Some are drawn to success Rainmakers 2004 Legal Business December 2004/January 2005
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He beat Freshfields to win a multi-million pound PFI mandate
PITCH WINNING | INNOVATION | SEEN IN ACTION | CONTACTS
She invented a new product and reaped £3m in billings
He won Goldman Sachs from his opposite number
SOME ARE DRAWN In this special feature, Legal Business reveals the UK’s 50 finest rainmakers of 2004. The competition for the most lucrative work has never been so hard fought: here are the winners CLAIRE SMITH
ONE THING US LAW FIRMS FIND difficult to comprehend when they arrive on these shores, chequebooks open and ready and able to buy talent, is the apparent absence of the UK rainmaker. English law firms have spent many years busily institutionalising their client relationships so that the book of business, so much a feature of legal recruitment on the other side of the Atlantic, is rare over here. Exceptions exist. Just because lawyers don’t move with clients here doesn’t mean we Brits don’t know how to win clients: far from it. For the first time, Legal Business is showcasing the year’s 50 finest rainmakers, in what will be an annual celebration of diversity, innovation and professional
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His friend secured him the Apax work
Finest 50 Rainmakers of 2004
Reputation alone won him a £3bn energy deal
Several years of luring Change Capital paid off for him this year
TO SUCCESS… commitment. Our list includes megadeals, scoops, slow-burning investments paying off – and stacks of individual, idiosyncratic, talent. These 50 stories showcase to all how the best work is being won. Business generation is not an art confined to Americans alone. The LB 50 finest rainmakers have collectively helped make Britain that bit greater as she gears up for what all expect to be a more economically robust, but ultracompetitive, 2005.
Winning ways Here, we investigate the stories behind some of the winners, and explain the different tactics employed to make a client commit the millions of pounds of fees that many of
Illustration JMCDESIGN
these deals generated. First, let’s shake off any doubts that the UK’s most famous City firms rest on their laurels. Far from it. While perhaps in the late 1990s being Slaughter and May or Linklaters was powerful enough to attract the biggest transactions, this is far from the truth today. Both firms have a visibly motivated new generation of departmental managing partners bursting with energy and a determination to make hunger for client wins overtake pride in a rich past.
Competition, of course, now arrives from all quarters – not just the American firms, but from national and regional firms as well. Many will claim to offer similar or higher levels of service at more palatable rates. So the Magic Circle needs its rainmakers as much as the next firm, and its client wins are logged with vigour. For Slaughter and May last year, for example, we can reveal three high points: the wins of Standard Life, GlaxoSmithKline and Gallaher. Martin Whelton makes our finest 50 list for his role in winning the work for Gallaher from under the nose of Simmons & Simmons. ‘We sent out our crack team of smokers on this pitch,’ one partner revealed with a smile.
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Similar credit should go to the team that wrested a lucrative demutualisation instruction for Standard Life away, in this case from traditional advisers Clifford Chance and Herbert Smith: it was the first time Slaughter and May had acted for the client. The firm also brought in a major M&A mandate from Glaxo, despite an ongoing battle for the client since its merger, when SmithKline Beecham’s legal counsel took the helm of the combined group. SKB had previously worked with Linklaters, while Slaughters had advised the Glaxo side on the link-up. But Slaughters partners refused to wave goodbye to the client, and some tenacious marketing ultimately paid off. Slaughters, in the face of global firms and global pressures on billing, refuses to be marginalised.
Working those contacts With Slaughter and May fighting so hard for a new client, what chance the rest of the UK legal market, a cynic could ask. The answer is sheer hard work: be it working the contacts book, impressing on the other side of the table, coming up with a new and imaginative product offering, or simply putting everything you’ve got into an opportunity to pitch. Nearly all of the finest 50 client wins here involved a real fight. Without a doubt, it helps to know someone who can get you in front of the
PITCH WINNING | INNOVATION | SEEN IN ACTION | CONTACTS
hard on the presentation, and emerged as one of only two firms now working on £100mplus deals. ‘Stephen Grabiner The LB finest 50 comprises a collection of stars who excel not knows David Ereira extremely just for their legal skills, but for the way their work was won. well,’ Bown explains. ‘When Law is about teamwork; and teams need leaders. This finest they decided they were going to 50 lead by stunning example. Having spoken to just over 200 move to a panel, that was why law firms and 150 of the most influential and active we were invited to be one of the companies in the UK and Europe, our finest 50 unsurprisingly five firms that pitched.’ captures an elite collection of lawyers from across the UK – Good links with the bankers from the hungry US firms in London, to brilliant Scots, can’t fail to pay off. Tom Brummies, City high-flyers, as well as the lucky man who Speechley, acquisition finance bumped into Elle Macpherson one day. This collection of partner at Macfarlanes, has had client-winners is comprehensive, and comprehensively a phenomenally busy first year winning. Congrats to them all: a corporate recovery is taking since leaving Norton Rose, shape, and for the discerning client, there are advisers who largely a result of his tight will ensure that it is sustained with the highest levels of relationships with bankers at professional advice on hand. both The Royal Bank of Scotland and NIB Capital. Peter Allan, head of acquisition finance client. When Freshfields at NIB Capital, says: ‘The fact that I have Bruckhaus Deringer partners continued to use him for the best part of David Ereira and Chris Bown ten years is down to Tom himself. I think managed to scoop their firm a he’s a top class lawyer.’ Speechley was an place on the Apax Partners extremely rare lateral hire for the conservapanel for private equity work, a tive London-only Macfarlanes. The move longstanding friend of Ereira at has taken the firm into markets that it was Apax was thanked for giving slipping away from, with stunning effect. him the chance to pitch. With corporate finance, the investment Having only done one deal for bankers themselves will often send the right the client before, Freshfields rainmaker the deals direct. William made the most of that initial Charnley, head of corporate in the London introduction, worked extremely
STAR QUALITY
KIRKLAND VERSUS WEIL: THE ALL-AMERICAN COMPETITION FOR EUROPE’S CHANGE CAPITAL The baron public M&A market in 2004 brought with it even greater competition for work from the more active private equity houses. So when a new house arrived on the scene, with a billion euros to invest in leveraged buyouts, law firms were queueing up for a piece of the action. Change Capital is the largest retail specialist LBO fund in Europe. It has two high-profile leaders: Luc Vandevelde, previously chairman of Marks & Spencer, and Steve Petrow, once a Bain Capital managing director. In terms of these superstars’ legal advisers, the two most successful rainmakers were both at American law firms in London: Will Rosen at Weil, Gotshal & Manges, and, later, David Patrick Eich at Kirkland & Ellis. Both UK-qualified, they had worked with Petrow in the past as associates and immediately set to work renewing the relationship.
