Finance and corporate partners Vince Gordon and Tania de Swart have made the switch, with Gordon previously acting as Reed Smith’s managing partner for the Middle East.

Gordon has over 13 years’ experience in the region and specialises in debt capital markets, M&A, joint ventures and project finance among other areas. De Swart also focuses on corporate and commercial work, and has clients from a broad range of sectors such as defence, aviation, construction, hospitality and education.

HFW senior partner Richard Crump commented: ‘The Middle East is critically important to all of our industry groups and is also establishing itself as a key hub for international dispute resolution. It is one of the fastest-growing parts of our business globally.’

The new Abu Dhabi outpost brings HFW’s Middle East lawyer headcount to 50, including 19 partners. It also brings the firm’s overall international office count to 20.

Tamara Box, Reed Smith managing partner, told Legal Business that the firm was very much ‘still on point’ with its Middle East strategy, and pointed to the hire of former Pinsent Masons regional head Sachin Kerur in July.

She added: ‘We have set out to relaunch what we were doing in the Middle East and everything we have done so far has been part of that strategy. We think that the region is a much bigger play for us going forward.’

Elsewhere, Morgan Lewis & Bockius has also made a double partner hire in Asia, bringing in corporate partners Motonori ‘Moto’ Araki and Mitsuyoshi ‘Mitsu’ Saito to its Tokyo office.

Both partners are transferring from Morrison & Foerster, with Araki being appointed managing partner of the Tokyo hub.

It is a happy return for Araki, who was previously a partner at Morgan Lewis until 2007. His practice primarily involves M&A, IP and international dispute resolution.

Saito has a similar mix of specialisms, offering corporate, dispute resolution and employment advice to both Japanese and non-Japanese clients. In terms of industry sectors, Saito’s clients typically operate in electronics, IT, chemistry, manufacturing and pharmaceuticals.

Steve Browne, Morgan Lewis’ global corporate head, commented: ‘Our clients require the services of lawyers who are skilled in handling both local and global matters, and the arrival of Moto and Mitsu perfectly fills those needs.’

Withers has also announced a series of hires both in Tokyo and Hong Kong. A total of six partners have joined the firm, with funds partners Koji Yamamoto and Omori Yoshiyuki joining Withers’ Tokyo base from Deloitte. Junko Shiokawa, another funds partner who is joining from offshore firm Harneys, will split her time between Tokyo and Hong Kong.

A real estate team led by partners Gerald Fujii, Naoki Ueyama and Steven Wheeler has also joined, with Fuji arriving from White & Case’s Tokyo office. Ueyama and Wheeler respectively arrive from local Japanese firms Masuda & Partners and Kaynex.

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A team from Travers Smith will cover practical tips for a successful application and how to impress at interview. This will be followed by an opportunity to chat informally with partners and trainees over drinks and canapés.

The presentations will take place in the following cities on the dates stated below:

Manchester – 3 October
Exeter – 4 October
Durham – 9 October
Bristol – 11 October
Cambridge – 16 October
Oxford – 18 October
Warwick – 25 October
London – 1 November

For information on times, venues and how to apply, click here: https://www.traverssmith.com/careers/graduate-recruitment/university-presentations/

The pair announced today (28 September) that the respective partnerships had overwhelmingly approved the tie-up, which is hoped will propel them into the top 50 of the UK’s law firms. It first announced the plans earlier this month bolstering flagging revenue figures at both firms and align their complementary practice areas.

The merged firm – BDB Pitmans – will take effect on 1 December and will operate from London, Reading, Cambridge and Southampton.

The combination of 80 partners and more than 400 staff will be led by legacy BDB managing partner Andrew Smith and chief operating officer Mark Jones, alongside an executive board including legacy Pitmans managing partner John Hutchinson, deputy managing partner Suzanne Brooker and senior partner David Archer. The board will also include three legacy BDB Partners and will be led by BDB’s Helen Ratcliffe, who will be senior partner of the merged firm.

Smith told Legal Business the firms initially met for introductory talks last November: ‘We took things up again in May and were able to move along quickly because of the support and collaboration on both sides.’

Hutchinson added: ‘The merger will allow for an enhanced offering for our clients in the geographies that work, and in the UK’s tech hubs.’

Historically, core practice areas for Pitmans have been pensions disputes, while BDB counts private wealth, infrastructure and corporate as its forte.

