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InnovatIveLawyers2015

FT.COM/INNOVATIVE-LAWYERS 3

The first decadeWelcome to a landmark edition of Innovative Lawyers magazine. Thisis the 10th year of an FT special report that has weighed and ranked thework of European legal organisations during a time of great change in theindustry.In the run-up to our first report, many in and outside the profession said

innovating was not what lawyers did. In 2006 just two leading legal firmsexpressly cited innovation as a value on their websites. Now almost all do.And the growth of the series of FT reports, nowwith three separate regionaleditions, shows how firms around the world have embraced innovation.The work of lawyers was transformed by the global economic crisis in

2008. They were called on to steady businesses and governments, especiallyas bankers came under increasing suspicion. That work is still going on butstronger regulation in the wake of the crisis is also forcingmore compliancework upon companies around the world — and they are turning to lawyersfor help.The increasing tempo of change has been felt in the structures of legal

organisations. Mergers across continents have becomewidespread inthe past decade and several firms havemoved close to being truly globalentities. And any list of the elite of the profession has to include some USfirms that havemade substantial inroads into the Europeanmarket.In the UK, the Legal Services Act 2007, liberalising some areas of the

profession, has had amuch greater effect thanmany lawyers expectedwhen it was first mooted. Many firms have taken advantage of thelegislation to hire non-lawyers into the partnership, and to set up othertypes of business. Ten years ago, few firms thought they would outsourcework. Now nearly all the top firms have an offshore or low-cost centre. Inthe rest of Europe, too, a number of firms look radically different from adecade ago and, by embracing the concept of continuous change, have beenfeatured regularly in the report’s rankings over the years.Technology is another consistently growing theme of the FT Innovative

Lawyers reports. Firms have gone from outright scepticism to embracingtechnology that can deliver much greater value to clients. If we look aheadto the profession in another 10 years’ time, many firmsmight well be usingartificial intelligence to power some of their legal advice. This may reducethe size of legal organisations — but it might also place the focus evenmoreclosely on the tailored, innovative advice that the best lawyers have built anexpertise in providing.

Lionel BarberEditor, Financial Times

FT Special reporTS ediTorLeyla BoultonediTorRohit JaggiproducTion ediTorGeorge KyriakosarT direcTorJonathan SaundersJunior deSignerHarriet ThornepicTure ediTorSEmily Lewis | Michael CrabtreeSub ediTorPhilip ParrishTableS deSignerDerek WestwoodilluSTraTorMartin O’Neillglobal adVerTiSing direcTor — b2bRobert Grangeglobal clienT relaTionSHip direcTorStephanie CollierpubliSHing SYSTeMS ManagerAndrea Frias-AndradeproJecT ManagerNathalie RavieradVerTiSing producTionDaniel LesarrSg conSulTingReena SenGupta, Yasmin Lambert,Lucy Pearson, Laura Ansell, VictoriaHarris, Katie O’Riordan, JoshuaJames, Helen Jenkins, Scott Shustak,Hannah Bledsoe

ForeWord

4 FT.COM/INNOVATIVE-LAWYERS

contents

special achievement7David Morley, below, seniorpartner at Allen & Overy, hasbeen the driving force behindthe firm’s success as a firstmover in numerous fields

introduction8Financial crisis has definedthe 10 years these reportshave been running, but manymore challenges, not least innew technology, lie ahead

continental13The climate of austerity insome of Europe’s weakereconomies has encouragedlaw firms in those countriesto experiment more

This year…

contributors

Murad Ahmed, FT Europeantechnology correspondentJane Croft, FT law courtscorrespondentLindsay Fortado, FT legalcorrespondent

ArashMassoudi, FT M&Aand corporate financecorrespondentSarahMurray, FT contributorLaura Noonan, FT investmentbanking correspondentChristian Oliver, FT EUcorrespondentLucy Pearson, RSG Consulting

research consultant and FTcontributor,Duncan Robinson, FTBrussels correspondentReena SenGupta, RSGconsulting chief executive andFT contributorMichael Skapinker, FTassociate editor

7

business of law

client service16Collaborations with in-houselegal teams and fresh ideasfor corporate projects arejust two ways firms haveadded value to their service

social responsibility20Ideas and initiatives in whichlawyers engage with andhelp civil society are alsobenefiting their firms

strateGic resourcinG24Some of the most creativeefficiency improvementshave produced substantialsavings for law firms,which they have then beenable to pass on to theirclients

Growth and businessdevelopment28As some firms take on theaccountancy giants in theliberalised legal market,others are building revenuesfrom less orthodox avenues

technoloGy32Digital strategies have beenthe focus of investment in thesearch for efficiency gains,including a growing interestin artificial intelligence

individuals36Judges chose joint winnersof the award for legalinnovator of the year —Shireen Irani, right, andSimon Harper

36

13


leGal eXpertise

corporate andcommercial42The revival in mergers andacquisition activity has beenan opportunity for firms toshow their deal-sealing skills

finance46Complex cross-border dealshave required originalthinking from companies’advisers

dispute resolution48So intricate is internationallitigation that firms areunder pressure to find newways to achieve settlements

competition50In a testing regulatoryenvironment firms have hadto be inventive to securepositive outcomes for clients

intellectual property52The advance of digital andonline businesses has put theonus on their legal teams toexpand their range of skills

researchmethodoloGy

FT Innovative Lawyers 2015is a rankings report andseries of awards for Europe-based lawyers. Shortlistsfor the awards comprise thetop-ranked submissions ineach section of the report.

The FT and its researchpartner RSG Consultinghave devised a uniquemethodology to rank lawyerson innovation. Law firms, in-house legal teams and otherlegal service organisationsare invited to submit theirinnovations. These are thenfully researched throughtelephone interviews andonline feedback.

No entry appears in thisreport without a robustclient or independentreference. Market expertsare also called in to assessthe submissions and theresearch.

Each entry is scored outof 10 points for originality,rationale and impact,for a maximum scoreof 30. Entries are thenbenchmarked againsteach other to arrive at thefinal rankings. Lawyersare ranked for deliveringexceptional value tobusiness.

The in-house lawyerrankings are drawn fromnominations as wellas submissions, but allentries require third-party validation andcommendation.

ft 10: law firminnovators 2015

The FT 10 ranking is a pureaggregate of each law firm’sperformance across theprivate practice categoriesof the report. This year wehave truncated the ranking(in previous years it wasthe FT 50) to accommodatea ranking of the game-changing European lawfirms of the past 10 years,commemorating the 10thedition of the Europe report.This ranking is based onlaw firms’ answers to fivequestions, consideringgrowth, change, operationalinnovation, legal innovationand contribution to theprofession.

For the full methodology, goto ft.com/innovative-lawyers52

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28

Ranking Page Award winner

FT 10: European law firm innovators 2015 10 PinsentMasons

Top 10 European game-changers of the past 10 years 10 DLAPiper/Latham&Watkins

Top 10 European law firms (non-UK) 15 Garrigues

Top five game changers of the past 10 years (non-UK) 15 Vieira deAlmeida&Associados (VdA)

Client service 19 PinsentMasons

Social responsibility 21 iProbono

Strategic resourcing 26 Axiom

Growth and business development 29 Signature Litigation

Technology 35 Axiom/PinsentMasons

Corporate and commercial 43 Cuatrecasas, Gonçalves Pereira

Finance 47 Dechert

Dispute resolution 49 Hogan Lovells

Competition 51 Linklaters

Intellectual property 53 Wiggin

In-house legal team 57 BTGroup

In-house operational change 57 WolseleyGroup

Outstanding innovation of 2015 Linklaters

2015 rankings and award winners

in-house55Working in a company’s legaldepartment has become anexciting option for lawyersinterested in innovation,following a transformationin roles in the past 10 years

risinG stars58Five individuals aged under40 who have demonstratedthat ideas in the legalprofession do not have tocome from the top down


Special achievement

FrontrunnerDavid Morley has drivenhis firm, Allen & Overy, tobe the first mover in manyfields in recent years.By Reena SenGupta

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Allen & Overy, however, is showing this isnot the case. Profits are up 133 per cent overthe past 10 years, from £245m to £579m.The firm, under Mr Morley’s leadership, has

been bolder than most of its peer group. Hislegacy— he steps down inMarch—will not beconfined to Allen & Overy, however.One of his significant achievements is Prime,

his idea for tackling the lack of social mobilityin the profession by encouraging law firmsand in-house legal departments to give school-children from disadvantaged backgroundsquality work experience. Some 88 firms areinvolved, and more than 2,875 students havepassed through the programme.MrMorley was told by a teacher at his Ches-

ter comprehensive school that he would neverbecome a lawyer. But he went on to read lawat Cambridge, and headed Allen & Overy’sbanking practice on his way to becomingmanaging and then senior partner. On the wayhe has dispelled many fervently held assump-tions about how the business of law should beconducted. n

David Morley, senior partner at Allen& Overy, exudes youthfulness andenthusiasm — rare traits in an indi-vidual who has headed an interna-

tional law firm for 12 years.His tenure at the firm has not been easy. He

has seen the firm through the financial crisisand ensuing recession, and has met the chal-lenges of what many in the profession calledthe “new normal” — a world where premiumlaw firms can no longer dictate to their clients.Allen & Overy, where he has worked since

joining as an articled clerk in 1980, has gonethrough many incarnations. Once consideredthe latecomer to the “magic circle” of top UKfirms, it has in recent years reinvented itself asa member of an elite group of global firms.Of note have been the decisions to invest in

growth during the recession, when peers werecutting back. The firm has opened 18 offices inthe past five years, taking its total to 45 glob-ally. Its commitment to expansion has paidoff: its rate of growth in that period in revenueterms has been double that of other magic cir-cle firms. Over the past 10 years revenues havealmost doubled, from £666m to £1,281m.Having won the FT’s most innovative law

firm in Europe award four times in the past10 years, Allen & Overy is clearly intent onleading the way. But the position of first moveris not always coveted in the legal profession.Being second is far more comfortable for law-yers brought up following precedent. “Whenyou try something novel, you never know if itwill work,” Mr Morley admits. “In fact, peopleare lining up to tell you it won’t work.”One of the more controversial moves of

recent years has been to offer an integrateddelivery of different types of service. The firm

now has a low-cost centre in Belfast, its owncontract-lawyer business, Peerpoint, and vari-ous online and legal technology offerings thatit combines for clients as an alternative to thetraditional single model based on an hourlyrate and expensive lawyers at fixed locations.

In the past, top law firms have resisted anystandardisation of their legal services andhave wanted to retain a bespoke approach toall their work, at their high hourly rate. Manyhave felt — and some still do — that to offeralternative delivery models can mean a dilu-tion of a premium brand.

‘When you try somethingnovel, you never know if

it will work. In fact,people are lining up totell you it won’t work’


INTRODUCTION

Shininglightsin thedark

A decade defined by crisishas fostered innovation butbig challenges lie ahead,says Reena SenGupta

This year’sFT InnovativeLawyers reportmarks a decade of researching andwriting about innovation in the legalprofession in Europe. The first report,

in 2006, came at a time when law firms wereenjoying double-digit growth and there was afeeling the bumper years would never end. Asone firm in Portugal put it, developing the busi-ness meant standing by the fax machine. Sure,the market was competitive and there was aneed for firms to differentiate themselves, butbeing successful had never been so easy.Skip forward to 2015 and there is a new

mentality in the European legal profession.Previously held totems have disappeared. Forexample, back in 2006, few law firm leadersever thought that significant parts of theirlegal services would be standardised and thatthey would have to offer low-value, high-vol-ume services. Outsourcing was not seen as apremium law firm activity.Today, nearly all of the top 20 UK-origi-

nated law firms have a low-cost delivery cen-tre, including more traditional names such asFreshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, which openedits Manchester facility this January.Innovation is now a value to which law firms

and in-house lawyers aspire, but some law- ◄


Firm

Score

DLA Piper 43 Pioneer of the Swiss verein structure, underwhich affiliates remain separate entities,the firm led in showing the profession how to achieve ambitious internationalisationwithout the pain of a fullmerger. DLA tied upwithUS law firmPiper Rudnick in 2005 andhas since expanded its number of offices from49 to 88, covering 30 countries. It also ledin listening to clients and positioning itself as a business-led law firm.

Latham&Watkins

43 The firmhas built practices inNewYork and London to rival incumbent leaders. Itsgrowth strategy, commitment to innovation and effectiveness in lateral hiring have seenit ruffle feathers in keymarkets, particularly in finance. It has shown that elite firms canbuildmarket-leading practices in competitive jurisdictions from scratch.

Axiom 42 The contractsmanagement business is revolutionising theway big corporationscreate andmanage commercial contracts. Axiomemploys lawyers, projectmanagersand process engineerswho, togetherwith its own technology, provide clientswith analternative to traditional law firms that raises standards for the profession.

Slater andGordon

42 The first law firm in theworld to float, Slater &Gordon originated in Australia but hasgone on to build a significant UK businesswith the acquisition of nine firms over the pastthree years. It is changing theway inwhich consumer law is practised and how lawyersare perceived in the consumermarket.

Allen&Overy 40 Thewinner of FT overall law firm innovation awards in four of the past 10 years, Allen&Overy leads theway in showing elite law firms a route to combine premier legal practiceswith alternative servicemodels such as its online legal services business, aosphere. Itbucked themarket trend to downsize in thewake of the financial crisis and has increasedits number of offices by 92 per cent and partner headcount by 100.

BerwinLeightonPaisner

40 The LOD (Lawyers OnDemand) service showed theway for law firms to offer flexiblestaffing. The schemehas nowbeen copied by 30 per cent of the top 20UK law firms. LODhas grown700 per cent over the past five years. BLP has integrated LOD into a servicedeliverymodel.

Eversheds 38 A series of innovations sawEversheds enter into the profession's first comprehensivesingle-supplier relationshipwith Tyco in 2006, and set up business process engineeringin the early 2000s before the disaggregation of legal serviceswas accepted as amarketnecessity. It set up general counsel initiatives beforemost law firms saw the importanceof the in-house lawyer.

King&WoodMallesons

38 The first leading international law firm to be headquartered in the Asia-Pacific region.The tie-up between Chinese law firmKing&Woodwith Australian firmMallesons sentwaves through the profession andwithin two years has resulted in a further spate ofAnglo-Chinese tie-ups. The subsequentmergerwith London-based SJ Berwinmeans it isthe first European firm to be able to offer advice frommainland China.

Bird&Bird 37 The firm grew beyond its boutique roots to become an international player that sticksto themedia, technology and life science industries. The focus on industry sectors andrelated practice areas became a legal profession trend in the late 1990s. Bird & Bird hasbeen doing it for longer and shows how such a strategy pays dividends for a focused lawfirm.

Garrigues 36 The firm leads theway on the Iberian peninsula and in Latin America in terms ofworkingdifferently. It has benefited from the days of its tie-upwith Arthur Andersen and is notafraid to experimentwithmulti-disciplinary teams, technologies and a professionalapproach to running its partnership. One of the first Iberian firms to publish a socialresponsibility report in 2006, it continues as an all-equity partnership that regularlyoccupies the top non-UKEuropean law firm slot in the FT reports.

TOP 10 GAME CHANGERS OF THE PAST 10 YEARS

Rank

Firm

Totalscorefor

ranked

entries

Legal expertise

score

Businessoflaw

score

Standoutentries

Commended

entries

1 PinsentMasons 193 70 123 6 2

2 Baker&McKenzie 180 62 118 3 5

3 Allen&Overy 172 103 69 6 1

4 Hogan Lovells 157 72 85 3 4

5 CMS 156 46 110 3 4

6 Linklaters 150 74 76 5 1

7 Skadden, Arps, Slate,Meagher& Flom 138 91 47 3 3

8 Latham&Watkins 136 93 43 3 3

9= Garrigues 130 65 65 2 4

9= Paul Hastings 130 67 63 2 4

FT 10: LAW FIRM INNOVATORS 2015


INTRODUCTION

‘What is consideredinventive is when you

discover a new problem,even if it is not finding

the solution’

of the top three slots in a special FT rankingfor this year, the Top 10 game changers of thepast 10 years.

