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Boeing 787 Catches Fire in London

It was not immediately clear what caused the fire or how serious the repercussions would be. But investors, mindful that hazards with the jet’s batteries had led to the grounding of the entire fleet from January to April, reacted nervously, sending Boeing’s shares down 4.7 percent.

Smoke came from the plane, named the Queen of Sheba, eight hours after it had been parked in a remote space at Heathrow and about four and a half hours before it was scheduled to depart for Ethiopia. No passengers were on the plane, which was connected to an external ground power source, according to people briefed on the incident.

It was also not clear if any maintenance was under way or how long the fire had been burning, though it was intense enough to burn through its carbon-composite skin on the top of the fuselage near the tail.

That area was not next to either of the plane’s new lithium-ion batteries, which caught fire or emitted smoke in two earlier incidents that led to the grounding of the first 50 787s. Unless they were charging, aviation experts said, the batteries would not have been in use if the plane were connected to ground power.

A team of British safety investigators began examining the plane shortly after the fire was put out. But no one involved — the investigators, Boeing, the airline or the airport — commented on the possible cause of the fire.

Other experts said that some of the plane’s wiring, and the oxygen systems for passengers, would have passed through the damaged area, which was above the rear galley. It was also possible the fire migrated from another part of the plane, they said.

Richard L. Aboulafia, an aviation consultant at the Teal Group in Fairfax, Va., said the possibilities ranged from “something pretty benign,” like a lit cigarette or a coffee machine left on, to a serious flaw in the plane’s new electrical system, which includes other innovative components besides the batteries. Or, he said, it could be something “not as easy or as terrible,” like a component that was installed incorrectly.

The Heathrow incident was not the only problem aboard a 787 on Friday. Thomson Airways, a charter airline, said that one of its Dreamliner planes traveling from Manchester Airport in England to Orlando-Sanford International Airport in Florida had to turn back “as a precautionary measure.”

The fire on the Ethiopian 787 forced Heathrow Airport to temporarily suspend arrivals and departures while fire crews responded to the incident at 4:36 p.m. local time. Once the fire was extinguished around 6 p.m., the runways reopened.

Friday’s incidents took place about two months after the 787 Dreamliners returned to the skies after being grounded over the battery problems. One of the new lithium-ion batteries caught fire on a 787 parked at a Boston airport on Jan. 7, and another began smoking in midflight nine days later, forcing a 787 to make an emergency landing in Japan.

Regulators lifted the grounding orders after Boeing came up with a plan to refit the first 50 to 60 of the new jets with more insulation between the battery cells and a new system for venting smoke or hazardous gases out of the planes. Ethiopian Airlines has four 787s, and the one that had the fire at Heathrow was the first 787 to return to service at any airline after the grounding ended.

Boeing said that while the planes were grounded, it also made changes in electrical components that had failed on occasion since the planes began to fly in late 2011.

At Heathrow, television video and photographs showed fire damage near the base of the vertical stabilizer, with fire-retardant foam having been sprayed on the area. That would be the first time a fire had burned through the 787’s carbon-composite skin, raising questions about its fire-retardant properties.

Jones Day Targets India With London Hire

Jones Day has added an India practice partner to its London office.

Sumesh Sawhney was previously a partner at Clifford Chance, where he was co-head of that firm's India corporate group.

Sawhney's practice has focused on India-related mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures and cross-border investment. Previous clients for India deals include Bayer and Malaysia's Maxis Communications Bhd.

Between 1992 and 2000, Sawhney worked in-house for Indian conglomerates Thapar Group and the Escorts Group of Cos. In 2003, he joined Amarchand & Mangaldas & Suresh A. Shroff & Co. as a partner and moved to Clifford Chance as an associate three years later. He became a partner at the British firm in 2010.

DealBook: London Stock Exchange Revises Offer for Clearinghouse

LONDON — The London Stock Exchange Group said on Monday that it had revised the terms of its takeover proposal for LCH.Clearnet, citing the changing regulatory environment.

The London Stock Exchange provisionally agreed to pay 15 euros, or $20, a share for 60 percent of LCH.Clearnet, independent clearinghouse for financial transactions. In March, the London bourse offered 19 euros a share, plus 1 euro per share as a special dividend to be paid in five years.