Smith noted: ‘One of the striking things is the number of very complementary practice areas, but there is also the opportunity to build out and grow. Now we can fill in the gaps. Restructuring and insolvency, corporate in all its forms, infrastructure planning and regeneration, as well as high net worth and ultra-high net worth individuals, will be the focus.’

BDB recorded a 3% revenue drop in 2017 to £33.7m, while profit per equity partner (PEP) fell by 10% to £222,000. Its revenue has increased by only 8% since 2013. For its part, Pitmans saw its revenue fall 3% in the year to 30 April 2017, down to £18.7m from £19.2m.

The Thames Valley-based Pitmans is no stranger to mergers, having completed a tie-up with City-based Calverts Solicitors in 2015. For its part, BDB has been gearing up for expansion, having last year absorbed the nine-lawyer office of King & Wood Mallesons (KWM) in Cambridge with a view to extending beyond its real estate specialism.

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The panel will comprise:

Catherine Bamford – CEO & Founder of Bamlegal
Jenny Beck – Director of Beck Fitzgerald
Aphra Bruce-Jones – Pupil Barrister
Camilla Choudhury – The Women’s Lawyer
Teni Shahiean – Co-Founder of OTS Solicitors

When: Tuesday 2nd October
Where: West Green Building, Royal Courts of Justice, Strand, London, WC2A 2L
Time: 6:00pm

The event is aimed at female law students, LPC graduates, trainees and NQs and is sponsored by Ashurst and Allen & Overy. Tickets are £10 and all proceeds from the event go to support people facing court alone. Get your ticket here. 

About PSU: We are the only charity helping people in court on a daily basis. Over 700 trained volunteers, provide a free service across the country. We provide comfort, support and guidance before, during and after court. We ensure people facing court alone feel prepared and supported to access justice.

The combination, which will operate under the firm’s Swiss Verein structure, gives Fieldfisher access to offices in Barcelona and Madrid under the name Fieldfisher JAUSAS, a long-stated ambition of managing partner Michael Chissick.

JAUSAS was formed 52 years ago and comprises of 60 lawyers, 14 of which are partners. It generated €8.4m in turnover during the last financial year, and is led by managing partner Agustín Bou. Key practice areas are corporate, competition, life sciences, dispute resolution, employment and IP. The firm’s corporate team also branches out into investment management and private equity and boasts a China desk serving Chinese investors.

Chissick told Legal Business: ‘I spent years working on this; it hasn’t been easy to find the perfect Spanish partner. Getting them to take the plunge and give up their independence wasn’t easy. They’re the pre-eminent life sciences firm in Spain.’

The merger, which went live on 26 September, will bring Fieldfisher’s total office count to 24. This comes after a concerted campaign of European expansion: the firm opened offices in both Luxembourg and Frankfurt earlier this year.

Fieldfisher also opened a high-volume hub in Belfast in August, and, more further afield, established its third Chinese office in Guangzhou during the same month.

After a sustained period of expansion, Chissick said it is time for Fieldfisher to cool down: ‘We wanted to be in all the major commercial centres of Europe and we’ve done that now. Now’s the time for integration and bedding down, I wouldn’t expect another major European launch for a while.’

Fieldfisher – named Legal Business Law Firm of the Year in 2018 – has been one of the highest-performing firms in the UK legal market in recent years, and it maintained its form in June by unveiling a 24% uptick in turnover to £207m while profits per equity partner grew by a healthy 17% to £750,000.

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Shazam, which was founded in 2002, is a song recognition app which can identify what music is playing via a phone’s inbuilt microphone. The deal for Shazam, reportedly worth $400m, will see Apple offer the app on an ad-free basis for all users.

The buyout was initially delayed by a European Commission (EC) probe, amid fears it could give Apple Music a competitive advantage over rival streaming apps such as Spotify and Deezer, but the EC gave the takeover the green light earlier this month.

Shazam was advised by Travers Smith, with a team spearheaded by corporate finance partner Andrew Gillen. Gillen was supported by partners Jessica Kemp and Madeleine Gowlett, who offered specialist tax advice, while commercial advice was given by partner Louisa Chambers.

Apple was represented by Cooley, while Hogan Lovells also featured on the deal, advising Shazam on US aspects of the transaction.

