Back in 1962, Cliff Richard was one of the first two clients of the firm that, by 2018, would be known as Simkins (the other was TV impresario Lord Lew Grade). Jump forward more than five decades and Simkins is still taking great care of the now Sir Cliff’s interests. Stepping up to do battle for the singer in last year’s extraordinarily public High Court battle with the BBC was the firm’s reputation protection team leader, Gideon Benaim. The case stemmed from a police investigation into allegations against the singer of historical sexual assault that led to a 2014 police raid on his home which the BBC broadcast live. Richard was never arrested or charged but, as Benaim told the court, the BBC’s coverage had allowed “conspiracy theorists and online trolls to have a field day”.

Thanks to Benaim and his team, the court found that the veteran pop star’s privacy rights had indeed been infringed. Richard won some £1.5m in damages and costs, although Benaim confirmed that the star’s motivation had never been personal gain. The case highlighted the ongoing balancing act in law between the right to free speech and the right to privacy, reaffirming and clarifying that the starting point should be a reasonable expectation of privacy.

The post Gideon Benaim, Simkins appeared first on The Lawyer | Legal insight, benchmarking data and jobs.

Dutch-born-and-bred lawyer Christine Braamskamp, who in her words “came out of the clay in the north of Holland”, admits she still finds it hard to believe that she now plies her global investigations trade in the heart of the City of London. But 2018 was the year when any doubts she might still have about her place in the legal market firmament should have been jettisoned. Braamskamp, who until the start of last year was co-head of global investigations at K&L Gates, joined Jenner & Block’s still nascent London office to help build out its practice in the UK. Her entire client base, which features corporates and senior management individuals facing UK Bribery Act, FCPA and Fraud Act proceedings, is thought to have moved with her.

Several months after Braamskamp’s arrival, Jenner took its second partner from K&L Gates, with Paul Feldberg rejoining her in the global investigations, compliance and defence practice.

This year, the signs are that more lawyers will join the 20-fee-earner practice as its expansion continues, not least attracted by the chance to work with Braamskamp.

The post Christine Braamskamp, Jenner & Block appeared first on The Lawyer | Legal insight, benchmarking data and jobs.

In a climate of fear over data privacy issues, Pinsent Masons’ David Barker is the lawyer increasingly taking the calls from big corporates. Last year, the firm’s head of TMT disputes led on some of the largest disagreements for big-name clients, including the first two UK High Court trials on ‘right to be forgotten’ cases.

Barker led for defendant Google against two groups that demanded the browser remove references to them in their searches, winning one battle and losing the other. But despite being unsuccessful in one, Google was nevertheless spared having to pay damages after the judge complimented the tech giant on having taken “reasonable care” throughout.

Called upon to defend another high-profile name, Barker helped settle the BBC’s dispute against offshore firm Appleby which filed a breach of confidence claim against the broadcaster after the Paradise Papers revelations. In what could be just the tip of the iceberg in terms of data breach cases coming to court, these disputes highlight an ever-important area for Pinsents around technology and privacy for large businesses.

The post David Barker, Pinsent Masons appeared first on The Lawyer | Legal insight, benchmarking data and jobs.

Advising on a massive real estate transaction during the largest-ever merger in the UK legal sector is not an easy task. But CMS real estate partner Clare Thomas managed it masterfully when she completed Credit Suisse’s long-in-the-making £410m acquisition of 20 Canada Square, a 12-storey landmark building in Canary Wharf.

The job challenged Thomas to educate investors and property owners across different timelines and international jurisdictions, just as her firm was undergoing a major structural transformation.

The real estate star was also kept busy by new trends in the market, including the increasing popularity of co-working spaces and smart buildings. She led on the £271m acquisition of WeWork’s Europe HQ at Moor Place by an Asian holding.

Brexit may be looming large for the legal business, but Thomas sees no slowdown in interest in UK assets. She is currently introducing to the market a number of Middle East clients eager to expand in London, Manchester and Scotland.

The post Clare Thomas, CMS appeared first on The Lawyer | Legal insight, benchmarking data and jobs.

