Filter This View

  • November 6, 2008 |

    City firms post solid H1 financials as nationals start to feel the pinch

    A band of City law firms look set to tough out the gloomy market with Lovells, Norton Rose, Trowers & Hamlins and CMS Cameron McKenna all expecting double-digit revenue growth for the first six months of the year.Norton Rose has said that it expects to see 11% growth over the first half of 2008-09 increasing revenue from £127.5m to £141.5m. Camerons has also had a solid first-half with a 10% increase in revenue from £103m to around £113m.Lovells is predicting to see 10%-plus revenue growth with the firm highlighting insolvency and restructuring, capital markets, intellectual property and corporate as strong performers.Trowers, which has a well-established practice in the much-courted Middle East market, has emerged as a leading performer, posting a 16% increase in income moving from £36.1m to £42m.Ashurst and Simmons & Simmons have both also managed to grow their first-half revenues by more than 5% against the same period in 2007, in what will be seen as credible performances.Norton Rose chief executive Peter Martyr told Legal Week: "We are looking good at the moment - our main practice areas are robust and we are well placed. But it is extremely hard to judge the future. There has never been such a degree of uncertainty as to what the immediate future will bring."Despite indications that many law firms have managed to maintain growth in the face of the slump, the 2008-09 year promises to display widely-diverging results, with a substantial proportion of firms seeing falls in revenue.Addleshaw Goddard, Eversheds, Halliwells and Wragge & Co have all this week confirmed dips in H1 revenue. Eversheds is down 4% to £188m from £196 while Halliwells sees its income drop by 3.1% to £44m from £45.4m.Eversheds chief executive David Gray said: "Given the economic turmoil of the last six months, it is not surprising that law firms are facing reduced revenues. "Eversheds has posted a small decline in revenues of just 4%, which is further evidence that the business is holding up well, with some areas seeing over 30% growth, such as competition and international."Addleshaws' income between April and October dropped to £94.7m from £97.5m on the same period last year. It is thought that Cobbetts' first half will be down around 5%-10%A spokesperson from Halliwells added: "There is no disputing that the market is extremely difficult at present and the remainder of the financial year is sure to prove just as challenging, but our core business remains strong and a number of our practice areas continue to perform very well."In addition, magic circle firms have this year been intensely secretive about their H1 results, despite expectations that the group has benefited from relatively busy foreign offices and a flight to quality with transactional mandates.

    1 minute read

  • November 6, 2008 |

    Editors Comment: The going gets...

    If caginess among the magic circle about their financial performance was the sole measure of how bad things had got, then the UK market would be in deep, deep trouble. Certainly, London's top firms are doing everything in their power to keep their H1 performance under wraps. However, this probably has more to do with abject fear that they have been trounced in relative terms by one of their peers rather than proof that it has been a punishing six months for London's finest.For bolder souls among the top 50 the picture is, to be honest, boringly predictable. Revenue growth has slowed drastically against the first half of last year, when it was a mark of shame to not have increased your turnover by double-digits. This year making 10% growth is seen as standout, so a pat on the back is due Norton Rose, Lovells and CMS Cameron McKenna for getting into that ballpark. Actually, considering the dramatic shifts in the market this year, and that the first half of 2007-08 was the last hurray of the boom, anyone getting above 5% H1 growth has put in a credible performance, especially Ashurst, whose practice is particularly exposed to the turn in the markets. This also suggests that recent revival of the fortunes of the band of firms below the magic circle is built on something more substantive than merely benefiting from run-off work that the elite firms can't take on in a boom.There is a common thread between the magic circle and the aspiring practices just below: both groups have become a lot better at cost control since the dotcom slump. There wasn't much fat on these firms even during the last boom, and they've moved pretty quickly to cut back costs as the crunch hit. By contrast, a lack of discipline is one reason why domestically-focused practices have been the weaker performers so far. But if the current figures prove that most firms could live with the crunch, that doesn't yet give a concrete reading of how they'll cope with the coming recession. The central projection for the top 50 in 2008-09 has to be for revenue to be roughly static, while profits fall back 5%-10%. If the deal market doesn't reach some kind of a floor at the start of 2009 as the credit market begins to ease and the effect of what will be the most dramatic loosening of monetary conditions for 15 years takes hold, it will be a lot worse than that. And even assuming that the floor is reached in the New Year, 2009-10 is going to be worse. But so far the profession has acquitted itself reasonably well in the [email protected]

