The proposed $146bn combination sees Washington-headquartered T-Mobile enter into an all-stock deal to merge with Sprint. The transaction gives the Kansas-based target an enterprise value of $59bn and paves the way for the companies’ dual ambition to build the world’s best 5G network.

The combined company will be named T-Mobile and is expected to have the network capacity to rapidly create a nationwide 5G network while having lower costs and greater economies of scale.

Wachtell’s team, led by New York corporate partner Adam Emmerich, is advising T-Mobile and its German parent company Deutsche Telekom. MoFo, meanwhile, is acting for Sprint and its controlling shareholder SoftBank Group with a team led by global M&A practice group co-chair Robert Townsend (San Francisco), corporate partners Brandon Parris (San Francisco) and David Slotkin (Washington DC), antitrust partners David Meyer (Washington DC) and Jeff Jaeckel (Washington DC), regulatory partner Nick Spiliotes (Washington DC), tax partner Bernie Pistillo (San Francisco) and Tokyo office managing partner Ken Siegel.

The team also includes corporate partners Mike O’Bryan (San Francisco) and Scott Lesmes (Washington DC), finance partner Mark Wojciechowski (New York), corporate partner Ivan Smallwood (Tokyo), antitrust partner Mike Miller (New York), technology transactions partner Paul Jahn (San Francisco) and compensation benefits partner Domnick Bozzetti (New York).

Cleary Gottlieb and DLA Piper are acting as regulatory counsel to T-Mobile and Deutsche Telekom. Cleary’s team was led by Washington DC partners Mark Nelson, George Cary, and Jeremy Calsyn, as well as Dan Culley in Brussels. Weil is advising Evercore, the financial adviser to T-Mobile’s committee of independent directors, with a team led by New York corporate partner Michael Aiello and including M&A partner Eoghan Keenan.

Latham & Watkins is advising the committee of independent directors, with a corporate team including partners Charles Ruck in New York and Orange County and Daniel Rees in Orange County. Advising on finance matters are partners Keith Halverstam and Benjamin Cohen in New York and Greg Robins in Los Angeles, while James Barker and Matthew Brill in Washington DC are acting on communications matters.

Steven Croley in Washington DC advised on the Committee on Foreign in the United States (CFIUS) matters, Michael Egge on antitrust and Michele Johnson on compliance. Richards, Layton & Finger served as Delaware counsel to the committee of independent directors of T-Mobile.

Goodwin Procter is legal counsel to the independent transaction committee of the board of directors of Sprint while Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom is regulatory co-counsel and Potter Anderson Corroon is Delaware counsel.

Morgan Stanley is financial adviser to Deutsche Telekom, while Barclays, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and RBC are providing T-Mobile with committed debt financing to support the transaction. PJT Partners is advising T-Mobile on the debt financing associated with the transaction.

After the deal closes – likely between Q4 2018 and Q2 2019 – the new company will be headquartered in Bellevue, Washington with a second headquarters in Overland Park, Kansas.

‘This combination will create a fierce competitor with the network scale to deliver more for consumers and businesses in the form of lower prices, more innovation, and a second-to-none network experience – and do it all so much faster than either company could on its own’, said John Legere, president and chief executive officer of T-Mobile US, who will also head the new company.

He added: ‘As industry lines blur and we enter the 5G era, consumers and businesses need a company with the disruptive culture and capabilities to force positive change on their behalf.’

Sprint chief executive Marcelo Claure commented: ‘Sprint and T-Mobile have similar DNA and have eliminated confusing rate plans, converging into one rate plan: Unlimited. We intend to bring this same competitive disruption as we look to build the world’s best 5G network that will make the US a hotbed for innovation. Going from 4G to 5G is like going from black and white to colour TV – it’s a seismic shift – one that only the combined company can unlock nationwide to fuel the next wave of mobile innovation.’

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The deal announced today (30 April) will establish one of the largest employers in the country, worth £51bn in revenue, operating around 2,800 stores and controlling 31% of the market, a larger share than current leader Tesco.

It sent shockwaves throughout the industry, with Sainsbury’s shares jumping around 20%, while the company was at pains to stress that the deal will lead to a significant reduction in consumer prices without any job cuts or store closures.

