JD Journal » davis polk

Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP Hires Veteran Attorney for English Law Practice

jim — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 01:32:25 +0000

A practice focusing on English law in the London office of Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP is being launched by the firm. It will be led by a new employee, Simon Witty, who is joining the firm from Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP. The news was announced by the law firm Friday.

“We have seen Simon’s work firsthand in handling some of the most complex equity transactions in Europe,” Thomas J. Reid, the managing partner for Davis Polk, explained in a statement released on Friday. “He is ideally suited to help us launch our English law practice in London and to develop our existing English law capabilities in China and Brazil.”

Witty worked with Freshfields since 1996 and said that he enjoyed his time with the firm. He also said that the chance to operate his practice with Davis Polk brought on a brand new challenge for him that would also be exciting.

Witty was involved in multiple international public offerings, according to his biography from Freshfields. Those offerings include Virgin Mobile, Eircom Ltd (an Irish telecommunications firm), and Premier Foods PLC (the largest producer of food for the United Kingdom).

According to his Freshfields biography, Witty received his education at Balliol College at the University of Oxford.

Davis Polk already offers securities services for the world in Europe, Asia and Latin American but the expansion of its London office will only help to strengthen those services for the firm, according to Reid.

“We expect to make additional senior strategic hires in our London office like Simon, who fit well in our collaborative culture and practice in our core areas,” Reid said.

English legal services are already offered by Davis Polk in the firm’s offices in Sao Paulo and Hong Kong.

The Davis Polk office in London opened back in 1973 and it serves as the headquarters for the practice in Europe. The firm has previously worked on mergers and acquisition cases in Europe over the past couple of years.

Swiss electronic connector makers TE Connectivity Ltd. was represented by Davis Polk when it acquired Deutsch Group SAS, which is an electronics company from France. The deal was for $2.1 billion and it was announced back in November. In May, the law firm was able to hire Jacques Naquet-Radiguet from the firm of Shearman & Sterling LLP to lead the Paris office of Davis Polk.

Naquet-Radiguet worked on deals including selling the Lutetia Hotel from the Starwood Capital Group Global LLC to Alrov Properties & Lodgings Ltd. He also worked on selling the Hotel de Crillon to an investor from Saudi Arabia.

Morning Roundup

joshua — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 00:19:52 +0000

Good morning everyone! Today is Tuesday, November 23rd. Here’s a quick look back at yesterday’s stories.

Russell Rogers, a partner in Thompson Hine LLP’s business litigation and product liability litigation practice groups, will assume leadership of the firm’s Atlanta office…

Davis Polk announced that Paul Chow, a leading Chinese and Hong Kong M&A lawyer, would join the firm as a partner in Hong Kong…

Clifford Chance added Meghan O’Reilly as counsel in the firm’s New York office…

Walmart’s legal department announced plans to form an in-house pro bono program…

International law firm King & Spalding added three partners to it finance practice…

Davis Polk Adds Partner to Complete Conversion of Hong Kong Office

joshua — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 19:55:59 +0000

Davis Polk announced that Paul Chow, a leading Chinese and Hong Kong M&A lawyer, will join the firm as a partner in Hong Kong. He joins recent partner arrivals, Bonnie YT Chan and Antony Dapiran, to round out Davis Polk’s core team of senior Hong Kong and U.K.-qualified lawyers.

The announcement comes on the heels of the Nov. 1 conversion of Davis Polk’s Hong Kong office to a Hong Kong law practice. Most of the firm’s nearly 40 lawyers in Hong Kong are dually admitted in Hong Kong and New York, and a number are U.K.-qualified as well. These lawyers include eight partners and approximately 20 associates who are admitted in Hong Kong.

“We are delighted to welcome Paul to the firm,” said John R. Ettinger, Managing Partner of Davis Polk. “His arrival is critical as we complete the foundation of our team of elite partners across the core Hong Kong law services that our clients are asking us to provide.”

Chow will join Davis Polk from the Beijing office of Linklaters, where he is a partner and heads the office. He has advised on a range of public and private M&A transactions, cross-border and strategic investment transactions and a number of privatisations and takeovers in Hong Kong.

