Hogan Lovells financial results for calendar year 2018
- Across our regions, the Americas represented approximately 51% of total billings, UK and Continental Europe together 42%, and Asia Pacific and the Middle East 7%.
- In terms of our five global practice groups, Corporate represented approximately 31% of total billings, Litigation, Arbitration, and Employment 28%, Global Regulatory 18%, Finance 14%, and IPMT 9%.
Item | US$ - FY2018 | US$ - FY2017 | US$ % change | GBP FY2018 | GBP FY2017 | GBP % change 2018 v 2017 |
Total global revenue | 2,119m | 2,037m |
4.0% | £1,596m |
£1,581m | 0.9% |
Profit per equity partner | 1,381,200 | 1,283,244 | 7.6% | £1,035,000 | £996,000 | 3.9% |
Revenue per lawyer | 804,000 | 758,539 | 6.0% | £605,000 | £589,000 | 2.7% |
According to Hogan Lovells CEO Steve Immelt:
"We have continued on our path of consistent and profitable growth. Having broken through the US$2 billion revenue barrier in 2017 we have consolidated that position with further growth of just over 4% of revenue in 2018, as well as higher increases in revenue per lawyer and profits per equity partner.
“We have handled a number of landmark pieces of client work and what is very clear is the value that we bring through the combination of our industry sector approach, the strength of our different practice areas, and the depth of presence we have in our clients’ most critical markets. The work is often the first in its field, helping enable new markets, or fundamentally reshaping existing ones.
“Clients see our capabilities in helping them manage complex and often contradictory regulatory issues as a real and distinctive advantage, particularly in the current economic and political uncertainty.
“We have partnered with our clients in areas such as diversity and inclusion and have a strong story to tell in terms of our commitment and results in relation to gender, ethnicity, and LGBT+ programs.
“At the same time we have continued to nurture our own talent as well as bringing in lateral hires to expand strategic areas for investment for us including M&A, data privacy, and trade. Those laterals tell us that they see a real difference between Hogan Lovells and its competitors in terms of our culture and in providing a platform from which they can develop their practice.
“As we look forward into 2019, we see an increasingly volatile global economy, with trade tensions and uncertainty caused by political instability such as Brexit creating a slow-down effect.
“In this environment it is the close relationships we have with our clients and an overwhelming focus on client service that makes the difference. They are looking to us to help them navigate these difficult conditions and turn to the advisers they trust the most.”
Examples of major client engagements handled during the course of the year include:
Corporate
- Walmart on its US$16bn purchase of a 77% stake in Flipkart.
- Dell on its US$25bn recapitalization.
- Asahi on its £250m acquisition of the entire premium beer business of Fuller, Smith & Turner.
- Celgene Corporation on its US$9bn acquisition of Juno Therapeutics.
- Papa John's International in a US$200m strategic investment with Starboard Value LP.
- Daimler on its entry into a 50-50 joint venture with BMW to unify the companies' services regarding car sharing, ride-hailing, parking, charging, and multimodality.
Finance
- Ad hoc group of bond holders of the US$6bn bond issuance issued by the Mexico City Airport Trust (MexCAT) in connection with the restructuring of the MexCAT bonds. The MexCAT bond issue is one of the largest Latin American structured finance bond issuances ever done.
- Radisson Hospitality AB on the inaugural issuance of €250m in high-yield bonds.
- Bond counsel for the City and County of Denver, Colorado on its US$2.5bn airport financing, one of the largest financings in the U.S. in 2018.
- Natixis acting as Sole Underwriter, Initial Mandated Lead Arranger, Bookrunner, Hedge Provider, Offshore Security Agent and Offshore Account Bank on the successful project financing of the 300MW Sakaka Solar independent power plant (IPP) project in Saudi Arabia.
- The senior noteholder committee in the restructuring of Croatian food producer and retailer, Agrokor, with total liabilities of c€5 6bn, in a pre-bankruptcy process, including structuring and implementing €1bn DIP funding with elevation feature.
Litigation, Arbitration, and Employment
- Uber Technologies and some of its wholly owned subsidiaries on more than two dozen federal putative class actions stemming from a 2016 data security incident in which personal information of millions of Uber users—riders and drivers—around the world was accessed by a hacker.
- ENRC landmark victory in the UK Court of Appeal, in a high-profile and historic decision on the law of privilege. The court held that documents prepared during an internal investigation are protected by litigation privilege.
- Achmea v Slovak Republic where The Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that investor-State arbitration clauses in investment treaties concluded between EU Member States are incompatible with EU law.
- Mylan as lead, national U.S. counsel in multidistrict litigation comprised of nearly twenty class actions arising from the pricing of EpiPen® Auto-Injector products and related issues. Also advising Mylan in other disputes relating to opioids and generic drug pricing.
- Victims of the Westminster attack in the UK - a complex four week inquest with the Chief Coroner concluding that all victims were 'unlawfully killed'.
- IBM as global lead antitrust counsel on its proposed acquisition for US$34bn of open source software provider Red Hat. The deal is the largest software acquisition in history.
- ZTE on its criminal plea agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice and related settlement agreements with the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) and the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) arising from ZTE’s violations of U.S. export controls and economic sanctions laws.
- Viz.ai’s landmark product, known as ContaCT to obtain regulatory approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Adminstration to market the first AI-based software device to help diagnose strokes. The process created the regulatory pathway for future AI-based software devices.
- T-Mobile U.S. on its bid to complete its purchase of Sprint, helping it establish how the combination of the two companies will generate US$43.6bn total in cost savings by 2024 and enabling investments in new network technologies to create a U.S.-wide 5G network.
- Equifax on some of the regulatory enforcement work arising from a data breach which is among the largest and highest profile in U.S. history, affecting approximately 145 million consumers.
- Eli Lilly in the long-running Actavis v Eli Lilly patent litigation dispute in the UK Supreme Court resulting in the biggest change to UK patent law in 40 years.
- Tencent (China's largest and most used Internet service portal) under the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy to win back the Chinese domain name behind WeChat.
- HTC on the-then largest patent litigation before the European courts. Multijurisdictional cases against Nokia and NPEs, and advising on FRAND licensing terms.
- Starbucks and its subsidiaries, including Teavana, Evolution Fresh, Bay Bread, Seattle’s Best Coffee, Torrefazione Italia, and Princi on trademark searching and clearance, strategic portfolio management, acquisition due diligence, auditing, as well as enforcement, including before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) and the federal courts.
- M.M.M. v. Sessions landmark litigation which allowed hundreds of families who were separated after entering the U.S. a meaningful opportunity to seek asylum.
- The “Clann Project” bringing justice to the women and their children who were mistreated while in the care of Ireland’s mother and baby homes.
- Protecting the rights of eligible voters in Georgia, New York, Maryland, and Virginia.
- Convincing the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to approve a new treatment for river blindness, a debilitating disease that affects millions of people living in sub-Saharan Africa.
- Advising social enterprises across Europe and supporting organizations that encourage female entrepreneurship in the U.S., Australia, and throughout Latin America.
ENDS