Skadden London head Richard Youle on a year in management and scaling up London Skadden-style.

‘We’ve had a massive amount of change in the last year,’ says Skadden London head Richard Youle as he sits down to discuss his first year at the helm of the City base.

Youle, who took over as Skadden’s London head from Pranav Trivedi in July 2023 while also maintaining his global co-head of private equity post alongside Ken Wolff in New York, says much of the change has been around how the office and practices are organised.

‘We’ve seen some people step-up into new heads of practice-areas and we looked at the size and shape of our teams and promoted and recruited, where appropriate, to ensure we continue to be a great place to work and can continue to attack the market as powerful challengers,’ he explains.

Practice changes have included Legal 500 leading individuals Katja Butler and George Knighton becoming co-heads of Skadden’s UK corporate practice, while Kate Davies KC has taken over as head of the firm’s international litigation and arbitration group.

The firm has also added a number of lateral partners, including two former Linklaters partners: capital markets partner Noel Hughes, who joined in December, and financial regulatory partner Sebastian Barling, who joined in March this year. Meanwhile the banking practice welcomed  Sebastian FitzGerald from Willkie Farr & Gallagher in January.

‘We’re not Real Madrid signing the best player in the world every year, that’s not what we do,’ says Youle, explaining that growth across the firm’s practices is always strategic.

The firm may not recruit as many laterals as rivals such as Kirkland & Ellis, Latham or Paul Weiss but it has increased lawyer count by 62% since 2019, making it the tenth largest firm in LB’s Global London 2024 table by headcount with 227 fee earners. The tally means that within the top 10, Skadden has seen the second biggest increase in lawyer count over the five year period, behind Kirkland.

Youle says he’s applying some of the experience he’s gained on deals to build the office further. He jokes: ‘I never knew coming in that you could scale an office in the same way as you can scale a deal, which I’ve done for donkey’s years, so it was a nice surprise.’

He is keen to stress that lateral recruitment is less important to the firm than internal promotions, which most recently saw Jisun Choi appointed as a tax partner and Nicholas Adams promoted to partner in the UK disputes team, which has seen David Edwards leave to join Simpson Thacher and white collar partner Elizabeth Robertson leave to launch new investigations firm Robertson Pugh Associates.

‘Homegrown talent is most important,’ he says. ‘While I anticipate growth for our office – it will be a considered and strategic mix of lateral hires that fit with our culture and promoting through the ranks.’

Discussing his strategy for the past year, Youle says each practice in the office has been looking at how they can ‘win’.

He adds: ‘I run deals for a living and my leadership style is to break things down into very small pieces.

‘What we’ve done as an office is we’ve really broken things down, both with professional services and practices – working out where we need to position ourselves for the next 10 years of growth.’

When asked how he’d define winning, Youle responds: ‘Winning for me is continuing to ensure we have a laser-focus on client development and client relationships – right from our professional staff, through to our trainees and our partners.’

‘We are nothing, if not for our clients and our people – so I want to ensure we are continuing to provide our clients with that differentiated service, and also providing our people with an engaging environment within which to work and develop.’

In the past year, Skadden has secured a number of notable mandates, including advising BlackRock on its $3.2bn acquisition of UK investment data group Preqin and advising International Paper on its $7.2bn acquisition of FTSE 100 packaging company DS Smith, alongside Slaughter and May and Sidley.

Looking back on the firm’s successes, Youle maintains that the team’s biggest achievement is ‘how we’ve challenged ourselves on culture around the office.’

He says that the firm introduced Skadden Spirit, a campaign focused on promoting its core values through cultural ambassadors, with over 30 ambassadors within the firm already participating.

‘Ambassadors help decide how we are going to focus on a particular core value every few months – whether that be motivational speakers or events or even making small tweaks to our existing offerings including our affinity groups and well-being initiatives,’ concluded Youle.

elisha.juttla@legalbusiness.co.uk

The post ‘We’re not Real Madrid signing the best player in the world every year, that’s not what we do’ – Skadden London head Youle on scaling up London appeared first on Legal Business.

When I was 18 I left Vancouver to play ice hockey in university in Japan. That got me off on kind of an adventurous track. I grew up dreaming of nothing more than becoming a hockey player. When you try to do that in Canada, you work your way up through the junior leagues. And the junior leagues are tough. You leave home and you go live in a small town, and the hockey team is sort of the centre of life in those towns. You become a minor celebrity. But it’s tough. Not many people make it. There are three levels of junior hockey in Canada, and when you get to the very top level you can be classed as a professional, which means you’re ineligible for university scholarships. I got up close to that level and I had a good look at it and I wasn’t convinced that I was going to make it. I didn’t want to take the risk of dedicating my life to that. So I decided to go for a university education, to at least get something out of all that time playing hockey.

I decided to become a lawyer so I would have more control over my working life than I would have had if I had gone into foreign relations. I did politics as an undergraduate in London. I came to the UK in 1994. As far as I got down the politics line was interning for the Member of the European Parliament who was the special rapporteur for EU-Japan economic relations. I got to spend some time in the circus that is the EU, moving that circus back and forth between Brussels and Strasbourg. It was interesting, certainly. But I just didn’t feel that I could make an impact in that world.

