Issue 9 2012

AUSTRALIA BELGIUM CHINA FRANCE GERMANY HONG KONG SAR INDONESIA (ASSOCIATED OFFICE) ITALY JAPAN PAPUA NEW GUINEA SINGAPORE SPAIN SWEDEN UNITED ARAB EMIRATES UNITED KINGDOM UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Foreword Welcome to the first 2012 edition of FlashBack. As well as the usual items, including our "one that got away", Kirstin Hadley, who for the last few years has been running a restaurant in Hammersmith, we have brought together a series of features relating to London 2012.

As many of you will know, we have among our current and former staff a number who have had the privilege and the ability to represent their country in previous Olympics; and two with high-profile roles in London 2012 itself. We're delighted that a number of them have contributed to our "Olympic Special".

I had my own small Olympic experience recently, when British Universities Sport, of which I'm a director, was given the opportunity to hold its annual athletics championship finals over four days at the Olympic Stadium as the final test event for the stadium. So I had an early chance to see what has been made of this former area of dereliction and wasteland in Stratford. The Olympic Park is massive, extremely impressive and ready. The stadium itself was about half full for the test event, which culminated in the formal opening, and I had the thrill of being able to award some medals and have my name announced and up in lights as I walked out into the stadium. A somewhat minor achievement compared with those of the alumni whose experiences are set out on the next few pages, but still exciting for me!

All the best

Roger Finbow (roger.finbow@ashurst.com)

Contents The ones that got away! Kirstin Hadley .................................................. 2 Olympic special Katy Roberts ................................................... 4 Chris Holmes ................................................... 5 Celia Carlisle.................................................... 6 Jonathan Searle ............................................... 7 Ashurst news Partner retirements .......................................... 9 Simon Bromwich steps down ............................ 9 James Collis as new managing partner ............... 9 New partners................................................. 10 New partner hires .......................................... 10 New trainees ................................................ 11 Ashurst Australia............................................ 11 Ashurst community news ................................ 12 Awards season!.............................................. 14 New office in Munich....................................... 14

SAVE THE DATE

Thursday 27 September 2012

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The ones that got away! In each edition of FlashBack we feature alumni who have pursued a successful career outside the legal profession. Kirstin Hadley

Kirstin joined Ashurst in 1997 and worked in the litigation and technology and commercial departments, before leaving in 2004.

The story of my life after private practice in the IP department at Ashurst has its roots in my childhood. As a special treat when I was very young my mother would take my sister and me to the cafe at Woolworths in Manners Mall, Wellington, where we were allowed to share a custard square or a ham sandwich. I thought it was very cool. I distinctly remember my excitement at the age of 13 when a new cafe opened called "The Lido". It was modern, with real espresso coffees, and they served huge wedges of baked cheesecake with yoghurt, not cream. It blew my mind and I decided at that moment that I wanted to own a cafe.

Fast-forward a few years, and I found myself six and a half years qualified, living in London and working in the IP department at Ashurst! I had some great experiences, interesting clients and plenty of work. But I needed a break, and maybe a change, and convinced my managing partner to let me take a sabbatical. So in 2004 I partied in South Africa, spent time at home in New Zealand, went hiking in Thailand, toured Vietnam, and meditated in India.

In India I met a certain Argentinean and, after returning to work for a few months, I resigned and moved to Argentina. Nico shared my love of entertaining and food, and so when we returned to London in 2007 it was to open a Kiwi/Argentine-influenced restaurant.

Many (wise) people warned us that catering was hard work. I thought nothing could be harder and require more hours than my years in private practice (wrong), so

taking all the advice into account, and despite our lack of experience, we went ahead anyway.

Lola & Simón opened for business on 25 September 2007. Following the six-week refurbishment, we were already exhausted. We went into shock as we realised how much work was involved in making and selling food and how tight the margins were.

So we did as much as we could to keep staff costs low, and paid cash for everything to make sure we didn't accumulate debt. I have never been so physically exhausted, washed so many dishes, made so many cakes and cleaned so many toilets as we did in that first year! I am so thankful to person who invented Crocs. Being on your feet for so many hours is crippling.

Having your own business, and in particular a restaurant,

is like having a newborn baby: you are sleep deprived, you can’t leave it with a babysitter (no one else does things how you want them done and there is too much at stake), it takes all your energy and time, you talk about nothing else (eventually alienating those friends without children), it strains your relationship, and you get stressed by every little hiccup or complaint.

