King & Wood Mallesons UK goes into administration
The UK arm of law firm King & Wood Mallesons (KWM) went into administration yesterday, with corporate recovery and restructuring specialists at Quantuma being appointed.
Andy Hosking, partner at Quantuma, and Sean Bucknall, director, were appointed joint administrators at the English High Court, according to a statement from Quantuma.
King & Wood Mallesons EUME Services, “which holds the employees”, has also gone into administration.
However, KWM announced today that it has established a new business to maintain a strategic presence in the UK, Europe and the Middle East.
Before Christmas, KWM confirmed it intended to appoint administrators in order to continue to explore “options”, promising “to work to ensure the best possible outcome for clients and staff”, said Quantuma.
Hosking explained that Quantuma was “examining the position closely” and “exploring ways forward” with a view to achieving the best possible return for creditors.
He added that there will be redundancies, but it is too early to specify how many.
“A small number of employees will be retained for a period to help with the administration,” said Hosking.
Samantha Palmer of law firm Ashfords has been instructed by the joint administrators to act as the appointed solicitor. The administrators are being co-advised by Rita Lowe of CMS Cameron McKenna and Steven Cottee of Pinsent Masons.
KWM's UK arm covers London, Cambridge, Frankfurt, Munich and Brussels (despite the latter three being in Europe).
The administration does not affect the KWM practices in Paris, Madrid, Milan, Dubai, Riyadh, New York, or in any offices in China, Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore and Japan.
The wider global network, which is not in administration, consists of Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and North America.
In its new business, KWM now has core practices in London, Frankfurt, Dubai and Riyadh and affiliated offices in Madrid, Milan and Brussels, with the platform focusing on corporate mergers and acquisitions, finance, competition and dispute resolution.
It consists of more than 30 partners, together with their associates and support staff.
KWM Global chairman, Wang Junfeng, said: “I am proud and excited by the determination of our partners who have worked so hard with us to realise this practice in deeply challenging circumstances. This is a very good outcome for international clients and for the continued development of our firm.”
According to KWM’s website, there are currently four IP partners in Europe.
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