US Firm Market General Knowledge Flashcards
Who did Squire Sanders merge with in May 2014?
Patton Boggs and Squire Sanders to merge by Sunday
27 May 2014 | Updated: 5 June 2014 3:57 pm
After “overwhelming support” for the Patton Boggs and Squire Sanders merger from partners last Friday, the lovebirds aren’t waiting a minute longer. Despite delays understood to have been caused by Patton Boggs’ high-profile legal battle with Chevron, the US duo will officially tie the knot on Sunday.
So what’s up next? Let’s start with the new firm’s compensation system. Squire Sanders reckons this issue was sorted long ago when Patton Boggs moved towards Squire Sanders’ contribution-based salary model. How romantic.
There is no decision yet as to who will steer the new ship, with practice and industry group leaders still to be appointed. But there is some good news on the horizon - a spokesman says there are no plans to embark on a redundancy scheme.
The combined force will have 1,700 lawyers in 45 offices across 22 countries. Size means a lot to Patton Boggs, which has made no secret of its desire to find a love mate. Having knocked back a match with Texas firm Locke Lord and Dentons in London, the firm will be hoping it has found its soulmate.
Who are the top ranked banking firms for Borrowers in london?
Chambers Directory as at 15 Feb 2015
Banking and Finance (Borrowers) London
Band 1
Clifford Chance LLP
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP
Linklaters
Slaughter and May
Band 2
Allen & Overy LLP
Herbert Smith Freehills
Latham & Watkins
Band 3
Ashurst
Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP
Hogan Lovells
Shearman & Sterling LLP
Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom (UK) LLP
White & Case LLP
Band 4
Baker & McKenzie
Berwin Leighton Paisner LLP
CMS
King & Wood Mallesons
Macfarlanes LLP
Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP
Travers Smith LLP
Weil, Gotshal & Manges
Band 5
Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP
Eversheds LLP
Who are the top London firms for banking work acting for Lenders?
Banking & Finance: Lenders - London (Firms)
Band 1
Allen & Overy LLP
Clifford Chance LLP
Latham & Watkins
Linklaters
Band 2
Ashurst
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP
Hogan Lovells
Shearman & Sterling LLP
White & Case LLP
Band 3
Herbert Smith Freehills
Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP
Band 4
Addleshaw Goddard LLP
Baker & McKenzie
CMS
Dentons
DLA Piper UK LLP
King & Wood Mallesons
Macfarlanes LLP
Norton Rose Fulbright
Pinsent Masons
Simmons & Simmons LLP
Slaughter and May
Band 5
Berwin Leighton Paisner LLP
Bird & Bird
Eversheds LLP
Fieldfisher
Jones Day
Mayer Brown International LLP
Olswang
Stephenson Harwood LLP
Taylor Wessing LLP
Travers Smith LLP
Who are the top banking firms in London acting for sponsors?
Banking & Finance: Sponsors - London (Firms)
Band 1
Kirkland & Ellis International LLP
Ropes & Gray
Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP
Weil, Gotshal & Manges
Band 2
Allen & Overy LLP
Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP
Clifford Chance LLP
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP
Latham & Watkins
Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom (UK) LLP
Band 3
Ashurst
Linklaters
Macfarlanes LLP
Shearman & Sterling LLP
Band 4
Baker & McKenzie
King & Wood Mallesons
Travers Smith LLP
Who are the top firms for Corporate/M&A in London - High End Capability?
Corporate/M&A: High-end Capability - London (Firms)
Band 1
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP
Linklaters
Slaughter and May
Band 2
Allen & Overy LLP
Clifford Chance LLP
Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom (UK) LLP
Band 3
Ashurst
Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP
Herbert Smith Freehills
Hogan Lovells
Macfarlanes LLP
Norton Rose Fulbright
Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP
Sullivan & Cromwell LLP
Weil, Gotshal & Manges
Band 4
CMS
Jones Day
Latham & Watkins
Shearman & Sterling LLP
Travers Smith LLP
Band 5
Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP
Baker & McKenzie
Greenberg Traurig Maher LLP
King & Wood Mallesons
Simmons & Simmons LLP
White & Case LLP
Who are the top firms in London for Corporate/M&A - Mid Market
Corporate/M&A: Mid-Market - London (Firms)
Band 1
Berwin Leighton Paisner LLP
CMS
DLA Piper UK LLP
Eversheds LLP
Jones Day
King & Wood Mallesons
Macfarlanes LLP
Olswang
Osborne Clarke
Travers Smith LLP
Band 2
Addleshaw Goddard LLP
Bird & Bird
Clyde & Co LLP
Dechert LLP
Dentons
Fieldfisher
Mayer Brown International LLP
Nabarro LLP
Pinsent Masons
Reed Smith LLP
Stephenson Harwood LLP
Taylor Wessing LLP
Band 3
Arnold & Porter (UK) LLP
Baker Botts UK LLP
Cooley LLP
Covington & Burling LLP
K&L Gates
Mishcon de Reya
Squire Patton Boggs
Wragge Lawrence Graham & Co
Who are the top London firms for Corporate M&A- Lower Mid Market?
