The regulatory tide continues to rise and a law firm that is leading the charge in explaining all this is Withers, one of the most global private client specialists in the business. If there is a legal issue affecting wealth management, Withers can shed light on it.

The regulatory tide continues to rise and a law firm that is leading the charge in explaining all this is Withers, one of the most global private client specialists in the business. If there is a legal issue affecting the wealth management industry, the chances are that Withers can shed light on it.

Barely a week goes by without one of the Withers team explaining some new legislation to wealth managers often left bemused by the torrent of regulatory developments pouring out of parliaments and civil service departments. This publication regularly carries the views of Withers’ experts and the firm is regularly quoted in the broadsheets. There are few signs yet that the flood of legislation is going to slacken soon, so the law firm will stay busy. Only a few days ago, Withers added new data on the impact, for example, of controversial US legislation – the HIRE Act – which may squeeze provision of financial services to expat US citizens.

The breadth of its services – which include tax, business advice, and advice on how to deal with living in the public eye – is testimony to how far Withers has travelled in more than 100 years of existence. It dates its origins back to 1896 when it was founded by John Withers. In that era, Withers and his colleagues focused very much on “old money” of the landed aristocracy and looked at areas such as divorce and estate planning. That work continues but what has changed dramatically is that clients are far more likely to be self-made wealthy individuals, and far more cosmopolitan and international in their requirements. In fact, in the UK alone, the firm represents 25 per cent of the Sunday Times rich list.

This is now a big organisation. It has 104 partners, 700 staff and revenues of $150 million. Withers has offices in all major time zones, adding a new office about once every 18 months. In 2008, for example, it opened an office in Hong Kong.

There is always a risk, of course, that an organisation as large as Withers can be affected if clients fear – however irrationally – that they might be treated as just numbers on a board. That is something this firm stresses it is at pains to avoid. In fact, the sheer breadth and depth of its expertise is a major selling point, the firm says.

To get some flavour of where it is seen as performing well, these quotes, taken from the Legal500 directory of law firms, are a useful pointer to its strengths:

“Within contentious trusts and probate, Withers is a First-Tier firm. Withers LLP’s ‘excellent’ practice is led by Dawn Goodman, who is ‘almost legendary in this area’. Paul Hewitt is ‘a skilful and tactical litigator and is entirely realistic with his clients as to their prospects of success’. Sue Medder is ‘pragmatic and will fight cases worth fighting with nerve and judgement’. Ziva Robertson recently joined the team from Mourant du Feu & Jeune, adding Cayman capabilities. She ‘fights her clients’ corner with zeal tempered with realism.”

And there is more: “Within Family, Withers LLP is a first tier firm. Withers LLP ‘has great ability at every level, from the most senior partners, right through to the newly qualified assistants’, and ‘is excellent in every respect’. Gill Doran, Diana Parker and Mark Harper are ‘three of the biggest hitters amongst the top echelon of matrimonial lawyers’, while practice head Julian Lipson is ‘clever, discreet, reassuring, with a quiet strength’. The practice is consistently involved in the highest-profile cases in the market, and offers ‘excellent judgement allied to incisive, innovative thinking and a comprehensive knowledge and understanding of the law’. Suzanne Todd and Michael Gouriet are also recommended.”

In the heart of London’s legal world

This publication recently met with Withers’ chairman, Anthony Indaimo and managing director Margaret Robertson, at the firm’s office in London. The office is opposite the Old Bailey – a suitable national symbol of the UK’s criminal justice system and a court that is renowned for some of the biggest cases in legal history.

“Our business model has worked fairly well for us in terms of the financial storm that we have seen. We have had the benefit of geographic diversification,” Indaimo said.

“One of the great things of having the heritage of a firm founded over 100 years ago is that it means you will have had clients around for several generations. It is a very powerful message to an Asian family, for example, that Withers has been doing this job for other families [around the world] for over 100 years,” he said.

“Our business is very much shaped by the needs of our clients. We are not in every country on the globe, however, as our clients don’t need us to be. Where we don’t have a licence to practice local law, we can act in a general advisory capacity. We work with selected local legal advisors in some jurisdictions,” he continued.

“Given that we are in key financial centres, it gives us insight into what extra-territorial effect a piece of legislation will have,” Indaimo said.

The structure

The setup of the firm is pretty straightforward. Indaimo works with the partnership council that is made up of the top directors of the firm, such as Robertson (managing director), Bill Swift (regional senior partner for the US), and Joe Field (regional senior partner for Asia).

The partnership council takes responsibility for issues such as governance of the firm and strategy. It meets once every three months. Under this layer are the various practice groups, namely: Commercial; Litigation; Wealth Planning; Estates, Succession & Trusts; Family; and Real Estate. Wealth Planning is the largest and accounts for approximately half of all fee earners.