Elsewhere, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Norton Rose Fulbright landed key roles as goldmining giants Randgold and Barrick of Canada announced an $18bn combination.

The merger is expected to create the largest gold company in the world in terms of tier one gold assets, and is predicted to have a market capitalisation of $18.3bn.

Freshfields is one of the firms advising Barrick on the merger. Leading for the Magic Circle firm are corporate partners Piers Prichard Jones and Stephen Hewes. US outfits Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg and Cravath, Swaine & Moore also advised Barrick, alongside offshore firm Carey Olsen.

Norton Rose was on hand to support the US-based Randgold with a transatlantic team. Corporate partners Jon Perry and Nick Adams led for the firm out of London, while New York-based securities partner Steven Suzzan provided advice on the US side. Canadian firm Stikeman Elliot and offshore outfit Ogier also represented Randgold.

Finally, White & Case has advised the creditors of pharmaceuticals company Concordia on its $3.7bn recapitalisation.

The restructuring came after Concordia faced a number of issues, including regulatory scrutiny of its past business practices and a large amount of debt accrued from its previous acquisitions. As a result of the restructuring, Concordia’s debt has reduced from around $3.7bn to $1.4bn.

Christian Pilkington, one of White & Case’s lead restructuring partners on the mandate, commented: ‘This deal illustrates our ability to combine our global restructuring, finance and regulatory capabilities with our deep knowledge of the pharmaceutical industry.’

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When you choose Hogan Lovells, you’re not just choosing a career in law. You’re choosing a career in law with a more progressive international outlook, a clearer focus on innovation and a sharper commercial edge. You’re choosing a team that challenges boundaries and conventions. One that likes to work in a more collaborative and joined-up way, shaping the business landscape, overcoming unforeseen challenges and creating new opportunities for its clients. In short, when you choose a career with Hogan Lovells, you’re choosing to be a Global Game-changer.

Types of work

Something else that makes us stand out as a firm – aside from the unified way we work across the globe – is our exceptional range of practice areas. For the people who work with us, this breadth presents an incredible variety of disciplines to explore, from Corporate to Finance to Government Regulatory, and from Intellectual Property to Litigation, Arbitration and Employment law. It’s inspiring stuff. Especially when you realise that, within these specialisms, our expertise – and the clients we work with – extend to virtually every industry sector.

Insight events

Our insight events are for first-year students of all degree disciplines. We run a series of them during spring and summer at our offices in the City. Each is packed with tailored workshops, presentations and opportunities to find out about life at a global law firm. Come along to one and, even though you’re only with us for a short space of time, you’ll leave with a better understanding of our culture and the day-to-day work of a trainee solicitor. You’ll meet colleagues from trainee to partner level and receive good advice on how to make your application for a vacation scheme or training contract stand out.

Who we are looking for

Our insight events are open to students from all degree disciplines. All you need is an open mind and a genuine desire to find out more.

When and how to apply

Applications for our insight events close on 28 February 2019.

The events themselves take place between 10 – 11 April and 12 – 13 June 2019.

Think globally. Discover your potential. Become a game-changer. Find out more and apply at hoganlovells.com/graduates

Zain & Co. is a full-service firm whose key practice areas include banking and finance, corporate, dispute resolution, real estate and intellectual property.

The combination gives Dentons clients access to lawyers working in 74 countries.

“Clients in South East Asia, and clients wanting to do business there, will benefit from high-quality legal service on a truly global scale that only Dentons can offer”, said Joe Andrew, Global Chairman of Dentons.

“The launch of this combination with a truly high-quality firm in Malaysia gives us an even stronger presence in South East Asia and will further allow Dentons to pursue its strategy to become a pan-Asian law firm that reaches more of Asia than its competitors”, said Elliot Portnoy, Global CEO of Dentons.

Guidance was published yesterday (13 September) by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), with the main conclusion that if no arrangement is reached with the EU, the UK will have to rely on domestic common law rules currently applied to cases involving non-EU countries for cross-border European disputes.

Currently the UK applies reciprocal EU rules to determine the jurisdiction of a given civil dispute, which country’s laws apply in a dispute, how judgments may or may not be enforced in different countries, and how cross-border legal procedural matters are handled.

In a no-deal scenario these laws will be repealed, but the UK will continue to follow existing international agreements, such as the Hague Conventions, which outline some dispute frameworks but are less comprehensive than EU guidelines. The guidance note also stated that the UK would retain Rome I and II rules, which dictate the that law applies in both contractual and non-contractual matters and largely do not depend on reciprocity.

