Linklaters
Encyclopedia
Linklaters LLP is a global law firm
headquartered in London
, United Kingdom
and a member of the 'Magic Circle'
of leading UK law firms. Linklaters is the world's fourth largest global law firm by revenue. In 2009/10 it received total revenues of £1.18 billion and profits per equity partner of £1.2 million. As of April 2009, it employed approximately 2,260 legal advisers and 2,830 other staff across 26 offices in 19 countries.
Simon Davies
has been the firm's managing partner since January 2008.
; Lagerlöf & Leman, and Oppenhoff & Rädler. Over the next five years Linklaters merged with three of these firms in Belgium
, Germany
, Luxembourg
, and Sweden
, merged with other firms in the Czech Republic
and Poland
, and opened offices in Amsterdam
, Bangkok
, Beijing
, Budapest
, Bucharest
, Bratislava
, Lisbon
, Madrid
, Milan
, Rome
, São Paulo
, and Shanghai
. During this period, Linklaters also formed a joint venture with the Singapore
an law firm, Allen & Gledhill, to create Linklaters Allen & Gledhill, and a co-operation with Brazilian firm Lefosse Advogados.
On April 1, 2005, when new laws came into effect in Japan permitting multi-national partnerships, Linklaters created Japan’s first fully merged law firm practising Japanese, English, and US law. Linklaters closed its offices in Bratislava, Bucharest, Budapest and Prague in 2007. Linklaters opened an office in Dubai
in February 2006, as its 30th office worldwide. Linklaters cut 270 jobs in London, January 2008, in the aftermath of the credit crunch; consisting of around 120 lawyers and 150 business services providers. This was claimed to be part of Simon Davies, Managing Partner's plan to become a smaller, profitable organisation. In 2008 Linklaters was appointed to handle the insolvency of Lehman Brothers
. The court appointed auditor's report on Lehman revealed in March 2010 that Lehman, with no U.S. law firm willing to approve aggressive accounting practices used to hide debt, took advantage of a difference in treatment between English and New York law, and then found Linklaters willing to sign off on the practice so long as the "Repo 105
" transactions moved through London. There is no suggestion Linklaters acted unethically or improperly.
and has offices in another 25 cities in 19 countries in Asia
, Europe
, the Middle East
, North America
and South America
.
Law firm
A law firm is a business entity formed by one or more lawyers to engage in the practice of law. The primary service rendered by a law firm is to advise clients about their legal rights and responsibilities, and to represent clients in civil or criminal cases, business transactions, and other...
headquartered in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and a member of the 'Magic Circle'
Magic Circle (law)
The "Magic Circle" is an informal term used to collectively describe what are generally regarded to be the five leading UK-headquartered law firms and the four or five leading London-based commercial barristers' chambers.-Law firms:...
of leading UK law firms. Linklaters is the world's fourth largest global law firm by revenue. In 2009/10 it received total revenues of £1.18 billion and profits per equity partner of £1.2 million. As of April 2009, it employed approximately 2,260 legal advisers and 2,830 other staff across 26 offices in 19 countries.
Simon Davies
Simon Davies (lawyer)
Simon Davies is the current managing partner of the British law firm Linklaters. He was educated at Cambridge University, where he studied Law, and joined Linklaters as a trainee in their London office in 1990....
has been the firm's managing partner since January 2008.
History
Linklaters was founded in 1838 as Dods & Linklater. In 1920, the firm merged with Paine, Blyth & Huxtable, creating Linklaters & Paines. For most of its existence Linklaters was predominantly an English law firm with small domestic operations in a small number of overseas jurisdictions. In 1996, the firm adopted a strategy of global expansion to meet what it perceived as an increasing demand for multi-jurisdictional legal advice. In 1998, the firm formed Linklaters & Alliance with four other European law firms: De Bandt, van Hecke, Lagae & Loesch; De Brauw Blackstone WestbroekDe Brauw Blackstone Westbroek
De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek is a Dutch law firm headquartered in Amsterdam with branch offices in Beijing, London and New York City. The firm has 61 partners and 270 other qualified lawyers...
