PEP rises 3% at Squire Sanders Hammonds
LAW firm Squire Sanders Hammonds has announced a 3% increase in full-year profits per equity partner at £375,000, however, fee income for the legal practice was flat, matching last year’s figure of £118m.
Peter Crossley, Squire Sanders Hammonds’ European managing partner, said: “We are satisfied with our performance in what has been a year of major investment in bringing together Squire, Sanders & Dempsey and Hammonds and launching as a combined firm in January. With this set of results we have a solid platform on which to continue to build our global practice and position ourselves for future growth.”
He said the firm had seen growth in its corporate, litigation and pensions teams, while offices in France and Germany had performed strongly in 2011.
“We see this momentum continuing across Continental Europe as we are offering our clients a more complete service in key practices such as corporate, banking and finance, real estate, restructuring and European Union competition and trade,” added Mr Crossley.
From a corporate perspective, the team has advised on £15.6bn ($25.5bn) worth of UK deals and a similar sum in Europe, according to Thomson Reuters.
Recent transactions include the £271m ($440.8m) acquisition by Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc of AB Sanitas and £270m ($440m) acquisition by Group DF of Nadra Bank. These have involved teams of lawyers from the practice’s offices in London, Kyiv, Warsaw, Brussels, Phoenix and Washington.
In another example of cross-border support, the Initial Public Offering of 3Legs Resources plc on the AIM market involved the legal practice’s capital markets capabilities in the UK, the United States, Germany and France.
In Birmingham, highlights have included new client wins such as Lee Cooper Brands and Taylor Wimpey UK.
From January – June 2011, the firm was ranked 5th by volume of deals and 8th by value of deals completed in the Midlands according to Experian Corpfin, with the corporate team advising on seven deals worth £370m. Some of the deals completed include advising on the £45m tertiary buyout of Teaching Personnel and the acquisition of C&C Consulting by Team Telecom Group.
The Birmingham partnership was boosted by the promotion of Daniel French within the business recovery and insolvency team at the end of last year and the appointment of James Retallack to the employment team earlier this month.
The firm’s pensions team, led by Birmingham-based Global Practice Group Leader for Pensions, François Barker, also won European Pensions Law Team of the Year at the European Pensions Awards 2011 and Global Pensions Law Firm of the Year 2011.
“We have been operating as a combined firm for six months and our expanded practice expertise, industry knowledge and global reach has been well received by clients, giving us even greater confidence that the investment decisions we have made will stand us in good stead,” said Mr Crossley.
