The UK top 20 firm’s new base will open in September with an initial team of 11 lawyers and business support staff. Taylor Wessing will appoint a partner to lead the new office and aims to grow the team to 25 by the end of the year – consisting of 10 legal and 15 non-legal roles. They will all be new roles for the firm.

But the jobs of three permanent City business acceptance staff are under consultation as a result of the move. The firm said in a statement affected staff will be given ‘the opportunity and financial support to relocate if they wish to’, and that moving to Liverpool was an opportunity to invest more in the team.

The Liverpool team will initially be working in flexible premises until a permanent office space is found, with the next steps to be announced next year. The office will assist lawyers with opening new client matters, as well as carrying out due diligence and conflict review.

Managing partner Tim Eyles said he saw the new outpost as ‘a catalyst for long-term reinvention to continue to deliver a better service, being smart with our resources and continuing to invest in more people – we will need them’.

He told Legal Business: ‘We did a lot of research and we concluded there is a great pool of talent across the North West, great connectivity and a whole spirit of creativity and innovation around Liverpool as a tech hub, consistent with one of our focus areas.’

The firm chose Liverpool because of the local talent pool, universities and its reputation as one of the fastest growing technology hubs in the country.

The Liverpool launch comes off the back of a strong financial year at Taylor Wessing, which in 2017/18 posted 12% revenue growth to £144.6m for its UK business and 12% growth in its international network to £301.5m. UK profits per equity partner (PEP) grew 20% to hit £579,000.

A number of firms have launched low-cost centres in the UK recently, with Clifford Chance entering Newcastle through the acquisition of Carillion’s in-house legal arm, while Reed Smith opened an outpost in Leeds.

The low cost centres have inevitably impacted City business support staff, with Hogan Lovells announcing last month it will cut 54 of its circa 500 business support jobs in London in favour of new roles in Johannesburg, Louisville and Birmingham.

Ashurst also launched a redundancy review in May which could result in 80% of its 100-strong secretarial team in London being axed, while Pinsent Masons began a consultation on cutting 100 non-legal jobs last year. Ince & Co announced in June it was to cut 30 roles, primarily impacting its business service ranks.

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The firm’s revenue for the last financial year was £564m, up from £541m, while PEP stood at £743,000 compared with £672,000 in 2017.

The results mark a second year of growth following two consecutive years of decline that followed the City stalwart’s merger with Australia’s Blake Dawson in 2013.

Managing partner Paul Jenkins (pictured) told Legal Business that the 11% year-on-year PEP growth just exceeded his target. ‘We were aiming for 10% growth and we have achieved that over each of the last two years, so we are very happy with the result. We have focused on areas of strength for profitable growth and driving cost efficiency and innovation in service delivery.’

The firm’s core sectors are real estate, infrastructure, energy, digital economy and banks and funds. 85% of the firm’s revenue was generated via these sectors in 2017/18, compared with 80% of total revenue the previous year.

Jenkins noted that Asia Pacific has continued to perform well. ‘We have achieved double-digit revenue growth in Australia and China put in an excellent performance in a year in which we also launched a Joint Operating Office in Shanghai with Guantao. Demonstrating our ongoing investment in Singapore, we also established a formal law alliance with ADTLaw.’

He also pointed to ‘double-digit revenue growth across key practices in the UK’ and progress in the Middle East, which ‘continued to grow substantially,’ and ‘impressive results with growth across all practice areas’ in Germany. He added that Asia market would continue to be a strategic focus for the firm, while the US infrastructure market has also yielded particular success. The firm has identified opportunities in acting for Chinese banks on outbound investment in Europe and Australia.

Jan Gooze-Zijl, the firm’s chief financial and operations officer, also identified Luxembourg as an area of growth on the back of Brexit and to capitalise on funds activity. The firm last week secured licence approval for a new Luxembourg outpost, which is set to open in October.