But, despite buying the lease at the height of the market and two recessions, four and a half years on, here we still are, with good reviews and a base of wonderful regular customers many of whom are now close friends. Our baby has grown up and we have a great team of babysitters who look after it, leaving us time to slowly rebuild our social life and start other projects.

In fact, I returned to law part time a couple of years ago and work as in-house counsel three days a week for a fast-growing group in the perfume industry. The work is very interesting and, like a working parent, I look forward to time-out from the restaurant. I really enjoy the intellectual stimulation, and especially appreciate that I will always get paid at the end of the month. I also enjoy coming back home to my baby, catching up with the staff

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and customers, and making the odd cake and coffee. Variety is the spice of life after all.

So, what can I say about life outside of private practice and, in particular, owning your own business? It is interesting, varied, challenging, rewarding... and really hard work. Having responsibility for a payroll of 13 people is scary. For the first year or so all our staff earned more than we did.

Having legal training is helpful and friends still practising at Ashurst even more helpful. At one point a City law firm acting for the landlord (without instructions, it transpired) was threatening to sue us for unpaid service charges under the lease. They amounted to several thousand pounds that we simply could not afford to pay, and my clear and carefully constructed letters pointing out that they were being improperly levied were being ignored. An Ashurst headed letter quickly put that dispute to bed for which I am enormously grateful.

I am thankful for the time I had at Ashurst and the relationships that have come out of those years. I love seeing old colleagues in the restaurant, and have been so appreciative of the support I have had from those people.

On reflection I realise that private practice and catering have similarities: they are both service industries, demanding, and not great for your social life. But the people interaction makes both rewarding and interesting and it is an amazing feeling when someone leaves the restaurant thankful after a really good night out.

Kirstin Hadley www.lolaandsimon.co.uk

Where are they now?

Missing alumni – we've lost touch with some of our alumni members mainly because we do not have up-to-date contact details. If you are in touch with anyone who you think we may have lost contact with, please let us know at alumni@ashurst.com. Also, don't forget to let us know if your details change!

Thanks to social networking, we are back in touch with many alumni, in particular people from the

wider Ashurst network of offices.

Have you joined our groups on LinkedIn and Facebook?

If you are registered on these networking sites we hope you will join our groups.

Simply search for "Ashurst Alumni".

Make sure your current profile reflects your past employment at Ashurst so we can confirm your membership.

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Olympic special With the London Olympics around the corner we thought it would be a perfect opportunity to speak to a number of alumni who have their own Olympic experiences past and present.

Katy Roberts

Katy joined Ashurst as a trainee in 2004, upon her return from action as a hockey training squad member for the 2004 Olympics in Athens. During her hockey career she won 41 caps for England and GB as goalkeeper, including competing for England in the 2006 World Cup and GB in the Beijing Olympics in 2008. In 2006 she joined Lehman Brothers, where she had spent

time on secondment as a trainee, and she is now vice president of the fixed income division at Nomura International. We spoke to her earlier.

What was the highlight of your goalkeeping career?

Winning bronze at the European Cup in 2007. Also, being part of the GB Olympic team for the Beijing Olympics in 2008 was definitely another highlight.

You were in Team GB for the Beijing Olympics. What did you have to do to compete at such a high level?

Well, I started playing as a junior and since then I have represented England at all junior levels and gained 41 senior England and Great Britain caps.

The training leading up to the Beijing Olympics was intense. This was not only due to the specialist training we undertook to prepare us for such dramatic temperatures but also because I did this alongside working for Lehman Brothers as assistant vice president of the equities division. At that time hockey wasn't a sport that required full-time training, it was flexible. Now the current Team GB is required to train full-time for the London Olympics.

Lehman's was brilliant at giving me time off to compete and train. I worked four days a week, with three hours training in the morning, plus lunchtime and pitch training in heat-regulated rooms in order to prepare for Beijing.

Following such a successful hockey career you 'hung up your gloves' after the Beijing Olympics, but are you still involved in the sport?

Yes, in the lead-up to Beijing we spent three weeks in Australia playing a series against Australia and at a training camp in Macau where the heat and humidity are something else. It was a hard year but a wonderful experience and I feel very lucky to have been a part of it. To have been able to do this and not sacrifice my job has been fantastic - the current Team GB is not able to do this as they are in full-time training.