    1 minute read

  • November 6, 2008 |

    Ashurst unveils Asia and Middle East expansion plans

    Ashurst has rolled out a new three-year plan with expansion in Asia and the Middle East among key targets for the City law firm.The firm is planning to increase revenue and headcount in its Asian and Middle East offices, including plans to build its Asian corporate and finance practices out of its new Hong Kong base.The firm is also planning to bulk up its Dubai and Abu Dhabi offices by relocating partners to the regions. It is understood that funds, projects and structured finance partners will be transferred to the region in the near future.The new objectives, which succeed Ashurst's original 2005 plan, see the firm move to take a more hands-on approach with its existing clients. The firm is aiming to cement its links with a number of key institutional clients by actively approaching them with advice in new areas.Senior partner Geoffrey Green said: "We want to build on the key relationships with clients that we have developed over the last few years by looking at and anticipating their needs and the issues that they face. We think that the best way to do this is to be more proactive in approaching them with solutions rather than waiting for them to come to us."Ashurst will continue to build on the targets of its previous three-year plan, which aimed at making the firm a better place to work, boost its position in Europe and increase profitability.

    1 minute read

  • November 6, 2008 |

    Clydes posts double-digit revenue growth for H1

    Clyde & Co has become the latest City firm to reveal its turnover figures for the first half of the financial year, posting double-digit revenue growth. The top City firm boosted revenues by 10% for the H1 period with the firm bringing in £83.6m, up from £76m last year.Clydes attributed the growth to an increase in commercial litigation and its international network of offices, in the particular the Middle East - where the firm is seeing an increase in corporate activity - and the Americas, which is heavily focused on litigation.

    1 minute read

  • November 6, 2008 |

    Perks of legal life

    The rewards offered to lawyers extend beyond the financial into all sorts of gratis goodies. Legal Week Student takes a look at some of the more bizarre perks on offer

    1 minute read

  • November 5, 2008 |

    Freshfields, Ashurst take flight on Lufthansa's €400m BMI bid

    Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Ashurst have landed lead roles in Lufthansa's bid to take a controlling stake in UK airline BMI, in a deal valued at a reported €400m (£314m).Freshfields won an instruction from the German national airline, which announced last week that it is to take a further 50% stake in BMI. London-based corporate partner Sundeep Kapila led the team for the magic circle firm.The firm has advised Lufthansa regularly in the past, including on the establishment of a freight airline with DHL Express in 2007.

    1 minute read

  • November 5, 2008 |

    Milbank Tweed and Slaughters pick up £2bn sale of Abbey train leasing arm

    Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy and Slaughter and May have taken lead roles on the estimated £2bn sale of Abbey's train leasing arm Porterbrook to a Deutsche Bank-led consortium, in one of the largest leveraged acquisitions of the year in the London market. Milbank scored the lead role for the acquiring consortium, including Deutsche bank, Lloyds TSB and Antin Infrastructure Partners - a BNP Paribas-sponsored infrastructure fund. The US firm fielded a team out of its London office under corporate partner Stuart Harray, along with finance partner Suhrud Mehta and tax partner Russell Jacobs.

    1 minute read

  • November 5, 2008 |

    ...Legal Week Lunchbox: 6/11/08...

    The five most popular articles on legalweek.com today; the pick of the day's posts; and more

    1 minute read

  • November 5, 2008 |

    Ashurst grows H1 turnover by 7.5% to £158m

    Ashurst has posted a 7.5% increase in turnover for the first six months of the financial year, with revenues rising to £158m from £147m in the same period last year. Despite the figures falling some way short of last year's equivalent increase of 25%, the results mark a strong performance for the firm in the tough economic climate. The firm's core practice areas of private equity, leveraged finance and structured finance have all felt the pinch in recent months.Managing partner Simon Bromwich (pictured) commented: "The economic situation remains challenging and it is clear that all firms will face a tough second six months. That said, Ashurst's performance remains good and we are continuing to build on the significant progress of recent years.

    1 minute read

  • October 31, 2008 |

    Bakers set for Abu Dhabi office launch

    Baker & McKenzie is set to open its third office in the Gulf with the launch of an Abu Dhabi arm later this year. The new office will mark the firm's 69th base worldwide, and will specialise in banking and finance, corporate and M&A, private equity, securities, capital markets, projects arbitration and real estate.Former Prague managing partner Boris Dackiw will head up the office, leading a team of 50 lawyers. He will also become managing partner of the Gulf region.

    1 minute read