Weekly Update – 10th June 2022

Ukrainian Legal Developments:

UK Law Firm Leads Mass Civil Claims Against Russia

Together with a coalition of Ukrainian, U.S. and European firms, U.K. human rights boutique McCue Jury & Partners is to coordinate hundreds of civil claims against Russian officials and oligarchs over property damaged in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The civil claims will seek to obtain compensation for destruction to private property as well as governmental, national, infrastructural and other types of property, a person close to McCue Jury told Law.com International.

Three Am Law Firms May Soon Finally Be Free to Withdraw From Representing Sanctioned Russian Banks

Three large Am Law firms representing Russian banks that were sanctioned following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine—White & Case, Debevoise & Plimpton and Latham & Watkins—will be able to withdraw from the case provided that substitute counsel file notices of appearance this month. White & Case and Debevoise & Plimpton were granted permission to withdraw provided that substitute counsel file a notice of appearance by June 24. Latham & Watkins, which already missed one deadline to get substitute counsel to file an appearance notice, has been given until June 15.

IBA launches major project examining lawyers’ role as ethical gatekeepers

The Gatekeepers Project was announced following what the IBA called ‘existing and sustained charges levied against the profession,’ arising not just from the Russian-Ukraine war, but also in relation to perceived facilitation of illicit financial activity, greenwashing of climate change activity and frustration of the UN’s sustainable development goals.

 

Moves:

UK & Ireland

EY Law Hires Dentons Employment Head

EY Law has is continuing its U.K. expansion with the hire of Dentons partner and UKME head of employment Virginia Allen.

All change as Harbottle appoints new leader

Charles Leveque, who has been at the firm since 2007, has succeeded Glen Atchison as managing partner.

RPC and Pallas Partners secure key arbitration hires in London

RPC is celebrating the arrival of Shai Wade from London rival Stephenson Harwood while Boies Schiller Flexner’s former deputy chair, Natasha Harrison, has secured her new firm’s first lateral partner recruit: Debevoise & Plimpton counsel Nelson Goh.

Linklaters Hires London Ashurst Partner

Jessica Jenner will join the firm’s real estate finance practice in London later this year, according to a statement by Linklaters on Tuesday.

Former Linklaters veteran takes on vacant MoJ role

Christopher Bellamy, who returned to Monkton Chambers in 2020, has been named by the UK Government as a Parliamentary Secretary of State in the Ministry of Justice.

Clifford Chance hires first-ever global ‘head of wellbeing’ from Aon in London

Charles Alberts will create and lead the firm’s wellbeing strategy and consult on mental health and general staff welfare concerns.

BCLP real estate partner exits for Addleshaws

Simon Pollock has joined Addleshaw Goddard’s investment management group after nearly 29 years with BCLP.

Matheson hires Mason Hayes & Curran partner to lead EU competition and regulatory practice

Niall Collins joins from Mason Hayes & Curran as head of the EU, competition and regulatory practice, while Karen Sheil joins from William Fry as a commercial property partner.

Law firm Clifford Chance has lost one, hired one in its London partner ranks

Restructuring partner Adrian Cohen has left the firm after over 30 years to join U.S. firm Proskauer Rose, while former leveraged financing partner Matt Dunn is rejoining the firm after a stint at Irish firm Arthur Cox. Cohen joins after almost 32 years at Clifford Chance, according to his LinkedIn.

RPC bolsters insurance ranks with partner hire in London from Mayer Brown

RPC has added insurance lawyer Mike Newham as a partner in London from Mayer Brown.

Law firm Weil Gotshal Adds Akin Gump Partner to Its Restructuring Team

Weil, Gotshal & Manges has strengthened its London-based restructuring practice with the hire of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld partner Lois Deasey.

Law Firm Crowell & Moring Hires Baker Botts London Partner

Crowell & Moring has added to its London corporate team with the hire of partner David Ramm from Baker Botts.

Six-Lawyer BLM Team Departs For Browne Jacobson

The group of professional indemnity lawyers is led by partner Michael Appleby and includes two senior associates, two associates, and one other lawyer. The group will join Browne Jacobson in Manchester.