I actually left my gloves in Beijing when I retired from professional competition and turned my attention to the management of the team. I am currently a non-executive director of the England Hockey Board alongside my position at Nomura International plc as vice president of the fixed income division.

My role with England Hockey is voluntary. The board helps run the national governing body in England from grass-roots games to international performance ensuring the game grows and develops new strands, for example rush hockey which can be played on multiple surfaces. Half the board are executive and half are employed by other companies.

I am also a club coach at Wimbledon Hockey Club. While I think I have played enough, I'd love to play some other positions such as striker at a local level.

What have you learnt from your time in the England Hockey team which you have found useful in your roles both at Ashurst and Nomura?

A lot of the skills from playing as part of the Hockey Team GB are transferable; you have to be pretty organised to juggle full-time work and playing in a national team. You also need a strong work ethic, to be prepared to push yourself and be able to work successfully in a team. I think it shows the strengths and weaknesses of how you perform under pressure.

How is the team shaping up for the London Olympics?

I think the women's team has an excellent chance of getting a medal and is definitely a realistic contender to be in the finals. The men's team is also ranked in the top four and is very much in the running. I think we will see at least one medal: gold or silver would brilliant for the sport. The teams are ranked higher than in previous Olympic campaigns so we are in far better shape. The teams are currently training at the Olympic pitch in Stratford one day a week. I'll be envious of the girls when they step out at the Olympics, but the amount of work needed is phenomenal and I have a huge amount of respect for the work they are putting in. I'll be at the London Olympics cheering the team on, hopefully at the semis and finals.

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Chris Holmes

Chris joined Ashurst as a trainee in 2002, and went into the Employment, Incentives and Pensions department after qualifying. He is the most successful paralympic swimmer ever, winning nine gold medals and was honoured with the MBE

for services to British sport aged only 20. Chris is now the Director of Paralympic Integration in London 2012. Here he shares a few thoughts on how the preparations have been going.

Seven days a week, 18 hours a day. No, not a Geffen deal or a spell in banking (sorry: international finance). No, I'm detailing the final run-in to the London Olympic and Paralympic Games.

I was fortunate enough to be involved in the London bid in 2003. We launched at the Royal Opera House in March with phenomenal positivity from all the politicians and everyone from British sport right behind the bid.

Nine years later and we stand as an organising committee, as a city, as a nation, on the brink of staging "the greatest show on earth" and certainly one of the most extraordinary events we will ever witness in our lifetime.

LOCOG, the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games is a truly unique organisation to work for. Every year we double in size; then, post-Games, barring a few finance folk and assorted others, this autumn, we disappear.

My time at LOCOG has been tremendous, leading a team, across the business to stage the XIV Paralympic Games, between 29 August and 9 September this year. There have been many firsts for us, perhaps the most significant being our commitment, right from the bid, to plan and deliver the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games as a fully integrated Organising Committee. This has been talked about in previous games but it’s London that has been able to give it life. What this means in reality is that we are able to achieve significant efficiencies across the project as we plan one games time, taking in both the Olympic and Paralympic Games and, crucially, the transition period between them.

To put on the games takes billions of pounds, millions of work hours and thousands of people, incredible focus, oh yes and hundreds of acronyms. If you think law does well in this respect, try this for a conversation: "We will meet in the MOC, next to the MIG, inform the GOC, form an IMT and tell the POC." What does this mean? There’s no need to know, save to say, at the end of the project we will all need to be thoroughly dowsed down and de-acronymed!

Our vision, presented in Singapore in 2005, was to use the power of the games to "inspire change.... to inspire young people to choose sport." Everything we have done since winning has been to focus on this goal, to put athletes at the heart of everything we do and, in doing so, hopefully make the difference between great games and the merely good.

The stadia are completed, the village built and the final test events under way. The Olympic Park, where much of the action will take place, is stunning; so compact, so engaging, so sport. The aquatics centre, or swimming pool to you and me, is sensational. If only I could knock ten years off my life, hmmm, probably make that 15, I would love to have the opportunity to compete in it. 17,500 spectators will roar swimmers home to gold, silver and bronze success. The wave roof is one of the first sights to greet you as you step from the transport into the Park. The Olympic stadium is similarly superb, so intimate; spectators so close to the action, everything is set for records to tumble, not least in that much-talked of 100m.

