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Exclusive: Kennedys could lose millions as new aviation team departs
RollOnFriday can reveal that Kennedys' former star aviation lawyer is moving to Hill Dickinson only months after Kennedy's merged with his firm.

Sean Gates merged his eponymous Gates & Partners aviation firm with Kennedys last summer. But insiders say that things went badly wrong very quickly. Gates himself announced that he would be retiring from the firm last May. Since then five of his colleagues have moved to Hill Dickinson and RollOnFriday can confirm that the main man is now shortly to be joining them.

It will cost Kennedys a fortune. A source told RollOnFriday that "everyone at Kennedys are sh*tting themselves as they only put in place a one year covenant". Come the summer all his clients will be able to join him for free, leaving Kennedys nursing a massive loss. D'oh!

    Kennedys yesterday

A spokesman for Hill Dickinson said he wouldn't comment on Gates' move, but said that "we have recently recruited a team of senior lawyers from Kennedys' aviation team including two partners".

Kennedys said that Sean Gates had not been part of the firm for some time, so as such wouldn't be able to comment.

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Comments

Anonymous 21 March 14 09:33

Does anyone know where this aviation team has gone, or are they searching a huge arc of the City stretching from Clifford Chance in the east to Linklaters in the west?

Anonymous 21 March 14 11:07

Erm didn't he say at the time that he was stepping down and not actually joining the firm at the time?? I think he did, which means this isn't exactly the 'disaster' you're making out.
Also for the additional team being 'moved' read shipped out...

Anonymous 21 March 14 21:28

Kennedys aren't that silly! So 5 lawyers have joined HD - so what? No matter what Sean may or may not do, there are still a lot of aviation people at Kennedys. Storm in a tea cup.

Anonymous 22 March 14 03:45

The reality is that Gates is a major sector in this market and that Hill Dicks are very well placed to to the aviation personal injury work at much more competetive rates that the current players through their regional offering. This could be market changing for the aviation market.

Anonymous 22 March 14 08:24

Interesting comment at 03.45am this morning. The low hanging fruit for Sean to pick off is certainly the enormous amount of airline injury work still being handled in the City of London at £200-£400 per hour. The trouble for these firms is that there is simply not enough work anymore. Planes are very, very safe.

Anonymous 23 March 14 19:18

Seems to be a lot of people with skin in the game commenting here. Any independent thoughts?!?

Anonymous 23 March 14 21:58

For years Sean was the No.1 airline lawyer in the world. BA was just one of his many clients. IF he is going to another law firm it will be big news, but not the game changer some might have us all believe.

Anonymous 26 March 14 00:16

The reason why those commenting are those with skin in the game, is that this is a very niche sector and the dynamics are not generally understood by those outside of it.

Anonymous 27 March 14 15:09

Things can't have worked out that badly for Kennedys, they've been instructed on the Malaysian Airlines missing jet matter. That will cover the costs of bringing in the Gates aviation team and then some.

Anonymous 27 March 14 20:57

Kennedy's is going to suffer, and has been suffering since the merger. Sean's departure is a huge blow. His experience is unrivalled in aviation. The few remaining clients Kennedy's has left are already wavering. That's the word on the street on Leadenhall!