Caroline Rae has only been a partner at Herbert Smith Freehills for three years, but she has added considerable weight to the firm’s standing in public company transactions.

The most significant transaction that kept Rae on her toes at the beginning of 2018 was the £3.4bn proposed takeover of British shopping centre operator Intu Properties by its bigger, publicly listed rival Hammerson. What made the transaction stand out was the fact Rae had to advise Hammerson on a disruptive takeover bid by French group Klepierre during its takeover process of Intu. Although both bids were eventually abandoned, the intricate work involved and challenges Rae had to overcome under a tight deadline showcased her legal prowess in major public takeovers.

In another major public M&A deal, she was instructed by existing client Nasdaq-listed UK telecoms company ARRIS to advise on its takeover by US rival Commscope for $7bn (£5.5bn). The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2019.

With proven ability to service major global clients, Rae was brought into the relationship team for British American Tobacco a year ago. She has also demonstrated her skill in developing new client relationships for the firm, such as Invesco.

The post Caroline Rae, Herbert Smith Freehills appeared first on The Lawyer | Legal insight, benchmarking data and jobs.

When IP specialist Alexandra Pygall arrived at Stephenson Harwood as a partner in 2012, having been an associate in Covington & Burling’s life sciences team, she had to build her practice from a standing start. Several years on, Stephenson Harwood’s trust in her has reaped rewards.

The firm’s life sciences group has quadrupled in size and has developed to the stage where it recently saw an internal promotion. Pygall, who is unusual in being both a contentious and transactional lawyer, and even more unusual in having studied for a chemistry degree outside her day job, is engaged in building a full service in IP and life sciences and has a practice that spans luxury brands such as Moët Hennessy to pharmaceuticals companies such as UCB  – an early client win at the firm – Astellas and Shield Therapeutics. She was also instrumental in landing Lucozade Ribena Suntory as a panel client for the firm this year following her team’s success in the first ever compulsory licence decision from the Community Plant Variety Office.

Pygall was elected as the youngest member of Stephenson Harwood’s supervisory council – representative of emerging talent at the venerable City player.

The post Alexandra Pygall, Stephenson Harwood appeared first on The Lawyer | Legal insight, benchmarking data and jobs.

If there is one man that can rally the masses around renewable energy, it’s Chris Pritchett, head of energy at Foot Anstey. An expert in renewable technology law, he has been helping engineer a sound framework for the future of energy, launching initiatives shaping the entire sector.

Batteries are the next big thing, and one of Pritchett’s biggest projects in 2018 was a £1.6bn scheme with Pivot Power as part of its plans for the world’s largest battery and vehicle-charging network, consisting of 45 ‘rapid electric vehicle charging stations’ across Britain, to be powered by giant battery storage installations.

The rate at which the electric vehicle revolution is accelerating means that soon, every 25 minutes, drivers will pass a super hub where they will be able to charge their electric vehicles. This, in turn, will stimulate the uptake of electric vehicles by quelling ‘range anxiety’.

Outside of Foot Anstey, Pritchett will be advising the new Energy Data Taskforce on unlocking energy data to optimise the operation of the energy system.

The post Chris Pritchett, Foot Anstey appeared first on The Lawyer | Legal insight, benchmarking data and jobs.

While CMS partner Selina Potter has been one of the leading lawyers in the UK media sector for more than two decades, it was her regulatory work on Comcast’s acquisition of Sky that made 2018 a landmark year. The acquisition was one of the defining media deals of the decade and marks the continued trend of consolidation in the sector.

Potter advised on the media, telecoms and gambling regulatory aspects, including elements of the post-offer undertakings around the continued funding and editorial independence of Sky News. As it was a contested takeover, there was no due diligence, so Potter and her team had to rely on their market knowledge across all of Sky’s territories in order to advise.

Comcast started 15 months behind the bid from Fox, which already owned 39 per cent of Sky, so it was vital that Potter worked quickly, pulling together as one team with Davis Polk and Freshfields on the corporate and competition aspects.