The village stands right next to the park, enabling athletes to get to their competition in minimal time to enable full focus on their events. It's impressive, houses a 24-hour dining hall, sports medicine and polyclinic facility and has everything the athletes need for their comfort and for final preparations.

Testing has been crucial: three clusters of test events across London, across the country and, finally, across the Olympic Park - testing the fields of play, the seating bowl, the crowd-flows to name just a few. Our aim is quite simple: to ensure that when the athletes of the world arrive this summer, all they will need to focus on is giving the performances of their lives because we will have taken care of all the detail.

Partnership working has been essential. As an Organising Committee we stand at the centre of all of this stuff, but without the wider picture the games would not happen, be this in transport, city operations or arrivals and departures, not least at Heathrow, our official port of entry.

We are now in our final approach: there is much still to be done but we are on time and on budget. The team effort has been tremendous, across LOCOG, across the city and across the country. Millions of words will be spoken, written, tweeted and more, at games time and beyond. The key though is to ensure that every one of us thinks how can I be part of this, what can I do to make it come to life in my local area, how can I ensure that I am able to feel those most fundamental connections to fellow countrymen and women and to the wider world through the power of sport?

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Celia Carlisle

Celia came to Ashurst as a trainee in 1984, and joined the Litigation department after qualifying. As part of the Olympic Delivery Authority, Celia, as General Counsel, was part of the team charged with delivering the infrastructure and venues of the games of the 30th Olympiad.

I am always amazed that I am invited to the alumni

events, as I left Ashurst Morris Crisp before there was a formal alumni and before most people in the alumni even joined the firm. I joined as an articled clerk in 1984, qualifying in 1986, and then left to go to Australia in the autumn of 1987. I headed to Sydney to work for Blake Dawson Waldron, so I was pleased to hear that Ashurst was joining forces with them - there can’t be many Ashurst employees that have worked for both organisations. While I was there Blakes moved into the building they have now, with its fabulous views over Sydney Harbour. Unfortunately, suffering from vertigo as I do, I never really enjoyed going out on the balcony on the top floor. Going for a swim at Bondi before work on the other hand, or sailing round the harbour afterwards, was definitely a pleasure. From Blakes, I moved on to help set up a small boutique law firm where I stayed for a few years before finally and with some regret packing my bags and heading home to the UK.

On return to Britain I decided I didn’t want to continue in private practice. I was offered a job with a consortium on an early PFI bid and so instead I fell in to the world of projects. Over the next decade I worked on the Channel Tunnel Rail Link, the London Underground Power PFI, the Tube PPP, numerous transport and infrastructure PFIs, a number of power projects and I was involved in the first bundling-up and on-selling of equity in PFI projects to the secondary market.

In the summer of 2005 London learned (I think to many people’s great surprise) that we had won the bid to stage the 2012 Olympics and before long I found myself joining a small team at the Olympic Delivery Authority, with the brief to deliver the infrastructure and venues of the games of the 30th Olympiad as the General Counsel.

It has been an incredible experience, going from a start-up organisation into full delivery mode and now turning to exit and wind up. The programme identified by the

ODA ran from July 2005 to 2012, a period of seven years. Roughly, we spent two years planning and four years building. Now we are more than half way through one year of testing.

The LDA started a compulsory purchase order process immediately London won the bid and so a large amount of work had been undertaken before the ODA even came in to existence in April 2006. By December 2006 the CPO was granted and the LDA could begin acquiring land. As well as purchasing the land on the park, we had to acquire land underground - two donut-shaped long tubes of land in order to put the 52 power lines that towered over the site, in two tunnels underground, and this all before we could start building. Another item that had to kick off fast was the master planning for the site. In February 2007 the ODA put in a planning application (the largest planning application ever recorded in the UK) and permission was granted the following September.

My job touched every aspect of what the ODA did and one of my first tasks was to hire lawyers (internally and externally) to help me. I dealt with assurance and insurance, drafted processes ranging from governance to procurement and rapidly brushed up on my knowledge of NEC3, which had been determined as the ODA’s contract of choice. Being a non-departmental public body, the ODA had to tender publicly for all works and services, starting with the Delivery Partner procurement, which we did in an extremely quick time frame using the then brand new competitive dialogue process.