In this ranking, which illustrates how theprofession has evolved, no single law firm hasfundamentally changed the way in which theprofession operates, but all the firms listedhave led the legal market in some way. Manyreflect the impact of globalisation on the pro-fession. Outside the financial crisis, the storyof the past 10 years is one of how law firmshave changed their domestic products intointernational ones. DLA Piper and Latham &Watkins, while operating in different marketsegments, have shown how to internation-alise quickly and successfully. King & WoodMallesons, the first leading international lawfirm to be headquartered in the Asia-Pacificregion, reflects how the global centre of grav-ity has shifted towards that part of the world.

Other important trends in the legal mar-ket are reflected in the inclusion of BerwinLeighton Paisner for its LOD (Lawyers OnDemand), which shows how the legal sector isnot immune to the growing “gig economy” —the rise of career paths based on flexible, short-term stints of work. The impact of regulatoryand legislative change is shown in the inclu-sion of Slater and Gordon. The first law firm tofloat in Australia, it has taken advantage of theUK’s Legal Services Act to grow its consumerlegal business in England and Wales.

Being a first mover is not the only indicatorof innovation in the profession. Sometimescoming from behind can be a strength. UK lawfirm Pinsent Masons, which was ranked 16thlast year, takes first position in the FT’s overallindex of top performers for the 2015 report.

Richard Foley, the firm’s senior partner,believes that being innovative in the legal sec-tor is as much about having an entrepreneur-ial culture as it is about being first. “We make avalue of watching and learning,” he says. “Forus, there is a sense that if you can’t be first thenyou need to be second. We made boldness acore value of our business and a lot of what wehave done is a consequence of that decision.”

One of the firm’s winning innovations is inthe technology category, where its new cloud-based product Cerico helps clients deal withcompliance. It is an important category of theFT report in which to show prowess.

If the story of the legal sector of the past 10years has been dominated by the financial cri-sis, the rise of the client and globalisation, theone for the next decade is likely to be how theprofession deals with new technologies. Totake just one example, Watson, IBM’s artificialintelligence computing system, is set to changethe way lawyers work far more radically thananything has done in the past. n

role in the boardroom and supply advice to topexecutives that used to be the preserve of pri-vate practice. Their departments have becomestrategic functions, closely working with busi-ness colleagues to balance risk and revenues.The result of this is that their purchasing pat-terns have changed. They are willing to buyfrom alternative legal suppliers such as Axiomthat are disrupting established practice.

Organisations such as these are changingthe landscape in Europe, particularly in workon commercial contracts, often seen as thebedrock of legal work in any big business.Mark Harris, Axiom’s chief executive and theFT’s Special Achievement Award winner in2013, said in his acceptance speech: “The busi-ness of law is the most exciting part of the pro-fession to be operating in right now.”

Axiom has achieved 1,216 per cent growth inrevenues over the past 10 years and gains one

yers still equate it to providing services morecheaply. As this FT report shows, it is as muchabout innovations in technical legal expertiseas it is about innovation in operations or thebusiness of law.

The need for lawyers to innovate for clientsbecame acute during and after the financialcrisis of 2008. Brad Gans, then deputy generalcounsel at Citigroup, the US banking company,said: “No one could have expected a year beforeLehmans that Citi’s share price would havedropped to a dollar.” The legal sector founditself in the eye of the storm that followed.

As a reflection of lawyers’ contribution tothe stabilisation of financial markets and busi-ness, the FT instituted its first special achieve-ment award in 2009.

The inaugural winner was Rodgin Cohen ofSullivan & Cromwell. The decision to give anAmerican lawyer the first European prize wasa measure of how his work in big bank-relatedtransactions had ramifications for Europeaninstitutions and how the law was no longer adomestic product.

The financial crisis to this day providesmany novel situations in which lawyers areforced to be creative. But this report also rec-ognises the work of lawyers in everyday busi-ness situations who come up with inventivesolutions.

There is, however, an important distinc-tion between inventiveness and mere novelty.António Cardoso, a partner at Portuguese lawfirm Vieira de Almeida & Associados (VdA)and one of the FT’s top 10 innovators in 2013,says: “They are not the same thing. Inventive-ness is when the solution is not obvious. Thisis important when we deal with innovation.What is considered inventive is when you dis-cover a new problem, even if it is not findingthe solution. When you are innovative, youhave to know what the problem really is.”

Mr Cardoso’s comment is a reflection of whatit means to be an innovative lawyer today. It isno longer enough to be a great problem solver.Now, premium lawyers have to create theirown instructions and be “problem finders”.The standout legal expertise rankings in the2015 FT report show lawyers who have donejust that but who have also, in some instances,displaced other professional advisers to comeup with the overall commercial solution.

Besides needing these creative, commer-cial and leadership skills, lawyers also haveto be conscious about the appropriateness oftheir legal service delivery model. No longerdo their clients pay for young lawyers to learntheir trade on their deals. Despite a return togrowth in several European jurisdictions andincreasing demand for legal services, the cli-ent-lawyer relationship has not returned topre-crisis conditions where the law firm hadthe upper hand.

In fact, one of the biggest changes of the past10 years has been in the corporate legal depart-ment. As legal service purchasers, they nowhave teeth. General counsel have more of a

RESEARCH & AWARD SUPPORTED BY


The willingness of firmsto experiment has beenstrongest in some ofEurope’s weaker economies,writes Lucy Pearson

CONTINENTAL

A newtack forausteretimes

The need to remain competitive sincethe financial crisis has forced lawfirmsacross Europe to shift their businessmodels and explore newways of align-

ing them with the needs of cost-cutting clients.Indeed, many firms in continental Europe andIreland have a fresh approach that rivals thoseof their British peers.

Spain features in this year’s FT InnovativeLawyers report as the country with the mostforward-thinking law firms. Garrigues’ com-mitment to innovation earns it the title of mostinnovative law firm in continental Europe for afourth year. The firm, which performed equallywell in the business of law and legal expertisecategories, has shown both expertise and awillingness to experiment.

For example, in order to achieve a favoura-ble outcome for its clientMediapro in a disputeover football broadcasting rights, partners An-tonio Rodríguez and Fernando Pantaleón hadto convince the communications company toundergo voluntary bankruptcy. Such a strategywas necessary to protect the business throughlower court proceedings until its case could beheard by the Supreme Court where, accordingto the lawyers’ assessment, it would receive ►


‘Not only did we haveto be good advocates

and litigators, wealso needed to be

psychologists’

a more favourable hearing. “[Mediapro] had totake our word that the Supreme Court wouldlikely rule in its favour,” say the lawyers. “Notonly did we have to be good advocates and lit-igators, we also needed to be psychologists tokeep the clients’ confidence alive.” Their suc-cessful strategy ensured Mediapro avoided ahefty financial penalty and retained its right tobroadcast matches.Innovation in legal services is not just about

good ideas but investing to translate them intovalue for clients. PwC Tax & Legal Services(Spain) has implemented an internal pro-gramme to stimulate its team’s thinking aroundhelping clients. One of its criteria is that ideasmust be replicable. One product to emerge hasbeen a pricingmodel that helps clients managethe costs of litigation resulting from the finan-cial crisis. About 6 per cent of the firm’s reve-nue now derives from this service.Helping clients manage costs was a theme

in the Spanish legal market this year. An in-ternal online pricing tool from Cuatrecasas,Gonçalves Pereira helps partners make betterfee proposals and select work that is more like-ly to be profitable. Using a formula developedby the firm, partners canmake decisions basedon objective and historical data. “It gives youa vision on where the business is going,” saysLaura Canudas, marketing director.Senior management can now easily see

which practice areas aremost profitable, givingfirms the sort of strategic edge that is increas-ingly necessary given the march of the big fouraccounting firms into law firms’ territory.PwCTax and Legal Services (Spain) achieved

another four rankings in this year’s FT report,all in the business of law categories, where it

could combine its technological and processstrength with its lawyers’ entrepreneurialism.One of the standout innovations from PwC

was its service for “high potential” compa-nies. It created a team to provide an interfacebetween high-growth companies and larger,established organisations. Since 2013, the newbusiness has grown to revenues of ¤4m.Focusing on young companies was a com-

mon theme for continental firms. In Portugal,Morais Leitão, Galvão Teles, Soares da Silva &Associados created TeamGenesis, amultidisci-plinary team of 13 lawyers targeting start-ups.In Ireland, Matheson took a proactive ap-

proach to helping its asset management clientsdetermine where to establish funds. The firmcommissioned independent research, whichit has used to lobby the government for legis-

CONTINENTAL

lative change to allow European investmentfunds into Ireland. Meanwhile, William Fry as-sisted in creating the first Europe-wide clearinghouse for exchange traded funds. And ArthurCox combined legal with financial and strategicadvice to assist CRH, the Irish building materi-als company, in acquisitions that pushed it intothe sector’s top three globally.In the area of social responsibility, many

firms in Europe have set up foundations overthe past decade that can access alternativefunding sources and make projects more sus-tainable. Gómez-Acebo & Pombo and UríaMenéndez of Spain and Matheson of Ireland,have used their advocacy skills in a range ofinitiatives to uphold the rule of law, instil val-ues and build a culture of philanthropy in theirhomemarkets.n

Rank

Firm

Totalscorefor

ranked

entries

Legal expertise

score

Businessoflaw

score

Standoutentries

Commendedentries

1 Garrigues 130 65 65 2 4

2 Morais Leitão, Galvão Teles, Soares da Silva&Associados 108 44 64 0 5

3 PwCTax&Legal Services (Spain) 89 0 89 2 2

4 Cuatrecasas, Gonçalves Pereira 72 28 44 1 2

5 UríaMenéndez 69 49 20 2 1

6 WilliamFry 67 67 0 1 2

7= Arthur Cox 65 45 20 1 2

7= Gómez-Acebo&Pombo 65 23 42 1 2

7= Matheson 65 20 45 1 2

7= Pérez-Llorca 65 65 0 1 2

TOP 10 EurOPEan LaW FIrMS (nOn-uK)

Firm

Score

Vieira deAlmeida&Associados(VdA)

35 The firmhas set an example by embedding a culture of innovation. It was one of the firstin Portugal to institutionalise professionalmanagement. Its talentmanagement breaksnewground for the legal profession and empowers employees to innovate in their ownstyle.

Fondia 34 This Finnish law firmoperates as a company rather than as a partnership and allemployees are shareholders. It also acts as the internal legal department to 140companies. Revenues have grown from€0.14m to €13.6m in a decade.

Magnusson 32 Strong professionalmanagement has helped this firmwith offices in a number of Balticcountries overcome two big traditional challenges for the legal sector. Diversity isillustrated by half of itsmanagers beingwomen. And referrals between offices, which inmany firms are rare, have risen 569 per cent in three years.

PLMJ 32 PLMJwas the first Portuguese law firm to develop internationally. It was also one of thefirst to offer standardised servicesmore competitively and offermultidisciplinary teamsacross industry sectors and geographies.

Tuca Zbarcea&Asociatii

32 Aground-breaking Romanian firm that is a perennial feature of the FT reports. It acts asa developed-market firm in theway it puts amultidisciplinary approach at the heart ofits client service, to ensure that legal advice is given holistically and in context.

TOP FIVE GaME CHanGErS OF THE PaST 10 YEarS (nOn-uK)


CLIENT SERVICE

Opportunitiesto add valueCollaborating with in-house legal teamsand bringing fresh ideas to corporate

projects are two ways firms have enhancedtheir client relations. By Lindsay Fortado

It was a sunny September day two yearsago, and Michael Hatchard, a partnerwith Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher &Flom, was having lunch with executives

from insurance broker Aon at the law firm’soffice at London’s Canary Wharf.

The group was discussing the fallout sincea radical move by the Takeover Panel, theUK’s mergers regulator, two years previously

to enact new rules to make hostile takeoversof British companies more difficult. This hadfollowed the contentious acquisition of foodgroup Cadbury by US rival Kraft in 2010.

“Break fees had become unavailable, whichleft the bidder exposed to costs,” Mr Hatchardsays. Without those incentives for first bid-ders, an unsuccessful bid could end up costingtens of millions of pounds in some cases. ►

xxxxxx xxxxxxx


CLIENT SERVICE

A £1bn technology project to facilitate amove from a prime-contract to a multi-sup-plier model led Royal Mail Group to instructSlaughter and May in 2011 to work with itsin-house legal counsel, leading a team of upto 18 lawyers from Royal Mail’s panel lawfirms, including secondees from AddleshawGoddard and DAC Beachcroft. The groupwas headed by Rob Sumroy, a Slaughter andMay partner, and Sarah Draper, Royal Mail’slegal director for technology on the project.Pinsent Masons and Axiom have taken a

similar approach with two of their clients,which effectively outsource part of theirbulk legal work to the firms, which in turnallows the companies’ in-house departmentsto concentrate on strategic issues.Pinsent Masons has been working with

one of its clients, the consultancy Mercer,a wholly owned subsidiary of professionalservices group Marsh & McLennan, to takeon operational legal work, mostly on a fixed-fee basis. As a result, the company has savedmore than £1m a year since the programmebegan in 2012.The partnership, dubbed “Getting Cer-

tainty”, came about after discussions on howthefirmcouldhelpMercerdo someof its day-to-day work in order to free up its in-houselegal department to focus on areas such as

‘It’s aboutsharing the

risk. The moreefficient we are,the better it isfor the clientand that ends

up beingbetter for us’

The Skadden lawyers and Aon executivesworried that the change was putting at risk anascent revival inmergers and acquisitions inthe UK, discouraging private equity bidders inparticular.The result of the brainstorming was “top-

ping insurance”, a new product that would actas break-up coverage for potential acquirers indeals, and pay the bidders any costs incurred—up to 1 per cent of the bid price — if a compet-ing bidder emerged and won. “It’s about usinginsurance as a mechanism to reduce risk forboth parties,” Mr Hatchard says.It is a rare instance of lawyers coming up

with the idea for a commercial product fora client, and it helped Skadden by providingmore work, boosting its standing with Aonand providing security for the sort of dealsSkadden is often hired to advise on.It is also a sign of the times — lawyers are

realising that to maintain and strengthentheir relationships with clients they have tofind innovative ways of providing value aftera deal is done. That is especially true for man-dates such as M&A, where the billing ratesare highest.Increasingly, law firms are also being asked

to leave their egos at the door by collaboratingwith other lawyers so that the client has thebenefit of a wider range of expertise.


developing new consumer-facing products,de-risking pension schemes and improvinginternal risk and compliance systems.Up to 30 lawyers at the firm, across eight

offices, may be working for Mercer at anygiven time, says Isabel Nurse-Marsh, a pen-sions litigation partner at Pinsents who hasworked with the consulting firm for about 15years.Pinsents has also signed up to conduct an

annual review of hundreds of Mercer’s stand-ard contracts with clients at a fixed price. Thisis to give the company easier access to infor-mation and allow it to assess risk more easily.“There’s an awful lot of collaboration,” Ms

Nurse-Marsh says. “We would see ourselvesas an extension of them: they have secondeesfrom us; they have recruited people from Pin-sents. We know them really well.”The arrangement means Mercer knows in

advance howmuch theworkwill cost. The cli-ent will also pay Pinsents bonuses if the workmeets certain efficiency targets.“It’s about sharing the risk,” Ms Nurse-

Marsh says. “Themore efficiently we do it, thebetter it is for Mercer and that ends up beingbetter for us.”Lisa Tolaini, chief legal counsel at Mercer,

says: “We believe we have developed an inno-vative approach to managing our legal spendwithout compromising the quality of theadvice we receive, and which will also allowthe legal function to focus more time on thoseareas such as product development that reallyadd value to the business. We particularly likethat our lawyers are sharing the upsides anddownsides of our risk with us.”Axiom, a firm whose lawyers are seconded

in-house with clients on a project basis, isworking with BT, the telecoms company, ona multi-million-pound project where a teamof more than 30 lawyers in Northern Ireland,England, India, Singapore and the US is tryingto transform BT’s contracting operations.The work of Axiom’s lawyers frees BT’s

in-house team to focus on deals. The firm isusing its proprietary technology, Iris, to pro-vide BT with dashboards that allow the com-pany to view the contracts the Axiom team isworking on by type, geography, counterparty,originating requester, source of terms, busi-ness line, legal entity and date, and the statusof each.The volume of work handled by Axiom has

risen about 250 per cent since it launched theprogramme. The complexity of work handedover has also increased.Skadden’s Mr Hatchard and his team spent

about 18 months negotiating with the Takeo-ver Panel to approve the topping insurance.The product, which will cover deals with avalue of up to £3bn, with potential for furthercoverage of up to £7bn, was packaged earlierthis year along with support insurers. “It hasdeepened our relationship with [Aon],” MrHatchard says. “We can see it having applica-tions in the US and elsewhere.” n

Lawfirm

/client

Originality

Rationale

Impact

T otal

PinsentMasons/Mercer

Aholistic approach that freesMercer’s in-house teamto takeonmore strategicwork andplay the role of trusted adviser.Includes a bespoke casemanagement system, flexible feesanddirectly advisingbusiness units.