 

EMEA

 Ince bolsters Greek presence with seven new faces for Piraeus office from rival firms

Listed UK law and professional services firm Ince has added seven new faces from rival firms to its office in Piraeus, Greece, in a move it says has been triggered by an increased volume of business.

Squire Patton Boggs makes third lateral partner hire in Paris this month

Maxime Deuquesne has joined Squire Patton Boggs from private equity boutique Lamartine Conseil.

5-Lawyer CMS Tax Team Exits for Gianni & Origoni in Milan

Partner Mario d’Avossa leads the move after practising for two years at CMS Adonnino Ascoli & Cavasola Scamoni.

Eversheds Paris Adds a 7-Lawyer Corporate/M&A Team From French Rival

Eversheds Sutherland in Paris has added a seven-lawyer corporate/M&A team, including two partners, from CMS Francis Lefebvre. The team is led by partners Jean-Robert Bousquet and Alexandre Morel and includes counsel Célia Mayran and Geoffroy Loncle de Forville, and associates Anaïs Fritzinger, Jade Huard and Victor Grillo.

 

The Americas

Paul Hastings celebrates ‘milestone’ hire of Gibson Dunn’s M&A co-chair in New York

Eduardo Gallardo is the latest addition to join Paul Hasting’s New York office as the headcount nears 400.

McDermott continues run of transactions partner hires with trio in New York and Atlanta

Partners Luc Jansen and Prem Amarnani have joined the firm in the Big Apple from Kirkland & Ellis and Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom respectively, while Nathan Mihalik, previously counsel at King & Spalding, has joined as a partner in Atlanta.

Goodwin raids Latham & Watkins for corporate partner trio in Santa Monica

Chris Shoff, David Ajalat and David Pendergast join from Latham & Watkins, bringing with them experience representing emerging-growth companies and venture capital firms.

Morrison Foerster adds another West Coast partner from Perkins Coie

Matthew Ferry has joined the San Diego office as a partner after six years at Perkins Coie, where he served as counsel and focused on IP litigation and technology transactions.

Allen & Overy and Linklaters eye US growth with lateral partner hires

A&O has hired corporate partner Jesse Debban in Silicon Valley from Farella Braun + Martel, while Linklaters has secured Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison employment partner Andrew Gaines in New York.

Barnes & Thornburg hires healthcare compliance team from Bass Berry in DC

John Kelly, who served as Nashville-based Bass Berry’s managing partner in DC for just over a decade, joins the firm to chair its 80-lawyer healthcare department and healthcare industry practice. He arrives alongside Jacquelyn Papish, who joins as a partner after a year as an associate at Bass Berry, and associate AJ Bolan.

Goodwin adds private equity heft in the US with partner hires from Kirkland and Gibson Dunn

Andrew Kimball has joined the firm from Kirkland & Ellis in DC, while Andrew Cheng has moved over from Gibson Dunn in Santa Monica, the firm said.

Norton Rose Fulbright boosts US West Coast projects team with MoFo partner hire

Norton Rose Fulbright has hired US renewable energy lawyer Elizabeth Sluder from Morrison & Foerster as it seeks to strengthen its West Coast projects team.

Eversheds Adds Hotel In-House Veteran, as Firm Builds Hospitality Team

Wendy Hansen, who was vice president and legal counsel at Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group for the last 14 years, has joined Eversheds’ Atlanta office.

 

APAC

Former HSF global CEO Mark Rigotti departs legal practice for business leadership role

Mark Rigotti, the former global CEO of Herbert Smith Freehills, is set to leave the firm to take up a leadership role at the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD).

 

In-House

De La Rue GC takes on new legal role

Jane Hyde ha moved from currency printing service and authenticator De La Rue to RWS Holdings, an intellectual property group, as their general counsel.

Former CNBC lawyer joins executive recruitment platform True as GC

Aisha Christian has joined True from the GC role at KIPP NYC, a network of private schools in New York.