Jenkins also said the firm has seen particularly strong performance in its dispute resolution, real estate, competition, regulatory and employment businesses. Restructuring and special situations has also seen very high levels of activity across Europe, as has corporate and banking in London. Technology is also expected to remain a priority. In April, the firm hired GE Capital International’s IT director Noel Jordan as its chief technology officer.

Jenkins concluded: ‘I am confident that our strong trajectory will continue in FY19. In the last two years, we have focused on achieving sustained revenue and profit improvement. There are many significant prospects and opportunities that lie ahead as we build on our achievements as a high-performance and collaborative firm committed to operating at the forefront of change in the industry.’

The firm made 31 lateral hires during the year and promoted 24 internal candidates to partner. The firm also fared considerably better than its peers when it came to gender diversity, with 58% of the partners it made up being female.

Some key mandates for Ashurst during the year have included advising Aveva Group on its £3bn combination with Schneider Electric’s industrial software business and acting for an infrastructure investor consortium fronted by Dalmore Capital on its acquisition of Cory Riverside Energy, the owner of the UK’s largest energy-from-waste plant in London, for more than £1.5bn.

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The scheme awards five UK-based aspiring solicitors £2,500 each year for use towards the cost of their law degree. Sarah Hyde, Of Counsel solicitor and founder of the CMS Bursary scheme explains: “At CMS, we believe that a career in law should be open to people from all walks of life, if that is what they want to do and if their potential measures up’.

In addition to the monetary award, finalists receive mentoring from a qualified lawyer and have the opportunity to complete paid work experience at the firm.

Since its inception in 2011, the scheme has presented 26 students with a financial grant and has seen over 70 receive mentoring. “We are proud to see the difference the scheme is making to students, at a critical point in their lives as they transition to University” says Hyde.

To be considered for a bursary, students will need to partake in an essay writing competition. Successful applicants will then be invited to attend an interview at CMS’ London or Edinburgh office in September 2018. The deadline for applications is 29 June 2018 (Scotland) or 18 July 2018 (rest of UK). To apply, click here.

Corporate partner Isabelle Lentz – currently head of the firm’s Luxembourg desk in London -will take the helm at the new outpost, which is set to open in October.

The move is designed to bolster the firm’s position in the funds market and also take advantage of opportunities posed by Brexit as businesses transfer to the Grand Duchy.

Ashurst is hiring for the new office, with a view to having between 15 and 20 legal and business services staff ensconced within a year of opening.

Paul Jenkins, managing partner, said: ‘As a leading investment fund centre in Europe, the second largest globally in terms of assets under management and a hub for international banks and fintech, the opportunities in Luxembourg are significant. Growing our offering and building on the proven track record of our established Luxembourg desk is an exciting prospect and one which will greatly enhance our client service offering.’

Lentz added: ‘Over recent years, Luxembourg has secured it status as a key financial centre and as one of the frontrunners of preferred EU locations for transfer of business related to Brexit, that is only set to increase. I am really looking forward to capitalising on this by developing our presence in Luxembourg and enhancing our capability.’

The firm’s Luxembourg desk in London was set up in 2011 and advises on corporate, private equity, funds, restructuring, regulatory, real estate and banking matters. Recent mandates for the five-strong desk have included advising investor Digital Colony on its April 2018 acquisition from First State Investments on Digita Oy, the owner and operator of digital terrestrial television and radio broadcasting tower infrastructure network in Finland.

Other recent mandates have seen the team advise US fund Castlelake on the restructuring of a number of Luxembourg companies ahead of the IPO of property developer Aedas Homes, Aviva Investors and Shard Capital on the establishment of unregulated private debt funds, Nordic private equity shop CapMan Real Estate on its €425m fund raising of a private FCP- RAIF fund and the banks on a bridge financing for fund manager EQT.

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Thanks to the pegging of Kirkland’s UK salaries to the dollar, the firm’s London-based juniors will now earn the staggering annual sum of £143,000. This follows a $10,000 hike in the salaries of its US lawyers from $180,000 to $190,000.