‘The driver behind all this is to generate synergies and cost savings, so that the parties can compete better with Aldi and Lidl and give consumers what they want – quality and convenience at a lower price,’ a partner close to the deal told Legal Business, adding that job cuts or store closures ‘would not fit within the rationale of the deal’. Both Sainsbury’s and Asda will keep their brands.

Linklaters’ corporate partners Iain Fenn and Michael Honan are advising Sainsbury’s, which will acquire Asda from US giant Walmart for £2.97bn. UK head of competition Nicole Kar and antitrust partner Simon Pritchard have also acted on the deal, which values Asda at £7.3bn.

The Magic Circle firm sits on Sainsbury’s legal panel, which was last reviewed in August 2017 and includes ten other firms.

Meanwhile, corporate partners Sally Wokes, Victoria MacDuff and Nigel Boardman led the large Slaughters’ team advising Walmart and Asda, alongside finance partner Guy O’Keefe. Tax expert Steve Edge also acted on the deal, with Jonathan Fenn and Charles Cameron advising on employment aspects, Cathy Connolly on IP and tech, Jane Edwarde on real estate and Ben Kingsley on financial regulation.

Gibson Dunn advised Walmart and Asda on the competition aspects of the deal, led by partners Ali Nikpay and Deirdre Taylor. Review of the deal by the Competition and Markets Authority is expected to take a while, with the deal unlikely to close before the autumn of 2019.

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The announcement today (26 April) will see the combined firm move a stone’s throw from legacy Berwin Leighton Paisner’s (BLP) London HQ at Adelaide House to the 125,000 sq ft Governor’s House office building at 5 Laurence Pountney Hill.

Legacy Bryan Cave’s London office, which has about 39 fee-earners and 12 partners, is already in the process of moving from its previous London base at 88 Wood Street to Adelaide House.

In a statement, BCLP said: ‘The proposed move represents a significant commitment by the firm to a modern, flexible working space, encouraging of collaborative working.’

The transatlantic merger between legacy Bryan Cave and BLP went live this month, creating a 1600-lawyer, financially-integrated practice with 32 offices across 11 countries, good for a combined revenue of more than $900m.

BLP has been based in Adelaide House since 1970, and has occupied the entire building since 2005. It is in talks with its landlord about what space they will keep in that building.

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The firm announced Wednesday (April 25) the second cohort of companies which will join its tech innovation space in London from May, bringing what Fuse chairman and A&O partner Jonathan Brayne describes as a ‘very different’ focus since the first round in September.

Incumbent companies Avvoka, Legatics and Nivaura will transfer from the first cohort to the second, and will be joined by Bloomsbury AI, Kira Systems, Neota Logic, Regnosys and Signal Media. The companies were chosen from 80 applicants – down slightly from last year’s 84 – and had pitched to the Fuse selection committee, which includes Amazon’s Alex Wong and Jordan Elsas, Funding Circle’s Robert Kerrigan, Index Ventures’ Hannah Seal and JP Morgan’s Oli Harris.

Brayne commented: ‘This cohort’s focus is very different to that of the first – there’s a strong AI theme here – but there’s the same sense of anticipation as when we opened our doors last September.’ Fuse head Shruti Ajitsaria added: ‘Opening for the second cohort has enabled us to keep abreast of the constantly changing legal tech ecosystem and we’re really pleased with the standard of the companies joining us next month.’

The second cohort also signals a move to working with more well-established companies, with Kira Systems and Neota Logic already well-known names in the law-tech space. Bloomsbury AI and Signal Media are AI companies without an explicit legal focus, while fintech company Regnosys hits a sweet spot between finance and law in that it focuses on regulatory compliance.

Nearly half of this year’s applicants had a focus on platform solutions, a quarter on workflow, and a fifth were reg tech businesses. About two-thirds of the applicants already have existing users, while 31% are at the prototype phase and 6% only a concept.

A&O says more than 5,500 people from within the firm, clients and others have visited Fuse since it opened last year . The touted benefit the space provides is the ability for the companies to work directly with lawyers and clients as end users to help refine their products.

Other firms with similar initiatives include Mishcon de Reya with MDR LABS early last year, and Dentons’ Nextlaw Labs and Nextlaw Ventures in 2015.

The 100-person law-tech Eagle Lab in London’s Notting Hill is backed by 13 law firms and several other industry players including the Law Society, PwC, start-up community Legal Geek, as well as the University of Liverpool and University College London.