8 9 9 26

Axiom/BT Amulti-layered three-year partnership to handleBT’scommercial contractwork. Axiom's technology enables in-house lawyers to track and speedworkflowandmakebetterresourcingdecisions. Business units send requests directly toAxiom, freeing the in-house team formore complexwork.

8 9 8 25

Slaughter andMay/RoyalMail

WhenRoyalMail shifted to adynamic suppliermodel,the firm initiateda collaborationwithother panel lawfirms todisseminateall process changesacross the company.

8 9 8 25

Linklaters;Milbank /Futures IndustryAssociation

The firms reviewed the central clearing counterpartiesrulebooks toprovide financial institutionswith clear adviceandanalysis of regulations.Aimedat allmarket participants,theproduct cuts the time taken tomake investmentdecisionsfrommonths tominutes.

8 8 8 24

Skadden, Arps,Slate,Meagher& Flom/Aon

After break-feeprotection for failedbidderswas removedfromtheTakeoverCode, the firmdevelopedan insurancepolicy forAon–which cannowoffer biddersup to1per centof theprice if their bid fails. Commended: SkaddenpartnerMichaelHatchard.

9 9 6 24

Stephensons/private clients

A loyalty programme tailored for individual clients. Itincludes personal counselling and store discounts.

9 8 7 24

AddleshawGoddard/Barclays

The firm's client development centreworks to help thein-house teams of clients across a range of issues. Theprogrammewith Barclays focuses on developing lawyers'understanding of the financial sector and the bank.

7 8 8 23

Hogan Lovells/Honeywell

More than100partners in 33 international offices at the firmprovide legal services toHoneywell. The scheme includes atransparent fee structure and bi-monthly training.

7 8 8 23

CMS/StandardLife

The firmhas developed a sophisticated e-discovery softwarethat provides forensic analysis and review.

8 7 7 22

Paul Hastings The firm streams client panel conversations around 13offices to educate partners about clients' concerns.

7 8 7 22

Baker&McKenzie;Morrison&Foerster; Allen&Overy/Accenture

The three law firms have an unusual collaboration to act as a“super firm” for Accenture.

9 4 8 21

DLAPiper/HeinekenUK

A single-supplier relationship has seen the firmdeepen itscollaborationwithHeineken.

7 8 6 21

PwCTax&LegalServices (Spain)

Created internalmechanisms to encourage innovation –about 100 projects are funded each year.

6 8 7 21

Reed Smith/CAA Developed two learning programmeswith the CAA. 7 7 7 21

Berwin LeightonPaisner/ThamesWater

Full legal service provider to ThamesWater since 2010, themulti-disciplinary teamnowadvises on the Thames TidewayTunnel project.

6 7 7 20

First LawInternational

An alliance of local firms that gives amore personal servicethan big firms.

6 7 7 20

Garrigues/OronaWorkingwithOrona to encourage a culture of compliance. 6 7 7 20

Herbert SmithFreehills/ManGroup

Running innovationworkshops to foster ideaswith theclient.

6 7 7 20

Morais Leitão,Galvão Teles,Soares da Silva /Legal Flow

A two-way relationship to develop the business oftechnology start-up Legal Flow.

7 7 6 20

White&Case/private equityclients

Servicing clients post-deal and preparing them for exits. 6 7 7 20

CLIENT SERVICE

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Note: For additional entries, see the online table


SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY


Engaging with civil societyis proving to be a bonus formany firms, whose ownbusinesses are benefitingtoo, writes SarahMurray

European law firms are crossing theglobe to use their skills and experi-ence in initiatives that promote humanrights and the rule of law. Equally

importantly, firms are taking a problem theyencounter at home more seriously: the lack ofdiversity in the workplace.

Firms are recognising they can use knowl-edge acquired through their commercialwork to support civil society organisations.For example, for more than 10 years White &Case has worked with New York-based non-profit organisation the Auschwitz Institute

Goodworks

►

Lawfirm

Originality

Rationale

Impact

T otal

iProbono TheUK-based organisation facilitates pro bono activities forlawyersworldwide. It has built a network of 50,000 lawyersand 1,200 civil society organisations, and completedmorethan 720 projects in 31 countries. Commended: ShireenIrani and Swathi Sukumar.

9 10 9 28

White&Case Collaboratingwith theAuschwitz Institute for Peace andReconciliation, the firmworks to prevent atrocities inmorethan30 countries andhas helpedmore than70governments.Commended:OwenPell.

9 9 9 27

Linklaters More than 200 lawyers fromeight officesworked to indexLiberia's case law to provide a crucial judicial resource.

9 9 8 26

Reed Smith Helped toachieveadual first in social impact financewiththeworld's first cross-border development impact bond.The scalableEducateGirls bondallowsprivate internationalinvestors to fundeducation. Commended:RanajoyBasu.

9 8 8 25

Allen&Overy The Smart Start programmeprovides training andworkexperience formore than 60 students fromunderprivilegedbackgrounds each year. It was the catalyst for the profession-wide Prime initiative. Commended: DavidMorley.

9 8 7 24

VieiradeAlmeida&Associados(VdA)

VdAplayed a critical role in creating a food redistributionprogramme that has given out 1.3mmeals. Endorsed by theUN. Commended:Margarida Couto.

8 8 8 24

Baker&McKenzie

Since 2006 the firmhas targeted inclusivity and supportacross all its offices. As a result 30 per cent of trainees, 15per cent of associates and 6 per cent of partners are black,Asian orminority ethnic.

8 7 8 23

Garrigues The lawyers help businesses assess the social, environmentaland human rights risks of supply chains.

7 8 8 23


The Impulsa Programme subsidises PwC's lawyers toworkwith non-governmental organisations for twomonths.

8 8 7 23

Skadden, Arps,Slate,Meagher& Flom

Combining art and the law to address a critical lack offunding for the charity Justice, the firmhas helped raisemore than £400,000. Commended: Karyl Nairn, QC.

8 7 8 23

Cuatrecasas,GonçalvesPereira

Legal protection for unaccompaniedmigrant childrenentering Spain.

7 8 7 22

DWF The 5 Star Future programme improves socialmobility. 7 7 8 22

Gómez-Acebo&Pombo

Business and human rights training programme. 7 8 7 22

Hergüner BilgenÖzeke

Collaboration to instil ethical values in young people. 7 8 6 21

Matheson Helping to build a culture of corporate philanthropy. 7 7 7 21

PinsentMasons Tailored programmes in partnershipwith 12 schools. 6 7 8 21

Shearman&Sterling

Advancing the international criminal justice system. 6 8 7 21

Slaughter andMay

Extensive support for a school in Islington, London. 6 7 8 21

A&LGoodbody Collaborationwith the Irish Refugee Council. 6 6 8 20

AbreuAdvogados Raising youth awareness of justice and citizenship. 6 7 7 20

Arthur Cox An international programme to assist disadvantagedstudents.

6 7 7 20

CMS Supporting social entrepreneurs through advice andadvocacy.

6 7 7 20

Hogan Lovells A coordinated global approach to empowerwomen and girls. 7 7 6 20

Paul Hastings Producing the ReportersWithout BordersHandbook. 7 7 6 20

UríaMenéndez Educating Spain’s youth about law, justice and democracy. 7 7 6 20


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for Peace and Reconciliation on a programmethat helps governments monitor and halt theprocesses that can lead to mass atrocities, andtrains government, police andmilitary officialsin genocide prevention.The relationships and experience White &

Case has built up through the programmehavealso increased the value of the services it offersto corporate clients. “We’re doing the rightthing. But, also, atrocity prevention is anotherform of legal risk management,” says OwenPell, the White & Case partner who spear-headed the initiative.At Linklaters, the approach has been to use

the firm’s intellectual capital to promote therule of law. More than 200 of the firm’s lawyersworked for five years to help Liberia rebuild itslegal infrastructure by producing an indexeddigest of the country’s jurisprudence datingback more than 150 years.Meanwhile, for some firms, the focus has

been closer to home, particularly on effortsto increase social mobility and diversity inthe legal sector. Some are also looking farbeyond traditional recruitment pools to pro-mote social inclusion. Through its SmartStart work experience programme, for exam-ple, Allen & Overy brings young people fromunderprivileged backgrounds into its officesfor a week.

The youngsters’ activities include mockdeals, forwhich they act as advisers. In one ses-sion, teams negotiate the buying and selling ofa football club, with A&O staff playing sheikhsand oligarchs, the potential buyers.The sessions build confidence, as well as

skills such as writing a CV and making public

presentations. They also expose young peopleto the workings of a law firm. “None of themwould have any idea about what law is, sothis brings it alive,” says David Morley, A&O’sworldwide senior partner who conceived theprogramme and chairs it.The Smart Start programme has now been

extended into Prime, a national initiative inwhich 88 law firms participate. “Every firmdoes it slightly differently, but a minimum

standard is set in terms of the quality of thework experience,” says MrMorley.For Baker & McKenzie, statistics were what

prompted a focus on diversity in its Londonoffice. In 2006, it discovered that just 4 per centof trainees and only one partner in the office— the firm’s largest — were from black andminority ethnic groups.Rather than paying external consultants

to hire new staff, the firm created the Baker-Ethnicity initiative to address systemic barriersto diversity. A range of programmes includeswidening the diversity of recruitment panelsand giving interviewers training to combatunconscious bias.Many of the ideas for initiatives came from

the staff. “The way we’ve tackled some of thesethings has been from the inside out,” saysSarah Gregory, inclusion and diversity partnerat Baker & McKenzie. “We’ve used the energyand ideas of people from across the organisa-tion — that’s been really important.”As critical, however, has been the recogni-

tion that, like so many social responsibilityinitiatives, promoting diversity makes strate-gic sense. “We see this as having an importantbusiness benefit,” says Ms Gregory. “Because,as a law firm, if we don’t look like our clientsand represent their values, we’re going to beless effective.” n

‘Promoting diversityhas an important

business benefit. If wedon’t represent our

clients’ values, we’regoing to be less effective’

While studying at the University of Warwick’s law school in2003, Shireen Irani wanted to apply her research to promot-ing human rights. Her difficulty in identifying opportunities todo this led her to create an online marketplace that now has anetwork of more than 50,000 volunteers and has provided ser-vices to the social sector worth more than £7.4m.Ms Irani tapped into a groundswell of demand from lawyers

to use their skills and training to help solve global problems.“Because of time constraints and lack of visibility as to whatexisted, they weren’t able to find anything,” she says.Social networkswere still at a nascent stage, aswere lawfirms’

corporate responsibility initiatives, and no forum existed wherelawyers could easily find projects that matched their individualpassions with their specific skills. In 2009, therefore, Ms Iranisecured the support of her law firm, Fieldfisher, to create anindependent organisation and technology platform that wouldbecome iProbono, with headquarters in the UK and India.Non-profit organisations post projects on iProbono, which

sends alerts to the most appropriate lawyers in the network.Organisations are subjected to due diligence by iProbono,which works with them so that, rather thanmaking open-endedrequests, they develop projects that are clearly defined in scope.Examples of the work volunteer lawyers undertake include

creating contracts, representing vulnerable people or securingadequate compensation for abused children. Such cases not onlyhelp these people, says Ms Irani, but also pave the way for fairerjudgments in future cases. “That’s strategic litigation,” she says.“It’s individual justice, butwe’re also advancing the legal system.”In the process, iProbono is meeting demand by lawyers to use

their skills for public good. “For this generation of professionals,there’s a real hunger for these opportunities,” says Ms Irani.

Sarah Murray

Case study: iProbono


Strategic reSourcing


A fullsuite

Some of the most creativeefficiency improvementshave produced substantialsavings for firms andtheir clients, writesLindsay Fortado

In the run-up to July 2014, when a sprawl-ing set of regulations took effect to makeEurope’s hedge funds and private equityfunds more transparent, thousands of

asset managers needed legal advice.They wanted to know not only what to do

to comply with the new laws — known as theAlternative Investment Fund Managers Direc-tive (AIFMD) — but also how individual EUmember states would implement the rules,and when. While some answers had to be tai-lored to specific funds, many of the questionswere universal.Simmons & Simmons, a UK law firm whose

clients include many asset managers andhedge funds, saw an opportunity with a prod-uct it had created several years before, duringthe onset of the financial crisis in 2007.Its Navigator suite of online subscription

services was aimed at just that scenario —when hundreds of clients from the sameindustry asked the same questions. The fundmanagers needed to know the basics, such aswhen the rules would take effect and how tocomply, but they also needed regular updatesfrom each European country on how thatjurisdiction was interpreting the new rules.“It was a case of us trying to respond to

a huge amount of uncertainty,” says SarahChambers, a financial regulatory lawyer at thefirm. “There was supposed to be harmonisa-tion on various issues, but there have been alot of variations.”

Despite the usual slow pace of change in thelegal industry, how firms creatively and moreefficiently deliver legal work has evolved asthey seek competitive advantage.In the past few years, leading UK firms

have begun using contract lawyers, and haveopened lower-cost service centres in citiessuch as Belfast, Manchester, Glasgow and Bir-mingham, shifting work out of costly London.Lawyers are also collaborating with third-party providers, adding on consulting or otherservices and using document automationtechnologies. The rise in the use of projectmanagers is indicative of the efficiency drive.Linklaters has tackled the issue through its

business improvement, knowledge and learn-ing and technology teams, which identifiedeight areas for improvement, including newuses of technology, paralegals and lower-costresources, and document standardisation.It has produced savings of up to 35 per cent.The business improvement team, createdtwo years ago, brought in non-legal expertise,including project managers, to increase theefficiency of its projects.Axiom, a legal services company that pro-

vides teams of lawyers to work on projects in-house with clients, is resourcing a project ata global bank to draft and negotiate its deriv-atives and master trading agreements. Thedeal, worth $73m, is being staffed mostly atcentres in Belfast and Poland, with senior law-yers, derivatives specialists, business and ►


Strategic reSourcing

data analysts, technologists and project man-agers working together.

Since Allen & Overy and Herbert SmithFreehills opened service centres in Belfastin 2011, several other firms, including Baker& McKenzie, have followed suit. At the time,A&O global managing partner Wim Dejonghesays the move was about the firm asking itself:“Are we operating in the most efficient andcost-effective way possible?”

Berwin Leighton Paisner set up a legalservices delivery team in Manchester. Thefirm has created an “integrated client servicemodel” to offer alternative resourcing forprojects. That includes using its Manchesterstaff, third-party providers and LOD (Lawyers

On Demand), its contract lawyer agency. Cli-ents include Deutsche Bank, Tesco, Barclays,National Grid and Aviva.

Simmons & Simmons’ Navigator systemwas created by partner Charlotte Stalin afterher team was approached by a big hedge fundclient that wanted a way to access informationon regulations in different jurisdictions.

With laws in the financial services indus-try constantly changing, the fund wanted tobe sure it was targeting the most appropriateinvestors.

“We thought, let’s see how we can commod-itise this,” Ms Chambers says. “It was so muchpart and parcel of what we were doing on adaily basis, it just made sense to streamline it.”

Navigator gave the firm’s asset managementclients access to regularly updated advice onhow to comply with AIFMD and other fundregulations in more than 90 jurisdictions, ata fraction of the price of bespoke advice fromcounsel in each jurisdiction.

More than 300 organisations subscribe tothe service, encompassing more than 6,000individual users. Navigator has grown toinclude channels with advice on securities,share disclosure and derivatives. Tax, corpo-rate finance and lending services are beingdeveloped.

“It’s been a very organic process, listening toclients and seeing what’s going on in the mar-ket,” Ms Chambers says.

“The feedback has surpassed our expecta-tions in terms of how it’s been performing. It’sbeen a huge opportunity to assist our clientsand attract new ones.” n

‘The Navigatorsystem was so much

part and parcel ofwhat we were doing

on a daily basis, itjust made sense to

streamline it’

Lawfirm

Origina

lity

Rationa

le

Impa

ct

T otal

Axiom Axiomhas struck a five-year, $73mdealwith a leadinginvestment bank to handle its derivatives agreements,including secondments of specialist lawyers and regulatorysupport teams. It improves how the bank handles riskthrough better control of large documents and information.