The move follows a similar uptick in salary announced by Milbank, Tweed , Hadley & McCloy earlier this month.

To find out how much you could earn as a trainee and NQ solicitor, check out The Lex 100’s ‘How much will I earn’ salary table.

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In a highly symbolic move for the industry, Magic Circle firm Slaughters has confirmed the launch of a law tech programme it flagged earlier this year, to sit alongside its existing Fast Forward fintech incubator.

The new incubator will focus on developing legal tech and is expected to open by mid-2019, joining the lengthening list of law firms with similar initiatives. Slaughters holds a 5% stake in legal tech darling Luminance, but the firm does not expect to take further equity stakes in start-ups through the new initiative.

Slaughters head of technology Rob Sumroy told Legal Business: ‘We are now firmly on the path of designing a second incubator, which will be based on the first one, but will be more focused towards legal tech. When we created fintech Fast Forward, we were open to legal tech applicants, but some of the legal tech start-ups have shied away from applying to it.’

Magic Circle counterpart Allen & Overy has its own legal tech space called Fuse while Mishcon De Reya and Dentons have similar ventures. Earlier this year, banking giant Barclays entered the legal tech space through its Eagle Labs programme.

Elsewhere, email security artificial intelligence (AI) company Tessian has announced a new funding round of £9m. The company helps prevent sensitive emails being sent to the wrong person, and has more than 70 UK law firm clients. Balderton Capital led the round with existing investors Accel, Amadeus Capital Partners, Crane, LocalGlobe, Winton Ventures and Walking Ventures.

The latest funding means the company has raised about £21m since its founding in 2013. Tessian, formerly known as CheckRecipient, has expanded its team from 13 to 50 people in that time. As part of the latest investment, Balderton partner Suranga Chandratillake and Accel partner Luciana Lixandru will join the board.

Tessian chief executive Tim Sadler commented: ‘It’s human nature to fear scary things like hackers or malware, but we often don’t think twice about the dangers behind something as familiar and ingrained as sending an email. In reality that’s where an overwhelming threat lies.’

Rounding up a busy few days for technology announcements, cloud-based legal spend management and analytics start-up Apperio has secured mobile-only bank Monzo as a client. With a customer base of over 700,000, Monzo will be another key client for Apperio who already count Dentons, Network Rail and Deliveroo as clients.

Headed up by chief executive Nicholas D’Adhemar, Apperio focuses its offering on in-house legal teams and has raised £3.4m in investment, with the company looking towards expanding its team size in the future.

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The firm has nailed its colours to the mast with a pair of laterals in corporate and white collar, in the form of Gary Silverman and Carolyn Gurland, but plans to expand to more than 100 lawyers in short time.

Zakia, who joined White & Case as an associate in 2003 from Chicago-bred rival Kirkland & Ellis, is relocating to the Windy City from the firm’s Miami office. The new office is part of the firm’s 2020 strategy, which involves targeted, profitable growth, particularly in the US and London, with the aim of cementing a position among the global elite firms.

Silverman is a private equity partner who joins from Greenberg Traurig’s Chicago office where he worked for seven years. Like Zakia, he also has Kirkland pedigree, having worked at that firm for 18 years until 2004. He acts for clients across industries including manufacturing, consumer products, hospitality, life sciences, and media, entertainment and technology.

Gurland is a white collar criminal defense attorney who is returning to White & Case as a partner having worked at the firm’s New York office as an associate. She has been a sole practitioner for the last four years and, before that, served as assistant district attorney in the New York County District Attorney’s Office prosecuting complex, high-profile financial crimes.

The firm’s 2020 strategy is focused on growth in four key industries—financial institutions, private equity, technology and oil & gas—and three key practices—M&A, capital markets and disputes. Oliver Brettle last month stepped down as White & Case’s London executive partner in order to focus on this strategy.