The companies said the changes followed discussions over coming regulation that could force the LCH to raise more capital and crimp profits. European regulators have been proposing stricter rules for clearinghouses to safeguard their operations, forcing them to increase their reserves.

Like rivals, the London Stock Exchange has looked to deals in the face of increasing competition and weakness in its core equity business. With LCH, the London exchange may benefit from regulatory changes, capturing the increasing volume of over-the-counter derivatives that will move to clearinghouses. The stock exchange currently outsources clearing activities to LCH.

Such businesses have been especially attractive in the current conditions. Last week, the IntercontinentalExchange agreed to pay $8.2 billion for NYSE Euronext to create a trans-Atlantic trading giant with a major focus on derivatives.

Under the revised plan, the London Stock Exchange would pay 14 euros per LCH.Clearnet share on completion of the transaction and 1 euro per share in 2017, which would replace the special dividend, the two companies said. Both payments would be in cash. The firms also agreed on extending their takeover negotiations until Jan. 31 to finalize the details of the offer.

Baker & McKenzie Shakes Up London Associate Pay With New Merit-Based Model

Baker & McKenzie has overhauled its pay structure for London associates in a move away from the traditional post qualification experience (PQE) model to a three-tier, merit-based system.

The three new levels are junior associate, mid-level associate and senior associate, with those adjudged to have met performance expectations rising to mid-level at two years' PQE and from mid-level to senior after five years.

Each of these roles will cover a broad pay bracket with pay levels determined by performance. The firm hopes the new system will encourage its associates to develop at a faster rate.

Bakers is also appointing partner "coaches" who will take responsibility to help associates develop within their department.

The new system is the brainchild of Bakers HR director Martin Blackburn, who developed the idea as a result of feedback received from the firm's partners and associates.

Blackburn said: "Associates were telling us that they wanted more feedback and more openness about their potential and career options. They wanted a longer-term mentor relationship with a nominated partner and we simply combined these ideas into the 'coach' who is responsible for no more than six associates over a significant part of their career."

The new structure has already been implemented, although no changes will be made to associate pay until next year's annual pay review.

The firm is also planning to make changes to associate charge-out rates in order to reflect the new structure.

Mayer Brown Cutting More London Jobs

Mayer Brown is set to make further job cuts in London, in the office's second redundancy round this year.

The U.S. firm's London arm is laying off London non-lawyer staff, with the number affected set to be fewer than 20, according to the firm. No fee-earner positions are at risk.

The job losses come in addition to the firm's May announcement that it was to shed up to 20 support and legal staff. Sixteen staff subsequently lost their jobs; however, the firm refused to specify how many of these were lawyers.

A spokesperson for Mayer Brown said: "Responding to client needs for greater value in the delivery of legal services, Mayer Brown continually examines all aspects of its operations to seek ways to improve efficiency and productivity.

"In our London office, this examination has led to the difficult decision to undertake redundancy consultations involving fewer than 20 staff positions. No fee earner positions are involved. All those potentially affected have been notified."

In July, Mayer Brown offered its incoming London trainees the option to defer their training contracts for one year in exchange for a one-off payment of £10,000, an offer that three prospective trainees accepted.

The firm has also agreed deals to sublet around 10 percent of its Bishopsgate offices to other law firms.

K&L Gates Adds Sidley Austin Partner Trio to London Finance Practice

By Alex NewmanAll Articles

The National Law Journal

September 25, 2012

K&L Gates has completed the hire of a three-partner London team from Sidley Austin, in a major boost for the U.S. firm's City finance practice.

The arrival of Theresa Kradjian this month sees her reunited with Matthew Duncan and Paul Matthews, both of whom joined K&L Gates earlier this summer.

The trio worked together at Sidley and were hired as a team. Duncan was made up to partner at the U.S. firm in 2004, while Kradjian and Matthews were promoted in 2007.

London chief Tony Griffiths cited particular expertise in the group that K&L Gates had been keen to add to its City finance capabilities, pointing to Kradjian's trans-Atlantic experience in capital markets and securities, Duncan's knowledge of residential mortgage-backed securities, and Matthews' work in derivatives.