9 10 9 28

Berwin LeightonPaisner

The integration of different approaches to delivering legalservices reflects a growing trend. A low-cost centre inManchester, contract lawyers through its LOD (LawyersOnDemand) business, a process improvement service andaccessto specialist third-parties combine to allowcustomised,transparent and value-for-money services.

8 9 9 26

Linklaters Efficient and integrated resourcing throughout the firmincludes a teamof projectmanagerswho are an essentialpart of pitches and nowhandle almost half of big projects.Specialist teams focus on streamlining processes for clients,making efficiency savings of up to 35 per cent.

8 9 9 26

Eversheds Resourcing for global clients has evolved into anofferingcalledEvershedsConnect. This co-ordinates theworkofbusiness professionals and lawyers across the firm togiveclients access tobettermanagement information.

8 9 8 25

Halebury The firm,which provides in-house legal expertise, combinesthree business lines for small andmedium-sized enterprises:resourcing, advisory and consulting. Pricing options includefixed fees, daily andweekly rates, and bulk hour purchases.

8 9 8 25

Simmons&Simmons

The firmhas created an offering onNavigator, its onlineservice platform, to help financial institutions complywiththe Alternative Investment FundManagers Directive. Itprovides updates frommore than 90 jurisdictions.

7 9 9 25

DWF The firm is embracing flexibleworking for its staff.Initiatives such as selling fully equipped portable offices tolawyers encourage homeworking alongwith advanced videoconferencing, smart desks and flexibleworking spaces.Morethan 500 peoplework flexibly at the firm.

8 8 8 24

PinsentMasons WorkingwithUSopportunity fund Lone Star, the firmcreated a due diligence anddocument automation processfor the auction of assets of Irish BankResolution Corporation.The first three deals had a book value ofmore than€15bn.

8 8 8 24

TLT TLT’s captive “shared services” centre providesadministrative, legal and complementary business servicesfor the firmand its clients. It is now expanding its targetclient base to other law firms and in-house client teams.

8 8 8 24

Serjeants' InnChambers

A client service team facilitates a partnership betweenclients and the chambers, which helps its clientswinwork.

8 8 7 23

Baker&McKenzie

Set up a newmulti-jurisdictional research unit for clients inBelfast.

6 8 8 22


Developed a pricing tool for partners to costwork better. 7 8 7 22

Latham&Watkins

Took a step forward in alternative fee arrangements andbudgeting.

7 8 7 22

Radiant Law Expanded its service centre in Cape Town. 7 8 7 22

VanDoorne Created a business line to leverage document automationfor volumework.

8 8 6 22

Ashurst Its legal analysts inGlasgow save clients up to 50 per cent. 6 7 8 21

CMS Set up new legal support units inGlasgowand Edinburgh. 7 7 7 21

NautaDutilh An approach to help save costs in the design phase of azoning plan.

7 7 7 21

Schultze&Braun

Set up a dual legal and financial team for insolventcompanies.

7 7 7 21

Hogan Lovells Set up a low-cost Birminghamcentre for complex legal work. 6 7 7 20

STRATEGIC RESOURCING

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GROWTH AND BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

DiversemodelsWhile some firms aretaking on the accountancygiants, others are findingmore unorthodox ways toboost their bottom line,writes Jane Croft

Since the liberalisation of the legal ser-vices market, law firms have fearedcompetition from the “march of theaccountants” as consultancy firms have

pushed eagerly into the legal market.The 2011 Legal Services Act was aimed

at allowing non-law firm entrants such asaccountants to offer legal services, while lawfirms could take investment from third parties.

The big four accountancy and consultingfirms have moved quickly. PwC has pledgedto build up its legal services division while EYLaw has hired partners from Freshfields andAddleshaw Goddard. Law firms are fightingback by hiring accountants and bolstering theirexpertise in areas such as tax that traditionallyhave been dominated by accountants.

The global financial crisis and squeeze onpublic finances have increased the focus ontax and the level of public controversy as towhether big business is paying its fair share.

A decade ago, law firms’ tax practices oftenacted as corporate support functions in bigmerger or takeover deals. The big four woulddevise new tax structures while law firmswould legally implement them. Today, lawfirms advise not just on law but also on finan-cial and economic aspects of tax planning in anincreasingly complex and cross-border world.

Tax lawyers were helped by a landmarkruling in 2013 by the Supreme Court, whichrefused to extend legal professional privilege

to accountants offering tax advice. Legal pro-fessional privilege is the confidentiality of com-munications between a lawyer and a client;many accountants consider it gives the legalprofession an unfair advantage.

Law firms have also been hiring non-lawyertax professionals. At Baker & McKenzie’s cor-porate tax practice for example, non-lawyersaccount for half of the team’s fee earners. Itshiring of Mark Bevington, a former partner atErnst & Young, illustrates the competition withthe big accountancy firms, as does the promo-tion to partner of non-lawyers.

Pinsent Masons has also formed a tax teamof lawyers and accountants. In 2000, seniortax litigators James Bullock and Jason Col-lins launched the UK’s first dedicated tax liti-gation practice. The firm has also set up a taxinvestigations practice in a further move on toaccountancy firms’ turf. Now about 30 per centof the firm’s tax fee earners are non-lawyerswith a background in accounting or HM Reve-nue & Customs policy.

One recent hire is Heather Self, a formersenior policy adviser at HMRC and group tax

director at Scottish Power. She says law firmsare picking up work as more tax disputes go tocourt. “The interaction between tax and areasof law is now better recognised. Tax is more lawthan accounting in many ways,” she says.

“Tax disputes are becoming more complexand litigation might be considered at an earlierstage than if the client had been advised in anaccountancy firm. Law firms can also draw onadditional expertise [internally], such as com-petition lawyers, when advising on state aidand its tax treatment.”

Spain-based Garrigues is another law firmthat has increased its complement of other pro-fessionals, including economists or financialanalysts, to work alongside its lawyers.

Beyond these defensive moves to stave offcompetition, some firms have used the liberali-sation of the legal market to innovate and haveexploited their expertise to create new offer-ings. One example is Bird & Bird’s partnershipwith ASE Consulting, a management consul-tancy, that has created Baseline, which offersIT transformational programmes.

Other more specialised law firms haveenhanced their expertise. Wiggin, which hastraditionally focused on media law, has devel-oped non-legal media-focused businesses suchas Cirkus. This is a subscription televisionservice with partners such as content consul-tancy Content & Co and ITV offering Britishprogrammes to Scandinavia. Wiggin has also

‘The interaction betweentax and areas of law isnow better recognised’


combined with technology business Incopro tohelp clients protect trademarks and intellectualproperty.In some cases, such as new boutique law

firms, the innovation has come from firmsstructuring themselves differently. Traditionalfirms have a large number of salaried lawyersand a small elite of equity partners who shareprofits. However, some smaller, boutique firmsare rethinking this business model.A prime example is Signature Litigation, a

London-based firm set up by lawyers in 2012.Graham Huntley, a founding partner, has 30years’ experience in commercial litigation.Clients have included the family of the late

Badri Patarkatsishvili, a Georgian billionaire,who were embroiled in a $1.8bn High Courtbattle with Russian aluminium tycoon VasilyAnisimov in a case that was settled before trial.Signature has set up a profit-sharing scheme

for all members of the practice. It has also out-sourced some back-office functions, which MrHuntley says enables lawyers to devote time topractising law rather than other ancillary activ-ities. Adopting the same administrative struc-ture as a traditional law firm would also resultin a poor cash flow model for a boutique lawfirm, he says.“If you are in a large law firm, some of your

time is spent on areas like maintaining clientfiles or billing, rather than practising law,” MrHuntley adds.n

Lawfirm

Originality

Rationale

Impact

Total

SignatureLitigation

A litigation-focused boutique that has doubled its revenuesin the past year.With six partners and 23 fee-earners, it hasoutsourced its back-office functions and everymember ofthe firmparticipates in an egalitarian profit-sharingmodel.

9 9 10 28

CMS Grew in theUKby35per cent in revenue terms last year. Itsfocus on industry sectors, newdeliverymodels and talentdevelopment raisedbrand recognition.

8 10 9 27

LOD (LawyersOnDemand)

The pioneer of the flexibleworking contract lawyer service,LODposted a 48 per cent growth in revenues between 2014to 2015. Nowoffers “managed teams” of in-house lawyersfor big corporate clients, remotely or on site.

9 8 10 27

Bird&Bird Bird&Bird,withASEConsulting, has createdBaseline,whichworkswith clients on changeandcomplianceprogrammesthat haveaheavy technology component.

9 9 8 26

Baker&McKenzie

Accountants nowoutnumber lawyers in the growing taxteam. The international distribution of officesmeans it cancompetewith the big accountancy firms on tax services.

8 9 8 25

EmsleysSolicitors

ReviewMyClaim is a service that enables consumer clientsto have their personal injury legal work fromother solicitorsreviewed by the firm. It has converted 85 per cent ofinquiries into clients.

8 8 8 24

Matheson Grew its fund practice through research onwhere assetmanagers can set up funds

8 8 8 24

PinsentMasons A combinedmultidisciplinary tax teamof lawyers andaccountants that is expanding internationally.

8 8 8 24


The firmhas developed a business line for high-growth andhigh-potential companies, which also provides themwith aninterface to larger companies.

7 9 8 24

Wiggin A focus onmediameans the firmhas developed severalbusinesses, such as Incopro, a technology business that helpsclients enforce intellectual property rights, andCirkus, asubscription on-demand television service.

8 8 8 24

Morais Leitão,Galvão Teles,Soares da Silva

Set up TeamGenesis to help start-up companies in Portugal. 7 8 8 23

Garrigues Set up amulti-disciplinary transfer pricing team. 7 8 7 22

Hogan Lovells Set up a constitutional change taskforce. 7 8 7 22

L&EGlobal An expanding international network of employment firms. 7 8 7 22

Magnusson The first firm to cover the entire Baltic region. 7 7 8 22

Schillings Developed a business offering around reputation risk. 8 8 6 22

Simmons&Simmons

A stakeholder engagement programmemeans it nowactsfor 40 out of the top 50 European hedge funds.

7 7 8 22

King&WoodMallesons

Newand different approach to promoting its Asia businessin Europe.

7 7 7 21

Latham&Watkins

Variousmeasures to build a top buyout practice in Europe. 6 7 8 21

Mishcon de Reya Set up a standalone family office forwealthy clients. 7 7 7 21

Paul Hastings One of the first to set up amobile payments practice, it nowhas 40 lawyers.

7 7 7 21

AkinGumpStraussHauer& Feld

Took advantage of a failing firm to establish 120more staffin Europe andAsia.

6 6 8 20

Cooley Overnight expansion in London saw20 partners join. 6 6 8 20

Gómez-Acebo&Pombo

Built an arbitration practice from scratch through a clevercollaboration.

6 7 7 20

Miranda CorreiaAmendoeira

Extended its Portugal-led Africa practice to Paris andFrancophonemarkets.

6 7 7 20

GROWTH AND BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

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technology

DigitaldriversThe search for efficiencygains that can give firms acompetitive advantage hasbeen the prime focus oftheir investment strategy,writesMurad Ahmed


As the heart of a bureaucracy that setsrules for 28 EU states, Brussels is agoodplace to observe the complexitiesof completing a big international deal.

Fiona Carlin and Gavin Bushell, partners atBaker & McKenzie in the Belgian capital, sawhow large mergers and acquisitions for inter-national companies required the clearance ofantitrust authorities inmultiple countries. Thisadds a layer of regulatory difficulty to big deals;the prolonged reviews of multiple jurisdictionsare costly and time-consuming.Ms Carlin and Mr Bushell proposed a solu-

tion: a digital tool that could identify the anti-trust issues for any deal. Since being launchedin September 2014 the Global Merger AnalysisPlatform (GMAP) has been rolled out to 300of the firm’s antitrust and competition lawyersworldwide, enabling them to provide a detailedanalysis of the key risk in M&A deals withinhours rather than what previously may havetakenmany expensive days.The tool is an example of how law firms

are using high-tech services to aid their work.According to groups such as Axiom, PinsentMasons and Foot Anstey, the reasons to adoptsuch new technologies are obvious: as clientslook for value for money, lawyers are increas-ingly aware that digital tools can also createefficiencies in their own work, speeding uppreviously laborious and repetitive tasks, whilealso serving to spotlight errors.In the search for marginal competitive

gains, firms are embracing practices and tech-niques that have transformed other industries,whether it is big data — finding better ways todeal with the enormous mass of informationtheir organisations collect — or cloud comput-ing, which allows employees to share and storedocuments over the internet, or even artificialintelligence, with smart computers able to“think” like humans to complete tasks.In the case of Baker & McKenzie, GMAP has

collected data related to merger controls in 135countries. Clients can be given a tailored reportwithin a couple of days that analyses the risksattached to an international merger.“GMAP has transformed the way we handle

the M&A process for our clients,” says SamMobley, Baker & McKenzie’s head of globalantitrust and competition. “What would ordi-narily have been a highly complicated, ardu-ous process requiring a significant amount ofdue diligence has been streamlined to deliverclarity, simplicity and, crucially, cost and timeefficiency.”Nick Koberstein, division counsel at Abbott

Laboratories, the global healthcare companyadvised by Baker & McKenzie, says: “Thesetools are critical for my position. I need toquickly analyse a transaction and advise mymanagement on the potential risk associatedwith the deal. Anything that can help me getthe job done easier and faster [is invaluable].”Another highly ranked law firm, Pinsent

Masons, has shown its entrepreneurial side bylaunching and being the majority owner of ►


technology

to their template content. The Cerico team isexcellent — very driven and very customer anddeadline-focused,” says Anthony Stanitsas, for-mer legal counsel at Aggregate Industries, theconstruction company and a Cerico customer.Such innovations are not the preserve of

global firms. Foot Anstey, a regional firm insouthwest England, has used software byThomson Reuters, the business informationprovider, to create a digital conveyancing tool.One benefit of the system is automatic gener-ation of conveyancing letters. The time takenfor each has been cut from 90 seconds to twoseconds — a difference that adds up, given thefirm produces more than 80,000 letters a year.But despite these individual advances, per-

suading law firms to adopt new technologiescan be an uphill struggle. The FT rankings aredominated by tools that improve efficiency andcan be adopted quickly by lawyers who imme-diately understand the need for them.A survey of chief information officers at

European legal firms by RSG Consulting, thelegal consultancy that is the FT’s research part-ner for the Innovative Lawyers series, found thevast majority did not believe their firms usedavailable technology enough, the reasons beinga lack of investment in IT talent and — almostinevitably for a centuries-old profession — aresistance to change.n

ReseaRch & awaRd suppoRted by

Cerico, a compliance solutions business. Com-panies must comply with a vast range of ruleson issues ranging from bribery and corruptionto health and safety, with substantial penalties

if they fail to implement suitable strategies. Theplatform provided by Cerico allows them toensure employees and suppliers can undergoregular, rigorous compliance checks in a fastand auditable manner.The platform also allows companies to keep

a gift and hospitality register, an important toolfor staying ahead of complicated new laws sur-rounding corporate bribery, as well as elearn-ing tools that allow employees to take trainingcourses online on issues such as competitionand health and safety.“There are other offerings in the market

but we found these to be relatively expensive,anonymous and loath to have any amendment

The Cerico platformallows employees toundergo compliancechecks in a fast andauditable manner


The fast-developing technology of arti-ficial intelligence is creating quite abuzz, from Google’s self-driving carsto digital assistants that could replace

secretaries. But surely it is unlikely to disruptthe livelihoods of highly skilledworkers such aslawyers in the same way?Wrong, say experts suchasRichardSusskind,

a legal futurist, whowarns that complacent lawfirms face big changes. “Until the economy felloff a cliff most people in major law firms andindeed in-house counsel were quite happy tocontinue working the way they had done for acouple of centuries,” he said last year in a pres-entation on the potential impact of artificialintelligence on the legal profession.The threat — or opportunity, depending on

your standpoint — to the profession comesfrom recent developments in this technol-ogy. Companies such as Google are workingtowards “general AI” systems that can makeconnections and interpretations from informa-tion in order to make independent decisionsand predictions. This wouldmake them able to“think” like humans. Even lawyers.Prof Susskind predicts the “decomposition”,

though not the death, of the legal profession,with traditional jack-of-all-trades legal jobsbeing split into several distinct roles. Many ofhis suggested jobs carry titles more befitting atech start-up than a law firm: legal knowledgeengineer, legal technologist, project manager,risk manager or process analyst. Tomorrow’sbarrister or solicitor is likely to be part softwareengineer, part lawyer, he says.This is not pie-in-the-sky thinking. Students

at the University of Toronto were asked to finda useful application for IBM’s Watson, the cog-nitive technology famous for answering triviaquestions on television show Jeopardy. Theycame up with Ross, a legal research service.Lawyers ask Ross legal questions, which it

answers by sifting through huge quantities oflegal documents, cases and legislation. Ross’sanswers are sophisticated: they include legalcitations and links to articles for further read-ing. Because Watson has the ability to learn,Ross refines its responses based on experience.Such a tool could do much of the work that

has been left to junior lawyers — work that, asbillable hours, has traditionally beenprofitable.The Toronto group plans to launch a com-

pany that offers Ross’s services. Soon law firms,instead of hiring swaths of new lawyers everyyear, could be far smaller entities that outsourceall but the trickiest work to a computer.n

Murad Ahmed

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axiom axiom's Iris technology helps leading global companies tocreate andmanage commercial contracts faster andmoreefficiently, with reduced risk. It now forms a critical part ofaxiom'smanaged services business.