Rosen had been a three-year qualified associate when he first knew Petrow, who was then at SB Capital Partners. Petrow left there in 1997 to join Bain, and Rosen kept in touch despite receiving no instructions. Regular lunches over six years paid off this year when Petrow handed Rosen his first deal, and Weil advised Change on the acquisition of Robert Dyas for £61m at the start of 2004. Eich, meanwhile, had also known Petrow since his days at SB Capital, and had worked with him while he was at Bain, a major Kirkland client. But he didn’t know Petrow’s new colleagues, and he had to crack into the existing Rosen relationship. He says: ‘I have been trying to generate a relationship with Change since their inception, but so have a lot of other people. Then this deal came up and it was complicated, it was fast, and it was big enough to
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support our fee structure. They effectively ran us head-to-head against their experience with Weil, and we convinced them to give us a chance.’ Eich won the work on Change’s second major deal, the £115m secondary buyout of Hillarys Group. Change Capital partner Lorenzo Russo says: ‘Some of us knew Kirkland from a previous life, and we had worked with them. And we have used Weil Gotshal in previous deals in the UK – they are also very good and we have strong relationships with both firms. In both cases the partner on the deal knew them before, so we were comfortable and we selected them.’ Talk about being kept on your toes: it is against this kind of pressure that Britain’s finest 50 rainmakers battle each and every day. Change Capital will enjoy unparalleled levels of attention through 2005, doubtless.
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office of McDermott Will & Emery, has picked up two major new clients through relationships with the bankers. Oliver Ellingham, head of investment banking Europe for BNP Paribas, introduced Charnley to the Reuben Brothers at the start of the year, and he has since advised them and their acquisition vehicle Aldersgate Investments on a run of four major deals. Another banking contact, Andrew Dawber, moved from Société Générale this year and joined Collins Stewart as a corporate finance director. Charnley has since completed six deals for Collins Stewart, having never acted for them before.
Dress to impress On top of the obvious, and generally wellobserved, practice of keeping up with your
Finest 50 Rainmakers of 2004
‘Winning a client is most difficult when you can’t point to anything. There is nothing like being able to say: “ We have just done that”.’ Fabrizio Carpanini, Olswang contacts, the real stars find unique ways of making them in the first place. They say lawyers never stop working: Nick Finlayson-Brown of Mills & Reeve in Cambridge met a director of property company Burford Group at a social event,
and came away with a chance to pitch and ultimately win an instruction to advise on the management of part of its £400m property portfolio. ‘I had met Nick socially, and I also spoke to our local agents and they spoke very highly of Mills & Reeve and their practice, so we went to see them,’ Burford’s director
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FINEST 50 RAINMAKERS OF 2004, BY SECTOR ENERGY AND INFRASTRUCTURE Ascent – Simon Allan, Berwin Leighton Paisner Gold Fields – Charles Jacobs, Linklaters BP-TNK – Irvine Marr, Clyde & Co Solihull Interpartnership Consortium – Morag McNeill, McGrigors Petrochemical Industries Company of Kuwait – Geoffrey Picton-Turbervill, Ashurst Scottish & Southern Energy consortium – Ewan Robertson, Dundas & Wilson The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Pipeline Company – Paul Stockley, Bond Pearce National Grid Transco – Sean Watson, CMS Cameron McKenna FINANCIAL SERVICES Citigroup – Maurice Allen, White & Case Admiral – James Bateson, Norton Rose Goldman Sachs – Tim Emmerson,
> Mark Boyes says. ‘It just seemed the right thing to do, and it has worked out exceptionally well.’ Wragge & Co’s IP partner Michael Luckman managed to make a good impression on Derek Walmsley, Spirit Group’s company secretary, when a chance meeting led to a discussion about a small IP matter. Spirit had used Slaughter and May for all its legal work before, but Luckman convinced Walmsley that there were savings to be made by going outside London. He helped the client set up its first panel, and now gets a significant chunk of the day-to-day legal work, with only the major City acquisitions still done by Slaughters. Perhaps the best (or most envied) chance meeting of all in 2004 must go to Alex Carter-Silk, a technology and IP partner at Manches. He managed to turn a coincidental encounter with supermodel Elle Macpherson into legal work advising her on a licensing agreement for her
Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy Standard Chartered – Paul Fallon, Reed Smith Lloyds Bank – Chris Fanner, Denton Wilde Sapte Banco Santander – Jose Maria Fernandez-Daza, Clifford Chance Aviva – Francis Giacon, Lovells Daniel Stewart – Peter Jay, Beachcroft Wansbroughs Goldman Sachs – Mark Mifsud, SJ Berwin Eurex US – Barney Reynolds, Shearman & Sterling NIB Capital Bank – Tom Speechley, Macfarlanes UBS Investment Bank – Thomas Werlen, Allen & Overy PRIVATE EQUITY The Blackstone Group – Fabrizio Carpanini, Olswang Reuben Brothers – William Charnley, McDermott Will & Emery Change Capital – David Patrick Eich, Kirkland & Ellis Apax Partners – David Ereira, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer Change Capital – Will Rosen, Weil, Gotshal & Manges
Elle Macpherson Intimates lingerie range.
Mark Mifsud. He had impressed Goldman on the other side of the table. ‘Mark was opposite us on another deal and the folks here were impressed with how he handled Prove yourself himself,’ says John Aiello, vice-president There’s more to winning these and counsel at Goldman. ‘Mark’s a very new clients than just chance – commercial lawyer, so he was very effective every one of our finest 50 rainin not just negotiating his client’s position, makers has impressed an inbut also solving problems and being house lawyer and convinced creative and proactive. If you see someone them they can do the job. At across the table who is good, those are the the end of the day it is a leap of people you go after.’ faith for a client to instruct a SJ Berwin managing partner Ralph new law firm, and it takes a fair Cohen adds: ‘It doesn’t happen every day, amount of trust. but it’s often the most satisfying way to win One of the easiest ways to a client, where they actually rather regret prove you’re up to the job is to that you were on the other side and not on remember that every client on theirs. It’s the most effective way of the other side of the table has marketing.’ the potential to instruct you. SJ Olswang corporate partner Fabrizio Berwin’s most impressive client Carpanini picked up his firm’s first deal for win last year was the firm’s first The Blackstone Group after showing them instruction from Goldman he had worked on previous deals very Sachs, won by corporate partner similar to the one they were planning. Because he had advised Warner Cinemas on their sale to Vue Entertainment, he was able to convince Blackstone they should try Olswang when they were looking to do cinema acquisitions. ‘Winning a client is most Chris Bown, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer difficult when you can’t point to anything,’ Carpanini says.