We had committed to a legacy of economic, social and environmental benefit and underpinned all our activities with "priority themes" relating to health, safety and security, accessibility, equality, employment and skills and sustainability, something we worked hard with our supply chain to fulfil. Also, we had to make sure at all times that we were thinking about the legacy of what we left behind. In order to deliver all this, as well as 112 major construction contracts, four permanent stadia, a broadcast and media centre, various temporary stadia, an athletes’ village and all the roads and infrastructure in between, we had to organise framework agreements, service agreements and countless corporate procurements. We had to work through very complicated CDM areas, each prime contractor being responsible for his space, but our Delivery Partner being responsible for the spaces in between.

The remediation contractors started on site in July 2007 to demolish (recycling wherever possible), remediate (tons of soil was washed and reused) and get the site platform ready. The site is incredibly constrained – being ringed by road, rail and water so we had an extensive logistics programme. This brought much of the materials we required to site by rail, and ensured our works' traffic had timed delivery slots to avoid blocking up the roads in to East London as well as assisting in the meeting of our planning commitments.

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We did meet our target of reducing carbon dioxide emissions and use of potable water. We created a timber panel to ensure that all timber on the park was from sustainable sources and we had a "digger school" as well as 400 or so apprentices trained on the park. The target for renewable energy resources has been met, though when a blade fell off a wind turbine near Peterborough just as we were letting the contract for our own wind turbine on site, everyone went rather cold on the idea and we had to look at alternative sources.

We worried about Japanese knotweed, relocation of travellers and allotment holders as well as newts and lizards and Black Jack the cat – who evaded capture for months. We had issues about metropolitan open land and obscure bits of property law about Lammas land and chancel repairs. We worried about IT and information security, we had Freedom of Information requests ranging from the banal to the ridiculously repetitive, data protection issues, discussions around TUPE, we worked hard with the Trade Unions and I learned that Canada Geese don’t like orange.

And the three letter acronyms drove me mad.

Somehow we got through it, kept our sense of humour and delivered it all. The park, if you are lucky enough to go and have a look, is magnificent. Crumbling old tower blocks and piles of old cars have been replaced by landscaped parkland, clean rivers and canals and some fabulous buildings. The Velodrome, looking like a large pringle, was rubbed with rhubarb to give it a fantastic reddish tint, the Handball centre, copper on the outside, is a riot of colour and light inside, the hockey pitches are the most amazing pink and blue, and although the BMX circuit doesn’t seem quite finished, that’s actually how it’s supposed to look. On 10 January 2012 LOCOG took control of the park for the build-up to the games this summer. And after the games it transfers it to the Olympic Park Legacy Company, which will start the process of getting it ready to open to the public in 2013.

Tickets? I hear you ask – yes, a few in the ballot with the rest of the population, though on balance I think it is probably better to be watching from the privacy of my own home as I cry every time I see a British athlete on the podium and hear the national anthem.

It has been an amazing rollercoaster once-in-a-lifetime experience, which will be difficult to follow. I am not sure it is possible to train for all the eventualities that occurred, but I had an amazing team of experts inside and outside the law to call on when I was stumped. If another job like this came along I would do it all again in a flash. As for this summer I hope to spend a lot of August watching the games, hopefully seeing the GB medal count increase, even if I suffer from acute dehydration in the process.

Celia Carlisle

Jonathan Searle

Jonathan joined Ashurst early in 1991 and worked as a paralegal for around six months before rejoining in September 1993 after two years at Law School. Here Jonathan looks back at the stages which led up to his gold medal win at Athens, and life after Ashurst.

Copyright: Richard Wearne: Raw Images

From the age of 15 I wanted to win an Olympic gold medal. One of my school teachers rowed in a coxed four that won gold in 1984. That was just after our school crew had won the British school championships. I was one of the best rowers in the boat so it seemed reasonable to assume that I was one of the best rowers in the country in my age group. I also had success as a junior rower and won a gold medal at the junior world championships in my last year at school. Because my teacher had won a gold medal, I knew that normal British people too could win gold medals at the Olympics, so my dream of winning seemed realistic. From that moment I believed that I would one day win an Olympic gold.