I was able to leverage my knowledge of Japanese language and culture to get started in commercial law. Without that it would have been very hard for me to get a training contract. I applied to a lot of firms and got rejected from a lot of firms. In the end it was a partner at Dentons called Richard Playle who was able to recognise someone who had potential who didn’t fit into that Oxbridge mould.

Coming to Skadden was an opportunity to step into the premier league. I left Dentons to come to Skadden when I was about eight months qualified. Skadden was a very disruptive firm at the time – it’s got a great history of being the kind of firm that comes along and pushes the envelope and changes the game. When I joined Skadden we were a very small shop – about 20 lawyers. But the quality within the partnership was unbelievable. You knew if you worked with these guys you were going to really learn the trade.

‘It ended up with a comedian throwing a foam pie at Rupert Murdoch in parliament. As a martial artist, I regret that I wasn’t there. But happily his wife was there to defend him.’

When I joined in 2000 it was right around when Enron blew up. That caused a lot of the energy companies to have to fix their balance sheets. I got pulled in by a US partner called Doug Nordlinger. He’s sadly passed away now. He was an amazing guy – super smart, amazingly curious, and with a great sense of humour. I spent a couple years with him doing deals for energy companies. He would really push you on the corners of the contract that people would often just skip over. He taught me that you need to focus on the details – to really care about your craft. Another really formative person for me was Michael Hatchard. He’s very well known in the City – one of the first major English partners to leave for a US firm. He really understood the social element. With the best will in the world, your client doesn’t care about what clause 17.3(b) says. And they don’t need to. What they need to know is, my lawyer had everything under control. That’s what they remember. You need to get beyond yourself and your perception of your own sagacity and how good you are.

One deal that really stood out was News Corporation’s first bid for Sky. That was real front-page stuff – not just top of the companies and markets section in the FT, but front page of the FT. Your alarm comes on and it’s Radio Four talking about your deal. That was a very lively period. It ended up with a comedian throwing a foam pie at Rupert Murdoch in parliament. As a martial artist, I regret that I wasn’t there. But happily his wife was there to defend him. That sort of thing, where it’s so much in the public eye, takes a very different skillset. You have to be able to say to your client, ‘You’ve got to be able to trust me. We’re going to need to move very quickly, and you’re going to need to run with me.’

I’m proud of the whole corporate team here. I never had anyone leave my public M&A team for another firm. Some people might say that’s a bad thing. But I think it’s a good thing. It means I’ve hired the right people and they’re engaged and enjoying the work they’re doing. Money is never enough. I always say to people, ‘Don’t do this for the money.’ Because, no matter how much money you get, you will get frustrated. It’s a challenging job. But if you love what you’re doing and you’re really motivated by it, that gives you the fuel you need to make it all the way through. And it paid off for us. We went from around 20 people when I started to closer to 200. In 2021 we topped the UK M&A market by value – we did $83bn worth of deals that year. That was a big thing for us. We were the first non-UK firm to top the UK markets by value. That was particularly fulfilling for me. Because the whole team was just performing at the top level. That’s how you get to $83bn in deals: you make the right decisions in hiring, and also in teaching and mentoring. You bring people along.

We’re here to do business – I’m not interested in how important you think you are or how clever you are or what school you went to or how you speak. I remember once we were doing a deal here for a US client. Both sides had flown in for a meeting. We walked into the conference room and it was filled with all the senior board members and their lawyers. And the chair on the other side had clearly decided that he was going to own the room. He launched into this five or six-minute monologue about how important his company was and how big a deal this was. And the chair on my side sat there, very patiently, and when the guy finished he took his glasses off, he leaned forward, and he said, ‘That’s a really impressive vocabulary you have.’ That sort of attitude is important on the business side and it’s important for lawyers too. It’s a perversion of the service when it becomes about us as these self-perceived grand people. You see it sometimes, where it becomes about you as a lawyer – about proving you’re smarter than I am, that you’re going to somehow win this intellectual battle. And the truth is, it’s not our money. Our job is to get the deal done and to make it work. And it’s the same for chairmen and CEOs, at least in a public company context. It’s not about them either. They’re there representing their shareholders, and it’s the shareholders who own the company.

‘Four pounds per square inch on the end of the chin is a knockout if you time it properly. It’s the same in the business of commercial law. You have to perceive where the market is going and put yourself in the flow.’

Building a conceptual framework from a range of different disciplines has been really important to how I do my work. I learnt a lot from martial arts. I started out doing Taekwondo and then I moved into 4D combat, which is a modern version of Jeet Kune Do, the system that Bruce Lee developed. The approach is kind of like a smorgasbord. Taekwondo was very much ‘stand and strike’. 4D combat is more subtle – it’s more about getting behind your opponent and breaking up their strategy. Speed and power isn’t really the most important thing. What’s more important is timing. Four pounds per square inch on the end of the chin is a knockout if you time it properly. It’s the same in the business of commercial law. You have to perceive where the market is going and put yourself in the flow.