‘There is always a personal connection that gets you through the door, but converting that into a win is when you have to think about what you present and how.’ 42 Legal Business December 2004/January 2005
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PUBLIC SECTOR HM Customs and Excise – Stephen Allinson, Clarke Willmott Government of India – David Kavanagh, Watson, Farley & Williams Imperial College – David Smellie, Farrer & Co Government of the Republic of Ecuador – Robert Volterra, Herbert Smith REAL ESTATE Erinaceous Group – Peter Crystal, Memery Crystal Burford Group – Nick Finlayson-Brown, Mills & Reeve Land Securities – Delia Kempley, Nabarro Nathanson Cleveland Bridge – Martin Scott, Walker Morris
Thinking ahead In many cases, the way in to a new client is not quite as clear. You just have to start pounding the pavements and hope that it bears fruit. Watson, Farley & Williams took a punt when it decided that one way to grow its profile in arbitration was through trawling the opportunities in the Indian market. The firm has had a team, led by partner David Kavanagh, making regular trips to India, meeting local law firms and speaking at arbitration conferences. The hard work paid off when Kavanagh was asked to pitch to the government of India to advise it on the multi-billion dollar Dabhol arbitration. Watson Farley had never worked for the government before, but had met the right people at conferences. Kavanagh says: ‘This was a very significant win for us for two reasons. One, is just the sheer size of the case: it’s going to keep a large proportion of our group busy through to next year and beyond. But it also gives us a real position in a type of arbitration – investment treaty arbitration – which is sewn up by a small group of law firms at the moment. It’s a very discrete area, but fast-growing, and to get this on our CV gives us a chance.’
TMT Trinity Mirror – Mary Clarke, DLA Ashtead – Mark Darley, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom Cisco Systems – Martin Hopkins, Eversheds China Telecom – Daniel Liew, Simmons & Simmons Stericycle – Daniel Rosenberg, Taylor Wessing Vernalis – Julian Thurston, Morrison & Foerster Sanofi-Synthelabo – Thierry Vassogne, Linklaters TRANSPORT Department of Transport – Simon Coppen, Burges Salmon Ryanair – Peter Fitzpatrick, Howrey Simon Arnold & White Transport for London – Cornelius Medvei, Eversheds London Underground – Nicholas Tott, Herbert Smith Strategic Rail Authority – Julian Voge, Brodies
RETAIL AND LEISURE PC World – Christine Bradley, Pannone & Partners Elle Macpherson – Alex Carter-Silk, Manches Interflora – Tim Hamilton, Addleshaw Goddard Spirit Group – Michael Luckman, Wragge & Co
‘We all go around selling our wares and saying we can do this, but there is nothing like being able to say: “We have just done that; we have got the expertise”.’
Gallaher – Martin Whelton, Slaughter and May
We’ve unveiled instances of such entrepreneurship all over the UK legal market in our finest 50; one from the opposite extreme comes in the shape of Christine Bradley’s work at Pannone & Partners in Manchester. An employment partner, Bradley has devised a whole new way of doing business whereby clients can pay a one-off annual fee to the firm, in return for dayto-day legal advice and no extra charge should a tribunal case arise. If the client loses at tribunal, the payout is covered by insurance. Through marketing the scheme to corporates all over the country, Bradley has won new clients including Toyota and PC World. She has trebled the fee income of her group from £1m last year to a projected £3m for 2004/05.
Perfect pitch Whatever the initial route in, invariably a client win will come down to a pitch: you against a raft of your competitors, armed with just a PowerPoint presentation and facing an anxious in-house legal team. The thought you put into that can be the clincher.
Andrew Probert, the finance director at insurance group Admiral, says that was a large part of the reason he hired Norton Rose partner James Bateson for the first time on his company’s flotation, one of the most successful IPOs of 2003. ‘We invited three firms to pitch,’ he says. ‘Two that we knew quite well from other transactions and were large Magic Circle firms, and Norton Rose, which somebody recommended as something a little bit different. ‘Norton Rose convinced us that the people we were looking at were the people that would be doing the deal. They convinced us that they had done this before and they knew what they were doing. To be honest it was a great choice – they were very well prepared and understood the process. Everything they had said up front they delivered,’ Probert says. Bateson recalls: ‘Admiral told us we were coming late to the party, and I don’t think they were expecting us to win, but we were determined to give it our best shot. We did quite a personal pitch – it wasn’t thousands of people, and it was quite informal, which seemed to suit their culture.’ All over the country there are instances of this every day – bright lawyers that can impress a client with far more than just legal skills. No matter what kind of law firm you are, you need to be winning new clients. These are the 50 finest professionals who are doing just that. LB claire.smith@legalease.co.uk
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WINNING THE PITCH This, the biggest group of the 50, provides the ultimate high for a rainmaker. With tender processes rife across the UK, winning a major piece of work from one is often the result of months of intense preparation – work that involves partners, assistants, trainees, business development professionals, and marketing experts. The rewards are massive, and heightened further when an arch rival is beaten, or a Magic Circle firm cast aside
SIMON ALLAN Berwin Leighton Paisner, London Project finance partner, Age: 50 CLIENT WIN: Ascent BLP had never worked for any of the Ascent consortium members before – RollsRoyce, Lockheed Martin and Vosper Thorneycroft – but this year the firm won the mandate to advise them on the largest ever PPP the government has undertaken, valued at £15bn. Allan led a tender process against Magic Circle and US firms and worked for six months to scoop the client.
STEPHEN ALLINSON Clarke Willmott, Bristol Business recovery partner, Age: 45 CLIENT WIN: HM Customs And Excise In June, Allinson won a pitch to become Customs and Excise’s sole law firm advising on debt recovery cases. The work is worth about £1m in fees, and was previously shared between DLA, Lees Lloyd Whitley and Moon Beaver. Allinson knew that the work was about to be put out to tender, so had been monitoring it and expressed an interest early. The firm completed a formal tender and convinced the client it could do the work for the whole of England and Wales, rather than just one region.