It joins a network of 15 Eagle Labs the bank set up to help start-up businesses, originally converting old bank spaces across the UK. Barclays already hosts three law-tech companies in its Eagle Labs, including Wavelength Law, Prose, and Aalbun.

Barclays UK general counsel Stephanie Pagni commented: ‘This initiative will help trigger a transformation in law-tech with significant potential, addressing not just commercial but also societal legal problems, and drawing on the expertise of data scientists, engineers and a range of other graduates and contributors from our university partners.’

The firms which signed up are Allen & Overy (A&O), which already runs its own ‘innovation hub’ called Fuse, Baker McKenzie, Brethertons, Capital Law, Clifford Chance (CC), Clyde & Co, DWF, Gowling WLG, Latham & Watkins, Norton Rose Fulbright, Simmons & Simmons, SO Legal and TLT.

The incubator will provide mentoring and workshops, including on-site advice from Barclays staff, as well as feedback from the partnering law firms. The universities will provide academic support in areas such as artificial intelligence and law-tech, while Legal Geek, which had more than 1000 people at its annual conference last year, will organise events.

Barclays chief executive Ashok Vaswani said the UK had every reason to be a world leader in law-tech. He added: ‘It is home to some of the greatest law firms in the world and we want to help build on the success of its legal sector, and play a leading role in transforming law-tech in the future. The impressive range of partners supporting this initiative shows just how important this is.’

Barclays will meet potential lab residents to assess their aim, scalability, relevance, funding status and sustainability, as well as how they would benefit from the ‘ecosystem’. The lab’s partners will discuss applications but Barclays will make the final decision. No detail was provided about when the lab will begin, other than it will be ‘confirmed soon’.

A report by Legal Geek and Thomson Reuters last July found investment into UK start-ups focused on legal technology had reach £16m in the preceding 18 months. It said the market is still at an embryonic stage, but there are encouraging levels of investment into the sector. The report’s start-up ‘map’ features more than 60 start-ups active in the UK. About 180 have applied to be on this year’s map.

Legal Geek founder Jimmy Vestbirk commented on Barclays’ move: ‘The law-tech space has huge potential for growth, and with initiatives like this, I wholeheartedly believe that the same success we have seen in the UK’s thriving fintech scene can be replicated.’

The bank’s foray into law-tech incubators comes following A&O’s Fuse hub, which launched with eight start-ups in September last year, and Mishcon de Reya’s MDR LAB, which had six law-tech start-ups working in the firm’s London HQ over 10 weeks a few months previously. Dentons was the trailblazer, launching Nextlaw Labs in 2015.

Rumours have been swirling about Barclays launching such an initiative in the law-tech market, and it will be interesting to see which start-ups join the incubator. Many of those in the law firm incubators speak of the benefit of direct interaction with lawyers and clients and how that helps mould their products, but Barclays could see this as an opportunity to have more direct input from the in-house side. On the other hand, the sheer number of partners could lead to tension and difficulty establishing the clear solutions these start-ups need to provide.

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Effective 1 May, the round represents a much stronger showing for women, with 10 being promoted compared to just four last year. Overall the promotion round has increased by two from 24 in 2017. The new partners will span across the US, Asia Pacific, continental Europe the Middle East, while in the City promotions increased to seven, up from six last year.

The London promotions saw a strengthening of CC’s corporate, finance, disputes, real estate and tax, pensions and employment practices. European promotions shaded appointments in the City, with eight partners being made up on the continent, while the Americas and the Asia saw three and six promotions respectively.

Global managing partner Matthew Layton said: ‘The make-up of this group also demonstrates the breadth and diversity that will underpin our future success. I look forward to working with them over the coming years as they help drive our progress in a fast-shifting legal landscape’

The announcement follows the promotion rounds of Magic Circle rivals, with Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer promoting five to its London partnership, while Linklaters bumped up the size of its promotions for a fifth year running, making up 27 new partners. Meanwhile, Allen & Overy made up just two female partners in a reduced global promotion round.