I read a lot about strategy. There’s a book by Lawrence Freedman, the former head of War Studies at King’s College London, called Strategy: A History. It’s a real tome. It begins with primates. The three strategies primates deploy are social threats of violence, collusion, and deception. And the book goes all the way from there through to things like asymmetric warfare and nuclear strategy. It has chapters on corporate strategy, political strategy, even religious strategy – looking at the structure of the Bible and how that works, what it’s designed to achieve. In strategy there’s this concept called the OODA loop: observe, orient, decide, act. In any situation, that’s what you’re doing. You’re observing. Who am I? What are my skills? And then you orient. Where do I want to go? What do I want to achieve? And then you decide how to do that, and then you act. And then you repeat the process. And when you’re dealing with an opponent, you try to disrupt their OODA loop. While they’re still observing or orienting or in the process of deciding, you’re acting, changing the game, so by the time they act it’s a different fact pattern and they’re perpetually behind.

I love music. I’ve built a chopper, a Harley-Davidson, custom-built, fully ground-up, and on the underside of the petrol tank it has an image of Gord Downie, from The Tragically Hip. The image was engraved by a Native artist from the West Coast of Canada. I love the Hip for all sorts of reasons. Gord was a very perceptive, a very interesting poet. He has this line that I love: ‘It’s hard to say, it’s sad but true, I’m kinda dumb, and so are you’. I love jazz, too, a lot of blues. You know what they say – there are only two kinds of music: good and bad.

I don’t know that I would have changed much. Well, maybe there’s one thing. It doesn’t really go with the job – but if I could have spent more time with my family, that would have been good.

Scott Hopkins is a retired partner at Skadden.

alexander.ryan@legalbusiness.co.uk

Portrait: Juan Trujillo

The post Life During Law: Scott Hopkins appeared first on Legal Business.

Asking around the market for tributes to Scott Simpson, Skadden’s eminent M&A partner who died suddenly at the age of 65 on 29 May, soon confirmed what was long suspected. Scott was the kind of man who got everyone up dancing to rock music, the sort of man who put the shirt-related fear of God into German hoteliers, the consummate enthusiast, sportsman and loving family man. He was the kind of man who would not hear of allowing a legal journalist to go unescorted in a foreign city or flinch when she put her foot in it. Effortlessly kind, generous, clever and funny.

Michael Hatchard, the now retired partner who did much to make Skadden a US heavyweight in public M&A work in Europe, recalls fondly: ‘When called to Düsseldorf for what would become the defence of Mannesmann in the bid from Vodafone, Scott left London just before the New Year holidays without hesitation with an overnight bag. He didn’t surface until the spring, by which time he had become a central player in the defence team and the deal had become recommendable. The hotel eventually asked him to sign a waiver because the collars on his much over-laundered shirts were about to fall off.’

One of my own enduring, if slightly mortifying, memories came about when in January 2020 I visited Scott and executive partner Eric Friedman at Skadden’s erstwhile office in the Condé Nast building at 4 Times Square. Not unusually for the New York legal community, it was a late meeting, Scott and Friedman having graciously squeezed me in after a long day of annual financial wrap-up and partner performance reviews.

Ever the gentleman, Scott wanted to make sure I got back safely, insisting on walking me the five minutes to my hotel. En route we passed Jimmy’s Corner, a famous dive bar in Midtown that I had visited the previous night. I waxed lyrical about the unique clientele, atmosphere and exceptional value for money of this pub that was owned by a retired boxing manager, eventually asking Scott: ‘Have you ever been there? It’s really good – only $6 for a glass of wine, too!’ No sooner had the words left my mouth, I realised what a ridiculous question that was – obviously he was accustomed to more salubrious, if less cost-effective, watering holes. Without missing a beat or looking appalled, his answer was a short and sweet: ‘No’, but delivered without so much as a hint of disdain.

Mike Francies, Weil’s London managing partner, reminisces: ‘He was one of the people that was not only respected but also liked and who people liked to be with. I remember going to a Rod Stewart concert with him and his wife at the O2 many years ago and he made us get up off our seats and dance.’

Indeed, Scott was the kind of person who threw himself into society and fun with equal gusto to how he approached deals. Says Hatchard: ‘Scott was the consummate enthusiast. He reacted to any opportunity, whether social or professional, with energy and excitement. He broke received wisdom and refused to be bound by convention for convention’s sake. He hunted for the best outcome and in the process broke records and assumptions. He handled some of the most complex, contested transactions of the last three decades with courage, flair and utter commitment. In the process, he developed novel techniques and delivered outstanding results. He was a true star and magnificent friend.’

Pranav Trivedi, head of Skadden’s London office, observes: ‘Scott was such a big personality, profound force in the market, critical player in so many of our lives that it is difficult to capture his impact in a few words. The outpouring of condolences and sympathy from his Skadden family, clients and the market more generally give only a partial sense of what an impact he made and the legacy we will all strive to live up to. The most consistent themes from these tributes are that he was a cheerleader for, and a friend to, everyone he met and one of the most creative and strategic thinkers of our time. Yet he always seemed to find time to help anyone in need of guidance. His energy and optimism were boundless. We – as an office, a platform, a firm – owe Scott a tremendous debt of gratitude for all the building blocks he has put in place. It is incumbent on all of us to carry his legacy forward.’

That tribute certainly resonates with wider market sentiment. Many of the legal industry’s great and good numbered among the hundreds gathering on the morning of 10 June at St Columba’s Church of Scotland in London’s Pont Street to pay their respects.