JAMES BATESON Norton Rose, London Corporate and regulatory insurance partner, Age: 43 CLIENT WIN: Admiral Having had no previous relationship with Admiral, Bateson was given the opportunity earlier this year to pitch to advise Admiral on its £770m IPO. A lot of work was put into the process, which pitted Norton Rose against two Magic Circle firms the client knew well. Bateson says: ‘It was quite a personal commitment on my part that we could do it – you have to convince the client that they can trust you.’ Rather than targeting just the float work, Bateson aimed from the outset to establish a long-term relationship. Admiral finance director Andrew Probert says: ‘Somebody recommended Norton Rose to us as something a little bit different. To be honest, it was a great choice.’
MARY CLARKE DLA, Manchester Employment partner, Age: 47 CLIENT WIN: Trinity Mirror Clarke led a DLA human resources pitching team that was appointed by Trinity to provide national employment law advice alongside Lovells and Dundas & Wilson. Trinity cut its panel of external advisers from 12 firms to just three, and is the UK’s largest newspaper publisher, employing over 11,500 staff.
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MARTIN HOPKINS Eversheds, Birmingham Employment partner, Age: 48 CLIENT WIN: Cisco Systems Hopkins is head of Eversheds’ North American sales team, and thus led a pitch to Cisco Systems, which saw the firm convince the Internet company to drop all its other UK law firms. Eversheds will now become primary adviser, edging out Baker & McKenzie, Herbert Smith and Weil, Gotshal & Manges, and will work on corporate, commercial, licensing and procurement work. A three-year agreement has been signed, with a fixed price coming up for negotiation every year. The firm will share secondees, know-how and training facilities with the client as part of the relationship.
DAVID KAVANAGH Watson, Farley & Williams, London Arbitration partner, Age: 37 CLIENT WIN: Government of India Kavanagh and his colleague Peter Flint have been targeting India as a market for international arbitration for some time, and earlier this year visited the country to meet local law firms and speak at an arbitration conference. It was on the back of conversations and meetings there that the firm was asked to pitch, alongside four other firms, for work advising the government on the multibillion dollar Dabhol arbitration. Kavanagh beat others including Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, Simmons & Simmons and Vinson & Elkins to the appointment. He says: ‘I think what really clinched it was our connections, our ability, and the team we put forward.’
DELIA KEMPLEY Nabarro Nathanson, London Property development partner, Age: 36 CLIENT WIN: Land Securities, Kent Thameside Development Kempley joined Nabarros from Berwin Leighton Paisner in spring this year and was immediately invited to pitch to one of the firm’s biggest clients for a massive instruction. Nabarros knows Land Securities well, but this appointment was to advise them in a position as legal project manager on the Kent Thameside development, which will last for the next 20 years. Land Securities will develop 30,000 homes, 60,000 jobs and 1,600 acres of land, with a new town, schools, hospitals and transport. Such a big project required one law firm to oversee 20 or 30 other law firm relationships that Land Securities will have over the course of the project. The massive instruction will provide work for all parts of the firm.
DANIEL LIEW Simmons & Simmons, Hong Kong Corporate partner, Age: 38 CLIENT WIN: China Telecom At the start of this year, Liew scooped the massive instruction to advise China Telecom on its $8.2bn acquisition of ten provincial networks in China. The deal was the firm’s first for the client, which had in the past used Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer. The client is now the largest telecoms network operator in China, with 160 million access lines and a service area population of 838.8 million. Janet Gaymer, Simmons’ senior partner, says: ‘What excites us about this instruction is it signals our growing reputation in China generally, and it is also a very good indicator of how well we are penetrating the TMT market. Daniel is a very energetic partner, and this is a good example of how well he is communicating that energy.’
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MICHAEL LUCKMAN Wragge & Co, Birmingham Intellectual property partner, Age: 44 CLIENT WIN: Spirit Group When Spirit was joined by a new general counsel, Luckman got the chance to talk to him about a small IP matter. Until then the company had used Slaughter and May for all its legal work, but Luckman convinced the client that it could save money if it set up a panel. He helped Spirit put a panel in place, and was asked to tender for seven areas of work: real estate; employment and pensions; trademarks and IP; health and safety; commercial contracts; data protection and IT; and company law. Wragges was appointed to all seven panels and is now the client’s ‘relationship’ firm, doing a large amount of the day-to-day work not handled by Slaughter and May.
CORNELIUS MEDVEI Eversheds, London Real estate partner, Age: 53 CLIENT WIN: Transport for London Transport for London used to use 20 different law firms for legal advice, but this year asked 16 firms to pitch for panel positions. The only firm asked to pitch that wasn’t on the panel before was Eversheds, who did not know them at all. Medvei took charge of the pitch, and the end result was the firm’s appointment as primary counsel, to advise on issues ranging from procurement and construction to commercial litigation, employment and property work. Medvei says: ‘We were appointed in August and since then we have taken on 1,000 matters for them – we have probably got 50 or 60 lawyers working on TfL-related matters.’
GEOFFREY PICTON-TURBERVILL Ashurst, London Energy partner, Age: 45 CLIENT WIN: Petrochemical Industries Company of Kuwait (PIC) One of Ashurst’s biggest transactions of 2004, keeping three partners busy almost full time for a year, was work advising PIC of Kuwait on the formation of two global joint ventures with The Dow Chemical Company. In all, ten partners worked on deals in Germany, Italy, Canada and Kuwait, with the Kuwait projects alone the largest petrochemical projects being done in the Middle East. Picton-Turbervill won the instruction in a formal pitch against Magic Circle and major US firms, having previously worked only with PIC’s parent company Kuwait Petroleum Corporation.
Finest 50 Rainmakers of 2004
NICHOLAS TOTT Herbert Smith, London Infrastructure partner, Age: 44 CLIENT WIN: London Underground In May, Tott led a Herbert Smith team that won a huge amount of PFI and PPP work from Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer for London Underground. Though the firm had worked with London Underground in the past, the opportunity to pitch for the role of principal adviser for all commercial work arising out of the PPP was a coup, and the success against Freshfields and Shearman & Sterling was a big win.
MARTIN WHELTON Slaughter and May, London Corporate partner, Age: 47 CLIENT WIN: Gallaher Whelton was one of three Slaughter and May partners, another being senior partner Tim Clark, who pitched to win the work advising tobacco giant Gallaher, previously a major client for Simmons & Simmons. Slaughters has worked with Gallaher for a while, having been put on the panel alongside Simmons in 2002, but this year it was asked to take over work for the client on the Office of Fair Trading’s investigation into price rigging in the tobacco market, taking over from Simmons halfway through the process.
