The Lex 100: Archives

Their growing European network of offices supports an international client base alongside their Silicon Valley and Shanghai teams. Among their clients, they count social media sites and high street coffee chains through to pharmaceutical, life sciences and medical devices companies, energy suppliers, banks and government departments.

The firm will be hosting an early assessment centre on 15 July 2017 for training contracts starting in 2019 in London.

Only applicants who will have applied and completed both psychometric tests before 2nd July (midnight), will be eligible to attend the assessment centre on 15 July.

Apply here

For more information about Fieldfisher, click here.

Good luck!

Uber fires 20 staff after harassment investigation – BBC

Santander buys struggling Spanish bank Popular for €1 – The Telegraph

Some RBS investors still refuse settlement – BBC

OECD: outlook for global economy is ‘better, but not good enough’ – The Guardian

China’s HNA: The biggest company you’ve never heard of – BBC

The hearing is set to resume this morning in London’s High Court before Mr Justice Hildyard. A final settlement would draw to a close one of the most high profile and expensive commercial disputes to hit the London courts for years.

The majority of remaining claimants, represented by the RBS Shareholders Action Group, were prepared to accept an offer made last week in the rights issue damages claim against the bank and four of its former senior executives.

A few former investors, however, have been seeking further investment since being urged to settle last week by lead investor tycoon Trevor Hemmings and the RBS Action group.

One adviser close to the case told Legal Business that ‘for them it was no longer about the money, they want justice and Fred Goodwin [former RBS chief executive] to take the stand. But I would have been astounded if they obtained the extra funding to continue.’

The bank’s final offer of 82p per £1 remains a fraction of the 200-300p-per-share that claimants paid for RBS shares back in 2008, in the run-up to the bank’s £45bn public bailout.

The trial was due to open on 22 May, but was adjourned until 7 June for settlement negotiations following the last-minute offer.

The claim was launched in 2012 by around 27,000 retail investors who claimed they were misled about the bank’s financial health. It sought £12bn from investors in 2008 for a rights issue during the financial crisis.

Eighty seven percent of investors, represented by Stewarts Law, Mishcon de Reya, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan and some of Signature Litigation’s clients, had already settled with RBS for around £800m in total in December 2016 and April this year, at 41p and 43.2p per share respectively.

Over 9,000 claimants remained in the action after the majority of claimants settled with RBS for 41p per share in December 2016. In April 2017, 40% of the Signature Litigation Group also settled with RBS for 43.2p per share.

The original claimants included RBS staff and pensioners, institutional investors such as Wells Fargo, Boeing pension fund, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Bank of Ireland. Some UK local authority pension funds, including Bedfordshire County Council, Essex, Nottinghamshire and the London Borough of Merton, also joined the litigation.

The remaining claimants have been represented by Signature Litigation partners Graham Huntley and Julian Connerty. RBS is represented by Herbert Smith Freehills, led by partners Simon Clarke, Adam Johnson and Kirsten Massey.

Goodwin, who was listed as a witness in the trial, is represented by Clifford Chance (CC) litigation partner Dorian Drew. K&L Gates head of litigation John Magnin is advising London and Northern Capital Partners (LNCP), owned by the majority funder in the litigation Trevor Hemmings.

Litigation boutique Hausfeld, led by partner Lianne Craig, represents asset recovery and private equity firm Hunnewell Partners (BVI).

RBS and the Shareholder Action Group have both declined to comment at press time.

Georgiana.Tudor@legalease.co.uk

This article first appeared on The Lex 100‘s sister publication, Legal Business.

The six month secondment is due to start in September 2017.

As a trainee in the office you will assist the Brussels team in actively monitoring EU legal developments that range from competition law to criminal justice, public procurement to private international law. Specific tasks will include: preparing and writing the Brussels Agenda as well as drafting legislative updates highlighting developments in the corporate client and private client areas. You will also attend European Parliament hearings and high level conferences offering the opportunity to develop contacts with MEPs, key Commission officials and UK Government departments.

For more information about the secondment and for details on how to apply, click here.

The US legacy firm has retained its branding in the region with the new offering, now named Kennedys CMK in the US.