It was also novel from a legal point of view as, notably, it is only the second time that the blind auction process seen in this deal has been used. It was a hugely important deal for Potter and indeed CMS, as it amounts to proof of concept of its 2017 three-way merger.

The post Selina Potter, CMS appeared first on The Lawyer | Legal insight, benchmarking data and jobs.

Last year, DLA Piper’s Richard Obank was the firm’s only UK restructuring partner not parachuted in to support on Carillion’s liquidation. The reason? Obank was already at the beck and call of a number of retailers feeling the pressure on the high street, an area in which City lawyers were rubbing their hands with glee in 2018. It is not all doom and gloom, however, with Obank working on one of the few success stories, Nisa Retail.

He guided the grocery store to a crucial rescue by the Co-operative Group in May, which took on Nisa for around £143m. In a dramatic twist, the takeover was then challenged by activists at the sanction hearing; an effort that was nevertheless thwarted by DLA’s team.

Leeds-based Obank has carved out a name for himself in this area, working with boards of directors to save businesses from going under. However, turnarounds are not always possible.

Last year, he had his hands full working on the administration of Poundworld in what was a first-time mandate for the company. He also led on American Golf’s sale to private equity investor Endless in another rescue deal.

The post Richard Obank, DLA Piper appeared first on The Lawyer | Legal insight, benchmarking data and jobs.

As one of the youngest-ever female transactional partners in Kirkland’s London office, Kirsteen Nicol has been making a name for herself in the private equity space. She was made up three years ago and has been described as the ‘all-round package’ for her work ethic, front-of-house and stellar relationships with clients.

Nicol has been looking after the financing of Euro Garages’ rapid growth, to the value of about $5bn (£3.9bn). This has been rumbling on for over a year now, with five add-on acquisitions last year, including 762 sites from the Kroger group in the US and 1,000 Esso service stations in Germany from ExxonMobil.

She also led the Partners Group acquisition of power transmission belts manufacturer Megadyne Group, which added up to more than $1bn.

Since Nicol started at Kirkland, her practice headcount has more than doubled in size. She was involved in a recruitment drive that has taken the number of lawyers from 25 to 55, and is now one of 17 partners in the practice.

The post Kirsteen Nicol, Kirkland & Ellis appeared first on The Lawyer | Legal insight, benchmarking data and jobs.

After spending the majority of his career in-house, including a stint as general counsel of Umbro, Richard Millington returned to the world of private practice in 2016, tasked with kickstarting a sports team at Shoosmiths.

It was a bold decision – as Millington himself told the firm, he was an expensive hire with no business case. But Shoosmiths saw the potential of tapping into his vast experience in the sector, and he was ideally suited for the task. From nothing, Millington has built a team and won some heavyweight mandates across football, rugby, cricket and more.

Rather than going head-to-head with the leading names in the field, Shoosmiths’ elite advisory team, led by former Manchester City head of player liaison Haydn Roberts, is taking a new approach to providing sports law advice.

Millington works alongside non-lawyers like Roberts and David Murray (formerly head of BBC Sports Rights) to bring a more commercial approach to a traditional practice area. It sees them pitching for projects against the big four accountants as much as law firms and securing work from the likes of City Football Group and the FA alongside mandates on the CRS GT v McLaren case.

The post Richard Millington, Shoosmiths appeared first on The Lawyer | Legal insight, benchmarking data and jobs.

Under Tom Mercer’s leadership, Ashurst’s London corporate practice has been a sizzling hotbed of big deals. In 2018, he secured a run of three deals for resources powerhouse Vedanta, including its $813m (£642m) acquisition of Electrosteel Steels under India’s new Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code. This culminated in Mercer advising the company’s chairman, Indian billionaire businessman Anil Agarwal, on his $3bn take-private of Vedanta during the summer.

Having had experience as part of a two-year secondment on the Takeover Panel, Mercer is well-poised for prolific takeovers. He was part of the team that acted for Ladbrokes Coral in its £3.9bn takeover offer from GVC Holdings and also advised the banks in Takeda Pharmaceuticals’ £46bn bid battle for Shire.