Outpourings of grief from family, colleagues and friends bore testament to how keenly Scott’s loss has been felt by all who knew him, not only as Skadden’s influential co-head of global transactions but also as a man of character whose personality engendered respect, loyalty and affection in equal measure.

The funeral service saw heartfelt readings from Pranav Trivedi, Donna Gregg, Scott’s longstanding executive assistant, followed by an emotional family tribute from his children Mairead, Victor and Caitlin.

A eulogy delivered by Lorenzo Corte, Skadden’s London M&A co-head, contained a mixture of shared war stories on deals and funny personal anecdotes, capturing the sense that Scott was not one to silo his home life and professional career – but treated them both with equal import.

Skadden born and bred, having been a summer associate in 1981, joining the firm full-time in 1982 and making partner in 1988, Scott’s route into law was somewhat unorthodox.

On graduating high school, he indulged his love of surfing, living in a beach house in Hawaii near the big waves. Pragmatism eventually kicked in and he decided he’d better get a university degree and a career.

In 1990, having only been a partner for two years, Scott joined the then office leader, Bruce Buck, for what should have been a two-year sojourn in the new London office. He never left.

Speaking with Legal Business in 2020, Scott quipped of the adventure in his characteristic good humour: ‘People questioned why I left New York for London. Being asked to start the M&A business in Europe sounds dramatic, a wonderful honour the firm was bestowing… I learned two years later the firm asked everyone senior to me and they all said no.’

An enviable career has seen him act on some of the most famous and contentious takeovers in history, including Arcelor’s $33bn merger with Mittal Steel and Gucci’s defence against a hostile takeover attempt by LVMH, a mandate that was to lead to a longstanding relationship with the client.

In 2020, Scott recounted the failed hostile takeover of Gucci as a particular defining moment, calling to mind an era when transactions were both fraught and incredibly exciting. ‘Michael [Zaoui, of Morgan Stanley] and I were getting ready to address the board. The phone conversation started on my front stoop at 8pm as I was getting in the house. I never made it inside. I spent till about four in the morning on the phone with Michael screaming at me, me screaming back. At the end he had run out of steam and I had run out of arguments and finally I said: “If we don’t launch the [defence], what do you propose?” Since we didn’t have a plan B, he said, “Fuck it.” The next day we went into the boardroom and launched and it was one of the most effective takeover devices ever. The market loved it and hated it. The journalists all said we were evil, but Gucci enticed [French billionaire François] Pinault to be the white knight and LVMH was sent packing.’

Scott remained an avid surfer and enjoyed shooting, skiing, sailing, going to see Chelsea FC and attending Goodwood Revival with his beloved wife Kathleen.

When asked for tips for success during the 2020 interview, Scott observed: ‘A good M&A practitioner needs to think the unthinkable but, because we are a profession, make sure that fits in the ethical boundaries. People ask how I developed my reputation. I got to know young investment bankers and became friends with them. As their careers evolved, my career evolved. We would get invited into projects based on their recommendations.’

Daniela Conte, Skadden’s assistant director of marketing and communications, added: ‘It’s been a difficult time looking for words to adequately describe the enormous impact Scott had on so many of us. But there are no words to do him justice. It’s true he was a brilliant lawyer, a nurturer of talent and a friend to many. But I liked best his sense of humour, which always stayed on the right side of naughty. The world will be a less fun place without him. Just recently, we were discussing Joe Flom’s ability to look at and learn from the past, assess the present and anticipate the future. This was Scott’s talent as well, and part of the legacy he leaves.’

Scott was an M&A pioneer but more than that – he was a bon viveur, a gentleman and a class act. He will be sorely missed by all who knew him. Our deepest condolences go out to his family, colleagues and friends.

nathalie.tidman@legalease.co.uk

The post ‘A true star and magnificent friend’: Industry greats bid farewell to Skadden M&A doyen Scott Simpson appeared first on Legal Business.

Skadden’s Scott Simpson, one of the most influential M&A lawyers of his generation, has died suddenly at the age of 65, the firm announced today (30 May).

The news will be a huge blow for Skadden and the industry at large, marking the loss of the firm’s co-head of global transactions and one of the most pioneering deal lawyers ever to operate in the Square Mile.

Skadden born and bred, having been a summer associate in 1981, joining the firm full-time in 1982 and making partner in 1988, Scott’s route into law was somewhat unorthodox.

On graduating high school, he indulged his love of surfing by going to live in a beach house in Hawaii near the big waves. Pragmatism eventually kicked in and he decided he’d better get a university degree and a career.

In 1990, having only been a partner for two years, Scott joined the then office leader, Bruce Buck, for what should have been a two-year sojourn in the new London office. He never left.

Speaking with Legal Business in 2020, Scott quipped of the adventure in his characteristic good humour: ‘People questioned why I left New York for London. Being asked to start the M&A business in Europe sounds dramatic, a wonderful honour the firm was bestowing… I learned two years later the firm asked everyone senior to me and they all said no.’

An enviable career has seen him act on some of the most famous and contentious takeovers in history, including Arcelor’s $33bn merger with Mittal Steel and Gucci’s defence against a hostile takeover attempt by LVMH, a mandate that was to lead to a longstanding relationship with the client.