10 9 9 28

pinsentMasons pinsentMasons and information technology consultancycampbell Nash launched complete electronic Riskcompliance (cerico), a technology business that helpsclients complywith regulations. Regular audit checks ofemployees and suppliers embed a culture of compliance.

9 10 9 28

baker&McKenzie

theGlobalMerger analysis platform is a tool to identifypotential anti-trust issues for clients considering amergeror acquisition. It provides access to real-time data and abespoke analysis across 135 jurisdictions.

9 9 9 27

Foot anstey Responding todemand frompoliticians formorehomes, thefirmbuilt on software tools fromthomsonReuters to improvethe efficiency of its conveyancing team.the time taken tocreate a legal letter hasbeen cut from90 to two seconds.

8 9 10 27

a&LGoodbody the firmdeveloped two informationmanagement portals.bids centre facilitates the production of complex, highlytailored bid documents using document automation andstandardised processes. partner connect gives partners allthemanagement information required to run practices.

8 9 8 25

tools4Legal anew legal projectmanagement providerwhose productsenable in-house legal departments and law firms to track theprogress of theirwork from start to finish.

9 9 7 25

allen&overy the firm is using the isheetsmodule of software providerhighQ's cloud-based product collaborate to create client-facing resources.withmore than 500 lawyers using it, thefirm is turning legal and commercial information collectedinto data andmanagement information.

7 9 8 24

addleshawGoddard

customisingmodules fromhighQ, the firm is enablingcloser collaboration between its transaction services team,lawyers and clients.

7 8 8 23

ashurst created a risk assessment systemwith software firm Intappthat enhances client service and ensures that the firm’s ownrisk and compliance requirements aremet. the platformwillbe rolled out to other law firms to customise.

8 8 7 23

schillings developed a team supported by its risk consulting and cyberinformation security services arms that helps clients preventand address data breaches.

7 9 7 23

toffoletto deLuca tamajo esoci, andNctM

the two Italian firms collaborated to develop the iLexsystem,which integrates and automates routine functionsof running a law firm, saving lawyers up to two hours a day.

7 9 7 23

aequitas Legal an app to give clients real-time updates on claims. 6 8 8 22

dwF adigitalmail service that routesmail directly intomatters. 7 8 7 22

Vandoorne apricing tool that contributes to gross and net earnings. 7 7 8 22

eversheds developeddealMaster, a tool tomanagemultijurisdictionalM&a transactions.

7 7 7 21

Macfarlanes aprocess to automatically produce leases for clients. 7 8 6 21

Morais Leitão,Galvão teles,soares da silva&associados

set up an internal business developmentweb portal to serveclients better.

6 7 8 21

Nautadutilhbelgium

aportal to grow young companies and let themaccess legaladvice.

7 7 7 21

pwctax&Legalservices (spain)

a tax exemption tool formobile professionals that savesthemmoney.

7 7 7 21

Radiant Law state-of-the-art technology infrastructure. 7 8 6 21

cMs an advanced approach to completemobile and flexibleworking for all staff.

7 6 7 20

TECHNOLOGY

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The judging session to choose the most innovativeindividual lawyer is always spirited. But the discussions have, inthe past, resulted in a single winner emerging.

This year the list of 10 finalists was as impressive as always.But the judges could not decide between two contenders: SimonHarper, founder of LOD (Lawyers On Demand), and ShireenIrani, the principal mover behind iProbono and Fieldfisher’sdirector of corporate responsibility.

Mr Harper hit on the idea of a service that would providelawyers on a temporary basis for in-house corporate legaldepartments and later for other law firms. Originally set upwithin the firm of Berwin Leighton Paisner, LOD has now beenspun off as a separate entity.

Ms Irani’s iProbono project is an online platform connectinglawyers prepared to offer free services to civil societyorganisations. iProbono has teams in London and New Delhi,although it operates in 31 countries. The judges wereparticularly impressed with the legal support iProbono hadbeen able to offer on child protection matters in India.

The judges felt both these contenders were tapping into thesame phenomenon: lawyers increasingly want to work indifferent ways, whether flexibly or by offering pro-bono services.

As the argument continued on which of these two shouldwin the award, some of the judges began to ask: can’t theyboth win? Why do we need to separate such worthy candidates?The rest of us could see no reason why not. So, in the 10thanniversary year of FT Innovative Lawyers, Mr Harper andMs Irani are joint winners.Michael Skapinker, chair of the judging panel

Two lawyers who have shown how tounleash the power of networks roseto the fore among our 10 finalists.Portraits by Rick Pushinsky

Forginglinks

individualS

Camille Abousleiman hasbeen a driving force behindlegal work in capital marketsin the Middle East. In theearly 1990s, while workingin Latin America when theMexican peso crisis struck,he sensed an opportunity forthe development of capitalmarkets in the Middle East,adapting new structures longbefore the investment banks.

His market firsts includethe then largest internationalplacement offering, the firstequity listing of a MiddleEastern company on theLondon Stock Exchange,the first eurobond issuedby a private company and abank in the region and thefirst and second listings onNasdaq Dubai.

Mr Abousleiman has guidedtransactions for sovereignsand companies throughregime change, constitutionalcrises and assassinations. Hiswork has helped to preserveinvestors’ access to capitalmarkets under extraordinarycircumstances — Egypt andTunisia returned this yearfollowing the Arab Springand subsequent upheavals.

caMille abouSleiMan,dechert ►

ReseaRch & awaRd suppoRted by


As the head of Wiggin’sintellectual property andrights protection team, andmanaging director of Incopro,Simon Baggs has been at theforefront of the fight againstthe online infringementof businesses’ intellectualproperty.

Mr Baggs founded Incoproin 2012 after recognisingthat businesses wereinadequately protected fromgrowing global challengesin the form of counterfeitingand piracy.

But he realised that legalskills alone were not enough.Incopro therefore also offers

technology and intelligenceservices that allow clients tocounter threats.

In 2013, Mr Baggs achieveda ground-breaking successfor the film industry. Underhis guidance the sector wonthe first UK site-blockingorder, which requiresinternet service providers(ISPs) to block subscribersfrom accessing websitesthat infringe businesses’copyright.

In October 2014, he wonanother landmark victoryfor client Richemont. Hisadvice acted as the catalystfor the luxury goods group

to secure a court orderblocking websites thatinfringe trademarks by sellingcounterfeit goods online.

And this March, aHigh Court order requiredthe UK’s five leading ISPsto ensure that they blockedaccess to specific websitesthat allowed users todownload films illegally.

Having identified a gapin the market for legalprotection of intellectualproperty, Mr Baggs hassignificantly contributedto filling it, not just withIncopro but also with someimportant legal precedents.

SiMon baggS,Wiggin ►

Michael Hatchard has playedan integral part in the riseof Skadden, Arps, Slate,Meagher & Flom in the City.

He has been at the forefrontof significant changes inmergers and acquisition lawover an extensive career.He developed the use ofdemergers in hostile bidsand created a new structurefor hostile acquisition in the1980s. More recently, he ledthe team on Pfizer’s bid forrival drugs group AstraZenecaand created the structure formore binding commitmentsand post-offer undertakings.

Invited to comment onthe liability structuresunderwriting UKprivatisations, he wasappointed adviser to thegovernment broker, wherehe created a structure thatforms the basis for all UKgovernment privatisations.

Mr Hatchard’s innovationsalso extend to new products.He was instrumental indeveloping a new toppinginsurance product for clientAon, following changesto the Takeover Code thatremoved break-fee protectionfor failed bids.

Michael hatchard,Skadden, arpS, Slate,Meagher & floM

►


David Kerr has built hiscareer on innovation inlaw firm leadership. He hasdriven Bird & Bird’s strategyof continuously developingtechnology-focused expertise.Under his leadership thefirm has grown from a small,specialist London-based outfitinto a network of lawyers in28 offices and 18 countries.

Mr Kerr has also beendetermined not to abandonthe firm’s heritage as onefocused on intellectualproperty and technology.Instead, the firm’s growthhas been strictly confined tothese areas.

This has also beena key part of Mr Kerr’sinternational growthstrategy: local marketexpertise combined with theinternational Bird & Birdbrand — a formula used inthe opening of the Sydneyoffice in November 2014,when Bird & Bird mergedwith leading local technologyand communications firmTruman Hoyle.

Mr Kerr has also overseenoperational innovation,developing the VirtualGeneral Counsel service tohelp resource companieswith no internal lawyers;establishing Baseline, ajoint venture with ASEConsulting to offer clientsa multidisciplinary service;and launching a matterplanning and profitabilityinitiative to provideclients with more flexibleand transparent pricingproposals.

In just 19 years Sir NigelKnowles has taken aYorkshire firm that had itsroots in a Sheffield debt-collecting practice andturned it into one of thelargest firms in the world inrevenue terms.

As head of Dibb LuptonBroomhead he first mergedwith Manchester firmAlsop Wikinson, but by 2006his firm had a base in theCity of London and a tie-updavid kerr,

bird & bird ►

Sir nigel knoWleS,dla piper

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with US firms Piper Rudnickand Gray Cary Ware &Freidenrich.

By 2009 his firm’s rapidexpansion and work for thePrince’s Trust had won him aknighthood.

It was not all smoothgoing. As an early adopter ofboth a transatlantic link andthe Swiss verein structure,under which affiliates remainseparate entities, the firmthat had become DLA Pipercame under criticism,

But Sir Nigel’s commitmentto making the structure

work meant that other topfirms have followed suitand the structure is nowconsidered commonplacein the profession as theway to expand internationally.

Sir Nigel’s appetite forgame-changing was furthershown when he was one ofthe first senior lawyers totake advantage of the LegalServices Act, liberalisingparts of the profession,to invest in the holdingcompany of Riverview Law,which offers a different wayof delivering legal advice.


Penelope Warne joinedCMS as an oil and gasspecialist in 1993 to set upthe firm’s Aberdeen office.Twenty years later, she hasbuilt this specialism in herrole as senior partner andhead of energy.She has applied herself to

expanding the firm.In 2014, swiftly after

becoming senior partnerat CMS, MsWarne drovethe merger with Dundas&Wilson that allowed thefirm to become Scotland’smarket leader.One year on, revenue

has grown 30 per cent andprofits are up 15 per cent—making 2014-15 a recordyear for CMS.MsWarne has also led

the firm’s international

Yulia Kyrpa is an outstandingspecialist in the field ofbanking and finance law, at atime of immense challenges.Ms Kyrpa has tackled thedifficulties surroundingthe 2014 Ukraine revolutionwith a commitment toreform.Ms Kyrpa assisted

the European Bank forReconstruction andDevelopment on the launchand implementation of stateinsurance of householddeposits and bank reform,bringing Ukraine’slegislation into line with bestinternational practice.Ms Kyrpa’s full-scale

legal assistance for NCHCapital, a leading US privateequity fund, was essentialin achieving the acquisitionof the insolvent Astra Bankfrom the state.The deal brought new

US money into the country,demonstrating to foreigninvestors that, despite thecrisis, it was possible toenter into successful andcredible transactions.When President

Yanukovych fled Ukraine, MsKyrpa and her team faced thechallenge of finding groundsin the constitution to justifythe appointment and scopeof the temporary Ukrainiangovernment.And by finding innovative

legal solutions Ms Kyrpaand her team ensuredthat Ukraine could agreeborrowing from the EU.

Yulia kYrpa,aeQuo ►

penelope Warne,cMS ►

Pádraig Ó Ríordáin is a well-recognised name amongleading corporate lawyersand has played a key role inthe Irish banking crisis aspart of the Arthur Cox team.He trained in aWall Street

firm before joining ArthurCox, where in 2003 hewaselectedmanaging partner atjust 37 years old. He developeda new vision for the firm thatwould turn its focus frombeing a domestic Irish practiceto one that could operate onan international stage.Mr Ó Ríordáin, as lead

external adviser to theIrish state, was at thecentre of the Irish bankingcrisis, advising on theimplementation of agreedbank guarantees. The natureof the crisis meant that everybank and building societywas a risk to the state.Against this difficult

backdrop, but with noexisting legal structuresin place, Mr Ó Ríordáin’steam designed a legalframework that wouldpreserve the legal integrityof the banks but enable thegovernment to take the actionit deemed necessary.With that background it

is perhaps not surprisingthat Mr Ó Ríordáin is amember of the EuropeanCommission’s InsolvencyLaw Expert Group, theadvisory body to theCommission on thedevelopment of an EU cross-border regulatory crisismanagement regime.

padraig o riordain,arthur cox

►

expansion, with officesbeing established in Brazil,Mexico, the Middle Eastand Asia.She has also worked hard

outside her field. She wasinstrumental in helpingWar Child, the firm’s charitypartner, to raise £150,000in five months. And she ispassionate about helpingfemale lawyers to breakthrough the glass ceiling.Her commitment to

creating a leading energypractice, influencing theglobal energy debate andactively championingdiversity and corporatesocial responsibilitycombine to form a pictureof a lawyer who can innovatein not just one but a numberof areas.


individualS

LOD (Lawyers On Demand)sent shockwaves throughthe legal industry when itwas launched in 2007 as anoriginal alternative legalservices provider. SimonHarper, the man behindthis idea, led the project tomake it a successful and nowindependently managedbusiness after it was spunoff from Berwin LeightonPaisner as a separate entity.Mr Harper developed the

idea for LOD after observingcontradictory pressures inthe legal industry that wereexacerbated by the globalfinancial crisis: he recognisedthat while buyers of legalservices needed to maketheir budgets stretch further,more lawyers were lookingfor flexibility and autonomy.Since being established, LODhas grown 700 per cent andnow has a turnover of morethan £12m and a team ofmore than 200 lawyers.Mr Harper’s innovation has

been copied by several big lawfirms in the UK. More than athird of the top 20 firms nowhave similar offerings.But Mr Harper continues

to innovate. He has developedan evolution of the LODmodel that sends in teams oflawyers who use technologyand data analytics to supportin-house legal departments.This new avenue accountedfor more than half of the 40per cent growth LOD postedlast year.

SiMon harper,lod (laWYerS ondeMand)

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WinnerS


Shireen Irani, Fieldfisher’sdirector of corporateresponsibility, foundediProbono to provide an onlineplatform for civil societyorganisations to engage withlawyers and students willingto provide legal assistance.It was while she was

reading for an LLM that MsIrani recognised the desire offellow students to contributeto society. But she also notedthe absence of an easy andflexible way to do so. Whenshe joined Fieldfisher in2007, she decided to harnessthis potential and pitchedher ideas to the firm, whichlent its support to theorganisation, which is anindependent charity.The success of iProbono

revolves around a core teamin London and New Delhi, ledbyMs Irani. An easy-to-accessnetworking platform catersfor the limited resources ofcivil society organisationsand the desire of lawyersto provide assistance in aflexible manner. It has aglobal reach, in 31 countries,with 1,200 organisationsand 50,000 volunteers on itsnetwork who have varyinglevels of experience, skills andavailability. The platform hasa registration process, whichis used to match projects tovolunteers’ interests.The organisation has

provided legal supporton a wide variety ofissues, from child welfare,slavery, education andthe environment to therights of girls on the Indiansubcontinent.