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Hosted by journalist, writer and television presenter Mariella Frostrup, the ceremony saw Fieldfisher crowned Law Firm of the Year after an impressive 36% revenue growth to £165m in 2016/17 – the largest rise of any law firm in the Legal Business 100 table last year. The firm scooping the most prestigious award of the night underlines the work of managing partner Michael Chissick and senior partner Matthew Lohn in turning around a firm which only in 2012 was near-crisis (as described in our recent cover feature Reversal of Fortunes).

It was a big night for Kirkland too. The world’s highest-grossing firm secured two of the most sought-after awards, Private Equity Team of the Year and US Law Firm of the Year. Matthew Elliott, Neel Sachdev, Steven Lucas, David Holdsworth and Stuart Boyd were joined by recent high-profile lateral hire David Higgins on stage when they picked up their second award.

Stephenson Harwood also picked up two awards on the night – Private Client Team of the Year, and one of the most coveted awards – Corporate Team of the Year – for its role advising Lavendon Group in its takeover by Loxam. A&O’s banking star Denise Gibson, who featured prominently in our cover feature Alphas this year about the leading female deal talent, was crowned Lawyer of the Year.

Meanwhile, Glen Atchison’s decade at the helm of successful West End practice Harbottle & Lewis secured him Management Partner of the Year.

In other practice awards, Norton Rose Fulbright scooped Finance Team of the Year for the pro bono work of the team led by chair-elect Farmida Bi advising the International Committee of the Red Cross on the development of the Humanitarian Impact Bond, a funding mechanism to encourage social investment from the private sector.

On the contentious side, Charles Russell Speechlys was named International Arbitration Team of the Year for Patrick Gearon’s team work in defending a Qatari telecoms provider against a $660m claim brought by a Saudi Arabian multinational. Wedlake Bell won Commercial Litigation Team of the year for advising Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga as he challenged the outcome of the 2017’s presidential election, which brought to Kenya’s Supreme Court annulling the election results.

DLA Piper was named Real Estate Team of the Year for its use of tech in advising Oval Real Estate in its acquisition of the Custard Factory and Fazeley Studios in Birmingham. The team closed the deal just over a month after the terms had been agreed by using automated contract review system Kira.

Two separate awards recognised the growing importance of tech. Legal Innovator of the Year went to F-Lex, a platform that connects firms and in-house lawyers with pre-vetted paralegals. Squire Patton Boggs brought home Legal Technology Team of the Year for developing Global Edge, an app portal providing employment advice across 32 jurisdictions.

In-house lawyers had their chance to shine too. BT’s Dan Fitz was the first winner of the newly-established GC of the Year prize, while Kendra James at the FT won Rising Star In-House Counsel of the Year. In-House Team of the Year went to The Carlyle Group. The awards ceremony was preceded by a reception to mark the launch of this year’s GC Powerlist report, featuring the top 50 in-house teams in the country.

Irish leader William Fry scooped International Law Firm of the Year after advising on Linde’s $70bn merger with Praxair, the largest deal in Europe in 2017.

The winners were selected by an external judging panel comprising: Nilema Bhakta-Jones, group legal director of Ascential Group; Kate Cheetham, group general counsel, Lloyds Banking Group; Kirsty Cooper, group general counsel and company secretary, Aviva; Simon Croxford, general counsel – group centre legal, Barclays; Maaike de Bie, general counsel, Royal Mail; Claire Debney, chief of staff and director of legal strategy, Shire; Dan Guildford, general counsel, FT; Rachel Jacobs, group general counsel, Springer Nature; Rosemary Martin, group general counsel and company secretary, Vodafone; Nigel Paterson, general counsel and company secretary, Dixons Carphone; Nayeem Syed, assistant general counsel, Thomson Reuters; Ned Staple, general counsel and company secretary, ZPG; Liz Tanner, director of legal services, SSE; Geoffrey Timms, group general counsel and company secretary, Legal & General; Clare Wardle, general counsel and company secretary, Coca-Cola European Partners. The panel also included Legal Business managing editor Mark McAteer and editor-in-chief Alex Novarese.

For more details on the awards, click here.