At the end of 2018, he stepped in to advise key client Interserve on its financial restructuring, to rescue it from becoming the next Carillion.

The post Tom Mercer, Ashurst appeared first on The Lawyer | Legal insight, benchmarking data and jobs.

Charles Russell Speechlys‘ Malcolm MacDougall is a whirling dervish of a dealmaker, making his name as one of the most active M&A lawyers in the City. Since MacDougall became co-head of corporate last year, PEP within the department has shot up 40 per cent and he has seen through a bounty of mid-market deals.

These include acting for FPE Capital on the sale of British luxury furniture brand OKA to the Italian owner of Aston Martin, Investindustrial; and Elysian Capital on the acquisition of humanitarian, faith and education travel company Key Travel.

Over the last year, MacDougall has completed five deals for key client Civica, including its acquisition of the election and voting services group Electoral Reform Services Limited.

MacDougall’s lightning charge across the M&A sky is set to continue into 2019. After CRS merged with sports law boutique Couchmans earlier in the year, he will be seeing through more sport M&A, and having hired a Nigerian lawyer within his practice, will be picking up more African work.

When he is not at the board table, MacDougall is just as comfortable cutting a dash on the stage, playing Prince Valentine in the firm’s Snow White panto.

The post Malcolm MacDougall, Charles Russell Speechlys appeared first on The Lawyer | Legal insight, benchmarking data and jobs.

Amy Kennedy was welcomed into the partnership at Gibson Dunn at the beginning of 2018 and has pulled off a range of complex finance deals since.

The month she qualified, Lehman Brothers collapsed, causing the kind of turbulence the financial world had not seen in decades.

Working in finance in trying times has meant Kennedy’s practice has been predicated on the ability to adapt quickly and stay reactive to the market. Last year alone she worked on leveraged financings, real estate deals, Shariah lending and restructurings.

Kennedy’s landmark acquisition of the year was Bruin Sports Capital’s buyout of Soulsight.

She also assisted Deltatre, one of Bruin’s portfolio companies, acquire Massive Interactive. This deal started in the summer and with a tight, two-week turnaround, the debt aspects of the financing closed in November. Last year, she also advised Fremont Realty Capital on its financing arrangements for the acquisition of Porthaven Care Homes Group.

The post Amy Kennedy, Gibson Dunn & Crutcher appeared first on The Lawyer | Legal insight, benchmarking data and jobs.

Trowers & Hamlins’ head of Birmingham real estate Amanda Hanmore spent much of 2018 working on local regeneration projects around the country, while growing the burgeoning real estate practice in the firm’s Midlands office. When Hanmore arrived to lead the practice three years ago, Trowers’ Birmingham office only had one managing associate and a couple of assistants. Today, they are four partners strong, with a team to support them.

She anticipates the team will grow further to support the work generated by the new lease of life Birmingham’s real estate sector has been given by the likes of HS2 and the Commonwealth Games. The team’s work has earned a strong reputation and place on the Homes England panel.

Last year, Hanmore led on a regeneration project that is set to change the face of Truro, which will provide 1,500 new homes, as well as education facilities and retail space.

This has garnered support and funding from the local council and is in its final stages. ‘Spade in ground’ should happen in March.

Plans for the future include working with the West Midlands Pension Fund, as well as other key affordable housing clients.

The post Amanda Hanmore, Trowers & Hamlins appeared first on The Lawyer | Legal insight, benchmarking data and jobs.

If Milbank wanted to make an impact in the European high-yield market, then its hire of debt partner Apostolos Gkoutzinis from Shearman & Sterling was a good way of going about it. Gkoutzinis immediately rolled his sleeves up on a string of headline transactions for senior lenders.

His deals included advising JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs among others on the financing of the Design Holding deal, which saw Carlyle and Investindustrial acquire Italian design and furniture company B&B Italia and two Danish lighting companies, Flos and Louis Poulsen; acting for the lenders on Bain Capital’s €700m (£632m) acquisition of Italmatch Chemicals; and on the €600m acquisition financing of schools group Cognita by Jacobs Holding of Switzerland.