Corporate/M&A: Lower Mid-Market - London (Firms)
Band 1
Charles Russell Speechlys
Fox Williams LLP
Lewis Silkin LLP
Mishcon de Reya
RPC
Band 2
Dorsey & Whitney
Farrer & Co LLP
Fladgate LLP
Holman Fenwick Willan LLP
Howard Kennedy
Marriott Harrison
Memery Crystal LLP
Morrison & Foerster (UK) LLP
Band 3
Boodle Hatfield LLP
DAC Beachcroft LLP
Harbottle & Lewis LLP
Kemp Little LLP
Trowers & Hamlins LLP
Wedlake Bell LLP
Which US firm started a salary war in 2016?
What is revenue growth and PEP like at GDC?
(September 2016)
Gibson While Shearman has been one of the slowest growing firms in the US, Gibson has been one of the fastest. It notched a 20th straight year of revenue growth in 2015, with revenue up 5% to $1.54bn. PEP was up 5% to $3.19m, while revenue per lawyer grew 4% to $1.27m.
What do you know about Boies Schiller?
Boies Schiller posts first London revenue figures, raking in £7.6m
05 April 2016
by Jaishree Kalia
Boies, Schiller & Flexner has filed its first office revenues since launching in the City raking in £7.6m through to the end of October 2015.
Having launched its first London base in 2014, the US firm has managed to generate 3% of global revenues that reached $380m. The litigation powerhouse saw gross revenues grow 10% in 2015 from the previous year, with partner profits exceed the $3m mark for the second year straight.
Since its launch into the City, Boies Schiller been instructed by a series of clients and has a few panel wins under its belt including for M&G Asset Management. The office also won the pitch for the high profile Canary Wharf dispute on behalf of Class A1 Noteholders, which includes financial institutions Legal & General and Prudential. It successfully pitched against the likes of Herbert Smith Freehills, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, Sidley Austin, Akin Gump and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer.
London managing partner Natasha Harrison told Legal Business: ‘Over 70% of London office revenue is generated from local clients, with the balance being generated by US clients. For us this is the perfect balance. We are self-funding and profitable, but also connected to the US, and able to serve our US clients on their important international disputes.’
The office comprises 16 fee-earners, including four partners, three counsel and six associates based in London, and last month, the office launched a City investigations practice with the hire of disputes and investigations lawyer Matthew Getz who joined as a partner from Debevoise & Plimpton. This came after Kenneth Beale and Wendy Milesjoined from WilmerHale to bulk up the office’s arbitration practice in 2015 and 2014 respectively.
‘We have been focused on growing our international disputes practice in London, and a core part of our strategy is to develop our offering to clients in the international investigations area, including white collar, regulatory and criminal investigations,’ said Harrison. ‘It is all about identifying leading lawyers in their field who can deliver the highest quality of service to our clients. With Matthew on board, we can meet rising client demand for this work, especially in the financial services sector.’
Harrison joined the firm from Bingham McCutchen at the end of 2013 tohead the firm’s foray into the London market in 2014. The launch was the firm’s first office outside of the US mainly to service the firm’s major clients including Barclays, which Boies Schiller had been representing over Libor related issues.
What do you know about Quinn Emanuel?
The second most profitable global firm in 2015 and have posted eye watering profit and revenue increases since the financial crisis. PEP was down 10% in 2015 to a mere $4.4 million.
Managing partner John Quinn points to a slowing down of litigation work coming out of the financial crisis, particularly relating to real estate and mortgage-backed securities as reasons for the drop in revenue.
In particular the firm has also seen a winding down of patent litigation work it handled during the ‘smartphone wars’, working with Google, Samsung, Motorola and HTC defending android smartphone operating software in litigation battles brought by Apple and Microsoft.
revenue growth over five years – 89% – is the highest rate of growth of the entire Global 100.
The firm has defended FIFA in corruption investigations and has represented Swiss banks on issues relating to the alleged assistance of US taxpayers to avoid tax payments.
Quinn is realistic that the firm leveraged an advantageous position following the financial crisis but will now have to re-evaluate. However, he concludes on a bullish note: ‘We believe our firm is very well positioned, probably the best-positioned firm in the world, to deal with whatever problems the banks create in the future, or any major technology dispute that comes along, whether it’s driverless cars, virtual reality or big data.’
What do you know about Vinson & Elkins?
February 2016 - US firm Vinson & Elkins has hiredFreshfields Bruckhaus Deringer finance partner Ian Frost and Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft deal doer Paul Dunbar (ex Slaughters and Cleary) in an attempt to cash in on the burgeoning City private equity market.
Vinsons moved into the Walkie Talkie in 2015 (officially called 20 Fenchurch Street)
Headquartered in Houston, Texas
Recognised as the world’s leading Energy Law firm.
What is Compliance?
What is Compliance?
What does the term ‘compliance’ describe?
The term compliance describes the ability to act according to an order, set of rules or request.
In the context of financial services businesses compliance operates at two levels.
Level 1 - compliance with the external rules that are imposed upon an organisation as a whole
Level 2 - compliance with internal systems of control that are imposed to achieve compliance with the externally imposed rules.