Shireen irani,iprobono ►


Corporate and CommerCial


The revival in mergersand acquisitions has givenfirms a showcase for theirskills. By Laura Noonan

Dealsealers

Take an abundant appetite for deal-making, pair it with snowballingregulatory demands and you createa powerful catalyst for innovation in

corporate and commercial law.The past year has had both those ingredients

in large quantities, as the mergers and acqui-sitions fever triggered by sluggish growth andultra-cheap financing collided with greaterregulation in almost every industry.

The M&A boom in the first half of 2015 wasthe biggest since the heady pre-crisis days of2007 and shows that lawyers have had a decentsuccess rate in working their way through theregulatory labyrinth.

Other areas of corporate and commerciallaw have blossomed too, particularly in pen-sions, where new structures are being used tocut costs to pension funds that want to hedgeagainst their beneficiaries living longer thanexpected.

Mega-deals have dominated the headlines,but some of the most innovative legal footworkwas done for less high-profile agreements,such as that struck between chemicals groupsICL/Iberpotash of Spain and Akzo Nobel ofthe Netherlands. Ownership and accountingrestrictions prevented the companies fromagreeing a normal joint venture, so Cuatreca-sas, Gonçalves Pereira, Iberpotash’s law firm,used a little-used provision in Spain’s 19th-cen-tury commercial code to create a “participa-tion account” that enables the companies towork together. The deal could lead to invest-ment in Spain of up to €800m.

Regulation is often an obstruction to M&A,but regulatory appeasement can spawn dealstoo, as with Irish cement company CRH’s€6.5bn bid for assets being sold by France’s ►

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Whenausual joint venturewasnot possible, lawyers helpedICLand its Spanish subsidiary Iberpotash formadealwithAkzoNobel that could enable investment of €800minSpain.

9 10 9 28

White&Case Lawyers,workingwithHMTreasury, initially pro bono, cameupwith a tax law innovation thatwill giveUKbusinessesgreater choicewhen looking for finance.

9 9 9 27

CMS Working initially for free, the firm approached the PensionInsurance Corporationwith an idea for a new collateral andsecurity structure.

9 9 8 26

Arthur Cox Combined role of legal, financial and strategic adviser toCRH,the Irishbuildingmaterials company, on its acquisitionofassets fromHolcimandLafarge in10 jurisdictions.

8 9 8 25

Gleiss Lutz Changed the structure of German publishing houseSuhrkamp to resolve a long-running shareholder dispute.

9 9 7 25

Allen&Overy Devised a structure allowing the BT pensions scheme tohedge 25 per cent of its longevity.

9 8 7 24


Work for Pfizer during its bid for AstraZeneca has inspiredsignificant changes in theUKTakeover Code.

7 9 8 24

UríaMenéndez Designed structures and strategies that the Lone StarFund III used to buy a portfolio of performing andnon-performing loans fromCommerzbank.

7 9 8 24

PinsentMasons Workedwith Peterborough to help the council establish itselfas a leader in green energy.

8 8 8 24

Ashurst Raisedmore than £1bn in fivemonths for two equity funds. 8 9 7 24


Advice on the listing ofMota-Engil Africa shares on EuronextAmsterdam.

7 8 8 23

Shearman&Sterling

Advising theQatar Investment Authority on its hostiletakeover of Songbird Estates.

8 8 7 23


Helped raise the level atwhich amajority shareholder canunilaterally delist.

7 9 7 23

Slaughter andMay

AdvisingGlaxoSmithKline on a three-part transactionwithNovartis.

7 8 8 23

Eversheds Flexible planning consents for theworld’s largestwind farm. 7 8 7 22


Advised on the Automobile Association’s accelerated initialpublic offering.

7 7 8 22


Advised VimpelComon complex telecoms transactions inAlgeria.

7 7 7 21

Berwin LeightonPaisner

Devised a newmodel for private rented-sector housing intheUK.

6 7 8 21

DLAPiper Acting in AlliedMinds’ initial public offering. 7 7 7 21

NautaDutilh Created a newglobal e-commerce company via aDutchentity, Cnova.

7 7 7 21

Orrick AdvisedAlstomon the $13.5bn sale of its energy business. 7 7 7 21

SEHLegal Advised employees on their takeover of theNice-Matinnewspaper group.

7 8 6 21

Ashurst Advised Royal LondonMutual Insurance Society on a £22bnreorganisation.

6 7 7 20

Paul Hastings Created a new structure in Italy for KKR’s restructuring ofdistressed loans.

6 8 6 20

Simmons&Simmons

AdvisedUKMinistry of Defence on sale of Defence SupportGroup,main provider ofmaintenance on army vehicles.

7 6 7 20

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‘Lawyers are thinkingof ways to structure

deals that avoid the fullimpact of the regulatory

intervention’

commit the purchaser to follow through withthe deal; penalties are payable if it falls apart.Tying down commitments before a deal is

signed is increasingly common. During phar-maceuticals group Pfizer’s failed takeover ofrival AstraZeneca last year, lawyers designed anew kind of commitment that was more bind-ing than a statement of intent.Deals in the financial services sector bring

their own complexities. “The identity of theregulator that will be in charge of supervisionof the group plays a part in choosing the hold-ing structure,” says Arnaud Coibion, a partnerat Linklaters in Brussels. “Obtaining the con-sent from the regulators on time, the fit andproper criteria for the directors who are goingto be on board… that’s all critical.”Some of the most innovative transactions in

the past year have been in pension funds, astrustees have looked to reduce the funds’ run-ning costs. Traditionally, when funds wantedto insure against beneficiaries living longerthan expected, they had to engage both aninsurer and a reinsurer.“The problem in the UK market is that there

are very few insurers to act as middlemenbetween the pension scheme and reinsurers,”saysMadhu Jain, a counsel in Linklater’s insur-ance practice in London.Last year, BT’s pension scheme, advised by

Allen&Overy, cut out themiddleman by usinga specially created in-house insurance com-pany based inGuernsey. Its offshore statuswasimportant for capital and tax efficiency andbrought significant savings for the scheme.Smaller companies may be daunted by the

prospect of setting up an in-house offshoreinsurer, but consultancies such as TowersWat-son have developed insurance cells that com-panies can use for the same purposes.It is not all good news for lawyers though.

The traditional fee model faces increasedpressure from clients, particularly on lengthytransactions. GlaxoSmithKline, for example,asked Slaughter and May and its other lawyersto work on a fixed-fee basis on the extensiveNovartis deal rather than an hourly rate. n

Lafarge and Switzerland’s Holcim as part oftheir drawn-out merger. Holcim and Lafargeput the assets on the block so that the scale oftheir combined company would not unnerveregulators, but in the end their own sharehold-ers proved more difficult to reassure and thedeal came close to collapsing several times.The CRH transaction, which made the Irish

company the third-biggest player in its sectorglobally, held firm throughout the uncertainty,with Dublin law firm Arthur Cox acting aslegal, financial and strategic adviser to CRH.Lawyers expect regulator-inspired sales

to feature more and more in the M&A land-scape. “The increase in the number and scopeof authority of regulators is a real issue in thecontext of major cross-border M&A,” says Ste-phen Wilkinson, London-based global head ofM&A at Herbert Smith Freehills.“As a result, lawyers are thinking of ways to

structure deals that either avoid the full impactof the regulatory intervention or are struc-tured to mitigate that involvement. Or they arefinding ways to ensure that intervention is notfatal to the deal.”Pre-clearance is one option. Thatwas the for-

mat used in Shell’s £47bn bid for energy rivalBG Group in April, the biggest M&A transac-tion in UK history. Typically, pre-clearances


FINANCE

Solutions to thefunding puzzleThe complexity of deals, especially those acrossborders, required some original thinking fromcompanies’ advisers, writesArashMassoudi

Finance lawyers faced no shortage ofchallenges last year. Roaring capitalmarkets and the busiest mergers andacquisitionsperiod since theonset of the

financial crisis kept advisers in demand and insearch of solutions to an onslaught of requestsfrom corporate clients.At the other end of the spectrum, politi-

cal instability in Ukraine and the Middle Eastadded complexity to already difficult condi-tions for companies and governments.In corporate activity, blockbuster deals dom-

inated the headlines. Transactions were large,often cross-border and almost always high-pro-file. These elements contributed to the highestlevel of global M&A activity by volume since2007. In total, $3.34tn worth of deals werereached in 2014, according to data providerDealogic.But the prevalence of mega-deals, in particu-

lar the desire for companies to use dealmakingto consolidate an industry or sector, meantcompletion times for agreed transactions raninto months as regulators scrutinised competi-tion issues. For instance, it took 14 months forDutch coffee groupDEMaster Blenders to com-plete its May 2014 takeover of the coffee assetsof Mondelez, the US snacks company. Monde-lez received $5bn and a large minority stake inthemerged entity. The transaction to create thesecond-largest global coffee company requiredantitrust approvals in multiple jurisdictions.To execute the deal, DEMaster Blenders’ con-

trolling shareholder needed to secure an enor-mous $11bn leveraged loan. That task was com-plicated by uncertainty on how long it wouldtake for the deal to win regulatory clearances.“The parties could not confidently estimate

when the transaction would close, but neitherparty was prepared to enter into a transactionwithout certainty on the financing,” accord-ing to Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom,which advised JAB Holding, a private invest-ment group and the controlling shareholder ofDEMaster Blenders.The law firm believed the deal could have

taken up to 30 months to complete, meaningthe bank financing had to be committed formuch longer than lenders were accustomed tofor private or public transactions.A typical commitment for this sort of lending

is usually for less than a year. Ultimately, threebanks agreed to commit lending for 30 monthsin what was one of Europe’s largest post-creditcrisis leveraged loan transaction. Skadden alsoplayedan important role in securing the fundingfrom lenders with limited conditions.In Lebanon, the country’s largest banking

group, Bank Audi, sought to raise $300m tostrengthen the capital base of its Turkish subsid-iary, Odeabank.Workingwith law firmDechert,the Lebanese bank decided to pursue a rightsissue for new Bank Audi shares and globaldepository receipts to secure the funding.But an interesting part of the transaction was

the inclusion of English-law warrants, whichwould be exercisable in the future for commonshares in Odeabank, according to Dechert.War-rants are not typically a feature of rights issuesand the use of rights over equity in a separatecompany, in a different jurisdiction, was novel.ThemovehelpedBankAudicompletean intri-

cate capital markets transaction without the aidof an investment bank, and investor participa-tion helped demonstrate confidence in financialinstitutions operating in a difficult region.However, not all markets were rife with cor-

porate dealmaking. In Ukraine, a revolutionand ensuing conflict between pro-Russian sep-aratists and the Ukrainian military plunged itseconomy into a full-on crisis.The situation was complicated by the depar-

ture of President Viktor Yanukovych, which inturn left a constitutional crisis.The unrest prompted the European Commis-

sion to seek to intervene by providing financialaid to help stabilise Ukraine. Lawyers wereasked to find a way to satisfy the conditions ofthe EC’s offer, which called for the applicationof English law, rather than international law,which is stipulated in such circumstances underUkrainian legislation.


In finding a solution, Ukrainian firm Aequoemployed what it called an “innovativeapproach… to confirm the scope of powers anddue procedure of the appointment of the newtemporary government of Ukraine, which wasthe mandatory condition for granting of the aidby the donor”.

The political turmoil also raised the prospectof defaults on corporate debt and generatedwork for international firms. DTEK, Ukraine’slargest privately ownedenergybusiness,workedwith US law firm Latham & Watkins to restruc-ture $200m in debt to avoid default.

The transaction also resorted to English lawby using a UK scheme of arrangement. Themove, Latham believes, will have global ramifi-cations for bankruptcy law as it shows a poten-tially cheaper alternative to the US Chapter 11process.n

Lawfirm

Origina

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Rationa

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Dechert The firm created a structure to raise capital for Odeabank,the Turkish subsidiary of Lebanon’s BankAudi, helping tostabilise the future of financial institutions in the region.Commended: Camille Abousleiman.

10 9 9 28

Aequo Helped stabilise theUkrainian financialmarket following theoutbreak of the conflict in 2014. Commended: YuliaKyrpa.

9 9 9 27

Allen&Overy Negotiating on the tendering process for the A11motorwayin Belgium, the firm created the first structurewhereby bothbank and bond financing bids can be compared in parallelunder public procurement rules.

8 9 9 26

Latham&Watkins

Instrumental in breakinga four-year impasseon therestructuringofPunchTavernsby establishingapowerfulnegotiatingposition for thebondholders.

8 10 8 26

UríaMenéndez Representingmore than 100 creditors in two complexrestructurings of Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas, thefirm set amarket standard for restructuring in Spain.

8 9 8 25

WilliamFry Overcame jurisdictional issues to help create the firstEurope-wide clearing house for exchange traded funds.

9 8 8 25

Linklaters Advised theUKgovernment on the creation of the firstsovereign sukuk outside the Islamicworld, raising theUK'sreputation as a jurisdiction for Islamic finance.

9 8 7 24

Gómez-Acebo&Pombo

Crucial to the successful restructuring ofGrupoCondesa, thesteelmanufacturer.

7 9 7 23

Hogan Lovells Advised theUKExport Credits GuaranteeDepartment on a$913msukuk to finance the acquisition of aircraft.

8 8 7 23

Pérez-Llorca Acted for the banks in the Fomento de Construcciones yContratas restructuring.

7 9 7 23

Baker&McKenzie

Acted in the receivership and sale of London’s Gherkinbuilding.

7 8 7 22

Latham&Watkins

Acted on the $200mdebt restructuring of DTEK, the privateUkrainian energy company.

7 7 8 22

Linklaters Achieved direct access for pension schemes to thereinsurancemarket.

7 8 7 22


Negotiated acquisition by Joh. A. Benckiser ofMondelēzInternational’s coffee business.

7 8 7 22

Slaughter andMay

Secured shareholder consent for Punch Taverns’restructuring.

7 7 8 22

Sullivan&Cromwell

Advised Zim Integrated Shipping Services on itsrestructuring.

7 8 7 22

White&Case Advised on the financing of the A7 highway inGermany. 8 6 8 22

DLAPiper Acted for INGBank in financing of theGherkin acquisition. 7 8 6 21

Garrigues Refinancing the debt of themajority shareholder in Fomentode Construcciones y Contratas.

6 7 8 21

Herbert SmithFreehills

Advised the government of Nepal on project development. 7 7 7 21

Mills &Reeve AdvisedNorthampton university on its city-centre campus. 7 7 7 21

Shearman&Sterling

Advised a banking syndicate on a bigUS-Italian acquisitionfinance deal in the gaming industry

7 8 6 21


The first international bond offering for Bangladesh. 6 7 7 20

Matheson Acted for J.P.MorganMansartManagement on a derivative-incorporating fund in Ireland.

7 7 6 20

PinsentMasons Acted on the bond issue for Northampton university’s campusdevelopment.

7 6 7 20

FINANCE

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DISPUTE RESOLUTION

Action on theglobal frontThe intricacies of cross-border litigation areputting demands on firms to find newwaysof achieving settlements. By Jane Croft

Awave of financial scandals involvingglobal banks has kept London’s civilcourts busy with cases of complexcross-border litigation. But it is nota-

ble that the global nature of business is givingrise to disputes in areas such as insolvency lawand capital markets that are being dealt within ways never seen before, and with the assis-tance of new technology.

This is no better illustrated than in the out-come of a five-year global court battle involv-ing 33,000 British pensioners from collapsedtelecoms provider Nortel. They achieved afair share of a $7.3bn fund held in an escrowaccount, representing the remains of Nortel,whose European, US and Canadian entities hadmade separate insolvency filings in London,Delaware and Toronto. There was no agree-ment on how the $7.3bn would be distributed.

Fights between creditors of a huge globalinsolvency are not new — strands of litiga-tion relating to the 2008 collapse of US bankLehman Brothers are still going on in courtsaround the world. But Nortel became the firstcase in which global assets were legally enti-tled to be distributed in accordance with cred-itors’ claims.