There are also “Special Interest Groups”, which focus on certain legal or geographical areas and which bring together different specialists from right across the firm. Examples include: Family Offices, Brands, Reputation Management, Art and Cultural Assets, Charities & Philanthropy, Switzerland, Italy, Israel and Asia. Some of these groups are long-lasting; others can and are formed to suit the needs of specific groups of clients or to keep on top of specific trends.

The type and nature of these groups shows the breadth of Withers’ expertise and diversity of clients’ demands, Indaimo said.

In the Brands group, for example, Withers can offer advice through a company and family life cycle. The firm might advise a family that has built up a business brand and then, having sold the business or needing to deal with succession issues, wants advice on protecting that brand, as well as protecting the wealth created by the liquidity event. Brands can be closely associated with a family name and reputation, meaning that protecting that reputation and ensuring it delivers future wealth is crucial.

“We are the only firm globally that caters to designers, up-and-coming designers and large global retail businesses,” Indaimo continued.

For example, Withers recently advised Natalie Massenet, founder of online luxury fashion retailer Net-a-Porter, on its £350 million (around $520 million) sale to Swiss luxury goods group Richemont. The deal was agreed at the end of March this year. London-based Net-a-Porter, set up and run by former fashion journalist Natalie Massenet, now employs 600 people in New York and London. Richemont is the world’s third-largest luxury goods group after LVMH and PPR, owning brands such as Cartier and Alfred Dunhill and until now held a 33 per cent stake in Net-a-Porter.

As the Net-a-Porter business deal shows, Withers will not just advise on transactional matters but is also in a position to advise on any associated liquidity event in a business deal of such magnitude. It is an integrated approach that the firm reckons gives it a considerable edge.

Reputation management is another key business area for Withers. In 2009, it created a “Living in the public eye” team, which comprises senior lawyers with experience across a range of legal disciplines. They are Jennifer McDermott, partner, who is head of the reputation management team; Michael Gouriet, partner, who advises on family law, such as pre- and post-nuptial agreements; Filippo Noseda, partner; Hugh Devlin, consultant, who is an expert on the luxury sector, and Amber Melville-Brown, counsel, who works on reputation/crisis management advice for individual and corporate claimant clients including celebrities, professionals, national and international organisations.

And in other business areas, such as family law, Withers also picks up its fair share of headline-grabbing cases, some of which lead to new developments in case law. For instance, it acted for Stuart Crossley in a landmark Court of Appeal decision regarding the enforceability of pre-nuptial agreements, an issue of considerable importance given the potential sums of money involved. It also acted for John Charman in the case involving the largest divorce award in English legal history, concerning £68 million of trust assets.

Global reach

In 2000, Withers saw the need to establish a US presence, following increasing evidence that clients had an American dimension to their affairs which needed to be served. This decision was carefully thought through by the partnership and tested with institutional clients. Two years later, it acquired the US law firm Bergman, Horowitz and Reynolds. This created the firm Withers Bergman LLP, as the firm is still known in the US today.

“We had to bring in US advisors to service those clients,” Robertson said.

There are now around 65 people in the New York office; the team there has grown steadily, with hires in single figures at one step at a time rather than through a big lift-out from a rival or major hiring spree. There are currently two other US offices in Greenwich and New Haven.

The firm now has eight offices in total, spread across the US, Europe (London, Geneva, Milan), the Caribbean (BVI) and Asia (Hong Kong). Withers says it is genuinely international in outlook, which it says is demonstrated by the fact that the partners share a single global profit pool. The tag “international” is more than just a marketing line, the firm asserts. As Robertson said: “With clients’ business and personal interests spread across 80 countries, the ability to provide joined up cross border advice is obviously critical.”

The rate of international expansion is also highlighted by the fact that 40 per cent of Withers’ workforce has joined since 2002. The acquisition of the US business has had a dramatic impact.

Expanding regulation

“There is more of a level playing field in relation to regulation. London used to be far more regulated than some other places – that’s changing. Because of our international office network and the international nature of our client base, we are exposed to a wide range of regulatory regimes,” said Robertson.

There are different requirements, she said, from a wealth management perspective, in the main regions of the world: Asia is stronger in terms of the importance of new business wealth, for example. “There is great growth and variety in the Asian market. Advising, for instance, wealthy Chinese clients as to how best to structure their assets is a key growth area for us,” she said.

But she stressed that the US market remains very important for Withers, even though there has been so much interest in the growing Asian markets.

Withers has certainly taken some important steps as it has developed over the past 100 years and more. At a time when financial services have come under fire amid the credit crunch, the firm certainly is not shy about pointing to its longevity and staying power as a reason for reassurance.

Let’s leave the last word to Indaimo: “He [John Withers] was a champion of the legal profession and was a visionary in many respects. It was he who pioneered the family office model. He really was a trusted advisor to his clients; we are building on what he did.”