Partner
Aimen Mir joins Freshfields from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) where he was a key official charged with reviewing and approving foreign investment transactions.
Mergers & Alliances
DWF Continues Australia Expansion, Merges With Melbourne Boutique
Office Openings & Closings
Cooley to open Hong Kong office with Skadden partner hire
Capital markets lawyer Will Cai will help the Palo Alto-based firm launch its third Asian office after Shanghai and Beijing.
Shearman delivers on Seoul promise with office launch
Shearman & Sterling is relocating three of its lawyers to South Korea as the firm opens an office in the country’s capital led by recently made up partner, Anna Chung.
Partner Promotions
Macfarlanes Promotes Only One Woman in Nine-Strong Round
Financials
Morgan Lewis U.K. Profits Soar Over 70% Amid London Partnership Changes
Covington’s City turnover soars above $100m
Revenue and Partner Profits Hit New Highs at Paul Hastings
Hogan Lovells posts Revenue and Profit rises
US financials: Paul Hastings joins the $3m PEP club
Inclusion and Diversity
Law firm Research Finds Some Diversity Initiatives Are Counter-Productive
Morgan Lewis and the #MeToo bot: The next stage of the firm’s tech plans
Technology and Innovation
Two Slaughters partners take the lead in new quest for legal tech
Hello and welcome back to the Fides Weekly Update. Here you’ll find a summary of what’s been happening in your industry this week.
For a brief round-up of the key developments, scroll down to take a look our regular ‘Movers & Shakers of the Week’ feature.
We always love to hear from our readers! Feel free to get in touch over LinkedIn or Twitter.
This Week:
1). Axiom proceeds with stock exchange listing
Leading alternative legal services provider Axiom Law is to become the latest in a raft of firms to tap into the public market for investment as it is set to list on the New York Stock Exchange.
The announcement did not reveal the size of the stake being offered, but entry to the New York Stock Exchange would create a significant expansion of the publicly listed legal services sector.
While Axiom is not a regulated law firm, it employs some 2,000 lawyers and other professionals globally, providing services to half the Fortune 100 companies. With the firm’s global figures totalling $360m (£280m), UK revenues neared the £50m mark last year, up from £30m in 2015.
The firm has expanded in recent years via more traditional routes including a series of acquisitions and joint ventures. In 2016 it acquired the general counsel business of Toronto-based law firm Cognition, adding a team of almost 50 lawyers and a client roster that included 60 global corporations. Late last year it also entered into a strategic collaboration with LegalWorks Nordic to service customers in the region.
However, the firm also announced that it has spun off two of its divisions into independent companies in preparation for the move; data analytics arm Knowable and legal solutions platform Axiom Managed Solutions. These businesses will pursue their own separate investment strategies according to a statement released by the firm.
Axiom’s decision to list on the New York Stock Exchange comes after a string of deals in the New Law space, demonstrating the growing power of alternative legal services providers in the sector.
CVC Capital Partners acquired a majority stake in UnitedLex last year, in what is believed to be the largest investment in the legal market ever at $500m. Elevate has also been on acquisition spree, adding Asia-Pacific flexible lawyering service Cognatio Law and UK business Halebury this year
Closer to home, DWF has joined several law firms moving to offer an alternative business proposition by cementing its aim to float on the London Stock Exchange.
2). Standard Chartered sets aside $900m for fines in US and UK
Standard Chartered has set aside $900m to cover potential fines connected to investigations in the US and the UK, the bank said in a filing to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
The $900m provision will cover potential penalties related to “historical violations of US sanctions laws” and “previously disclosed investigations relating to [foreign exchange] trading issues”.
This comes ahead of the bank reporting its full-year results, expected next week.
Fines for which the $900m provision have been set aside for include the £102.2m fine by Financial Conduct Authority in relation to historic financial crime controls.
The bank also agreed earlier this month to pay $40m in fines to settle claims from US authorities that bankers were involved in chat rooms that tried to manipulate the price of emerging markets currencies as early as 2007.
The largest regulatory fine however is that from US regulators who are seeking to impose a penalty of about $1.5bn on the bank for alleged sanction breaches involving Iran-based clients of its Dubai branch.
Discussions with the US on a deferred prosecution agreement have been taking place since 2012 and have been extended twice during that time.
US authorities have been probing whether the bank continued to breach sanctions by processing US dollar transactions for Iran-controlled entities even after it signed a deferred prosecution agreement and paid a $667m fine to avoid criminal charges in 2012, with negotiations still continuing.
Shares in Standard Chartered fell about 1.1 per cent in yesterday morning trading in Hong Kong, but largely recovered to HK$63.75 ($8.12) by early afternoon.
While the bank has traded up slightly since the start of the year, it is still more than 60 per cent below its five-year high of HK$164 in May 2014 before it launched a major shift in strategy under former chief executive Peter Sands.
3). Movers & Shakers
Appointments
CMS partner departs for senior post at energy giant
Freshfields names new private equity leaders
Howard Kennedy scraps CEO role as it rejigs top team
Moves
Squire Patton Boggs partner trio quit to join former London head
Three London Squire Patton Boggs partners have left the firm to join US rival Crowell & Moring, reuniting with former City head Robert Weekes.
HSF targets New York expansion with hire of Hogan Lovells’ employment head
Barbara Roth, who has led the Hogan Lovells employment practice for nearly a decade, now plans to build HSF’s US practice in the US.
Charles Russell Speechlys snares partner duo for arts law foray
The new practice is to be spearheaded by partners Tim Maxwell and Rudy Capildeo from Boodle Hatfield
Mergers & Alliances
Three-way merger creates new Spanish law firm
Ashfords and Boyes Turner walk away from £60m merger
Office Openings & Closings
Association of Corporate Counsel opens in Brussels to attract European members
Financials
Cooley targets 40% City growth and office move by 2021
Top management pay at Norton Rose Fulbright drops almost 45%
Akin Gump London revenue leaps by nearly a third as Reed Smith also posts increase
Cadwalader blames restructuring exits as London revenue drops 13%
Shearman’s revenue closes in on $1bn barrier
Akin Gump City revenue soars past $100m mark
Inclusion & Diversity
As chosen by GCs: the best law firms for diversity
Linklaters settles ‘ongoing struggle with women’ claim
Innovation and Technology
AI Platform Luminance Teams with EY Law in Global Deal
Legal tech patent filings rocket fourfold since 2013
CMS’s tech incubator goes global in push for more start-up members
Is there something we can help you with?
If not right now, we can include you on next weeks' newsletter update?
CLICK HERE