The merger extends Kennedys offices to New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois and Texas, bringing the firm’s global office count to 32. Kennedys’ Miami office will also take on the name Kennedys CMK.

The firm’s US offering specialises in coverage and defence work encompassing general liability, cyber risk, professional liability, medical malpractice, construction defect, property and casualty, surety, fidelity and reinsurance across all sectors. It also advises on construction and healthcare, commercial litigation, real estate and employment.

One of CMK’s founders, Chris Carroll, has joined Kennedys’ Global Strategy Board as part of the move.

Kennedys senior partner Nick Thomas said: ‘I’m thrilled to complete our merger with CMK, an exceptional firm with an outstanding reputation in the US that shares the same insurance focus as we do.’

‘The global nature of the insurance market means that our clients will benefit from the expertise CMK can offer in the US. Likewise, CMK’s clients will benefit greatly from access to our network of specialists, stretching from Dublin to Auckland, and many points in between,’ he added.

Carroll said that CMK had worked with Kennedys for over 10 years on some of the biggest insurance cases of recent years. ‘We know that we are joining forces with a firm with ambitions and a reputation to match our own and we look forward to continued growth with trusted friends, ’ he said.

Since the second half of 2016, Kennedys has opened five offices around Latin America, in Brazil, Peru, Chile, Colombia and Mexico.

madeleine.farman@legalease.co.uk

This article first appeared on The Lex 100‘s sister publication, Legal Business.

How did you get into law and why litigation?

I like arguing. Sounds like a cliché, but I like to persuade people that I’m right. I was always told at school the chances of me becoming a lawyer were zero. I went to a comprehensive school in Wiltshire, and we were not always encouraged to aim high. That had the reverse effect on me.

At university in Paris, I took an international arbitration course. I like the cross-cultural nature of international arbitration. Someone from Asia, say, will have a very different concept of dispute resolution when compared with someone in America, for example, and international arbitration really allows you to help with that.

What are the standout matters in your career?

The key arbitration matter in my career was when I represented a Polish foundry owner when I was an associate. He had very little money and his business was in such peril. I remember thinking if I win the case the foundry continues, if I lose 2,000 people will end up unemployed. That really showed me that I can help someone in a difficult situation.

You were an associate at Allen & Overy until 2005. How have you seen the relationship between US and UK firms develop over time?

When I started, US firms were still trying to maintain their US culture in London, with expats form the US and a few local lawyers. Over the last decade, the UK offices of US firms have evolved and become more adapted to the local market. Latham always had a strong meritocratic culture and is incredibly well run and that differentiates it.

A number of UK firms have tried a package of measures to deal with the threat of US firms, including sustained efforts to crack the US market. It is an incredibly hard place to compete, as many have discovered.

What are the key trends in arbitration?

The approach to the Brussels regulation (or lack thereof) in the context of Brexit fascinates me. The free movement of judgments throughout the EU remains, for me, one of the cornerstones of the European project. It was a really useful thing. Brexit makes all of that less certain, so arbitration may experience another resurgence. It may be that parties should now put arbitration clauses in their contracts, even for transactions within Europe.

What are the major political impacts on the legal market today, and arbitration more specifically?

I am very interested in the approach to ethics taken by firms in the City, in particular when conflicts of interest are likely to occur. The Solicitors Regulation Authority changed from a rules-based to an outcome-focused regime in 2011. It will be interesting to see how people are adapting that to match the modern market, and I still see a lot of challenges ahead. We have a strong ethics committee here at Latham and take these issues very seriously.

georgiana.tudor@legalease.co.uk

This article first appeared on The Lex 100‘s sister publication, Legal Business.

The new firm, Womble Bond Dickinson, will launch on 1 October 2017. More than 420 partners and 1,000 lawyers will work across its eight UK offices, and 15 US offices, including London, Newcastle and Bristol, and Washington D.C., Atlanta, Charlotte.

At a partner vote at Bond Dickinson held earlier this week, over 75% of partners voted for the tie-up. At Womble Carlyle, the threshold was slightly lower, with the firm needing two thirds of those partners eligible to vote to back the combination.

The new combined entity, which will be structured as a company limited by guarantee, will not financially integrate the two firms, although will be a shared ‘pot’ for any integration costs incurred as well as a possibility of a future shared pot to reward collaboration and team work.