 

Promotions & Appointments:

Brown Rudnick promotes Johnny Depp’s lawyer to partner

Brown Rudnick has promoted litigation specialist Camille Vasquez to partner as a direct result of her role in winning a $15m jury verdict for actor Johnny Depp’s defamation claim against ex-wife Amber Heard.

NautaDutilh appoints new managing partners, creates inclusion partner role

Under the changes, corporate M&A head Lieke van der Velden and disputes head Sjoerd Meijer will take up co-managing partner roles alongside incumbent Chris Warner, who is staying as one of the firm’s three co-heads. Stepping down are Jaap Jan Trommel and Petra Zijp, who will return to their M&A and capital markets practices respectively.

Part-time partners included in largest promotions round to date at Australia’s Lander & Rogers

Australian independent Lander & Rogers has added seven partners as part of its largest promotions round yet, including two who work part-time.

Freshfields Names Next Global Disputes Head

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has appointed London partner Sarah Parkes as its next global head of dispute resolution.

Sheppard Mullin names next Chicago managing partner ahead of office relocation

Liisa Thomas succeeds Larry Eppley, who took charge of the Chicago office when it opened in 2012. Eppley is set to remain with the Los Angeles-based firm as the leader of its hospitality industry team.

Hogan Lovells names new head of Silicon Valley base ahead of Redwood City move

Hogan Lovells has named corporate and finance partner Jane Ross as its office managing partner in Silicon Valley ahead of its move to a new office space in Redwood City.

Women dominate Corrs Chambers Westgarth’s partner promotions round

Australian Big Six firm Corrs Chambers Westgarth has promoted eight lawyers to partner in its latest round, six of them women.

Baker McKenzie turns to rising star to revamp Johannesburg leadership

Baker McKenzie has unveiled a new Johannesburg leadership team more than nine months after implementing a ‘three-step plan’ to address management issues at the office. South Africa head of competition and antitrust Lerisha Naidu will become managing partner of the office from 1 July at the head of a management team that also includes head of employment and compensation Johan Botes and corporate partner Marc Yudaken.

 

Mergers & Alliances:

Law firm mergers: the cultural iceberg below the surface

The global economy has seen more M&A activity in the last 12 months than for a number of years. It is therefore no surprise to see this reflected in the legal services market, where law firm mergers and acquisitions are on the rise.

Eversheds Expands Irish Base

The firm has added local firm Kenny Solicitors to its ranks, which comprises eight partners and is led by partner Graham Kenny.

Nigerian firm Aluko & Oyebode joins African legal alliance ALN

Nigeria’s Aluko & Oyebode has joined African law firm alliance ALN to bolster its cross-border and pan-African capabilities. The alliance takes ALN’s jurisdiction count across the continent to 16 and gives existing partner firms and their clients access to legal expertise in Africa’s largest economy. It also provides member firms access to Aluko & Oyebode’s broader pool of specialist teams and resources, which bring vast regional and international experience to the table.

 

Office Openings & Closing:

Browne Jacobson unveils first overseas office

Browne Jacobson, a firm with five offices across the UK, is to open its first base overseas later this month in Dublin. Permanently based in the office will be technology and IP litigation partners Jeanne Kelly and Ciaran Markey, who join from LK Shields. The firm has also hired senior associate Darragh Killeen from LK Shields, along with two further associates joining in the summer.

Law Firm Freshfields Adds More Bases in Germany to Service Big Scale

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer is building presences in the German cities of Nuremberg, Mannheim and Hanover as part of its expansion of its Dieselgate-style mass litigation unit.

Hogan Lovells’ Moscow office spun out to create new independent firm

Level Legal Services launched this month alongside relocations and ‘some’ expected redundancies.

 

Financials:

⭐ Financial Results 2022: Live

The Lawyer has created a live-update blog as firms release their data from the 2021/22 year.

World’s oldest firm nears £30m mark with ninth consecutive year of growth

Thomson Snell & Passmore, the Kent law firm acknowledged by Guinness World Records as the world’s oldest, has posted fee income of £27.7m for the 2021/22 financial year, an increase of 11 per cent.