Morning Roundup

joshua — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 10:54:21 +0000

Good morning everyone! Today is Friday, September 24th. Here’s a quick look back at yesterday’s stories.

Reed Smith was brought on as U.S. corporate and securities counsel for China Sun Group High-Tech Co…

Quarterly revenue at Britain’s 100 biggest law firms increased by an average of 5 percent for the three-month period ending July 31…

Arnold & Porter acquired three attorneys from Sonnenschein…

Four Davis Polk partners were named ‘Top Lawyers’ in California…

Troutman Sanders appointed a new managing partner in its Washington, D.C office…

The Best Lawyers in America 2011® will feature 58 attorneys from Winstead PC…

Davis Polk Partners Named ‘Top Lawyers’ in California

joshua — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 16:28:01 +0000

Four partners from the Menlo Park office of Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP have been named to the Daily Journal‘s “Top 100 Lawyers” list. The Davis Polk lawyers selected for the list, which recognizes the leading 100 lawyers in California, were corporate partners Bruce K. Dallas, Alan F. Denenberg and William M. Kelly and litigation partner Christopher B. Hockett. Over 25 percent of Davis Polk’s Menlo Park partners were included.

The Daily Journal, a leading legal newspaper in California, has published the list annually since 1997. The list is compiled by members of the newspaper’s editorial staff, and includes lawyers in a variety of sectors, including private practice, academia and public service.

Founded in 1999, Davis Polk’s Menlo Park office serves as the focal point for the firm’s global technology practice and consists of more than 60 lawyers, including 15 partners and two counsel. The corporate practice emphasizes corporate governance, capital markets, mergers and acquisitions, IP strategy and counseling, compensation and tax.

Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP is a global law firm with more than 750 lawyers in offices in New York, Menlo Park, CA, Washington DC, London, Paris, Madrid, Hong Kong, Beijing and Tokyo.

Morning Roundup

joshua — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 12:59:06 +0000

Good morning everyon! Today is Tuesday, August 24th. Here’s a quick recap of yesterday’s stories.

The “Tax Lady’ Roni Deutch was slapped with a $34 million lawsuit for fraud by California Attorney General Jerry Brown…

Dickstein Shapiro added two partners, previously from Patton Boggs…

The American Lawyer publication Corporate Counsel announced the top coporate law firms…

McCarter & English named a new managing partner…

Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati added a partner, and expanded its Asia Practice…

Two principal members of Price Waicukauski & Riley were selected by peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America…

Top Corporate Law Firms Announced

todd — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 20:06:35 +0000

American Lawyer publication Corporate Counsel has come out with its annual list of law firms representing the big shots in corporate America. The survey stuck to Fortune 100 companies as a marker for “corporate America.”

In general corporate law, the mentions were as follows: Cleary represented 12 Fortune 100 corporations, Davis Polk represented 11, Cravath represented 10, as did Simpson Thatcher.

In the field of intellectual property, Alston & Bird were mentioned 8 times, K&L 7 times, Baker Botts 6 times and Fish & Richardson were mentioned 6 times as well.

To aggregate the information for the list, Corporate Counsel used PACER, an electronic public access service of the United States federal court documents, public filings, the Corporate Scorecard, and the Patent and Trademark office.

Morning Roundup

joshua — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 10:21:54 +0000

Good morning everyone! Today is Tuesday, August 17th. Here’s a quick look back at yesterday’s stories.

Andrew J., “A.J.” Thomas joined Jenner & Block’s L.A. office as partner…

A Greenberg Traurig partner was named ABA Committee Co-Chair…

Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP added two partners to its Hong Kong practice…

Kobre & Kim prepared to open an office in Hong Kong…

Davis Polk Adds Partners to Hong Kong Practice

joshua — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 16:36:00 +0000

Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP has added two partners to its recently-added Hong Kong practice. Joining the firm are Bonnie YT Chan, a former senior vice president of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange; and Antony Dapiran, who previously served as managing partner of Freshfields’ Beijing office.