Griffiths said: "The growth of our London commercial mortgage-backed securities structured finance capability has made a significant contribution to the office's 18 percent revenue growth over the past two years."

K&L Gates' structured finance practice was one of the top performing sectors for the firm during 2011, and a main driver behind the London office's 10 percent revenue growth to £33 million. The firm also opened bases in Brussels, Doha and Sao Paulo over the course of the year.

After London Olympics Debacle, Security Firm Shuffles Top Managers

In a statement after an internal investigation, the company, G4S, said David Taylor-Smith, the chief operating 0fficer and Ian Horseman Sewell, the managing director global events, had resigned. But the chief executive, Nick Buckles, who acknowledged his company’s shortcomings to a parliamentary panel before the summer games, kept his job.

John Connolly, the newly appointed chairman of the company, declared: “G4S has accepted responsibility for its failure to deliver fully on the Olympic contract. We apologize for this and we thank the military and the police for the vital roles they played in ensuring the delivery of a safe and secure games.”

In July, before the games started, lawmakers grilled Mr. Buckles about his company’s failure to meet contractual obligations to provide a guaranteed security staff of 10,400 and he acknowledged that his company’s performance had been a ”humiliating shambles.”

Nicola Blackwood, a Conservative legislator on Parliament’s Home Affairs select committee, said at the time, “’I had very little confidence in G4S fulfilling this contract before this session started and now I don’t have any confidence at all.”

In the event, the games passed off without notable security scares as the British authorities ringed the Olympic site in east London with a deterrent force including warplanes and ground-to-air missiles, separately from troops who supplemented GS4 staff and police in routine security procedures.

In the statement on Friday, the company, one of the world’s biggest security providers, said the “Olympic contract was unique in terms of scale and complexity, but notwithstanding this, the company was capable of fulfilling the contract; the issue was in its delivery.”

“Although the company recognized the unique and complex nature of the Olympic contract from an early stage, this was not properly reflected in its handling of the contract,” the statement said.

“The monitoring and tracking of the security workforce, management information and the project management framework and practices were ineffective to address the scale, complexities and dependencies of the Olympic contract,” the statement continued. “Together this caused the failure of the company to deliver the contract requirements in full and resulted in the identification of the key problems at a very late stage.”

Despite the departure of two senior managers and a reorganization of some other management posts, the statement said it was “in the best interests of the company and of all its stakeholders that Nick Buckles should remain” chief executive since a company investigation “did not identify significant shortcomings in his performance or serious failings attributable to him in connection with the Olympic contract.”

Mr. Buckles has been chief executive since 2005 and has overseen growth at the company reflected in a soaring share price. But the Olympics debacle threatened the company’s relationship with the British government, one of its main customers, at a time when the authorities are looking increasingly to outsource work, including prison management and other contracts.

Greece Seeks Taxes From Investors in London Property

Real estate agents recall sifting the listings for some of the most prestigious, and expensive, properties in South Kensington, a favored area for London’s international set.

But the house hunter, Lavrentis Lavrentiadis, never made a purchase in the spring of 2011, agents say. Within months his failing institution, a small lender known as Proton Bank, was seized. The Greek government, suspecting that Mr. Lavrentiadis may have moved money out of the country, is now investigating his activities to determine whether he engaged in fraud and money laundering.

Greece, heavily in debt and desperate to track down money wherever it can, is leaving no stone unturned.

Mr. Lavrentiadis has denied the accusations, and his lawyer did not respond to questions about any interest his client might have had in London properties. But the Greek banker’s rumored flirtation with this city’s prime real estate market, and the frenzy it stirred among sales agents, is telling.

At the request of the Athens government, the British financial authorities recently handed over a detailed list of about 400 Greek individuals who have bought and sold London properties since 2009.

The list, closely guarded, has not been publicly disclosed. But Greek officials are examining it to determine whether the people named — who they say include prominent businessmen, bankers, shipping tycoons and professional athletes — have deceived the tax authorities by understating their wealth.