In 2020, Scott recounted the failed hostile takeover of Gucci as a particular defining moment, calling to mind an era when transactions were both fraught and incredibly exciting. ‘Finally I said: “If we don’t launch the defence, what do you propose?”  Since we didn’t have a plan B, he said, “Fuck it.” The next day we went into the boardroom and launched and it was one of the most effective takeover devices ever,’ he recalled fondly.

Scott remained an avid surfer and enjoyed shooting, skiing, going to see Chelsea FC and attending Goodwood Revival with his beloved wife Kathleen. Scott also leaves behind his children Caitlin, Victor and Mairead.

Scott was an M&A pioneer but more than that he was a bon viveur, a gentleman and a class act. He will be sorely missed by all those who knew him. Our deepest condolences go out to his family, colleagues and friends.

nathalie.tidman@legalease.co.uk 

The post A class act: Skadden and the industry mourn death of M&A icon Scott Simpson appeared first on Legal Business.

Skadden has made up its largest haul of new partners in London since 2008, a further showing of support for the City office after an uncharacteristically expansive stint in the lateral recruitment market of late.

The move sees the famously conservative Wall Street giant promote three new partners as part of a 17-strong global round, matching a commitment to organic growth in London last seen 13 years ago.

Private equity lawyer Steven Hannah, M&A lawyer Ani Kusheva and investment management lawyer Greg Norman have made the cut in what Pranav Trivedi (pictured), head of Skadden’s City practice, described as a ‘testament to the strength of Skadden’s London office and the exceptional level of talent within our ranks’.

The investment stands out as a particular coup, considering the firm has only made up four new partners in London across the previous five global promotions rounds, most recently white collar crime partner Andrew Good last year and M&A partner Denis Klimentchenko in 2019.

Indeed, few observers could fail to notice Skadden’s repudiation in recent months of suggestions that is was being too cautious in the London lateral market, most recently last September with the addition of Freshfields, Bruckhaus Deringer’s prized M&A veteran Bruce Embley.

That move capped off a 2020 of dynamism for Skadden, following as it did the hire of restructuring partner Peter Newman from Milbank in February, building on the announced recruitment of Allen & Overy corporate duo George Knighton and Simon Toms. Those A&O moves in particular made waves as Skadden’s first substantial play in London since the recruitment of high-profile dealmaker Richard Youle from White & Case in 2017 and have been viewed as a serious statement of intent on the ambitions of Skadden’s City corporate practice.

While detractors may well question the longevity of the firm’s redoubled investment in London, this promotion round is all to the good in shaking up a market perception that is headed toward being out-of-date. Nevertheless, Skadden’s thoughtful approach to adding to its partnership fits with its prized culture, borne out by the relative scarcity with which it loses partners to rivals. In the age of disruptors, it is heartening to see Skadden closing the gap with its more daring rivals in London.

nathalie.tidman@legalease.co.uk

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Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom has hired one of the most well-known M&A partners in the City, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer veteran Bruce Embley. 

The move is a major fillip for Skadden, which has long been accused of being too conservative in its City hiring policy as well as underweight in its M&A offering since respected rainmaker Michael Hatchard retired at the end of 2017. 

Freshfields’ former global M&A client group co-head Embley was noted as being a ‘roll-up-your-sleeves’ partner and a strong all-rounder in the influential partner stakes in Legal Business’ 2019 feature on the Magic Circle firm. 

Embley, who was rumoured to have been on the market for several months before joining Skadden, has more than 25 years’ experience advising on private equity and public and private M&A transactions in sectors including financial services, energy and telecommunications.  

‘Bruce has led some of the largest and most complex private equity and M&A deals in the UK and internationally, and is an excellent fit for our practice,’ said Scott Simpson, Skadden’s global co-head of transactions. 

 Pranav Trivedi, head of Skadden’s  London office, said: ‘We have made important strategic hires in London over the past year and, in particular, invested in our M&A and private equity bench. Bruce’s experience is in the type of complex, high-stakes transactions for which we are known.’ 

Few observers of Skadden’s City office could fail to notice its recent deviation from conservatism, with the hire of restructuring partner Peter Newman from Milbank in February, building on the recruitment of Allen & Overy (A&O) corporate duo George Knighton and Simon Toms.  

Those A&O moves in particular made waves as Skadden’s first substantial play in London since the hire of high-profile dealmaker Richard Youle from White & Case in 2017 and have been viewed as a serious statement of intent on the ambitions of Skadden’s City corporate practice. 

nathalie.tidman@legalease.co.uk 

The post Skadden doubles down on City recruitment drive with hire of Freshfields star Embley appeared first on Legal Business.

London headcount: 144 lawyers, 28 partners
Lawyer headcount change since 2014: 15% (-7% partners)
London head: Pranav Trivedi
Office specialities: M&A, arbitration, litigation and white collar

Representative matters:

• Acting for FTSE 100 life insurer Phoenix Group on its acquisition of ReAssure from Swiss Re for £3.2bn.
• Castik Capital on the M&A and financing of its acquisition of AddSecure.
• Nightstar Therapeutics on its acquisition by Biogen.
• Two Dutch subsidiaries of NextEra Energy in an investment treaty claim against Spain over the axing of renewable energy feed-in tariffs.

‘It is interesting to see firms continuing to invest at a rate that some in the market view as unsustainable, while others appear to be engaging in essentially a no-growth strategy,’ muses Pranav Trivedi, the head of Skadden’s London office. Until recently, many felt the Wall Street giant’s approach in the City had slipped into the latter camp.

