Weekly Update - 2nd December 2024
Fides Search
Partner Search for Professional Services & In-House Legal, Co-Sec and Compliance, Financial Crime and Privacy Search
Moves:
In-House
The business recently announced that its $40 million investment arrangement with the struggling Container Store brand is in jeopardy.
The United Soccer League's general counsel, Andrew McIntosh, stated, "The league's rapid growth is bringing increased interest from international investors and raised expectations for strong corporate governance, and I look forward to providing support in these crucial areas."
UK & Ireland
Will McDonald is joining Gibson Dunn’s mergers and acquisition practice. McDonald, a Jones Day lifer, is leaving the firm after almost 18 years, in which time, he built out a practice specialising in public U.K. M&A deals.
APAC
DLA Piper has appointed Jang Hyuk Yeo, a former shareholder at Greenberg Traurig, as a partner in its Seoul corporate practice. Qualified in New York and registered as a foreign legal consultant in Seoul, Yeo advises on mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, capital markets listings, foreign direct investments and private equity transactions.
Reed Smith has hired DLA Piper’s former partner and co-head of its regional equity capital markets practice in Hong Kong, Arthur Tso.
Kok Jin Ong is set to join the firm’s corporate transactions practice and will be named partner following regulatory approval, Ashurst said. Ong leaves A&O Shearman after serving as counsel for eight months, before which he assumed the role at legacy Shearman & Sterling.
The Americas
Tracy Burnett has joined Morrison Cohen as a partner in our Regulatory Enforcement and White-Collar Practice. White-collar criminal defence, internal and governmental investigations, and regulatory enforcement issues are the main areas of her practice.
Phil Cheveley is now a partner in the London-based cross-border M&A practice department of Covington & Burling.
The name partners of Dallas trial firm Carter Arnett Bennett & Perez, Courtney Barksdale Perez and Joshua Bennett, will join Baker & Hostetler in Dallas on Monday.
After Allen & Overy and Shearman & Sterling merged, Karen Seward was considered by many to be Wim Dejonghe's successor.
Team Moves
The real value add here, according to Glenn Stein, chair of the corporate and securities group at Chiesa Shahinian & Giantomasi, is the privately held midmarket client that spins off not only M&A work but also financing work, contract and commercial transactions, intellectual property, environmental, and real estate.
Clyde & Co has lost another insurance partner and team to Australian insurance-specialist law firm Wotton Kearney, becoming the fifth insurance team to leave the British firm in the past year. Jacques Jacobs and his team of six join Wotton Kearney’s Sydney office.
Financials:
The merger added roughly 55 people to Quarles’ team in 2022.
Practices like health care, real estate, labour and employment, and litigation were "clicking on all cylinders," according to the CEO of the company, whose revenue was up 13%.
Since several Big Law firms have also made similar announcements, the three Texas-based homegrown firms that are all part of the Am Law 100 are paying the market rate for year-end plus unique bonuses set by Milbank.
According to Wells Fargo's Legal Specialty Group Nine-Month 2024 Survey Results, billing rates for domestic Texas businesses increased by 7.9% in the first nine months of 2024 compared to 2023, which is almost the industry's rate increase of 9% during the same period.
Promotions & Appointments
Habib has previously worked at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe and clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor.
Salvatore Anastasi, a partner at Barley Snyder and the chair of the intellectual property practice group, has been chosen as the American Intellectual Property Law Association's (AIPLA) next president.
The firm stuck to an approximately 50/50 split between New York and other offices.
Diversity & Inclusion:
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By addressing the health, safety, and well-being of its employees, PepsiCo Beverages North America has improved employee progression and retention rates over the past year, demonstrating its support for diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Ann Chaplin, general counsel at Qualcomm, stated, "I've discovered that it is always better to have more voices at the table, and to strive for an environment in which more people are encouraged to speak up."
Office Openings & Closing:
Law firms' approaches to office space are undergoing a paradigm shift. This change has changed how law firms handle their real estate demands. As flexible workplaces become more popular, businesses are seeing that when their attorneys do come into the office, the primary objective is to meet and engage with peers.
Due to rising upgrade costs and a lack of high-quality space in certain core areas, most U.S. law firms who signed leases through Q3 of 2024 are expected to remain in their current locations, following a pattern that began in 2023.
Joining the line of law firms looking for new office space in London are Weil and Herbert Smith Freehills.
While JSM will take over Vietnam, mainland China, and most of Hong Kong, Mayer Brown will keep about ten partners in Hong Kong and control of its offices in Singapore and Tokyo.
The company is recruiting Clifford Chance's Luxembourg co-head of investment funds and the Luxembourg co-head of funds at A&O Shearman.
Big Four Japanese firm Mori Hamada & Matsumoto is strengthening its U.S. presence by opening an office in the San Francisco Bay Area, following New York in 2023. Operations in San Francisco are scheduled to commence in 2025. The office will be led by two partners. Mikito Ishida and Stephen Overton.
Mergers & Alliances:
A partner vote opposing administrative and financial integration led to the conclusion.
The quest to form a global firm with a shared profit pool has resulted in some U.S. partner tensions.
Technology & Innovation:
"The demand for legal services is increasing. "How will that need be met?" is the query. Prof. Richard Susskind, a globally renowned expert in the field of artificial intelligence, stated.
David Horrigan, the director of legal education and discovery counsel at Relativity, adds, "The study found that half of legal professionals increased their use of AI generally over the past two years."
The platform for automated document creation and editing is the most recent in Litera's lengthy string of M&A transactions.
On March 24, 2020, the first-securities class action lawsuit pertaining to AI was filed. Since then, 38 filings pertaining to AI have been made. There were five lawsuits in 2020, eight in 2021, six in 2022, six in 2023, and thirteen in 2024 thus far.
Michelle Schapp and Frank Xavier Wukovits of CSG Law argue, "It is imperative to review the variables involved in the adequate planning of a data breach."
Macro wants to use AI to increase productivity by combining coding and PDFs into a one tool.
Market Commentary:
If Herbert Smith Freehills and others wish to compete in America, they must take a Paul Weiss-style approach to concentrating on important people.
This article examines the classification of "patent trolls" within the United States patent system.
A partnership agreement, which outlines the rights, obligations, financial interests, and expectations of co-owners, is a vital component of a successful practice's ownership, governance, operation, and longevity.
Wells Fargo's Les Starck noted that "There continues to be quite a bit of expense pressure,” contributing to big firms pressing forward with billing rate increases.
According to Gregory Hoffman of Lindabury, "Remote work opens a variety of vulnerabilities that may not exist within a traditional office setting."
Strict hiring quotas, lengthy licensing processes, and intense competition for resources are putting businesses' resolve to the test as they compete to enter the Kingdom.