“These people have money and they are known — but it is not clear yet if they have violated any laws,” said Haris Theoharis, an official in the Greek Finance Ministry. Tax investigators have been examining the list to see whether there is any overlap between those who bought London properties and those already identified as being tax cheats.

The Greek government, under pressure from its international lenders to raise 13.5 billion euros ($17.4 billion) through tax increases and spending cuts, is intent on making the well-heeled share the burden. Studies have shown that the country may be forgoing as much as 30 billion euros a year in uncollected taxes, with a significant portion of that amount having been shipped out of the country as the affluent seek shelter from Greece’s financial storm.

This week, the government of Prime Minister Antonis Samaras opened an investigation into the bank accounts of more than 30 Greek politicians to determine whether they should be charged with tax evasion and the illegal accumulation of wealth.

The politicians on the list included the president of the Greek Parliament, Evangelos Meimarakis, creating an embarrassing distraction for Mr. Samaras’s coalition government. Mr. Meimarakis is a former defense minister who has also been implicated in accusations concerning a money-laundering network said to involve two other former ministers.

London, long a magnet for foreign real estate investors, has become a special focus for Greek officials trying to track down money taken from the country.

Bankers say that accounts in Singapore and even in the country of Georgia have become favorite destinations for fleeing funds, more so than the traditional haven of Switzerland, because the looser rules and regulations of those countries about accepting large sums of foreign money. But while Singapore and Switzerland have been reluctant to divulge information about its Greek clientele, the British government has been more cooperative in sharing its real estate records.

There is an air of desperation to this Athens fund-raising drive, which includes leasing out empty Greek islands and even putting up for sale the former residence of the Greek consul general in the tony London neighborhood of Holland Park. But with Greece’s membership in the euro at stake, every conceivable revenue-raising strategy is being pursued, even if it remains unclear how successful it will be.

K&L Gates Adds Sidley Austin Partner Trio to London Finance Practice

By Alex NewmanAll Articles

The National Law Journal

September 25, 2012

K&L Gates has completed the hire of a three-partner London team from Sidley Austin, in a major boost for the U.S. firm's City finance practice.

The arrival of Theresa Kradjian this month sees her reunited with Matthew Duncan and Paul Matthews, both of whom joined K&L Gates earlier this summer.

The trio worked together at Sidley and were hired as a team. Duncan was made up to partner at the U.S. firm in 2004, while Kradjian and Matthews were promoted in 2007.

London chief Tony Griffiths cited particular expertise in the group that K&L Gates had been keen to add to its City finance capabilities, pointing to Kradjian's trans-Atlantic experience in capital markets and securities, Duncan's knowledge of residential mortgage-backed securities, and Matthews' work in derivatives.

Griffiths said: "The growth of our London commercial mortgage-backed securities structured finance capability has made a significant contribution to the office's 18 percent revenue growth over the past two years."

K&L Gates' structured finance practice was one of the top performing sectors for the firm during 2011, and a main driver behind the London office's 10 percent revenue growth to £33 million. The firm also opened bases in Brussels, Doha and Sao Paulo over the course of the year.

Mayer Brown Cutting More London Jobs

Mayer Brown is set to make further job cuts in London, in the office's second redundancy round this year.

The U.S. firm's London arm is laying off London non-lawyer staff, with the number affected set to be fewer than 20, according to the firm. No fee-earner positions are at risk.

The job losses come in addition to the firm's May announcement that it was to shed up to 20 support and legal staff. Sixteen staff subsequently lost their jobs; however, the firm refused to specify how many of these were lawyers.

A spokesperson for Mayer Brown said: "Responding to client needs for greater value in the delivery of legal services, Mayer Brown continually examines all aspects of its operations to seek ways to improve efficiency and productivity.

"In our London office, this examination has led to the difficult decision to undertake redundancy consultations involving fewer than 20 staff positions. No fee earner positions are involved. All those potentially affected have been notified."

In July, Mayer Brown offered its incoming London trainees the option to defer their training contracts for one year in exchange for a one-off payment of £10,000, an offer that three prospective trainees accepted.

The firm has also agreed deals to sublet around 10 percent of its Bishopsgate offices to other law firms.