The case was also unusual because twocourts in Canada and the US sat simultane-ously and the trial unfolded in two locationslinked by a private live internet stream. Thelevel of co-operation between judicial author-ities was unprecedented, but the judges had todecide the legal issues in the case according tothe laws of their own country.

Hogan Lovells, the law firm that representedthe UK pensioners, had to convince courts inCanada and the US to accept the legal principlethat creditor liabilities could be paid out on apro rata basis — ignoring claims to ownershipbased on individual corporate identities andgeographical boundaries. The ruling put anend to five years of battles, with three failedattempts at mediation, in a case described asfeaturing “scorched earth litigation”.

John Tillman, a partner at Hogan Lovells,says the case was unusual because of thecourts sitting jointly: “There is a strong tradi-tion of different courts co-operating on certainaspects of large, cross-border insolvency cases,but this took it to a new level.”

The scale was also daunting: it involved120 witnesses being deposed worldwide and3m documents being disclosed. The case hasfar-reaching implications for future cross-bor-der insolvencies and could pave the way forfurther judicial co-operation across frontiers.

In more conventional bank litigation casesheard in London’s High Court, law firms havehad to contend with cross-border jurisdic-tional issues, often where cases have parallelcivil or criminal proceedings elsewhere.

One colourful case was fought by AddleshawGoddard on behalf of a German water util-ity against Swiss bank UBS over the allegedmis-selling of complex derivative transactionsthat triggered large payment obligations. The


litigation was one of the first instances when abank was successfully sued by a public author-ity and involved close co-operation with theutility’s German lawyers.The bank had claimed it was owed about

$140m from contracts with Kommunale Was-serwerke Leipzig in a trial that featured luridallegations of corruption, a luxury Africansafari and the hiring of strippers in New York.The German company had claimed, how-

ever, that the deal was invalid because a formerUBS banker had an “improper” relationshipwith a Swiss consultancy advising the utility.KWLwon the case and in a hard-hitting ruling,Mr Justice Males said of UBS’s conduct: “It hasbeen a case study in how not to conduct invest-ment banking in an honest and fair way.”Other law firms have sought to use innova-

tive ways to test parts of European law thatneed to be clarified following bailouts relatingto the financial crisis. Allen & Overy, for exam-ple, was instructed by the European Central

Bank following claims brought against it byinvestors in Cypriot banks who had lost outunder the terms of Cyprus’s bailout.Lawyers at the firm successfully argued the

ECB was not acting as a European institutionin relation to its work with the European Sta-bility Mechanism and therefore the GeneralCourt of the European Union lacked jurisdic-tion to hear the case. The ruling helped clarifythe capacity in which the ECB and EuropeanCommission were acting in the EuropeanStability Mechanism and the action helpedprevent EU tax partners from being on thehook for liabilities.Despite the amount of litigation reaching

London’s courts, however, many lawyers saymany complex cross-border cases are beingsettled behind closed doors using arbitration.Arbitration is often thought to be faster,

cheaper and private. In the past year, bigarbitration caseshave included theonebroughtby Paul Hastings, the London-based litigationgroup, that achieved a victory for the Rwandangovernment. There are signs, however, that theEnglish courts will exercise their discretion tointervene on arbitral awards if necessary.Law firm Pinsent Masons advised the UK

home secretary on a successful application tothe High Court to set aside a £200m arbitralaward made by an international arbitral tri-bunal in relation to an information technologydispute case. The ruling is now the lead testcase on issues in which the English courts willintervene in such awards. n

Lawyers say manycomplex cross-bordercases are being settled

behind closed doorsusing arbitration

Lawfirm

Originality

Rationale

Impact

Total

Hogan Lovells Following the collapse of Nortel, the telecoms provider, wona billion-dollar victory for 33,000UKpensioners. The dealalso benefited pensioners on the other side of the Atlantic.Commended: Angela Dimsdale Gill.

9 9 10 28

AddleshawGoddard

Lawyers secured a victory for KWL, the Leipzigwater utility,againstUBSover the sale of complex derivatives that triggeredlargepayments in thewakeof the credit crisis.

9 8 9 26

Allen&Overy The firm represented the European Central Bank in a caseregarding the liability of EU organisations in relation to theterms of bail-out treaties. Commended:Wolf Bussian.

9 8 9 26

PinsentMasons The firmadvised theUKHomeSecretary ona successfulapplication to set asidea£200m-plus arbitrationaward inacase that clarifieswhencourts arewilling to intervene.

9 8 9 26

DWF Lawyers acted for Zurich Insurance against InternationalEnergyGroup to give clarity to claimants, insurers andpolicyholders. Commended: Derek Adamson.

9 8 8 25

Paul Hastings Defeated the practice of automatic suspension in France ofpublic tender offers and takeover bids in the event of a courtchallenge. The practice had been an obstacle to investment.

8 9 8 25

Bird&Bird Wonan action against Crédit Agricole, the French bank,to recover funds for a client despite the client not having acontractual relationshipwith it.

8 9 7 24

Cooley Enabled clientswith limited resources to litigate bymanagingthe risk of losing through technology, third-party funding andafter-the-event insurance. Commended:MarkDeem.

7 9 7 23

Garrigues Developed a strategy to protectMediapro during extendedand public proceedings over football broadcasting rights.

8 8 7 23

Latham&Watkins

Defended the LondonMetal Exchange against anunprecedented application for judicial reviewbrought byaluminiumproducer Rusal.

8 8 7 23

Paul Hastings Defending and training the Rwandan government. 8 7 7 22

Shearman&Sterling

Acted in the Yukos arbitration towin the largest-everinternational award.

8 7 7 22

WilliamFry Convinced the Irish courts to consider sharia law. 8 8 6 22

Eversheds Resolved a significant five-year damdispute in Senegal,Mauritania andMali.

7 7 7 21


Defendedmobile phone operator Optimus against thePortugueseData Protection Authority.

7 7 7 21

White&Case Broke a 30-year deadlockworth €900m for Commisimpexagainst the Republic of the Congo.

7 7 7 21

Arthur Cox A landmark case for Irish defined-benefit pension funding. 7 6 7 20

Baker&McKenzie

DefendedMasterCard in the first claim filed against it inRussia followingUS sanctions.

7 6 7 20

Macfarlanes Clarified the scope of Brussels regulation. 7 6 7 20

Mayer Brown Achieved approval for a new regime to address the deficit intheMerchantNavy’s pension scheme.

7 6 7 20

Sidley Austin Developed parallel schemes of arrangement in the liquidationofMurrayHoldings.

6 8 6 20

Slaughter andMay

Defended a big claim against Kroll and three co-defendants. 7 7 6 20

Squire PattonBoggs

Acted for the Slovak Republic on planned changes to publichealth insurance.

7 7 6 20

VanDoorne Introduced the concept ofmulti-party arbitration into theDutch insurancemarket.

7 7 6 20

VdA Reducing the reputational damage for companies chargedwith capitalmarkets offences.

7 6 7 20

DISPUTE RESOLUTION

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COMPETITION

Tactics to levelthe playing field

The regulatory environment has been a testingone but firms showed invention to ensure positive

outcomes for clients. By Christian Oliver

in clinical research and innovation… that wasa big development. They really looked in detailat competition in innovation,” he says.The case was made more complex by the

fact that the two drugs were designed to workin combination with each other, but only oneof them, LGX818, was fully owned by Novar-tis. The other, MEK162, was produced underlicence fromArray BioPharma, a small Colora-do-based company.Competition lawyers at Linklaters made the

unprecedented step of proposing two potentialremedies to the commission. Under the termsof the first proposal, LGX818 and MEK162would be owned by different companies andthen it would be left to market demand to

In March, GlaxoSmithKline and Novartiscompleted a landmark $23bn asset swapthat was widely hailed as a template forhow to reinvigorate big pharma.

But over the 2014 Christmas holidays thedeal was hanging by a thread after runninginto highly complex — and somewhat novel —competition concerns. The regulators’ worriesstruck at the heart of the transaction, in whichthe UK’s GSK was selling its portfolio of cancerdrugs to Novartis for up to $16bn and boughtthe Swiss group’s vaccines unit for up to $7.1bn.The European Commission insisted Novar-

tis would have to divest two important cancertreatments that were under development, asGSK already had similar products for slow-

ing the development of skin cancer. Brusselsfeared the asset swap could harm consumersby reducing the number of potential producersof such drugs from three to two, as the Novartistrials would probably be abandoned.Sir Christopher Bellamy, chairman of the

global competition practice at Linklaters, saysfrantic 11th-hour discussions to ensure thedeal’s approval raised new challenges for hislawyers. How to ensure work continued on thetwo Novartis drugs was far from obvious.Critically, Sir Christopher says Brussels was

going to unusual lengths to target productsthat were still in development. “It was clearthat the commissionwas developing a new the-ory of harm [to consumers] about competition


ensure that they reached consumers in a waythat they could work together effectively as atreatment.

The second proposal was that Array Bio-Pharma would acquire both products. How-ever, there would need to be a significant Euro-pean partner to ensure the drugs’ position inthe EU market. Brussels preferred the secondoption after conducting its market tests.

Lawyers involved in the case noted that thedeal was under intense time pressure as thecosts of a long approval procedure could haveundermined the attractiveness of the assetswap.

However, Novartis still needed to bearimportant costs associated with the remedy.The Swiss company is paying to ensure thatclinical trials continue on the divested drug.It is also paying for a “monitoring trustee” tomake sure that Array, which has no experienceof operating in the EU, selects a suitable Euro-pean partner.

Linklaters’ responses to the difficulties asso-ciated with securing quick regulatory approval

gave it a narrow victory in the competition cat-egory in the FT’s Innovative Lawyers awardsfor Europe this year.

Berwin Leighton Paisner came second forits work seeking damages for Britain’s NationalGrid power company in the English courts.

In 2007, the European Commission imposeda fine of more than ¤750m on a number ofleading companies, including Alstom, Areva,Schneider and Siemens, for running a cartelin the supply of gas-insulated switchgear —key equipment used by power transmissioncompanies. These fines, however — the largestset of fines ever imposed on a single cartel —bolstered the EU’s own budget and NationalGrid decided to seek follow-on damages for itsown losses.

Joby Davies, litigation partner at BLP, saysthe National Grid case charted new territoryfor the duration of the litigation battle, whichdragged on for six years. “The world of fol-low-on damages is relatively new. Other caseshave had skirmishes but they settled. This wentright to the gate of the court.”

BLP says the case turned into a “tooth andnail” fight against 22 opponents and required ateam of lawyers and economists that swelled toas many as 20 at its peak.

The case was also remarkable for two unu-sual precedents. It was the first in which theHigh Court ordered that leniency materialcould be disclosed. Under normal circum-stances, companies win leniency from Brusselsby whistleblowing and providing documenta-tion on the operations of a cartel, but on theunderstanding that paperwork remains con-fidential. In this case, BLP successfully arguedthat the material was needed for follow-ondamages.

The case also broke new ground by ensur-ing that the French defendants were unable torely on the so-called French blocking statute,which companies can use to avoid obligationson open disclosure.

The defendants finally settled just before thecase was due to go to trial last year. The sumsought was £275m, but the eventual settlementremains confidential. n

‘The world of follow-ondamages is relatively

new. Other cases havehad skirmishes but they

settled. This went right tothe gate of the court’

LawFirm

Originality

Rationale

Impact

Total

Linklaters A series of solutions to problems thatmight have stymied the$23bnNovartis-GSK asset swap. The challengewas to disposeof two products still in development. The lawyers convinced theEuropean Commission tomarket-test their solutions and allow acompany fromoutside Europe to participate in the deal.

9 10 9 28

BerwinLeightonPaisner

In a case that has become amodel for international carteldisputes, BLP challenged the rules of international disclosureparticularly aroundmaterial such as evidence fromwhistleblowers. The firm fielded amulti-disciplinary team forNational Grid, its client, towin a complex case that lasted sixyears and involvedmultiple opponents.

9 8 9 26

King&WoodMallesons

The firmadvised a consortiumof tyremanufacturers seekingdamages from cartels inflating the price of synthetic rubber.Using complex economicmodelling, the firm successfully arguedthat cartelswere liable for damages not only from their own price-fixing but also from the overall inflation of prices in themarket,called “umbrella damages”.

8 8 8 24

Shearman&Sterling

In an unusual but successful strategy, the firm sued theUK’sCompetition andMarkets Authority (CMA) over its disclosureof evidence investigating the firm’s client, BMIHealthcare. Asa result, BMI did not have tomake the divestment previouslyordered by the CMA, and the CMA's processes around evidencehandlingwere improved.

8 7 8 23

Latham&Watkins

Groupement des Cartes Bancaires (GCB), the French paymentcard association, faced a European Commission ruling that itspublished pricingmeasureswere anti-competitive. This rulingmeant the commission did not have to prove that GCB's actionshad any effect on themarket. The firm successfully argued for theEuropean Court of Justice to annul the commission’s decision andclarified the use of this ruling.

7 6 9 22

Garrigues Acted in a “state aid” case that clarified the role of the EuropeanCommission in Spanish tax affairs.

7 7 7 21

Pérez-Llorca

Enabled Schibsted, theNorwegianmedia group, to expand inSpain.

6 6 8 20

WilliamFry

Integrated advocacy approach in a “state aid” case that lasted10 years.

6 7 7 20

Competition

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INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

Technicallytalented

The advance of digitally based and onlinebusinesses has put the onus on legal teams toexpand their skills, writesDuncan Robinson

Divorce can be a messy business, espe-cially when you used to run a $3.5bnhedge fund with your ex. The split in2009 between Martin Coward and

Elena Ambrosiadou, who founded the Cyprus-based Ikos hedge fund in 1992, was acrimoni-ous, leading to dozens of lawsuits in multiplejurisdictions over several years.

Rather than custody of the children or whowould keep the family home, lawyers focusedon something even more complicated: whoowned the company’s trading algorithm?

As part of this process, the code in the algo-rithm used by Mr Coward at his new businesshad to be compared with the one used by Ikos.There was only one problem: the code was mil-lions of lines long.

With court-imposed deadlines pressing,Andrew Moir at Herbert Smith Freehills —working for Ikos — wrote a bespoke programthat compared the two.

The efforts of Mr Moir, who was a softwareengineer before he became a solicitor, demon-strate the increasing lengths lawyers now go toin order to win intellectual property cases.

The increasing complexity and profile ofintellectual property mean law firms findthemselves at the forefront of monitoring,explaining and combating infringement —as well as coming up with snappy new legalpoints. “There is a lot of overlap between thelaw and the technology in intellectual prop-erty,” says Mr Moir. “If the lawyers live andbreathe the tech, they can really help formu-late the arguments.”

In this climate, lawyers with a backgroundin science or technology are increasingly val-ued. Finding people with these sorts of skillsis becoming important when dealing with anytopics that touch on intellectual property, saysStephen Kinsella, a partner at Sidley Austin.“There is a recognition of the value of havingpeople like that,” he says.

Other firms have gone further than usingthe coding skills of one of their team. Lawyersat Wiggin, a media law firm, set up a sepa-rate business dedicated to monitoring abuseof intellectual property online. The business,Incopro, started life in 2012 predominantly asa way of monitoring copyright infringement infilm and music.

But when Wiggin’s lawyers started workingwith luxury goods group Richemont in 2013,they realised the monitoring software could beput to wider use by tracking down counterfeitsales of the Swiss group’s brands.

The sale of counterfeit goods online wasa growing problem for Richemont, whosebrands include Alfred Dunhill, Montblanc andCartier. Monitoring and trying to take downthese websites was a long-winded and expen-sive process.

Incopro proved invaluable in a case broughtby Cartier against BSkyB, an internet serviceprovider in the UK, which was reluctant toblock websites selling the luxury goods mak-er’s wares. BSkyB had argued that blocking


websites did little to prevent the sale of coun-terfeit goods. Statistics provided by Incoprodemonstrated to the court that the oppositewas true — and the court found in Cartier’sfavour.“For a long time, technology was just the

enemy,” says Simon Baggs, a partner atWiggin.“If you were a rights owner, there was a newthing called the internet and everything com-ing out of it looked bad.”Now it is an ally. A tool aimed at stopping

people illegally downloading a film worth afew pounds in lost cinema ticket or DVD reve-nuewas used to stop the sale of £10,000 Cartierwatches. “If the internet is a series of pipes, theway to tackle that problem is to go after thepipes,” says Mr Baggs.This principle was picked up by Allen &

Overy, acting for pharmaceutical companyPfizer in a patent dispute with the makers ofan off-patent drug. Pfizer was trying to defendthe $300m of revenues generated in the UKby its Lyrica drug, which is used to treat epi-lepsy and in neurological pain relief. While thedrug’s patent for treating epilepsy had lapsed,it still applied when it was prescribed as a painreliever. Doctors, however, would often simplyprescribe the drug under its generic name,even when doing so for pain.