Chan is a corporate lawyer and financial regulator who served the Hong Kong Stock Exhchange since 2007. Prior to joining HKEx, Chan was Executive Director of the Legal and Compliance Department of Morgan Stanley’s Hong Kong office.

Dapiran is considered a leading corporate lawyer in China. While at Freshfields, he advised on some of the largest and most complex initial public offerings in the China market.

Davis Polk has more than 35 lawyers at its two offices in China, which includes five partners and 25 associates fluent in Mandarin. Overall, Davis Polk has more than 750 lawyers practicing throughout the world.

Morning Roundup

joshua — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 10:18:34 +0000

Good morning everyone! Today is Wednesday, July 21st. Here’s a quick recap of yesterday’s stories.

BuckleySandler added three attorneys to its practice…

Head of Clifford Chance’s UK fund practice left for Simpson…

A Reed Smith partner committed suicide…

Wachtell topped the Vault Law 100 again…

Kagan’s confirmation was approved by judiciary committee…

Adam Taliaferro joined Duane Morris…

Wachtell Again Atop Vault Law 100

joshua — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 20:49:50 +0000

The 2011 Vault Law 100 was released Tuesday and again topping the list was Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz.

The only change in the top 5 was Sullivan & Cromwell leapfrogging Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom for the third spot. In a press release, Vault.com Managing Editor Brian Dalton noted the continuing rise of litigation boutiques in the rankings. As an example, Dalton notes Quinn Emmanuel has jumped from No. 43 in 2008 to No. 19 this year. He theorizes the down economy has allowed boutiques to compete with full-service firms for top students.

“As the Great Recession is well into its litigation phase, litigation boutiques are increasingly competing with the large full-service firms for the top law student talent,” Daltonsaid. “Quinn Emmanuel’s meteoric rise through our rankings reflects the growing success and impact of the boutique model industry-wide.”

The rankings were compiled through an anonymous survey of more than 15,000 attorneys at 165 law firms.

Here is Vault.com’s Top 10:

1. Wachtell

2. Cravath, Swaine & Moore

3. Sullivan & Cromwell.

4. Skadden

5. Davis Polk & Wardwell

6. Simpson Thacher & Bartlett

7. Weil, Gotshal & Manges

8. Williams & Connolly

9. Cleary Gottlieb

10 Covington & Burling

Baker & McKenzie Replaces Skadden Atop AM Law 100

joshua — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 17:00:55 +0000

American Lawyer released its top 100 law firms Thursday and, as it notes in its summary of the rankings, things certainly could have been worse in 2009. Profits per equity partner, which increased 0.3 percent last year to $1.26 million, was the lone category that showed improvement of the rankings’ four traditional measuring sticks. And while gross revenue, head count and revenue per lawyer were all down, “the bad results weren’t nearly as dire as many firms had feared just a year ago, American Lawyer reports.

Taking a closer look at the four categories we find that Baker & McKenzie was the highest revenue-grossing firm last year with just over $2.1 billion. It supplants Skadden to take the top spot for the first time since 1994. Eleven firms topped $1 billion in gross revenue, including K&L Gates, which reached the level for the first time.

Overall, total revenue was off by 3.4 percent, with the firms grossing a total of $64.8 billion, down roughly $2.3 billion from the prior year.

More than half, 56 firms, showed drops in revenue per lawyer, which the report notes is “our best measure of a firm’s financial health.” Debevoise & Plimpton had the biggest decline at 19.1 percent, which dropped them out of the top 10.

Revenue per lawyer was down $15,697, to $802,381, a 2 percent fall. This was the second consecutive year in which RPL fell.

A total of 54 firms reduced their head counts last year, cutting more than 3,000 lawyers overall.

As for profits per partner, 16 firms had PPP exceeding $2 million in 2009. That is the same number as 2008, though that group has seen some changes. Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft and Davis Polk & Wardwell replaced Debevoise & Plimpton and Dechert in that group.