I grew up in a household where a high value was put on education (as well as sport) and was fortunate to be accepted by Oxford University where I began studying in 1987. Initially I had no interest in doing the Boat Race, I was just pleased to be studying near Henley where the British team would be training for the 1988 Olympics.

I started training with the Oxford squad who were hoping to make the 1988 Boat Race crew. The training was tough and the squad was coached by one of the leading British national coaches. But once I made the crew and raced in the Boat Race I discovered that it was a great event in itself. I raced three times and found it to be a fantastic experience. The event is unique in rowing as it attracts so much more publicity than any other event; racing on the tidal Thames with no buoyed course adds a huge element of uncertainty and the fact that first is everything and second is nothing makes for an exciting, emotional adventure.

I hoped to go the Games in 1988 in my first year at Oxford and was incredibly disappointed not to be selected for the Olympic team that year. I left Oxford in September 1990 with a biology degree and the idea that working as a lawyer might be an interesting career. At that time I thought I may be able to use my biology and work in environmental law.

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I joined Ashurst in early 1991 and worked as a paralegal for around six months during which time I was offered a training contract.

By that time I was in the national team and raced in the eights event at the 1989, 1990 and 1991 World Championships winning two bronze medals. During 1990 and 1991 I rowed with my brother in the eights and it was in the back of my mind that we might race together at the Olympics. In the winter of 1991 while training together the idea that we could race in the pair became more firmly established and we trained harder than ever to make our boat go as fast as possible. I thought that Greg and I were two of the strongest rowers in the British team and it seemed that we would have more chance of a gold medal racing in a pair than in an eight. We won the British trials at Easter in 1992 and earned the right to race in the coxed pair later that summer at the Barcelona Olympics.

We were successful in winning gold at the Games in what was regarded as one of the most dramatic Olympic rowing races ever, in which we caught up with the Italian Olympic champions just before the finish line and rowed past them in the final strokes of the race. People ask how we suddenly managed to find the final 30-stroke burst; but we had been working towards that for eight years. I am often asked what it is like to win a gold medal at the Olympics. I tell them it was a feeling of utter contentment, at having achieved a goal we had been working towards for such a long time.

While I was in the Olympic village, just before the Games, I found out that I had passed my CPE. After the Games, I was determined both to win another gold medal at the 1996 Olympics and to become a good lawyer and establish myself in a top City firm. I joined Ashurst as a trainee in September 1993 and qualified into the litigation department in September 1995 where I mainly worked on tobacco litigation in John Evans's team.

Given my interest in sport, and the fact that it was becoming increasingly commercialised during the 1990s, I started organising a sports law group with Roger Finbow, Melanie Willems and others in the firm, which pulled together experience of sports-related work from various departments.

Thanks to the great support of Ashurst and my colleagues I was able to take considerable time off work to train from 1993 and the 1996 Games. It was not a straightforward journey however. The coxed pair event was removed from the Olympic programme in 1994 and we had to form a four with two others from the national

team. Although I thought I was capable of working full time and achieving success in 1996, by that time most of the international rowers had become full time athletes and it was hard to compete.

My weekdays usually involved getting up at 6 am to train before work, working in the office until 5:30 pm then going back to the river or the gym to train again. I would be home at around 8:30 pm in time to eat, then sleep before getting up to start all over again. It was a relief to go away on training camps, as although I was then training three or four times a day, I would still be much better rested than when I was at home in England.

We won four medals at the 1994 and 1995 World Championships and we went to the Atlanta Games in 1996 with high hopes of another gold medal, so when we came third in the final we were very disappointed. In hindsight I should have trained full time from 1993 to 1996 to have given myself the best chance of winning another gold, and then called it a day and started my career as a lawyer, rather than trying to do both things at the same time.

After 1996 I came back to Ashurst working full time I stopped serious rowing; however in 1998, I decided to try again to get to the Sydney Games and to win that second gold medal. I moved departments in 1998 to join Tony Ghee in the media team. Again Ashurst and my colleagues were very supportive in giving me time off to train.

Although I made the team for the 1999 World Championships, my hopes of going on to win another gold in Sydney ended in the Winter or 1999 when I missed about four months of the seven months leading up to the main British selection trials with consecutive injuries: a bad back, broken ribs and broken arm.

