#2 The Legal Profession This Week - New Entrants To Legal Education

#2 The Legal Profession This Week - Flexible Working For Law Firms​

Law firm Clifford Chance has recently been inviting real estate agent pitches in a bid “to rethink its property strategy ahead of its City lease end” (The Lawyer). On 23 February 2021, The Lawyer reported that Clifford Chance had been hosting virtual meetings with real estate agencies to ascertain its options, ahead of the lease ending for its current Canary Wharf building in the next seven years. The firm, which has not made a decision on moving premises just yet, is likely taking into account the future of flexible working and the post-pandemic world with regard to its future London office space plans.

The upcoming introduction of the new SQE (Solicitors Qualification Exam) has prompted “a flurry of new entrants to the field of UK legal education” (The Lawyer). Notably, the College of Legal Practice, the “UK brand of one of the biggest names in Australian legal education”, the College of Law Australasia, (The Lawyer) has recently revealed a new course that will prepare students for the SQE.

The programme is called Developing Legal Professionals, and it will launch later this year. The Australian provider’s UK brand established itself in London in 2019 with a “view to providing courses training students to pass the SQE” (The Lawyer), and is a possible source of competition to traditional legal providers such as University of Law and BPP - who have each also made announcements on their plans to design SQE-specific preparatory courses in recent years. It remains to be seen exactly how much of an impact the SQE will have.

‘Business as usual’ – the notable deals and cases which went ahead this week:

Both law firms Travers Smith and Taylor Wessing have been involved in the sale of Ascential’s DeHavilland group to Bridgepoint. Ascential is a media business specialising in exhibitions and festivals and information services, and its DeHavilland group is a monitoring service within the public affairs and policy sector. Ascential has made various sales recently as part of a “wider sales process […] to part ways with its entire built environment and policy division” (The Lawyer). Travers Smith advised longstanding client Ascential on the sale, whilst Taylor Wessing advised Bridgepoint on their purchase of the group.

Various law firms have advised on the Issa Brothers’ £2.75 billion “sterling junk bond sale to fund the acquisition of Asda” (The Lawyer). Latham & Watkins and Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom are advising on the financing and corporate sides respectively for both the Issa Brothers and private equity firm TDR Capital, whilst Slaughter and May is advising Asda. Clifford Chance and Cravath, Swane & Moore acted for the banks involved. The bond sale is part of funding for the deal between the Issa Brothers and TDR Capital to buy Asda from Walmart last year, worth £6.8 billion.