BARNEY REYNOLDS Shearman & Sterling, London Financial services partner, Age: 38 CLIENT WIN: Eurex US Eurex is jointly owned by Deutsche Borse and SWX Swiss Exchange, and Reynolds has this year won a couple of pitches to get instructions from Deutsche Borse, against several other Magic Circle firms. Those successes led the client to push this Eurex deal Reynolds’ way – he advised the combined outfit as it tried to gain recognition as an overseas investment exchange in the UK. It is the first overseas body to be recognised by the Financial Services Authority, and tops a good year for Reynolds, who has also worked on a number of major deals for firmwide client Citigroup, now regularly using him in London.
‘We were appointed in August and since then we have taken on 1,000 matters for TfL. We have 50 or 60 lawyers working on TfL-related matters.’ Cornelius Medvei, Eversheds December 2004/January 2005 Legal Business 45
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OPPORTUNISM AND INNOVATION Lawyers are said to be a risk-averse breed, but innovation and opportunism go hand-in-hand with the client winning partner. Here are some key examples
CHRISTINE BRADLEY Pannone & Partners, Manchester Head of employment, Age: 44 CLIENT WIN: PC World Bradley has tripled the revenues of her team to £3m this year, through a marketing drive and the launch of a new insurance-backed employment product. Clients are offered a 12-month contract with Pannone for a one-off fee in return for day-to-day employment advice, and no need to pay additional legal fees should a tribunal claim arise. If the client loses a tribunal claim, the payout is paid by insurance. ‘I can keep the price of the whole thing very cost effective because not all clients will be active at any one time,’ says Bradley. Such selling skills have brought in new clients including PC World and Toyota to the practice, many of whom have subsequently instructed other parts of the firm.
ALEX CARTER-SILK Manches, London Technology/IP partner, Age: 46 CLIENT WIN: Elle Macpherson Carter-Silk turned a chance meeting with supermodel Elle Macpherson into some major work for his firm, ultimately advising last month on the licensing agreement with Bendon for her Intimates lingerie brand to go global. Macpherson had used a number of lawyers in the past, but Carter-Silk reviewed their advice and its documentation, and won the work to document the licensing in the UK, USA, Australia and the Gulf States. Chairman of Manches Jane Simpson says: ‘Alex has had to accept and smile through the comments of his colleagues, both male and female. He has coupled his legal skills with an understanding of the world inhabited by supermodels and global business deals.’
NICK FINLAYSON-BROWN Mills & Reeve, Cambridge Real estate partner, Age: 38 CLIENT WIN: Burford Group After a chance social meeting with Mark Boyes, the director of the Burford Group, Finlayson-Brown was asked to tender for work advising on the management of a significant part of its £400m property portfolio acquired this year from Green Property. Burford also uses Magic Circle firms, but was convinced to give Mills & Reeve the work. Boyes says: ‘I had met Nick socially, and so we went to see him. The nice thing about Nick is you actually get Nick, a very highly qualified person. With all these law firms I don’t think it’s about the firm, it’s about the person running the account.’
TIM HAMILTON Addleshaw Goddard, Manchester Private equity partner, Age: 42 CLIENT WIN: Interflora Until earlier this year, Hammonds was Interflora’s number one corporate adviser. But Addleshaw Goddard’s Hamilton knew someone at the client from way back, and when they became dissatisfied with Hammonds he pitched for the work and won the mandate. He is now advising Interflora on its protracted sale to 3i. Interflora has 1,850 members, and the deal was due to go to a vote as Legal Business went to press, with 3i hoping to take a 65% stake in the company.
IRVINE MARR Clyde & Co, London Shipping litigation partner, Age: 35 CLIENT WIN: BP-TNK Marr made contact with one of Russia’s largest oil companies and created a tailored shipping and oil trading claims handling procedure for them. The company is owned by Russian oligarchs, and is thus typically difficult for a London lawyer to crack, but Marr managed this year to negotiate a significant retainer arrangement with them, whereby he streamlines the claims arising out of their hundreds of shipments per year, making collections, auditing and recovering bad debts. He has since offered the service to others, and it has been taken up by a major American trading company.
‘With all these law firms, I don’t think it’s about the firm, it’s about the person running the account.’ Mark Boyes, director of Burford Group 46 Legal Business December 2004/January 2005
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521 partners in 117 London law firms have joined those firms because of whom and what we know. We’ve been getting it right for partners since 1992.
If you’d like to discuss your career options with a specialist contact Simon Janion on 020 7400 2006 (simonj@ejgroup.co.uk) or Penny Terndrup on 020 7400 2007 (penny@ejgroup.co.uk).
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Finest 50 Rainmakers of 2004
PITCH WINNING | INNOVATION | SEEN IN ACTION | CONTACTS
CONTACTS THAT COUNT Working your contacts is the name of the game in the City and beyond. Here are the year’s finest examples of client-nurturing paying off in grand style
WILLIAM CHARNLEY McDermott Will & Emery, London Corporate partner, Age: 44 CLIENT WIN: The Reuben Brothers At the start of this year, Charnley was introduced to the Reuben Brothers through a contact at BNP Paribas – Oliver Ellingham, the head of investment banking in Europe. The Reuben Brothers control an investment vehicle called Aldersgate Investments, and Charnley advised them as one of the lead investors in Duelguide, on a £1.9bn offer for Chelsfield. Two other instructions followed on deals that didn’t happen – the brothers bid for Scottish & Newcastle’s retail business and for UCI Cinemas. He is now advising Aldersgate on the acquisition of 850 pubs, understood to be Hugh Osmond’s Wellington pub portfolio, worth about £400m. Charnley also picked up Collins Stewart as a new client this year.
MARK DARLEY Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, London Finance partner, Age: 43 CLIENT WIN: Ashtead Darley scored his first instruction from UK-listed equipment company Ashtead after an introduction via his contacts at investment bank JP Morgan. Ashtead is putting in place a $675m (£364m) debt facility, and Darley has done much of that sort of work with JP Morgan, the company’s financial advisers. Thus he was asked to pitch to the client alongside other firms, thought to have included Baker & McKenzie and Davis Polk & Wardwell. Ashtead has in the past worked with Slaughter and May. The deal sees Bank of America and Deutsche Bank as lead arrangers on the facility, which is based on Ashtead’s inventory, receivables and assets.