The Top 10 firms based on revenue:

Baker & McKenzie, $2.11 billion

Skadden, $2.10 billion

Latham & Watkins, $1.82 billion

Jones Day $1.52 billion

Kirkland & Ellis $1.43 billion

Sidley Austin, $1.35 billion

White & Case, $1.3 billion

Weil Gotshal, $1.23 billion

Greenberg Traurig $1.17 billion

Mayer Brown, $1.12 billion

Weil Gotshal Tops the World in M&A Advisements

joshua — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 15:59:20 +0000

Weil, Gotshal & Manges advised on $90.8 billion in announced mergers and acquisitions in the first quarter of 2010 to top all law firms. Reuters reports an improved credit market and more risk taking has led to a rebound in the M&A market.

Weil Gotshal’s advisements included the biggest in the quarter, a $35.5-billion takeover of American International Group Inc’s Asian life insurance unit by Britain’s Prudential Plc. Frederick Green, co-chairman of Weil’s M&A practice, commented on the state of the market.

“You are seeing the effects of pent-up demand after a lengthy period of very slow M&A activity, coupled with a strong equity market,” Green told Reuters. “That has led to a marked increase in the number of stock-for-stock mergers, where the buyer’s stock is used as acquisition currency.”

Coming in second in transactions with $88 billion was Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz. It is followed by Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton ($80 billion), Davis Polk & Wardwell ($77.2 billion).

Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP which ranked first last year, came in eighth. Weil ranked 10^th last year.

Morning Roundup

sara — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 12:53:12 +0000

Good morning everyone! Today is Wednesday, March 3, and here’s a quick look back at yesterday’s news…

Revenue is down at Winston & Strawn…

DLA Piper forms an alliance with a Brazilian law firm…

Former Arnold & Porter chairman Michael Sohn joins Davis Polk…

A former secretary sues Drinker Biddle over a pay dispute…

Ex Countrywide CEO Angelo Mozilo hires prominent D.C. lawyer Brendan Sullivan…

New research finds that U.S. News and World Report Law School rankings have an adverse impact on diversity efforts…

Irell & Manella wins an unanimous decision on behalf of Novellus Systems…

Fulbright & Jaworski names James K. Dixon their new executive director…

Wilkinson Barker Knauer scoops up Morrison & Foerster’s communication law group…

Patton Boggs partner Rodney E. Slater will advise Toyota on quality and safety issues…

Firms Tighten up in Partnership Promotions

joshua — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 23:21:46 +0000

In a year that has been notable for salary cuts, layoffs, associate deferrals and smaller bonuses, it should come as no surprise that promotions to partner are also down across the board. Profits are down, and firms are reluctant to increase the number of slices of the shrinking pie. Although not every firm has announced this years promotions yet, plenty have.

Here’s a sampling of prominent firms that have announced a smaller partnership class this year compared to last year: Cleary Gottlieb, Latham & Watkins, Ropes & Gray, Proskauer Rose, Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz, Skadden Arps, Davis Polk, Paul Hastings, Gibson Dunn, Mayer Brown, Kirkland & Ellis. The list of firms bucking the trend is much smaller and those that have promoted larger classes have promoted only marginally more partners while some of the firms with smaller classes have cut promotions by as much as half. Fried Frank for example promoted seven new partners, up from five the previous year, but did so in a year where its total number of attorneys shrank by 26%.

Morning Roundup

joshua — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 17:30:41 +0000

Good morning one and all! It’s Friday, November 27, and now that the triptophan has hopefully worn off, here’s a look at wednesday’s headlines.

Scott Rothstein has been officialy disbarred…

Debevoise & Plimpton announced their bonus schedules…

And so did Davis Polk…

and in Switzerland, film director Roman Polanski has been granted bail…

More Bonuses

joshua — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 21:11:24 +0000

-Insert cookie cutter story here-

Debevoise & Plimpton announced bonuses today. Second verse, same as the first… I’m rapidly running out of new and creative ways to say this, so here it is – it’s the same bonus schedule first issued by Cravath, then followed by Cleary Gottlieb, Skadden, Wilkie Farr, Simpson Thatcher, and Davis Polk. $7500 for first year associates, seniors get $30k, and everyone else is on a sliding scale somewhere in between.

Nothing to see here, move along…