That said, few observers could fail to notice Skadden’s recent deviation from such conservatism, with the hire of restructuring partner Peter Newman from Milbank in February, building on the announced recruitment of Allen & Overy (A&O) corporate duo George Knighton and Simon Toms. The A&O moves in particular made waves as Skadden’s first substantial play in London since the hire of high-profile dealmaker Richard Youle from White & Case in 2017 and have been viewed as a serious statement of intent on the ambitions of Skadden’s City corporate practice.

For many, the key question is how transportable clients will be from A&O. ‘Partners sell themselves hard and, while firms are more sophisticated at doing that now, it is so difficult to do an analysis on the profitability of a book of business,’ notes one M&A partner at a rival US firm.

‘US firms continue to be disruptors and are able to attract the best talent, including from the Magic Circle.’
Pranav Trivedi, Skadden

Regardless, the hires are a huge win in Skadden’s oft-cited rivalry with the Magic Circle, especially when it comes to taking elusive market share in UK plc work. ‘Magic Circle firms drive the agenda here to some extent, but US firms continue to be disruptors and are able to attract the best talent, including from the Magic Circle,’ says Trivedi. Few would argue that Youle has not been a significant boon for Skadden, with the buyout star proving a draw for repeat and prolific private equity clients, including Hg and Castik Capital.

There has also been some headway in organic growth, with Skadden promoting four in the last five rounds in London, most recently M&A partner Denis Klimentchenko. Trivedi also points to the promotion of Riley Graebner to counsel in the corporate team, as well as the move to London from New York of counsel Andrew Good to bolster its City white-collar crime practice.

Trivedi has no trouble reeling off a list of high-end mandates across key practice areas, highlighting a ‘transformational’ deal advising FTSE 100 life insurer and repeat customer Phoenix Group on its acquisition of ReAssure. Another Magic Circle lateral that paid off (from Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in 2014), insurance partner Robert Stirling led on this deal, after advising Phoenix on its £3.2bn buyout of Standard Life Aberdeen’s insurance business in 2018.

Trivedi is bullish on the UK market: ‘After last December’s general election, matters that had been put on hold due to uncertainty have generally restarted and, as a result, the new year has started out strong.’

Brexit or no Brexit, the message is clear that London is still indivisible from a Europe-wide investment plan. Trivedi highlights Jan Bauer’s appointment last year, ‘the biggest name in German private equity, hot on the heels of the internal promotions of Holger Hofmeister in Frankfurt and Arash Attar-Rezvani in Paris’. He points to its role advising LVMH on its proposed $16.2bn acquisition of Tiffany & Co and SCOR in its successful defence against shareholder activist CIAM.

Detractors may question the longevity of a ‘relative hiring spree’: ‘I anticipate a Gibson [Dunn] – a massive push and let’s see where it really is in four to five years,’ predicts one rival partner.

Trivedi responds that Skadden is planning for the long-term: ‘We have a single global equity structure and we don’t add lawyers if there is no business case to support the investment. We will continue to promote internally and make lateral hires in areas where it makes strategic sense to do so.’

It has been a strategy that fits with Skadden’s prized culture, borne out by the relative scarcity with which it loses partners to rivals. It is a confident message, but in the age of disruptors, it could be convincingly argued that it is better to run the risk of investing ‘unsustainably’ than fall too far behind more daring rivals.

nathalie.tidman@legalease.co.uk

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We had Skadden’s 30th anniversary party at Kensington Palace. Very cool. I’ve been here most of those 30 years.

I took a year and a half off between high school and college in the States. I spent most of my youth surfing and had a dream to finish high school in Hawaii.

When I graduated high school, I lived in a beach house on the north shore of Oahu, where the big waves come in the winter. I lived in a house with 13 other people, average age 25, 26, and I was 16, 17. During that winter I decided that when I got to 25 I wanted a career. That was the point I decided I would go to university.

I was Skadden born and raised. A summer associate in 1981 and joined the firm full-time in ’82. Became a partner in ’88. I transferred to London to start the M&A business in 1990.

I continue to surf, absolutely. As Skadden expanded its global network, each time we opened an office I spent as much time as I could surfing. You’d be surprised at how big the surf culture in Japan is. When we opened in São Paulo I missed some client meetings I was supposed to have with Joe Flom because I was surfing in Rio. The only person who found that amusing was Joe Flom.

When I arrived in London there was a pretty cosy relationship between certain Wall Street firms who had been here for some time and the Magic Circle. We came into town with a very different vision: to leverage our reputation as M&A specialists and participate in what we thought would be a wave of M&A activity as European businesses started to consolidate across borders. In 1990 Skadden was the newcomer and the outcast, or as the [Malcolm Gladwell] book says, the outlier.

I missed some client meetings in São Paulo with Joe Flom because I was surfing in Rio. The only person who found that amusing was Joe Flom.

The Iron Curtain had just come down in 1989. There were significant privatisations in central Europe and they needed advisers. The banks were the first to go in and help these emerging economies fix their businesses which had been state-owned. The quickest way to do that, in Poland, then Czechoslovakia, and the other parts of Eastern Europe, was through an M&A trade. I found myself in the early 1990s doing a lot of privatisations in Central Europe.