; Lagerlöf & Leman, and Oppenhoff & Rädler. Over the next five years Linklaters merged with three of these firms in Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, Luxembourg
Luxembourg
Luxembourg , officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg , is a landlocked country in western Europe, bordered by Belgium, France, and Germany. It has two principal regions: the Oesling in the North as part of the Ardennes massif, and the Gutland in the south...
, and Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
, merged with other firms in the Czech Republic
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
and Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
, and opened offices in Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
, Bangkok
Bangkok
Bangkok is the capital and largest urban area city in Thailand. It is known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon or simply Krung Thep , meaning "city of angels." The full name of Bangkok is Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahintharayutthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom...
, Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
, Budapest
Budapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
, Bucharest
Bucharest
Bucharest is the capital municipality, cultural, industrial, and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country, at , and lies on the banks of the Dâmbovița River....
, Bratislava
Bratislava
Bratislava is the capital of Slovakia and, with a population of about 431,000, also the country's largest city. Bratislava is in southwestern Slovakia on both banks of the Danube River. Bordering Austria and Hungary, it is the only national capital that borders two independent countries.Bratislava...
, Lisbon
Lisbon
Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...
, Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
, Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
, Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
, São Paulo
São Paulo
São Paulo is the largest city in Brazil, the largest city in the southern hemisphere and South America, and the world's seventh largest city by population. The metropolis is anchor to the São Paulo metropolitan area, ranked as the second-most populous metropolitan area in the Americas and among...
, and Shanghai
Shanghai
Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...
. During this period, Linklaters also formed a joint venture with the Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
an law firm, Allen & Gledhill, to create Linklaters Allen & Gledhill, and a co-operation with Brazilian firm Lefosse Advogados.
On April 1, 2005, when new laws came into effect in Japan permitting multi-national partnerships, Linklaters created Japan’s first fully merged law firm practising Japanese, English, and US law. Linklaters closed its offices in Bratislava, Bucharest, Budapest and Prague in 2007. Linklaters opened an office in Dubai
Dubai
Dubai is a city and emirate in the United Arab Emirates . The emirate is located south of the Persian Gulf on the Arabian Peninsula and has the largest population with the second-largest land territory by area of all the emirates, after Abu Dhabi...
in February 2006, as its 30th office worldwide. Linklaters cut 270 jobs in London, January 2008, in the aftermath of the credit crunch; consisting of around 120 lawyers and 150 business services providers. This was claimed to be part of Simon Davies, Managing Partner's plan to become a smaller, profitable organisation. In 2008 Linklaters was appointed to handle the insolvency of Lehman Brothers
Lehman Brothers
Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. was a global financial services firm. Before declaring bankruptcy in 2008, Lehman was the fourth largest investment bank in the USA , doing business in investment banking, equity and fixed-income sales and trading Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. (former NYSE ticker...
. The court appointed auditor's report on Lehman revealed in March 2010 that Lehman, with no U.S. law firm willing to approve aggressive accounting practices used to hide debt, took advantage of a difference in treatment between English and New York law, and then found Linklaters willing to sign off on the practice so long as the "Repo 105
Repo 105
Repo 105 is a repurchase agreement which results in an accounting maneuver where a short-term loan is classified as a sale. The cash obtained through this "sale" is then used to pay down debt, allowing the company to appear to reduce its leverage by temporarily paying down liabilities—just long...
" transactions moved through London. There is no suggestion Linklaters acted unethically or improperly.
Main practice areas
- Banking
- Capital Markets
- Competition / Antitrust
- Corporate / Mergers & Acquisitions
- Employment & Incentives
- Environment & Climate Change
- Financial Regulation
- Insurance
- Intellectual Property
- Investment Management
- Litigation & Arbitration
- Pensions
- Private Equity
- Projects
- Real Estate & Construction
- Tax
- Technology, Media & Telecommunications
Offices
Linklaters has its headquarters in LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
and has offices in another 25 cities in 19 countries in Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
, Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
, North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
and South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
.
Sources
- Record Spanish IPO gifts Freshfields and Linklaters roles on €4bn bank flotation
- Linklaters scores $18bn IPO trio as Russia taps the market
- Linklaters fields multijurisdictional team for landmark Indian IPO
- Linklaters set to recruit senior M&A partner for Italian push
- Linklaters hires Ereira from Freshfields