My first son was born in 1999, so I accepted that I would not be rowing at any more Olympics. I came back to Ashurst to re-join the media team and to work in the sports group. In late 2001 I went on secondment to a broadcasting client and really enjoyed myself. In May 2002 I moved into an in-house role with a media company where I work now as General Counsel and Company Secretary.

I still enjoy racing, the feeling of the boat moving and the camaraderie of the crew, so I continue to row once a week on a Saturday morning in an eight with a group of former internationals and we remind each other how great we all used to be.

Jonathan Searle

FlashBack is our way of staying in touch with you, so please do let us know if there is something you would be interested in reading about or if you have any other suggestions

for our alumni programme. To get in touch, just email alumni@ashurst.com.

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Ashurst news Partner retirement

In January the firm saw the retirement of partner, Arundel McDougall.

Arundel joined the firm in 2000 after working for Rowe & Maw, where he became partner in 1986. Arundel was regularly ranked in the directories as a leader in the Product Liability (Defendant) field.

Our best wishes to Arundel in his retirement and we look forward to his involvement in future alumni events.

Simon Bromwich steps down

Simon Bromwich stepped down as managing partner on 30 April 2012 and has taken on the role of the firm's head of Dispute Resolution practice. After eight years as managing partner, Simon talks about some of the highlights of his time in the role.

How does Ashurst today compare with when you started as managing partner?

The market has obviously been through a period of seismic change and the firm has also transformed during that period. In the last eight years, we have opened offices in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Hong Kong, New York, Rome, Stockholm and Washington DC and entered into alliances in China and India. And, of course, most recently we have combined with Blake Dawson. So greater international coverage is the main difference. Inevitably, the market has also become far more competitive and all firms have had to do much more now to protect their key relationships from competitor firms. This has influenced a great deal of what we do.

Interestingly though, I think that what we stand for and how we work with one another and with our clients remains the same. In other words, I believe that the special Ashurst culture remains as strong as ever.

What have been the highlights of your time as managing partner?

There have been many. Playing a role in the international expansion of the firm and working on the opportunities to make this happen have been key highlights. I have no doubt that we will achieve our aim of becoming a premier global law firm and much of what we have worked on recently has laid the groundwork for that.

Seeing the practices across the network achieve so much in recent years has been an undoubted highlight. We have all really upped our game.

What would say were the main challenges you faced as managing partner?

Given the growth and increased complexity of the firm, one of the main challenges has been finding the time in which to do everything. I think all of us feel this though. Over the last few years, it's been a really tough environment and all of us have pulled together and worked incredibly hard. I'm really proud of the achievements we have made as a firm and everyone has contributed towards this. How we have faced the challenges together has been genuinely impressive.

What will you miss the most?

The role requires you to work with a large team from all offices and all practices, legal and non-legal. I have thoroughly enjoyed this and I feel very lucky that I have been able to view the firm from a unique perspective.

Most of all I have had a great deal of fun!

Are you looking forward to going back to disputes practice?

Very much so. It's doing really well across all of our offices so it’s an exciting time to be going back. There is much to be achieved and I look forward to playing my part in that.

I also know that the new management team will do an exceptional job so I'm leaving the role in very good hands!

James Collis is appointed as new managing partner

On 1 May 2012 James Collis was appointed as managing partner.

James, 41, trained at Ashurst and became a partner in 2005. He has most recently been a banking partner in Paris, with particular expertise in cross-border acquisition finance and restructuring transactions.

Senior partner Charlie Geffen said: "I congratulate James on his appointment and we are delighted to welcome him into the role. We have a very strong management team in place and we are confident James' skill set and knowledge of the wider firm will play a key role in achieving our ambitions of being one of a small group of premier global law firms. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Simon Bromwich for his exceptional leadership over the last eight years."

James Collis added: "This is an incredibly exciting time to be taking over as managing partner. I look forward to working with my colleagues globally to ensure that we fully capitalise on our strengths across the firm's international network. Ashurst has recently undergone a

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period of transformational growth and I hope to both consolidate and build upon that in the future."

In a separate move, the firm has also announced that Logan Mair is taking on an additional role, based in London, of client and practice development partner. This appointment reflects the changing size and complexity of the business and Logan will work closely with Charlie Geffen and James Collis, as well as practice and regional heads, to help further facilitate the integration between Ashurst's offices and practices. He will continue to remain actively involved with clients in the firm's projects and infrastructure business.

