Clifford Chance

Results and strategy update 2014-15: Fact sheet

Our vision

We will be the global law firm of choice for the world's leading businesses of today and tomorrow.

Using innovative approaches and deep global expertise to advise clients on their critical matters

• Advising Deutsche Telekom in relation to the GBP 12.5bn sale of EE to BT, which will create the largest provider of home internet, mobiles and landlines in the UK and see DT become the largest shareholder in BT
• Advising ChemChina and its tyre-making division China National Tire & Rubber on the financing of a USD 7.7bn bid to buy Italian tire-maker Pirelli, part of a wave of Chinese investment in established brands and businesses globally. Clifford Chance previously advised Chinese auto-maker Dongfeng on strategic investment in Peugeot PSA
• Advising Citi on the sale of its consumer banking arms in Spain and Greece, as part of the bank's move to focus more on its core international operations
• Advising BSkyB on GBP 6.6bn financing for its acquisitions of Sky Italia and Sky Deutschland, creating one of Europe's largest pay-TV players
• Advising Autonomy founder Mike Lynch on HP's USD 5.1bn lawsuit against Autonomy's founders
• Advising a number of leading financial institutions in relation to major LIBOR and Forex related investigations coming out of the global rise in regulatory activism
• Advising Blackstone on the acquisition of EUR 6.5bn European property portfolio, including the EUR 2.8bn Spanish part of financing the deal
• Advising Fidelis Insurance Holdings, a new speciality insurance provider, on its formation. The company employs a novel hybrid investment model and, with an equity raise of USD 1.5bn, one of the largest ever in the insurance sector, creates an important new underwriter in the global market. The deal saw PE firms Crestview, CVC and Pine Brook invest USD 650m, with the remainder of the capital coming from individual and institutional investors.

Reinforcing our global strength

• 37 of our top 50 clients worked with us across at least 20 of our offices globally; 46 of them worked across all of our practice areas.
• Ranked number one law firm in the Chambers Global Top 30
• Further built on our global NY law capabilities, with seven new partners in the Americas, including four internal promotions and the lateral hire of structured finance partners Bob Gross and Will Cejudo, and Latin American projects partner Gianluca Bacchiocchi. Internationally, NY qualified partners Alex Bafi and Franck Coudert joined in Paris and Casablanca respectively
• Underlying growth across all regions:

Delivering a world-class service

• Appointment of senior partner Bas Boris Visser as Global Head of Innovation and Business Change, to increase focus, momentum and coordination across the firm's existing efforts to bring innovation and efficiency to the firm's high-value services
• Building on our market-leading Continuous Improvement programme, we have
  • Doubled the size of the core global team and established a Continuous Improvement centre in Asia Pacific
  • Trained some 1100 people in Continuous Improvement techniques – including over 700 of our fee-earners and clients and 400 Business Services colleagues
  • Worked on over 100 projects in 25 offices last year, often alongside clients
    • For example: by applying Continuous Improvement techniques and investing in new technology we halved the cost of due diligence work on a complex cross-border merger involving 20 different business lines in 25 jurisdictions, while working for a leading global financial institution. The same improvements also meant we could respond much more quickly to client queries, delivering a better service at a critical time
• Leveraging our global centres of excellence in India
  • Our Delhi-based Knowledge Centre received approximately 4,000 instructions and supported on over 1,500 client projects across 30 offices in 2014/15
  • Our Global Shared Services Centre now employs almost 350 people, approximately 17% of our non-secretarial Business Services headcount, and 12% of total Business Services.