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In the teeth of the pandemic, the average pay for full equity partners at Clifford Chance — one of the five magic circle law firms — soared 9 per cent to £1.85 million.
The firm recorded its sixth consecutive year of profit and revenue growth, and its strongest performance ever. Although revenues increased by only 1 per cent, to £1.8 billion, partner pay was boosted on the back of an 8 per cent rise in profit.
Senior partners acknowledged that some of that profit had been generated by an “interruption” to operating costs: its Canary Wharf office was closed to most staff during the pandemic and international travel costs were almost non-existent.
Work arising from the pandemic included advising the pharmaceutical and biotechnology giant Pfizer on its agreement to develop a Covid-19 vaccine with BioNTech. The vaccine, the first to be approved by the US, EU and UK, was the result of a partnership put in place in record time by a team led by Clifford Chance’s global intellectual property group.
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Clifford Chance is advising Epic Games in litigation against the technology giants Apple and Google in the UK and Australia over Fortnite, one of the most popular computer games in the world. The firm is also acting in relation to complaints to the European Commission and the UK Competition and Markets Authority in the context of their investigations into Apple’s AppStore.
It advised on a series of stand-out technology-related listings, including The Hut Group, a British ecommerce company, on its £1.88 billion initial public offering — the largest in London since 2015 at the time of listing. And it acted for the private-equity-owned Polish ecommerce company Allegro on its listing on the Warsaw Stock Exchange.
The firm also advised joint sponsors and underwriters including Morgan Stanley, Bank of America and China Renaissance Securities on the initial public offering of the short-video app company Kuaishou Technology. The $5.4 billion listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange was the largest technology IPO in history and the largest by a tech company since Uber in 2019.
Only 3 per cent of senior judges come from outside the ranks of the barristers’ profession, but in a rare first, two Clifford Chance partners have simultaneously been appointed as deputy High Court judges — the highest level open to those without previous judicial experience.
Simon Tinkler, who specialises in international and UK public and private mergers and acquisitions with a particular focus on private equity transactions, joined Clifford Chance in 1995 and became a partner in 2000. Simon Gleeson, a banking and financial markets specialist, joined as a partner in 2007. He advises governments, regulators and public bodies as well as banks, investment firms, fund managers and other financial institutions on regulatory issues.
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Tinkler and Gleeson will serve six-year terms on the bench, sitting for up to 30 days per year, so there will be plenty of time to put in hours at the firm.
★ Commended for banking & finance; commercial dispute resolution; commercial property; company & commercial; financial crime & fraud & regulatory; mergers & acquisitions; tax
To browse the 200 Best Law Firms 2022, go to thetimes.co.uk/bestlawfirms