Six of the top arbitrators in the UK and the US are leaving their firms to launch a new boutique.
Three of them are currently at Freshfields. Constantine Partasides is head of the firm's London arbitration team and was appointed a QC last week. Jan Paulsson is a consultant at the firm, and previously headed its global arbitration and public international law groups for 20 years. And Georgios Petrochilos is current head of the Paris arbitration team and of the firm's public international law group. They are joining forces with Luke Sobota and Todd Wetmore, respectively top arbitrators at Jones Day and Shearman & Sterling, and Gaetan Verhoosel, global Co-Chair of Covington & Burling's international arbitration group. These guys are big beasts.
No other details are known: the partners are still at their respective firms, are presumably negotiating the terms of their departures and can't say anything. But expect the new firm, Safe Sextet*, to run global arbitration out of Paris, London and Washington at Magic Circle levels of service but at mid-market rates, what with none of those pesky trainees, letterhead offices, under-employed real estate partners etc. to subsidise.
It's an interesting development for the City market. Partners leave firms to set up on their own relatively regularly, but they don't tend to be as grand as these ones. However working at the top law firms isn't what it used to be: an ever increasing obsession with profits means fewer partners being made up, and those who do make the cut end up being worked into the ground and de-equitised if they don't hit their targets. Packing it in to do high end work for a few top clients with a bunch of mates has obvious appeal.
Lucy Reed, global head of Freshfields' arbitration group, rather magnanimously said that “as valued friends and colleagues we will be sorry to see them leave and we thank them for their contribution to the development of Freshfields' world-leading arbitration practice. We wish them well in their new endeavour."
*RollOnFriday copywriters will go on strike if the firm's real name is just a list of their surnames.
Tip Off ROF
Three of them are currently at Freshfields. Constantine Partasides is head of the firm's London arbitration team and was appointed a QC last week. Jan Paulsson is a consultant at the firm, and previously headed its global arbitration and public international law groups for 20 years. And Georgios Petrochilos is current head of the Paris arbitration team and of the firm's public international law group. They are joining forces with Luke Sobota and Todd Wetmore, respectively top arbitrators at Jones Day and Shearman & Sterling, and Gaetan Verhoosel, global Co-Chair of Covington & Burling's international arbitration group. These guys are big beasts.
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Big beasts relaxing at home yesterday |
No other details are known: the partners are still at their respective firms, are presumably negotiating the terms of their departures and can't say anything. But expect the new firm, Safe Sextet*, to run global arbitration out of Paris, London and Washington at Magic Circle levels of service but at mid-market rates, what with none of those pesky trainees, letterhead offices, under-employed real estate partners etc. to subsidise.
It's an interesting development for the City market. Partners leave firms to set up on their own relatively regularly, but they don't tend to be as grand as these ones. However working at the top law firms isn't what it used to be: an ever increasing obsession with profits means fewer partners being made up, and those who do make the cut end up being worked into the ground and de-equitised if they don't hit their targets. Packing it in to do high end work for a few top clients with a bunch of mates has obvious appeal.
Lucy Reed, global head of Freshfields' arbitration group, rather magnanimously said that “as valued friends and colleagues we will be sorry to see them leave and we thank them for their contribution to the development of Freshfields' world-leading arbitration practice. We wish them well in their new endeavour."
*RollOnFriday copywriters will go on strike if the firm's real name is just a list of their surnames.