TIM EMMERSON Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy, London Corporate partner, Age: 49 CLIENT WIN: Goldman Sachs Emmerson joined Milbank from Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in 2003, attracted in part by the fact that the firm was liked by Goldman Sachs, a client he knew well at Freshfields. He was the American firm’s first UK M&A partner, and was quickly instructed by Goldman to advise on a possible bid for Marks & Spencer. The advisory role developed into a full-scale structuring role by the spring, with Milbank dealing with the takeover panel, the structure of the ‘stub equity’ being offered, and the private equity funding and underwriting structure. Milbank’s London head Phillip Fletcher says: ‘This was a substantial step for Milbank London, as it led to a further instruction from Goldman on the WH Smith offer, and perhaps contributed to the instructions we subsequently received from UBS on the Chelsfield takeover by Multiplex, and Westfield.’
48 Legal Business December 2004/January 2005
DAVID EREIRA Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, London Banking partner, Age: 48 CLIENT WIN: Apax Partners Freshfields had only ever acted once for Apax in London, advising it on a failed attempt to buy Energis a couple of years ago. Nevertheless, Ereira knew Stephen Grabiner in the media team well, and had kept in touch. When the client decided to set up a panel, Freshfields was one of five firms invited to pitch, despite not knowing the client well, and having a limited profile for private equity. Ereira and head of private equity Chris Bown worked hard on a presentation, and won one of the two spots, now sharing the client with Ashurst. Bown says: ‘There is always a personal connection that gets you through the door, but converting this into a win, that’s when you really have to think very hard about what you present and how.’
CHARLES JACOBS Linklaters, London Corporate partner, Age: 37 CLIENT WIN: Gold Fields Jacobs is South African by birth and is fantastically well connected in the market there. Hence he won this instruction to advise Gold Fields on its defence of a massive hostile bid from Harmony which, should it succeed, would create one of the world’s largest gold producers. The deal is the latest in a run of ground-breaking deals Jacobs has won out of the South African market – last year he advised South African financial services company Investec on an innovative dual listing, and before that he worked on the BHP Billiton merger. David Cheyne, Linklaters’ head of corporate, says: 'This is a significant M&A transaction for us – not only is it extremely challenging, but it is one of the largest transactions in the global mining market. It has involved not only assisting on the corporate side but also litigation in the US.’
PETER JAY Beachcroft Wansbroughs, London Corporate finance partner, Age: 60 CLIENT WIN: Daniel Stewart Jay joined Beachcroft Wansbroughs from Finers Stephens Innocent in May, and immediately set to work building up the firm’s AIM practice. Since his arrival he has worked on 11 admissions to the market, with a further 14 in the pipeline. He introduced Daniel Stewart, one of the fastest-growing corporate finance houses, to Beachcrofts, having worked with them at Finers, and has also been regularly pitching to new clients interested in joining the exchange.
WILL ROSEN Weil, Gotshal & Manges, London Corporate partner, Age: 37 CLIENT WIN: Change Capital Partners This €1bn fund was established in 2003, by a team including managing director Steve Petrow. UK-qualified Rosen had first worked with Petrow in 1997 when Petrow was at SB Capital Partners and Rosen was a three-year PQE associate. For six years, Rosen kept in touch with Petrow, sensing he would ultimately come in useful. In 2004 Rosen was instructed on the fund’s first deal, the £61m buyout of Robert Dyas, and he has worked on other deals since. Weil Gotshal London head Mike Francies says: ‘Will’s work for Change is proof of how important it is to build a real relationship with a client, irrespective of whether or not there are immediate returns.’
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DANIEL ROSENBERG Taylor Wessing, London Corporate partner, Age: 42 CLIENT WIN: Stericycle Rosenberg has spent a lot of time building relationships with some of the best lawyers in the US, and thus won this referral to act for Nasdaq-listed Stericycle on its acquisition of White Rose Environmental for £35m. Though a small deal, it is an example of Rosenberg’s rainmaking – in the past he advised Transamerica Corporation on a £750m acquisition of Broadcast Communications. One partner at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, New York’s premier M&A firm, describes Rosenberg as: ‘one of the best lawyers I have ever worked with’. Praise indeed.
TOM SPEECHLEY Macfarlanes, London Banking partner, Age: 37 CLIENT WIN: NIB Capital Bank Speechley joined Macfarlanes at the start of this year from Norton Rose and has, in 2004, closed eight leveraged financing deals and worked on a number of others that didn’t complete. He works extensively with The Royal Bank of Scotland, which had dealt with Macfarlanes before, but this year introduced NIB Capital to the firm, advising it alongside Bank of Ireland on the senior and mezzanine facilities for the €115m (£80m) acquisition of Hirschman Electronics by HgCapital. Peter Allan, head of acquisition finance at NIB Capital, says: ‘I have used Tom for a number of years, and it’s very much a case of using the lawyer and not the firm. In terms of the quality of the team around him, I was taking that on trust, and in the event found them to be top class.’
PAUL STOCKLEY Bond Pearce, Southampton Commercial partner, Age: 37 CLIENT WIN: The Baku-TbilisiCeyhan Pipeline Company Stockley was a former senior legal counsel at Amerada Hess Corporation before joining Bond Pearce, and has worked his contacts in the energy market since. His recent win of the instruction to advise this pipeline company, a project company operated by BP, on certain English law and commercial issues is a coup for the regional firm. It will work alongside American firm Baker Botts on the project through Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey. Managing partner Simon Richardson says: ‘Understanding and being able to meet what in-house lawyers want is vital, and Paul’s experience in this respect has been integral to our success.’
JULIAN THURSTON Morrison & Foerster, London Technology transactions partner, Age: 49 CLIENT WIN: Vernalis Thurston joined MoFo in April this year from Arnold & Porter, and immediately won his client Vernalis over to the new firm. In his first three months he closed three significant licensing deals for them, including a $400m (£216m) licensing deal with Endo Pharmaceuticals. ‘This is an excellent example of a partner hitting the ground running. When many partners might still be finding their feet, Julian immediately introduced Vernalis to the firm, continued to work seamlessly for the client, and introduced Vernalis to MoFo attorneys in various offices as needed,’ London head Kristian Wiggert says.