We participated in a whole wave of privatisations, particularly in telecoms in Western Europe, and had the beginnings of cross-border public company M&A practices on the Continent, beginning in the Nordics but then throughout Europe. Right place, right time.

We took a decision early to recruit talent in the UK, France and Germany. That was viewed as outrageous. Within a couple of years the Magic Circle began to expand its capital markets businesses to US securities law and that was the first big rift in the cosy relationship that had existed with the US firms. That led to where we are today, an all-out competitive battle between Wall Street and the Magic Circle.

A good M&A practitioner needs to think the unthinkable but, because we are a profession, make sure that fits in the ethical boundaries.

You create your own luck but you need to be sensitive to when opportunities present themselves, either because markets are changing or disrupted.

I tend to be calm. Respectful. I would cringe when I heard lawyers from London saying: ‘I don’t know how you do things, but in the City this is what we do!’ Very similar to saying, ‘I don’t know how it’s done in Wichita, but on Wall Street, it’s done this way.’ Glaring examples of how not to behave. Being respectful is essential but also a way to distinguish yourself.

I did some of my best learning by being stretched by more senior partners who forced me to confront issues without the experience they had. One of the things Skadden does most effectively is exposing lawyers to client work challenges and expecting them to rise to the occasion.

You have to be a good listener. One thing I decided early as a new partner was to speak publicly often. The easiest way to get public speaking gigs was to teach. Through teaching, my communication skills improved. Ability to communicate with team members, clients, is critically important.

People ask how I developed my reputation. I got to know young investment bankers and became friends with them. As their careers evolved, my career evolved. We would get invited into projects based on their recommendations.

I’m an avid skier. I’ve become quite a shooter in the UK. I made fun of these people who went out and shot birds for 15 years and made fun of the culture, especially in this office, around football and now, lo and behold, I’m a Chelsea season ticket-holder and I go on bird shoots. I love the outdoors. I was a boy scout as a kid and threw myself into scouting as an adult with my kids.

We’ve always rented cottages outside the City. We like to get out as far as Shropshire and closer in Cirencester and other places. We now have a weekend cottage on the South Coast, a little sailing village called Itchenor, where Storm Dennis hit and marched across Devon. I sailed small boats as a boy. I have a stand-up board.

My wife and I love to go to the Goodwood Revival, get dressed up. Another thing I used to make fun of. I made fun of golfers, I kind of like it now. You have to try new things.

I was asked in 1997 to study Gucci because the CEO thought it might come under attack. Gucci was a Dutch company and I studied Dutch takeover defence techniques. I came up with a desperate plan in the event someone started accumulating Gucci stock. It involved creating new shares and sticking them in a trust to neutralise the shares the ‘bad guy’ was buying. There was a banker, Michael Zaoui at Morgan Stanley, in charge of the banking defence and I was in charge of the legal defence. Michael and I were friends. I had spent two years developing a rather outrageous device. We ran out of options, Gucci’s board was meeting next morning and it turned out LVMH was the company that accumulated 30% of Gucci stock and was refusing to make an offer for the whole company.

Michael and I were getting ready to address the board. The phone conversation started on my front stoop at 8pm as I was getting in the house. I never made it inside. I spent till about four in the morning on the phone with Michael screaming at me, me screaming back. At the end he had run out of steam and I had run out of arguments and finally I said: ‘If we don’t launch the [defence], what do you propose? Since we didn’t have a plan B, he said, ‘Fuck it.’ The next day we went into the boardroom and launched and it was one of the most effective takeover devices ever. The market loved it and hated it. The journalists all said we were evil, but Gucci enticed [French billionaire François] Pinault to be the white knight and LVMH was sent packing.

As a young lawyer I had to deliver some documents at midnight during intense negotiations. I gave them to the general counsel for a signature. He started screaming at me. Didn’t know who I was. Fifteen minutes later the senior partner took the GC – the most important client that partner had, critically important for Skadden – pulled him out of the conference room, and told him he was never to speak to his team members again like that. I will never forget that support for younger lawyers. It set a standard for how I wanted to behave.

I said: ‘If we don’t launch the defence, what do you propose?’ Since we didn’t have a plan B, he said, ‘Fuck it.’ It was one of the most effective takeover devices ever.

As I was coming up through the M&A department I was fortunate to have Joe Flom there, setting very high standards for thinking the unthinkable, for devoting yourself to your clients 24/7. Morris Kramer and Michael Goldberg were mentors in those early formative M&A projects. The firm was involved in many of the cutting-edge transactions and we were small. When I joined, we were 200 lawyers total. Our European operation is now larger than that. As I matured in the partnership, Joe became my primary mentor.

I was working one Saturday in our library, 10 or 11 o’clock at night. I heard a sound so I went to figure out who else was there and I saw Joe pulling books off a shelf. He was thinking of a desperate strategy in an election contest where his board was being challenged by an activist. Joe did his own research, came up with his own strategy and sprung in at the annual general meeting without telling anyone. The strategy was to keep the voting polls open while the ballots were being tallied and hopefully change the vote. He unearthed case law to support it. His thought process was: ‘I can’t risk anyone knowing we’re about to do it. The other side knows, they’ll go to court.’ The kind of thing you can’t teach.