Brettle told Legal Business: ‘The Midwest economy is as big in GDP terms as the UK or France. It’s a real corporate centre that is home to organisations which are already global or have global ambitions. Opening an office in Chicago that appeals to these businesses will, in time, benefit the rest of the firm including EMEA and Asia-Pacific.’

While only three lawyers strong, the Chicago office is intended to grow dramatically. John Reiss, White & Case’s global head of M&A based in New York, said: ‘We expect the office to expand to 100 lawyers and become a full service location over the next couple of years, and we are working actively to accomplish that.’

In February, the firm acted on its strategic ambitions when it launched a four-partner oil and gas office in Houston. James Cuclis joined from fellow US firm Vinson & Elkins to head up the office, Christopher Richardson and Charlie Ofner went over from local Houston outfit Andrews Kurth Kenyon, while Saul Daniel relocated from the firm’s London office.

At the time, Dave Koschik, head of White & Case’s US growth team, said the firm intended to have at least 15 partners and 50 total lawyers in Houston across the core transactional practices of corporate, finance and projects.

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CYBG, the owner of Clydesdale Bank and Yorkshire Bank, said yesterday (18 June) it had struck a deal to buy London Stock Exchange-listed Virgin Money in a £1.7bn acquisition that will create the UK’s sixth-largest bank.

Slaughter and May is acting for seller Virgin Group in the buyout, with a team including corporate partners Roland Turnill and Rob Innes (pictured), IP partner Cathy Connolly and financial regulation partner Jan Putnis.

Innes told Legal Business: ‘It’s great to be supporting longstanding client Virgin Group on this deal, whom we advised on the IPO of Virgin Money in 2014. The combination of two leading challenger banks under the Virgin brand marks an important event in the UK banking sector.’

Virgin Money was advised by A&O, with a team led by corporate partner George Knighton alongside fellow corporate partners Seth Jones and David Broadley. For A&O, the mandate extended a relationship with Virgin Money that started in 2007.

CC meanwhile acted for CYBG, with a team spearheaded by corporate partner David Pudge and including corporate partners Gareth Camp and Katherine Moir. Partner Stephen Reese led on IP/brand licencing, partner Simon Crown led on regulatory, while head of UK antitrust Alex Nourry advised along with capital markets partners Adrian Cartwright and Christopher Walsh.

Elsewhere, King & Spalding and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer have both advised on insurer Equitable Life’s £1.8bn sale to Life Company Consolidation Group (LCCG). As a result of the sale, Equitable Life’s policy holders will transfer to Reliance Life, a subsidiary of LCCG.

Equitable Life, which nearly financially collapsed in 2000 putting pensions at risk, was represented by Freshfields, with a team led by corporate insurance partner George Swan alongside partners Neil Golding and Craig Montgomery, who provided dispute resolution counsel.

Swan told Legal Business: ‘Equitable Life has a bit of history to it! It’s spent the best part of 20 years gradually putting that history behind it. This deal is the culmination of that turnaround story. Reliance Life will be an excellent partner going forward, providing a better result for policy holders than simply winding the company down.’

King & Spalding’s team advising LCCG was headed up by corporate partner William Charnley, with support from employment partner Jules Quinn, regulatory partner Angela Hayes and tax partner Daniel Friel.

Finally, CC and Latham & Watkins won mandates on the €7.1bn initial public offering (IPO) of Adyen, a Dutch payments processor recognised as the country’s only fintech unicorn. Adyen listed on the Amsterdam stock exchange on 13 June, and at press time had a share price of €417.1.

CC, which advised Adyen, deployed lawyers from four international offices covering London, Paris, Amsterdam and Luxembourg. Amsterdam-based corporate partner Hans Beerlage led for the firm. Latham and its London-based capital markets partner Olof Clausson acted for the underwriters and bookrunners of the IPO, including Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan and Citigroup.

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