While each firm will continue to operate as a separate and autonomous partnership with independent US and UK management, the combined entity will be led by a new transatlantic eight member board of four partners from each firm.

Bond Dickinson partners Simon Watts, Nick Barwood and Paula Dillion, alongside US partners Jeff Hay, Christopher Bolan and David Hamilton, will be appointed to the board.

Betty Temple, Womble Carlyle’s chair and chief executive, and Jonathan Blair, Bond Dickinson’s managing partner, will co-chair the board.

Both firms have been working together in an exclusive strategic alliance for almost a year. Temple, however, told Legal Business, that the relationship had progressed rapidly over the last six months.

‘Since we launched the strategic alliance we have been really impressed by the breadth and depth of the collaboration between our firms particularly in relating to the client service, business development and knowledge management.

‘While it has been established for nearly a year, in the last six months it has rapidly progressed to a point where we just believe we can do more combined, even more for our clients’, Temple said.

Temple highlighted Carlyle’s ‘great working relationship with Bond Dickinson’, adding: ‘we have such incredible culture and quality similarities and that is just one of those synergies you can’t make up.’

Blair said that ‘the agreement creating Womble Bond Dickinson marks the achievement and culmination of our vision to be a top 20 law firm by 2020.’

The ‘combined firm enables us to provide an enviable transatlantic platform for further expansion and growth in the UK, where London remains a priority for investment along with Edinburgh and other regional areas important to US and UK clients,’ he added.

The combined mid-market firm will have twelve markets, including energy and natural resources, healthcare, insurance, real estate, retail and consumer and pharma and life sciences.

kathryn.mccann@legalease.co.uk

This article first appeared on The Lex 100‘s sister publication Legal Business.

Jeremy Paxman grills Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn – BBC

Small firms hit by rates relief delay – BBC

How the luxury retail sector is using technology to remain relevant – The Independent

RBS investors ready to settle share sale legal dispute – BBC

Shares in British Airways owner IAG skid after IT failure chaos – The Telegraph

Ryanair to expand fleet faster to steal a march on struggling rivals – The Telegraph

NQ pay jumped £3,500 to £71,500, while first year trainees’ salaries rose by £1,000 to £44,000. Second year trainees have also received a £1,000 increase to £49,000.

The changes came into effect on 1 May.

Lawyers with one year’s post-qualification experience (PQE) at Hogan Lovells have their pay determined by a merit based pay model with broad salary bands.

A firm spokesperson told Legal Business the mechanism ‘ensure[s] that we are able to take into account an individual’s performance when determining salary within the relevant salary band.’

‘In addition, our lawyers have the ability to earn significant bonuses based on chargeable hours and/or a discretionary bonus.’

Earlier this month, White & Case announced its London associates would receive a significant pay increase, with the US firm awarding its NQs a £15,000 pay hike to £105,000 for 2017.

White & Case lawyers with one year-PQE received a 16% raise from £95,000 to £110,000, while two year-PQE salaries increased by the largest percentage, up 19% to £120,000.

Shearman & Sterling were the first to announce UK pay increases this year. Shearman’s NQ pay rose by 10.5% from £95,000 to £105,000, with mid-level associates receiving a 9.5% bump in their pay from £126,000 to £138,000. The start of its senior associate salary band has risen by 5.6% to £165,000, from last year’s £156,000.

madeleine.farman@legalease.co.uk

This article first appeared on The Lex 100‘s sister publication, Legal Business.

RBS Court Battle with Investors Adjourned – BBC

Alisher Usmanov: Arsenal shareholder makes £1bn takeover bid to Stan Kroenke – BBC

McColls shopping for Tesco’s One Stop chain in Booker merger fallout – The Telegraph

British Airways anger at Heathrow’s bid for more domestic flights – The Telegraph

Tipping point for Apple Pay as majority of UK tills accept limitless payments – The Telegraph

Election 2017: Labour to write off tuition fees for students starting university this September – The Independent

Brexit: Lost access to single market in services could cost UK economy up to £36bn, new report concludes – The Independent

Marlboro maker accused of using branded tins to sidestep plain packaging rules – The Guardian