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Legal Business Awards 2018 – The Winners

Hogan Lovells – TMT Team of the Year

Norton Rose Fulbright – Finance Team of the Year

Charles Russell Speechlys – International Arbitration Team of the Year

CMS Cameron McKenna Nabarro Olswang – Restructuring Team of the Year

Wedlake Bell – Commercial Litigation Team of the Year

Stephenson Harwood – Private Client Team of the Year

Eversheds Sutherland – Competition Team of the Year

Pinsent Masons – Energy and Infrastructure Team of the Year

Clifford Chance – Insurance Team of the Year

Stephenson Harwood – Corporate Team of the Year

Kirkland & Ellis – Private Equity Team of the Year

DLA Piper – Real Estate Team of the Year

GQ Employment Law – Boutique Law Firm of the Year

Denise Gibson, Allen & Overy – Lawyer of the Year

Weil, Gotshal & Manges – CSR Programme of the Year

William Fry – International Firm of the Year

Kendra James, Financial Times – Rising Star In-House Counsel of the Year

Dan Fitz, BT – GC of the Year

The Carlyle Group – In-House Team of the Year

Glen Atchison, Harbottle Lewis – Management Partner of the Year

Kirkland & Ellis – US Law Firm of the Year

F-Lex – Legal Innovator of the Year

Squire Patton Boggs – Legal Technology Team of the Year

Shoosmiths – National/Regional Law Firm of the Year

Fieldfisher – Law Firm of the Year

The £10,000 offering marks a 43% increase, with the firm previously granting £7,000.

The increase is a welcomed change by many students who find funding living costs whilst studying a significant burden.

Crispin Rapinet, Hogan Lovells’ newly-appointed training principal, said: “Ensuring all our people have access to high quality training, support and the opportunity to progress throughout their career is an absolute priority, at every level. With 29% of our 2016/17 hires coming from social mobility backgrounds, we recognise that finances are an increasing consideration and often a barrier to pursuing a career in law.”

He added: “In offering an enhanced level of financial support we hope to address these concerns for future potential candidates and allow our current cohort to focus on achieving their very best in their studies.”

The increase applies to students who started the LPC in February 2018 as well as future joiners. In order to receive the grant, incoming trainees to Hogan Lovells will have to complete their LPC at BPP Law School and do so in seven-and-half-months instead of the customary 12.

Hogan Lovells follows similarly positioned law firms including Allen & Overy, Clifford Chance, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Herbert Smith Freehills, Linklaters, and Slaughter and May who also upped their LPC maintenance grants to £10,000 this year. It is worth noting however, that these are not the first firms to offer this, with Dechert LLP offering trainees a five figure LPC grant for over 6 years.

Bob Charlton is joining Addleshaws after leaving BLP, now Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner (BCLP) following its US merger in February, where he was the legacy firm’s head of Asia since 2014. Charlton previously held a similar role for DLA Piper in the region.

Charlton will be based in Hong Kong and lead Addleshaws’ Asia Pacific practice, which operates in Hong Kong and Singapore and has slowly grown from one partner in 2012 to four now. The firm also has a formal alliance in Japan with Hashidate Law Office.

Managing partner John Joyce said Charlton’s leadership pedigree in the region was required as the firm looks to grow its presence in Asia. Disputes partner Nigel Francis, head of Asia for the previous four years, is returning to full-time work on his contentious practice, while Charlton will be a full-time leader in the role.

He told Legal Business: ‘We’ve got a presence in Asia: we’d like to grow it materially from where it is. So far we’ve been trying to do that through people doing their day jobs, and we just felt it needed a leadership role to give it the proper time and attention. It’s something that to do properly and to do well, you need to spend time at.’

Joyce said material growth in the region meant growing partner numbers to 12 or more. The focus will remain on Hong Kong and Singapore, however: ‘[We’d like to] get those to the right size and shape before we start looking elsewhere but if the right opportunity comes along elsewhere then absolutely we’d look at that.’

A BCLP spokesperson confirmed Charlton’s departure last week: ‘Having accomplished much for our Asia business and having successfully implemented our “One Asia” strategy, Bob Charlton has decided that now is a good point for him to seek a new challenge elsewhere, and has left the firm.’

Elsewhere, Addleshaw has recruited former Pilsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman Middle East practice co-leader Ahmad Anani as its Qatar office head. Anani is a corporate and capital markets specialist, and Addleshaws has now made nearly 20 lateral hires in 2018.

Joyce commented: ‘A lot of those people are starting to come around having been in discussions with us for 12, some of them even 18, months. We’re still seeing a huge amount of lateral activity… there’s a few more to land this year.’

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