Peterborough’s Buckles vows to hit £30m after record year

Peterborough-founded firm Buckles has stated its aim to become a £30m firm by 2028 after almost doubling in size in the last five years. The growth has come organically and through a series of mergers. Buckles acquired DCH Law of Nottingham in 2018, Lyndales Solicitors, which was based on Furnival Street in London, in 2019, followed by Cambridge’s Miller Sands Solicitors in 2020.

Mishcon de Reya Scraps IPO Plan ‘for Foreseeable Future’

In a statement on Wednesday, a firm spokesperson said: ”We can confirm that we have decided to put our IPO plans on hold for the foreseeable future due to market conditions. We remain an ambitious and bold business with a clear strategy and vision for our future.”

 

Technology & Innovation:

Founders Forum invests in fintech-focused virtual law startup Chronos Law

Three-year-old virtual law firm Chronos Law has received financial backing from entrepreneur community Founders Forum Group to further accelerate the firm’s growth. The deal will see Chronos – which specialises in legal advice for scaling fintechs – rebrand as Founders Law and become part of Founders Forum’s growing professional services offering. That will enable the firm to provide legal services to tech scale-ups in the Founders Forum network. Chronos was founded in 2019 by former White & Case lawyer and fintech specialist Tom Bohills with the idea to combine private practice expertise with the accessibility of in-house legal counsel.

Cybersecurity experts say law firms need to act more proactively on cyber risk

A 2020 report from the Solicitors Regulation Authority found that 75% of firms in England and Wales have reported being victims of a cyber attack, with almost a quarter of those being directly targeted resulting in more than £4m of client money being stolen. Half of those firms were found to have allowed unrestricted access to external data storage, the report said.

LawtechUK ‘created a sense of urgency’ around tech adoption in legal sector, impact assessment says

The government-backed LawtechUK initiative launched in collaboration with tech industry body Tech Nation has created a ‘sense of urgency’ around the development of legaltech, according to an external impact report.

Max Schrems: The World Renowned Privacy Advocate Is Still Fighting to Create a Culture of Compliance

As a well-known privacy activist and founder of one of Europe’s most influential privacy enforcement NGOs, Austrian lawyer Max Schrems seems surprisingly sympathetic to companies that are not complying with the General Data Protection Regulation, commonly known as GDPR—Europe’s trailblazing 2018 privacy law.

 

Diversity & Inclusion:

Making the hybrid work model for your firm and clients

As the ructions of Covid-19 continue to trail two years after the pandemic started, the concept of hybrid working continues to populate law firms’ priority lists. This topic was debated in a roundtable hosted by Speech Processing Solutions’ Ryan Prins and Ben Capstick at The Lawyer’s Business Leadership Summit. The spectre of Covid-19 infections remains prevalent globally – prompting questions as to how this will play out in the future of the workplace.

The Gender Cliff Edge: The Point Where the Legal Industry Loses Female Talent

Top U.K. law firms hire far more female lawyers than male at trainee level, but there is a massive drop-off in female retention after the three-year post-qualification point, new research has found.

Undervalued lawyers more likely to suffer well-being issues, study finds

Law firms that put financial performance and productivity above all else could create unhealthy working practices that harm lawyer well-being, according to a study by Krill Strategies and the University of Minnesota’s Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences.

Addressing the Burgeoning Culture Crisis in the Legal Sector

New research from the CIPD Health and Wellbeing at work 2022 report shows that almost half of employees strongly agree that health and wellbeing activity at work encourages a more inclusive culture. However, the same report reveals that there has been a 16% drop in management focus on health and wellbeing in the workplace compared to the first year of the pandemic.

Herbert Smith Freehills named principal legal partner of Sydney WorldPride

Herbert Smith Freehills has been named the principal legal partner of next year’s WorldPride festival taking place in Sydney. HSF will provide the Sydney WorldPride event organisers with legal advice and support ahead of festival, which takes place between February 17 and March 5 next year in conjunction with the 2023 Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras.

 

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