Finest 50 Rainmakers of 2004
SEEN IN ACTION Arguably no praise is higher than being witnessed on a deal by the clients on the other side, who then decide you’re better than their current advisers
FABRIZIO CARPANINI Olswang, London Corporate finance partner, Age: 44 CLIENT WIN: The Blackstone Group Carpanini convinced major US private equity house Blackstone to use him for the first time this year on the back of work he had done on a similar deal. Blackstone paid £120m for cinema operator Cine UK, and instructed Olswang because Carpanini had previously advised Warner Village Cinemas on its sale to Vue Entertainment. On the back of that, Carpanini approached Blackstone and was asked to help it on its interest in the Odeon cinema chain, which it ultimately sold to Terra Firma. He has since won more instructions from them. ‘There is nothing like having a deal you have done fairly recently, that’s a high-profile transaction, to get you through the door,’ he says.
‘There was no conflict or need for us to get another firm, we just thought we had seen this guy and we liked him.’
FRANCIS GIACON Lovells, London Real estate partner, Age: 46 CLIENT WIN: Aviva Giacon picked up the firm’s first property instruction from Aviva this year – winning the mandate to advise Avivaowned insurer Norwich Union on a real estate partnership with Land Securities Trillium. The win came on the back of sheer initiative – Giacon read in Property Week that Aviva was planning to do the deal, and having recently worked opposite Aviva on another transaction, he got in touch with the people he had met and told them of his expertise in this area. They were impressed and effected an introduction to the relevant members of the legal department, leading to a chance to pitch and a significant new client. Giacon has since had further approaches from Aviva.
MARK MIFSUD SJ Berwin, London Corporate partner, Age: 36 CLIENT WIN: Goldman Sachs Mifsud scooped SJ Berwin’s first deal for Goldman Sachs after impressing it on the other side of a deal, and though it often uses Clifford Chance for private equity funds work, Goldman Sachs contacted him to advise on a €400m (£280m) acquisition of interests in two funds managed by SG Capital Europe. John Aiello, vice-president and counsel of Goldman in the United States, says: ‘There was no conflict or need for us to get another firm, we just thought we had seen this guy and we liked him, so we would like to retain him. We did, and I think we would like to use him again.’
John Aiello, Goldman Sachs
December 2004/January 2005 Legal Business 49
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Finest 50 Rainmakers of 2004
PITCH WINNING | INNOVATION | SEEN IN ACTION | CONTACTS
SECTOR SPECIALISM AND PURE TRACK RECORD In an ideal world, the client would find it impossible not to pick your firm on a deal, because they’d fully understand your unbeatable expertise on a given project. Some dream of this situation: others, such as these, are living it, be it in the rail sector, or the global arbitration field
MAURICE ALLEN White & Case, London Banking partner, Age: 48 CLIENT WIN: Citigroup In four years at White & Case, Allen has built a seven-partner bank finance group that will top $20m in revenues this year. In 2004 the team has not only significantly increased the work it is getting from cornerstone client Deutsche Bank, Allen also brought in the first instruction from Citigroup, advising it as one of the underwriters on the £1.8bn refinancing of Telewest. That deal came on the back of the team’s work for the lead arrangers on the NTL refinancing, and through contacts Allen had at Citibank dating back to his days at Clifford Chance. Allen says: ‘We have kept seven partners and 27 associates busy all year. I think rainmaking is more about getting the right people and approaching clients on an institutional basis than it is about individuals.’
SIMON COPPEN Burges Salmon, Bristol Commercial partner, Age: 41 CLIENT WIN: Department for Transport Coppen has made a big name for himself in the rail industry, and was this year asked to join a national group set up by the Department of Transport to look at and revise the Network Code, which determines the relationships between Network Rail and the operators. Coppen is the only lawyer on the group, giving him a seat at the top table of the industry and effecting many introductions that will generate fees. His recent work includes advising First/Keolis on its franchise bid and agreement for the new Transpennine Express rail franchise.
MORAG MCNEILL McGrigors, Glasgow Corporate partner, Age: 45 CLIENT WIN: Solihull Interpartnership Consortium McNeill is leading a McGrigors charge into urban regeneration work, and had previously acted for InPartnership Ltd. That company joined up with Bellway Homes and Whitefriars Housing Association to bid as a consortium called Solihull InPartnership Consortium to lead one of the biggest regeneration programmes in the Midlands. The consortium expects to attract some £1.2bn in public and private investment over 15 to 20 years. McNeill says: ‘You often have transactions that last two or three months, and you do it and move on. This will be a work stream for the firm for a long time, and will generate substantial fees for years to come.’
EWAN ROBERTSON Dundas & Wilson, London Corporate partner, Age: 35 CLIENT WIN: Scottish & Southern Energy consortium Dundas has a longstanding relationship with Scottish & Southern and, as an associate, Robertson was seconded to the company’s in-house team back in 1998. When he moved into corporate work on his return, he began targeting its M&A work. In 2004 he scooped the massive instruction to advise it, along with Borealis Infrastructure and Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, on the £3.16bn bid for distribution networks from National Grid Transco. Managing partner Chris Campbell says: ‘Ewan deserves great credit for the fact that not only have we maintained and expanded the relationship with SSE, we are now being preferred to City firms on instructions such as this.’
50 Legal Business December 2004/January 2005
DAVID SMELLIE Farrer & Co, London Employment partner, Age: 40 CLIENT WIN: Imperial College Smellie is a leader in employment and educational law, and a major rainmaker for his firm. In 2004 he won new work advising Imperial College on general employment work, and work for Winchester College on the OFT enquiry into price fixing of school fees at private schools. He is also giving employment advice to the school with regard to a change of headmaster and the dismissal of chaplains. Both new clients came on the back of Smellie’s reputation for educational advice. He also scooped work advising a Magic Circle law firm on employment matters, this time on the back of relationships with partners at the firm who had seen him in action.
THIERRY VASSOGNE Linklaters, Paris Corporate partner, Age: 53 CLIENT WIN: Sanofi-Synthelabo French rainmaker Vassogne landed his first instruction for pharmaceuticals company Sanofi on its massive hostile bid for Aventis. The client’s regular counsel Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton was conflicted out, and Vassogne’s reputation in the market led to him getting the call. His other clients include Air France, France Telecom and Vodafone. The work on the £33bn bid fed work into the rest of the firm.
JULIAN VOGE Brodies, Edinburgh Corporate partner, Age: 46 CLIENT WIN: Strategic Rail Authority Throughout 2004 Voge and his partner Brenda Scott have been working on one of Scotland’s biggest transactions, advising the Strategic Rail Authority on its franchise agreements with First ScotRail, a seven-year franchise worth £1.9bn. The agreement was signed in August and ScotRail took over the trains on 17 October, with Brodies having first won the work in a tender process that began back in 2001. Brodies’ managing partner Bill Drummond says: ‘A key point in winning this work will undoubtedly have been the recommendation received from those who worked with Julian and Brenda in the previous re-let between 1996 and 1997. They did a superb job last time round.’