Gkoutzinis, whose track record on post-financial crisis Greek deals is unsurpassed, with a CV that includes the recapitalisation of Piraeus Bank, Eurobank and Attica Bank, also worked on the €1.3bn 20-year extension of Athens Airport’s concession, a deal that showcased his versatility as a debt lawyer.

The post Apostolos Gkoutzinis, Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy appeared first on The Lawyer | Legal insight, benchmarking data and jobs.

Referring to Allen & Overy partner Denise Gibson as a rising star is an understatement. Although only into her fifth year as a partner, Gibson has been widely recognised by her peers as having developed an exceptional banking practice in the City.

Leveraging her previous experience as an executive director at Goldman Sachs responsible for complex end-of-leveraged finance, she has not only maintained a close relationship with the global investment bank, but has built up a stellar clientele of major financial services institutions. A recent highlight was acting for Barclays, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, ING Bank and UBS as arranger of the first and second lien financing in respect of PAI’s acquisition of French games publisher Asmodee Group from Eurazeo.

Apart from traditional leveraged finance, Gibson is increasingly known for acting for private credit funds. For example, she recently advised KKR Credit on a unitranche to support the continued growth of Advent portfolio company InPost.

In May 2018, Gibson was appointed to Allen & Overy’s global board for a four-year term.

Representing a younger generation of partners, she is set to bring a different perspective to the boardroom to help shape the future of the magic circle firm.

The post Denise Gibson, Allen & Overy appeared first on The Lawyer | Legal insight, benchmarking data and jobs.

Since making partner in 2015, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett’s Clare Gaskell has been at the forefront of many major leveraged buyout transactions for private equity heavyweights such as Blackstone, KKR and Silverlake. The first half of 2018 was spent getting KKR’s €6.825bn (£6.16bn) acquisition of Unilever’s baking, cooking and spreads business over the line. The […]

The post Clare Gaskell, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett appeared first on The Lawyer | Legal insight, benchmarking data and jobs.

Melissa Fogarty is fast becoming a prominent player at Clifford Chance, having been appointed co-chair of the firm’s London corporate practice over the summer. As well as specialising in bank M&A, for which she is the client relationship partner for several large institutions, her practice encompasses a broad spectrum, including the aviation and media sectors.

At the end of 2017, she advised easyJet in its acquisition of Air Berlin’s operations at Berlin Tegel Airport, in a transaction further complicated by the latter’s insolvency. Fogarty has also played an instrumental role as the firm continues to expand its global network of innovation and delivery hubs. Over the past 18 months, she has committed herself to change management through the implementation of Clifford Chance’s Best Delivery strategy, which integrates technology and different ways of working in order to reduce overall legal costs for clients. As part of this strategy, she assisted in the firm’s acquisition of Carillion’s legal services arm in Newcastle, ensuring a smooth process of integration with the London office.

The post Melissa Fogarty, Clifford Chance appeared first on The Lawyer | Legal insight, benchmarking data and jobs.

Following his 2014 promotion to the partnership Gareth Eagles has rapidly risen to be the star partner and top-biller in White & Case’s European bank finance group.

He is trusted to generate, lead and execute work for some of the firm’s biggest and most strategic clients, such as GSO Capital Partners, which is part of The Blackstone Group and a major player in the leveraged finance marketplace.

Eagles has also successfully carved out a niche as the go-to lawyer in the private debt space, a fast-growing area in the leveraged finance sector.

Through a long list of deals he has done for non-bank lenders such as GSO, he has gained a reputation for reinventing and shaping the private credit market for large-cap and upper-mid-market transactions. Apart from a busy flow of client work, Eagles has also been instrumental in shaping the strategic direction and driving the growth of White & Case’s bank finance business.

He has been a key influence behind the firm’s recent private debt hires in New York, as well as internal promotions in London in the past few years.

The post Gareth Eagles, White & Case appeared first on The Lawyer | Legal insight, benchmarking data and jobs.