A large US pharma company suing Britishdoctors and the National Health Service wouldnot look good. “Our client, Pfizer, was nevergoing to sue any doctors or pharmacists,”says Nicola Dagg, partner and global headof intellectual property litigation at Allen &Overy. “We had to think of ways of minimis-ing infringement, without taking enforcementsteps.”Instead, Allen & Overy argued that in this

case the NHS was an intermediary — likeBSkyB was in the Cartier case — and thereforehad an obligation to ensure patents were notbeing infringed.The court agreed and the NHS came out

with guidelines on the prescription of Lyrica —much to the chagrin of GPs,many of whom feltthey had been unwillingly placed on the frontline of patent enforcement.As intellectual property becomes an increas-

ingly complicated and occasionally controver-sial topic, lawyers need to consider expandingtheir knowledge of another: public relations.n

‘For a long time,technology was just the

enemy. For rights owners,there was a new thingcalled the internet and

everything comingout of it looked bad’

Lawfirm

Origina

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Rationa

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Impa

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Total

Wiggin Wiggin used itswholly owned, online content protection business,Incopro, to advise Richemont, the luxury consumer goods firm,on a landmark case. Using a combination of legal strategy andits site-monitoring technology, itmanaged to protect brandssuch as Cartier by having internet service providers block sitesthat sell counterfeit goods. Commended: SimonBaggs andHelenSaunders.

10 9 9 28

Allen&Overy

The firmhelpedPfizer, thepharmaceutical company, protect its$300m-a-year revenue streamfromthedrugLyrica in theUKbyensuring that theNHScontinued toprescribeLyrica rather thangeneric alternatives, for neuropathic pain. The case is significantfor other owners of second-usepatents. Commended:NicolaDagg.

9 9 9 27

Bird&Bird

Bird&Bird successfully protected the brand of CunninghamLindseyGroup, the claimsmanagement company. Part of thestrategy involved advising the group to take overmanagement ofthe company's old subsidiary in Poland to gain access to sensitivedocuments. The case created a precedent thatmeans brand theftcan be considered a criminal offence in Poland. Commended:Marta Koremba and Izabela Kowalczuk-Pakula.

9 10 7 26

HerbertSmithFreehills

Two people claimed ownership of the financial algorithmonwhich the trading of hedge fund Ikoswas based: ElenaAmbrosiadou, chief executive, and her co-founder and ex-husbandMartin Coward. The lawyers successfully defended the claimbyMr Coward throughwriting software that could compare thealgorithms used by both parties. Commended: AndrewMoir.

8 9 7 24

DLAPiper When theUK Intellectual Property Office denied the InternationalStemCell Corporation’s request for a stem cell patent, the ISCC,turned toDLAPiper for help. The firm successfully explainedcomplex biotechnology to the European Court of Justice towin theISCC's appeal. Commended: AdamCooke and LisaHaile.

7 8 8 23

Pérez-Llorca

Protecting the trademark of BlaBlaCar, the ride-sharing company,in Spain.

7 7 8 22

HoganLovells

Helped Vodafonewrite a global report on governmentmonitoringof telecommunications.

6 7 8 21

Baker&McKenzie

Special adviser to the European Commission on trade secretsprotection in the EU.

6 7 7 20

CMS Protecting a 15-year patent for Syngenta, the agriculturalcompany, in theNetherlands.

7 6 7 20

King&WoodMallesons

Defending Sky’s online TV service, “NowTV” froma trademarkinfringement claim.

6 7 7 20

Intellectual ProPerty

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Lawyers’ power of pure legal innovationtranslates to creating commercial

opportunities, writes Reena SenGupta

Extremebecomes

mainstream

IndIvIdual In-house lawyers

Matthew Owens winnerglobal head legal, strategicpartnerships and digital medicine,novartis pharmaceuticals.Mr Owens plays a critical role in forgingrelationships with technology partnersto turn Novartis’s vision of digitalmedicines into a reality. He is changingattitudes in the industry to embrace away of working that does not focus onownership of intellectual property.

tOM BrOwnhead of legal uK & ireland,paypal uKBy encouraging his team to leadproducts from inception to market,Mr Brown has turned his lawyers intobusiness leaders and project managers.He has had direct input into buildingthe UK business and creating value inthe company.

nick MaltBygeneral counsel and companysecretary, genomics englandPart of the team set up to deliver thesequencing of 100,000 genomes by2017, Mr Maltby is shaking up the UK’sapproach to health. In his legal role heis forging partnerships, pricing outputsand aiming to enhance the company’scapability.

lisa tOlainichief legal counsel uK, mercerMs Tolaini implemented a programmeto enable the legal departmentto assist in Mercer’s expansion.Initiatives include an internal contractmanagement system, setting uprisk registers and an overhaul ofrelationships with outside counsel.

sakari wuOlijOkichief legal counsel,nordea private banKingMr Wuolijoki helped create a wealthplanning service. By combining thatwith an overhaul of the legal operation,he has transformed the team of lawyersinto business partners.

MOhsin Zaidigeneral counsel, pride in londonMr Zaidi, Pride’s first in-house counselput in place the structure needed tobring the breathe new life into theorganisation. A full-time solicitorat Linklaters, he shows exceptionalcommitment in this voluntary position.

The in-house legal role hasseen a dramatic transformation over the past10 years. Once seen as the poor relation to pri-vate practice, working in-house has become

the exciting option for lawyerswith an interest in innovation.The 2015 rankings show howthe innovations of in-housepractitioners reflect the rapidrate of change in some indus-tries such as pharmaceuticals,healthcare and energy.

The pharmaceutical indus-try is adapting to “out-comes-based” medicine,where the price of drugs isbased on their performance.in-house lawyer MatthewOwens is helping Novartis getto the forefront of digital med-icine. His role is to enable thecollaboration of the pharma-ceutical and technologyindustries, which will in turn

create products such as microchipped pillsthat track patients’ adherence to their pre-scriptions, as well as contact lens technologiesthat detect blood sugar levels in diabetics. For

in-house

digital medicine:novartis’smatthew owens


in-house

Novartis, these products mean new partner-ships with technology companies such as Pro-teus Digital Health and Google.

Mr Owens is trying to forestall the problemsfacing the union of these two industry sectors.David Morris, global head of development forNovartis, says: “The lawyers are changing themindset in the industry. They are seeding anecosystem for the development of new prod-ucts and supporting partners in the processwith a more collaborative approach to intel-lectual property.”

The need for lawyers to form new-style com-mercial partnerships was also evident in thework of Nick Maltby at Genomics England, theUK government-backed organisation buildingone of the world’s largest genetic databases.Mr Maltby was part of the start-up companyand now has other corporate responsibilitiesbesides being the in-house lawyer.

He was instrumental in negotiating a criti-cal joint venture with Illumina, the US genetictechnology company that will sequence thegenomes. The favourable terms mean that theUK has access to cutting-edge technology andthe relationship between Genomics Englandand Illumina has moved from a standard pur-

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for Nordea private banking in Finland and forMercer, the insurance company.

However, one of the more startling examplesof the power of pure legal innovation to createcommercial opportunities comes from theLondon team at CME (Europe), the options andfutures exchange. The lawyers were instru-mental in creating a new cocoa futures tradingcontract denominated in euros. Their work didnot stop at winning regulatory approval. Thelawyers also realised that there was a way toimprove how physical cocoa warrants movedbetween parties trading on the exchange. Thesolution was simple and straightforward buthad never been done before. Instead of usinga third party or a bank, CME uses space in itsown office to print off the warrants once a salehad been concluded without compromisingthe integrity of the legal transfer process forthe cocoa. This new in-house depositary sys-tem and warrant management process hasramifications for other CME product lines andhas the potential to change current practicesin this niche but global market.

The 2015 winning team shows how a main-stream corporate legal function can excel atin-house innovation. Given a directive to cut

chaser-supplier relationship to a partnership.Lawyers who find themselves at the inter-

section of law, science and business have anunprecedented opportunity to be more thanlegal innovators.

The team at PayPal is involved in prod-uct design and has an active role making thecompany’s new offerings successful. Com-mercial colleagues credit the UK legal teamwith a direct contribution to building PayPal’sincrease in market capitalisation.

Being able to contribute to both gross reve-nues as well as net earning is a hallmark of allthe teams in the 2015 FT ranking. Some teamswere seen by commercial colleagues as directrevenue generators and others more as reve-nue facilitators.

But none were seen as cost centres. Thismarks a significant shift for the in-housebranch of the profession. In the 2007 FT rank-ing of in-house lawyers, only a handful of legaldepartments could claim to drive economicvalue for their companies.

Innovation for in-house lawyers is not justthe preserve of those working in the high-techindustries. The ranking also include some val-ue-driving initiatives from lawyers working


its budget by 5 per cent every year, BT Group’slegal function took a sweeping approach toimproving its services to the business whilecutting costs. It took a leaf out of fellow cor-porate functions and set up BT Law, its ownlimited liability claims management businessthat now generates £5m in revenues, actingfor BT and other clients.

The legal function at BT Group incorporatesmany of the significant developments of thelegal profession of the past 10 years. Dan Fitz,group general counsel and company secretary,says: “We have a comprehensive legal servicesbusiness here andmy role is verymuch to leadand manage it.” The BT Group function is anentire legal business that fields specialist law-yers and works with top law firms. It is itselfa proactive in-house adviser to BT on risk andstrategy, has its own alternative business struc-ture in BT Law, and has integrated disruptivesuppliers such as Axiom into the department’severyday work. It shows the value of necessityas a spur to innovation. n

proactive: dan fitzleads the bt group

legal function

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bt Group 36 a complete legal function that spans governance, compliance and ethics, it is both ariskmanager and generates revenues via bt Law, its insurance claims business.

cMe (europe) 35 the legal team created an entirely newasset contract and in-house depositorymodel for themanagement andmovement of cocoawarrants. the first timewarrantmanagement has been done in-house.

paypal uK 35 theuK legal team is an integral part of designing newproducts and is seen asmaking a direct contribution to building the business. contract automation hasdelivered $41m in savings over two years.

Mercer 34 Lawyers are instrumental in themove by consulting groupMercer into the consumersector. Improving consultants’ risk awareness and automating contracts free theteam formore complexwork.

Nordea privatebanking (Finland)

34 Going through substantial operational change, the teamdeveloped a newwealthplanning service that helps the bankwin clients. a first for Finland.

Novartis(strategicpartnerships&digitalMedicine)

34 themove towards digitalmedicine and an outcome-based healthcare system is ahuge shift for the pharmaceutical industry. Lawyers are at the centre of this changefor Novartis.

asda 33 Implemented digital contracts automation to draft contracts,manage approvals andallow business colleagues to generate contracts themselves in amatter ofminutes.

bp (Globaltechnology&sourcing)

33 taking the lead in educating the business on cyber security, lawyers focus on gettingahead of legislation.

e.oN (uK) 33 steering the company through one of the largest demergers in the energy industry,lawyers set up a newbusiness line andmoved to using just one law firm.

GlaxosmithKline 32 the legal team’s leading role in the deal withNovartis ensured the billion dollarinternational asset swapwas done on a fixed-fee basis and on time.

equatorial cocacola bottlingcompany

31 Lawyers in a joint venture between coca-cola and a spanish bottling company haverolled out a commendable ethics programme for doing business in africa.

Mind candy 31 the sole in-house lawyer uses JIRa software to handle the legal work and enable someto be done by business colleagues.

Roche (uK) 31 taking the lead on commercial initiatives and driving the case for diversity in theprofession.

tyco (uK andGermany)

31 both teams add value, theuK team in its new commercial contracts offering; theGerman team in its recovery of $100m fromdormant accounts.

VolkswagenGroup

31 Implemented a comprehensive compliance program to transform internal businessattitudes.

NovartisFarmaceutica

30 the lawyers, who are active in the field of sales andmarketing field, comeupwithbusiness ideas and are considered revenue generators.

energytechnologiesInstitute

29 Lawyers bring value to bespoke energy savings projects.

tsysInternational

28 the teamexcels in protecting the business fromdata protection breaches.

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wolseley Group 33 Improvements across the group’s legal function including its Nordic businesscomprise a lean approach to the company secretariat, dawn raid apps and a productintegrity programme.

schroders 32 the teamhas changed its perception in the business from revenue protectors tobusiness enablers over the past three years.

siemens 32 Lawyers transformed their function to turn them from service provider to businesspartner.

onesavings bank 29 Focused on value creation, the teamassisted on the recent initial public offering andis nowembedded in the business.

MOST INNOVATIVE EUROPEAN IN-HOUSE LEGAL TEAMS

INNOVATORS IN OPERATIONAL CHANGE


rising stars

The nextgenerationThese individuals have shown that ideasin the profession do not have to comefrom the top down. By Reena SenGupta

Ranajoy Basu combined dual qualifications in Indian andEnglish lawwith his knowledge of structured finance in atechnical legal innovation for positive social change— improvingeducation for children in the Indian state of Rajasthan.In the first cross-border development impact vehicle of its

kind, he created the Educate Girls bond aimed at private US andEuropean investors. The UBS Optimus Foundation and theChildren’s Investment Fund Foundation invest funds to supportthe work of Educate Girls, a non-governmental organisation.Mr Basu set up Reed Smith’s social impact finance group totarget clients who want to use their activities for social good.

In her acceptance speech for the FT Innovative Lawyers SpecialAchievement Award in 2014, RosemaryMartin, group generalcounsel at Vodafone, said she wanted to put innovation on theagenda for the next generation and encourage young lawyers to

“raise their heads above the parapet”.The law is a hierarchical profession and has tended not to give credit

to young lawyers. Traditionally, knowledge and ideas in the professiontravels from the top down.In response to MsMartin’s plea, this year for the first time we have

selected a group of under-40s who stood out in the research for thisreport. The group is eclectic. Some showed entrepreneurialism, othersfocused on technical legal innovation. Some focused on clients, otherson wider society.The judges felt all five were strong candidates who, together, reflect

how the profession is evolving. Ranajoy Basu was chosen as the winnerfor using his legal expertise to create a new socially oriented practicearea for Reed Smith. Prabhu Narasimhan, the runner-up, showed thatbeing inventive in tax law can pay dividends. His forward thinking willenable billions of dollars’ worth of investment in the UK.

Peter Feehan is recognisedfor helping PeterboroughCity Council with itsambitious plan to becomethe UK’s green capital.His entrepreneurialapproach gave him thedrive to take advantageof every commercialopportunity, applying hisprivate sector knowledgeto create new productsand identify potentialpartnerships. He advisesclients across the energy andutility sectors.

Prabhu Narasimhan hasproved attention to detail canbring about great legalinnovation. He specialises inimplementing tax-efficient,cross-border structures forinternational corporations.He worked with the Treasuryto devise a tax law structurethat gives UK businessesmore choice when looking forfinance. The proposal hasresulted in European investorscommitting more than $14bnin lending to UK companiesover the next five years.

Before qualifying as a solicitor,AndrewMoir studied physicsat Imperial College Londonand worked in electronics andsoftware engineering. Thisexperience has allowed himto bridge the gap between lawand technology. He isrecognised here for his workin a dispute over ownershipof the financial algorithm onwhich Ikos, the investmentmanagement business, isbased. He wrote software tocompare algorithms used byboth parties to win the case.

Prabhu narasimhan,White & Case ►

andreW moir,herbert smith Freehills ►

Peter Feehan,Pinsent masons

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ranajoy basu,reed smith ►

jeniFer sWalloW,mind Candy

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As general counsel and chiefof staff for Mind Candy, anentertainment company forthe digital generation, JeniferSwallow has developed thebusiness in a highly regulatedand rapidly evolving industry.Mind Candy, best known forMoshi Monsters, has morethan 80m registered onlineusers. Ms Swallow’s workempoweredMind Candystaff to understand andrespond to day-to-day legalissues, freeing her up tofocus on strategy.

ReseaRch and awaRd suppoRted by RosemaRy maRtin

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