ROBERT VOLTERRA Herbert Smith, London Litigation and arbitration partner, Age: 40 CLIENT WIN: Government of the Republic of Ecuador Volterra is Herbert Smith’s most productive arbitration partner. He acts for major corporations, governments and public bodies in public international law disputes, and this year won an instruction from the government of Ecuador in an arbitration over claims of expropriation related to a foreign investment by MCI Power. He was also asked by Chilean company Empresas Lucchetti to deal with a similar case against the government of Peru. Both instructions are lucrative and often feed work into other parts of the firm. Volterra was just contacted directly: ‘This is a small community,’ he says. ‘When they have a big case, the sophisticated clients find out who are the best people, and they just call up.’
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SEAN WATSON CMS Cameron Mckenna, London Corporate partner, Age: 56 CLIENT WIN: National Grid Transco Watson scooped one of the biggest instructions of the year, advising NGT on the corporate aspects of the £5.8bn sale of four of its gas distribution networks. Camerons has a long relationship with NGT, but has had to work hard to keep the client following its merger with Lattice Group in 2002. Lattice’s principal law firm was Linklaters, and it is now Lattice’s former company secretary, Helen Mahy, who heads the combined in-house team. Watson’s persistence paid off, with this being the client’s biggest instruction this year. Linklaters advised on property and employment issues only.
THOMAS WERLEN Allen & Overy, London Capital markets partner, Age: 39 CLIENT WIN: UBS Investment Bank Werlen is a US-qualified partner who heads the US law group at A&O in Germany, Switzerland and Austria. His strong links with UBS have led to some massive instructions for the firm, including securing the appointment of the firm as adviser on two deals which formed part of the expansion of its European wealth management business. A&O advised on the £160m acquisition of Laing & Cruickshank Investment Management, for example. Werlen’s contacts also led to the appointment of A&O as adviser to Syngenta on its €400m acquisition of Advanta.
Finest 50 Rainmakers of 2004
RELATIONSHIP INVESTMENT Although the lead-in time is necessarily longer, the buzz garnered from a client who pays you back for all that effort you’ve put in over the years is arguably the raison d’etre of the true professional services provider. There’s no luck here, no short-term pitch – just rock-solid relationship payback built on the best foundation of all: time-proven trust
PETER CRYSTAL Memery Crystal, London Corporate partner, Age: 56 CLIENT WIN: Erinaceous Group Crystal was first introduced to Erinaceous Group when he acted opposite it on a deal back in 2001. He advised on its AIM flotation in 2003, and at the start of this year the client began work to buy Hercules Property Services for £150m and admission to the Official List. Crystal won the instruction despite some of the client’s bankers suggesting it instruct a larger law firm. Crystal says: ‘I think if you have a strong relationship with a client, if they look you in the eyes and you say that you can do it, then they will believe you.’
DAVID PATRICK EICH Kirkland & Ellis, London Corporate partner, Age: 38 CLIENT WIN: Change Capital Partners A significant first instruction for Kirkland from this new €1bn private equity fund. Eich, who is dual-qualified, has known managing director Steve Petrow for many years. But Weil, Gotshal & Manges’ London office got the first deal, and there were many firms after work for the start-up. ‘Steve was aware of our capability and competency, but his partners were not in the slightest,’ Eich says. He won the work to advise on its £115m secondary buyout of Hillarys Group, and has since had further instructions.
PAUL FALLON Reed Smith, London Financial services partner, Age: 43 CLIENT WIN: Standard Chartered Fallon has worked with Standard Chartered for many years, but was put up against some 20 other firms in the
competitive bid to make their panel. He is a litigator and the firm has previously done contentious work for the bank, but this enables them to now pick up M&A, IT, employment and general banking instructions. The appointment is not restricted to the UK, so other parts of the firm should also benefit. ‘This is precisely the kind of institutional relationship with a major financial services business that we are looking to develop,’ Fallon says.
CHRISTOPHER FANNER Denton Wilde Sapte, London Acquisition finance partner, Age: 39 CLIENT WIN: Lloyds Bank Fanner, one of Dentons’ hungriest finance partners, kicked off a bumper year in February with a win to act on his first deal for Lloyds Bank Leveraged Finance team. A club of three banks – RBS, Lloyds and Barclays – invited Dentons to pitch alongside Clifford Chance and Dickson Minto for the financing of insurance business Towergate. Fanner got the invite to pitch on the back of links with RBS, but successfully convinced Lloyds and Barclays’ leveraged finance teams to use him for the first time. Lloyds is now spearheading a drive into leveraged deals and has sent Fanner a further major instruction.
JOSE MARIA FERNANDEZ-DAZA Clifford Chance, Madrid Corporate partner, Age: 40 CLIENT WIN: Banco Santander Clifford Chance was one of a number of firms that had worked with Banco Santander in the past, but in a spectacular piece of rainmaking it was FernandezDaza that got the call when the bank decided it wanted to buy Abbey, creating the biggest ever merger between European high street banks. There was no pitch process because of his established
relationship in Madrid, and FernandezDaza contacted London partner David Pudge to lead the deal.
PETER FITZPATRICK Howrey Simon Arnold & White, London Litigation partner, Age: 43 CLIENT WIN: Ryanair Fitzpatrick has worked with Ryanair for many years, going back to the days when he was a partner at Theodore Goddard. This year he won a major instruction from it to advise on the high-profile dispute with BAA about the use of Stansted airport, and the firm was appointed as sole adviser for substantial litigation work. ‘On the back of the appointment, and my relationship with [chief executive] Michael O’Leary and others, we were instructed on the BAA case,’ Fitzpatrick says. ‘We act for Ryanair on a number of things, but that’s certainly the most high profile.’
MARTIN SCOTT Walker Morris, Leeds Litigation partner, Age: 45 CLIENT WIN: Cleveland Bridge Martin Scott has known Darlington-based steelworks firm Cleveland Bridge for many years, but won one of his biggest instructions yet this year when he was asked to represent the client in a high-profile dispute over Wembley Stadium. Scott won £1.95m for his client – who was responsible for the stadium’s signature arch – from Australian contractor Multiplex, and is now embroiled in a case in the Court of Technology and Construction in the High Court for damages in excess of £20m. It was a huge piece of work on the back of painstaking relationship building over many years.
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