And in an announcement unlikely to inspire confidence, the MoJ recommended that those likely to be involved in civil cases on 29 March 2019, should seek legal advice: ‘Broadly speaking, cases ongoing on exit day will continue to proceed under the current rules. However, we cannot guarantee that EU courts will follow the same principle, nor that EU courts will accept or recognise any judgments stemming from these cases.’

Ed Crosse, dispute resolution partner at Simmons & Simmons and president of the London Solicitors Litigation Association, told Legal Business: ‘This “guidance” in effect provides no practical advice to parties in the UK who may be concerned about where their disputes may be heard, and whether a decision from the courts of England and Wales will be recognised and enforced in a member state court after Brexit.’

For others, there really is nothing to worry about. Stewarts commercial litigation lead Clive Zietman commented: ‘The idea that there will be no mutual enforcement between our country and Europe is fanciful. Something will be agreed. People forget there was a system in place before we were even in the EU.’

While a no-deal scenario is not a certainty, it is contributing to a sense of unease around the future status of London as a global disputes hub. To take advantage of the uncertainty, Paris introduced an English-language common law commercial court in the summer, offering lower court fees and guaranteed enforceability of judgments throughout the EU.

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UK insurer Legal & General is taking on £4.4bn of historic pension liabilities relating to the Airways Pension Scheme (APS) in a bulk annuity designed to reduce risk in the scheme.

A&O and Eversheds are advising the trustees, with A&O’s team led by insurance partner Philip Jarvis and counsel Kate McInerney. For their part, Anthea Whitton and Francois Barker are heading the Eversheds team.

The CC team advising Legal & General is being led by corporate partner Katherine Coates and pensions partner Sarah McAleer.

The deal also covers existing longevity reinsurance contracts of roughly £1.7bn entered into by APS via a captive insurer with Canada Life Reinsurance and PartnerRe, which were incorporated into the buy-in arrangement. Closing of the deal will mean that APS is now 90% hedged against all longevity risk.

‘This deal is very significant in the market and part of a trend of which there are push and pull factors,’ one City partner told Legal Business. ‘On the push side, there are trustees out there looking to de-risk and on the pull, market conditions are making deals like this economically viable transactions.’

APS was established in 1948 and it was closed to new members from 31 March 1984. The scheme had 24,196 members, of whom 1.4% were active members, 3.6% deferred members and 95% pensioners. At the end of March 2018, APS had assets totalling £7.6bn.

Elsewhere, the blistering private equity market saw A&O win the mandate to advise private equity giant Blackstone on its €1bn acquisition of a majority stake in Baltic bank Luminor. The deal involves funds managed by Blackstone and other institutional investors acquiring a 60% stake in the bank, with Nordic banks Nordea and DNB each retaining a 20% stake.

A&O’s private equity partner Karan Dinamani led on the deal – the Magic Circle firm’s inaugural deal for Blackstone on the buyout side – which builds on a long-standing relationship acting for Blackstone’s lenders on real estate transactions.

Commenting on the frothy PE market, Dinamani told Legal Business: ‘A lot of private equity players are looking to acquire right now and the London market is roaring. The fact that a private equity player is acquiring a majority in an European Central Bank regulated bank makes the deal interesting and complex.’

With €15bn of assets, Luminor was created in 2017 through a combination of Nordea and DNB’s operations in the Baltics.

Meanwhile, a £1.5bn deal that saw Blackstone Property Partners and Telereal Trillium acquire Network Rail’s commercial business estate sealed roles for Kirkland & Ellis, CC, Eversheds and Gowling WLG.

CC and Eversheds acted as legal advisors to Network Rail, with CC’s team comprising partners Franc Peña, Angela Kearns and Adrian Levy and Nick Bartlett leading for Eversheds.

Kirkland and Gowling advised buyers Telereal and Blackstone, with the Kirkland team led by corporate partner Michael Steele and including corporate partner Carlos Gil Rivas. Mike Twinning led the Gowling team.

The portfolio includes 5,200 properties, the majority of which are converted railway arches.

The sites are being sold on a leasehold basis, with Network Rail retaining access rights for the future operation of the railway. The proceeds are being put towards the UK railway upgrade plan.

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