Our eldest daughter is an actor and we’re big supporters of the theatre. Big interests are The Old Vic and the Churchill Museum and War Rooms. Been very active in helping them.

I love books about Churchill and anything that’s a mystery or a spy novel, Grisham or Ludlum. The more I can read the merrier. Few serious books, I’m all about fiction. My family turns The Big Bang Theory on every evening and I have become quite the devotee.

I liked Suits because one of the proof readers on it was a Skadden paralegal. That’s why Skadden is referenced in a few episodes. There are some elements of Suits here, there’s some intrigue [laughs]. House of Cards was very popular for me before Kevin Spacey went down the tubes…

I’m a big American college football fan and a big rugby fan. Has to be the World Cup or the Six Nations, I can’t handle rugby league.

My wife Kathleen was a paralegal at Skadden before law school. When we met she said I looked like Luke Skywalker. Before Mark Hamill had his car crash.

Regrets? No. People questioned why I left New York for London. Being asked to start the M&A business in Europe sounds dramatic, a wonderful honour the firm was bestowing, which is the way I took it. I learned two years later the firm asked everyone senior to me and they all said no.

Follow your instinct. Emphasising the importance of a moral compass is the most important thing for young people starting out in this profession.

Scott Simpson is co-head of global transactions at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom

nathalie.tidman@legalease.co.uk

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A firm not famed for aggressive recruitment drives, the move is notable for being Skadden’s third London lateral recruit within the last six months, after it benefited from Allen & Overy’s failed US merger to add corporate partners Simon Toms and George Knighton last September.

Those hires were considered the biggest coup for Skadden’s European corporate practice since that of private equity partner Richard Youle from White & Case in 2017.

A Milbank ‘lifer’, Newman advises companies, creditors and stakeholders on cross-border restructurings, distressed acquisitions and financings. He will join Skadden’s corporate restructuring team.

Recent work highlights include advising new lenders to TORM A/S, the Danish shipping company on a $1.5bn restructuring and merger, the junior lender coordinating committee of General Healthcare Group on its £2.1bn restructuring and the lenders of Spanish clothing retailer Cortefiel on a €1.3bn restructuring.

Organic growth over the last year at Skadden’s Canary Wharf office has also seen M&A lawyer Denis Klimentchenko promoted to partner.

Scott Simpson, co-head of Skadden’s global transactions practice, said: ‘We continue to invest in the growth of our European platform through strategic hires. Peter’s experience in financial restructuring, with a particular focus on advising funds on their distressed investments, will deepen our bench in this important area and enhance the service we provide to our clients.’

nathalie.tidman@legalease.co.uk

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Leading US firms continue to dominate the London recruitment market with significant appointments from the Magic Circle, as Weil, Gotshal & Manges hired Linklaters’ highly-rated M&A partner David Avery-Gee (pictured) shortly after Allen & Overy (A&O) saw corporate pair Simon Toms and George Knighton jump ship to Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom.

The hire of Avery-Gee is a coup for Weil, which has struggled against more potent US rivals in recent years in London. The office has had setbacks in corporate, including the loss of London managing partner Mike Francies’ protégé Samantha McGonigle, who left after 13 years to co-found a growth fund in February.

With 20 years’ experience as a Linklaters lifer, Avery-Gee has a particular focus on advising on M&A deals and IPOs in sectors including natural resources, energy and financial services. He has advised Glencore on a series of transactions, including the merger with Xstrata and its listing on the London and Hong Kong Stock Exchanges.

A favourite of Linklaters senior partner Charlie Jacobs and acknowledged as a rising star in our 2016 M&A Report, he made partner in 2011 and had under his belt a valuable stint on the M&A team of the investment banking division of Morgan Stanley from 2005 to 2006.

News of the hire comes after recent LLP accounts showed that Weil’s London office increased revenue 15% from £126.1m to top £144.8m during 2018. Operating profit surged 23% to reach £70m as the partner profit pool increased 27% from £51.8m to hit £66m. The City office’s top-earning partner took home £1.72m on the back of the profit increase, a 41% increase on the previous year.

Meanwhile, in September A&O lost two of its most well-regarded London corporate partners to Skadden, shortly after its long-running merger talks with O’Melveny & Myers were called off. The departures to a US outfit carry a particular symbolic value at a time when A&O’s leadership has promised to fast-track investment in its US practice as the pressure to strengthen its capabilities Stateside persists. For Skadden, this is the biggest move for its European corporate practice since the hire of private equity partner Richard Youle from White & Case in 2017.

London M&A co-head Scott Hopkins said: ‘We’re constantly in the market executing large, complex, cross-border M&A deals. We’re not expanding without being careful in terms of how we do it. Our growth in London can be described as considered and stable. We’re constantly looking for incremental growth and assessing where we should be growing.

‘Simon and George add to the bench strength and central mass in our corporate group because they cover a broad range of transactions. But at the same time they were targeted – Simon has done a lot of tech and fintech work which synchronises nicely with our growth on the tech side of the corporate practice. They have great pedigrees, purely from a local perspective, which is also something that is important to us. It’s important that the quality of our English M&A practice is on par with the best the Magic Circle has to offer.’

muna.abdi@legalease.co.uk

For more on Allen & Overy’s corporate practice, see Deal View

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