What duty, objective and responsibility does a Compliance Officer fulfill?
DUTY - The Compliance Officer has a duty to his employer to work with management and staff to identify and manage regulatory risk.
OBJECTIVE - the overriding objectives of a compliance officer should be to ensure that an organization has systems of internal control that adequately measure and manage the risks that it faces.
RESPONSIBILITY - The general responsibility of the Compliance Officer is to provide an in-house compliance service that effectively supports business areas in their duty to comply with relevant laws and regulations and internal procedures.
What are the five key functions of a Compliance Department?
To identify the risks that an organisation faces and advise on them (identification)
To design and implement controls to protect an organisation from those risks (prevention)
To monitor and report on the effectiveness of those controls in the management of an organisations exposure to risks (monitoring and detection)
To resolve compliance difficulties as they occur (resolution)
To advise the business on rules and controls (advisory)
What is Corporate Governance?
Corporate governance is a highly inclusive concept that covers a number of different aspects about the way in which an organisation is managed, directed and governed.
It can be described as a set of relationships between a company’s management, board, shareholders, and other stakeholders, which provides the structure through which the objectives of the company are set. Furthermore it provides the means of attaining and monitoring performance against those objectives.
What does the term ‘regulation’ mean?
The term ‘regulation’ generally refers to a set of binding rules issued by a private or public body with the necessary authority to supervise compliance with them and apply sanctions in response to violation of them.
Sidley & Austin - What do you know about them?
July 2016 -
It has been another strong year for Chicago-based Sidley Austin, enjoying a revenue increase of 6% from $1,753.5m to $1,867m which the firm attributes to a robust performance in Asia and the US over the course of the last year, as well as choice investment in lateral hires.
Such investments were particularly evident in London, where the firm hit Kirkland & Ellis’ London private equity team at the start of the year, taking on six partners led by Christian Iwasko and Erik Dahl along with 14 associates to help build up the firm’s offering in the City.
According to George Petrow, Sidley’s European managing partner, the move was built on momentum that the firm had in the US with sponsor clients.
‘We really shored up our West Coast effort in private equity in 2015 and that was one of the things that attracted the Kirkland people to us. In London, private equity was nascent, we had three corporate partners and they did a mixture of public, plc, M&A and private equity – it needed some shoring up. We wanted more than we had.’
In London, the firm’s structured finance and securitisation practice is still the engine driving the firm, says Petrow, but the office also has a growing funds practice following the hire of group general counsel Stephen Ross from Man Group.
In Europe, major mandates for the firm included advising Heineken, in conjunction with Diageo, on a series of cross-border transactions worth $780.5m as well as advising the Fortune 500 insurance and financial services company Genworth on the $490m sale of its global lifestyle protection insurance business to French insurer AXA.
In the US, where the firm opened a new office in Century City, Los Angeles, and made lateral hires in greater Los Angeles, Dallas and Houston, big projects for the firm included representing the pharmacy benefits manager Catamaran in its sale to United Health for $12.8bn and advising GE Capital on the $12bn sale of its US and Canada sponsor finance business to an affiliate of the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board.
In Asia, the firm is in the midst of completing one of the largest commercial real estate transactions in the history of Singapore with Sidley advising a BlackRock-advised fund on its sale of Asia Square Tower 1 to Qatar Investment Authority. ‘We have been in Singapore for 32 years and we have watched it grow. We have the luxury of having watched Singapore mature over the years,’ says Tom Albrecht, the firm’s managing partner for the Asia-Pacific region.
Offsetting the recent arrivals, Sidley Austin did see the loss of its entire public finance team, including six partners, to Norton Rose Fulbright (NRF) in June. Eight lawyers will join NRF in New York and two in Washington DC. A further seven will take up residence in NRF’s new San Francisco arm.
What do you know about Quinn Emanuel and Boies, Schiller & Flexner in relation to Jenner & Block
Did you look what Richard East at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan and Natasha Harrison at Boies, Schiller & Flexner are doing and think ‘I want a piece of that’?
I was aware of Quinn and Boies and it gives you some element of confidence if you see other people doing a similar thing and apparently succeeding. But I was much more focused on what Jenner wanted to do and its vision for the office.
There are many people in London who don’t know much about Jenner & Block. What’s your message to the market?
I’m excited to raise the profile here and educate people about Jenner & Block. They are a firm that handles transactional work as well but their roots, which was attractive to me, are in disputes. Its reputation in the US for disputes is really first class and once you realise you’re dealing with an organisation of that level of quality it becomes very attractive.
Is there more than that? Cooley came to London and said ‘we do M&A for technology companies’, Quinn came and said ‘we’ll sue banks’ and Boies came and said ‘we sue people for hedge funds’. Is there a specific focus?
‘The message is that we are now bringing the high quality Jenner brand to London. We’re pushing our front door to London to better service our clients. It’s a three-pronged approach of white-collar, commercial litigation and arbitration. We want to push all three of these equally. That’s not to say there won’t be a transactional piece later but these are the priorities. Our client base needs all of that work. We’re excited about the prospects for international arbitration. It’s something that has been growing and that is set to continue.