New partners

Ashurst is delighted to announce that the following have been elected to the partnership with effect from 1 May 2012:

Donald Slater Brussels, Antitrust

Karen Davies London, Corporate

Mark Davies Tokyo, Corporate

Nick Goddard London, Corporate

Tom Connor London, Dispute Resolution

Lynn Dunne London, Dispute Resolution

Daniel Reinbott Singapore, Energy

Tim Rennie London, Finance

Arnaud Wtterwulghe Brussels, Finance

Mike Smith London, Infrastructure

Marcus Fink London, Pensions

Ismael Fernández Antón Madrid, Real Estate

Sarah Sivyour London, Real Estate

Nicholas Gardner London, Tax

Naomi Horton London, Transport

Terence Van Poortvliet London, Transport

New partner hires

Patrick Phua joined our China practice in March. Patrick joined us from the Beijing office of Mallesons Stephen Jaques, where he was head of their derivatives, structured finance and banking practice in China.

He has extensive experience of advising both corporate and financial institution clients in relation to derivatives and structured products, including government agencies, Chinese and international commercial banks, and Chinese state owned enterprises.

Patrick's appointment is an exciting addition to our global finance practice and a step towards increasing our presence in China and the wider Asia-Pacific region.

Patrick Phua commented: "For me the opportunity to join a leading global team of structured finance lawyers with strong coverage in key markets including London and New York was highly compelling. It is also very exciting to be joining Ashurst at such a significant time for the firm in Asia and to be part of its ambitious plans in China. I look forward to playing my part in the firm's continuing success."

Nicholas Moore joined our banking practice in London this month.

Nicholas joins from Linklaters' London banking practice. He advises major banks and corporate clients on banking and finance matters including

investment grade syndicated and bilateral loan financing and real estate financing.

Commenting on the appointment, banking partner Mark Vickers said: "Nicholas brings with him a wealth of experience and market knowledge that will boost our already well established banking practice. However we are always looking at ways to strengthen and diversify our product offering to clients. Nicholas' leading reputation in the sector for providing high-quality commercial advice and advising on big ticket deals for major banks and corporates will add significant depth to our developing investment grade lending capability."

Alessandro Giovannelli joined Ashurst in April of this year. Alessandro joins us as a partner and head of corporate in our Italian practice. Formerly a partner with Pavia e Ansaldo, Alessandro specialises in private equity and M&A. He has a wealth of

experience in cross-border and domestic acquisitions and divestitures, joint ventures, mergers and other corporate reorganisations. Prior to Pavia e Ansaldo, Alessandro spent seven years at Allen & Overy. He will join the Milan office along with a team of five lawyers, including two

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counsel - Matteo Colombari and Matteo Delucchi and senior associate Fabrizio Scaparro.

Managing partner of Italy, Franco Vigliano, said: "Alessandro is a first-rate lawyer with exceptional leadership and client skills. We're delighted that he will be joining: this is part of an ongoing plan to boost our Italian corporate practice, which started last year with the move of partner Fabio Pizzoccheri from London to the Milan office and the hiring of partner Francesco De Gennaro and counsel Aian Abbas in Rome."

New trainees

In March, we also welcomed our new group of London trainees.

Lindsey Anderson

Charlotte Assael

Tania Barnes Letitia Bryan

Antonia Bussey

Shreedevi Chatterjee

Adrian Cheung

Emily Eyre

Alina Fazal Shanine Felix Yasmeen Ghali

Jacob Gold

Samantha Hall

Camilla Handford

Simona Heinonen

Luke Jennison

Josh Ludlow Hollie Motley Hugh Nolan Emma Sandall

Victoria Sur Harry Thimont

Nicholas Walker

Shuo Yang

Ashurst Australia

On 1 March 2012, Blake Dawson re-branded as Ashurst and our practices combined in Asia. This created one team under the Ashurst brand with 1,700 lawyers and 3,500 staff working across 24 offices and worldwide revenue of over £550 million.

As a result of the combination, Ashurst has gained new offices in Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Jakarta, Melbourne, Perth, Port Moresby, Shanghai and Sydney. This significantly increases Ashurst's resources and its stronghold in the energy & resources, infrastructure and financial services sectors.

Charlie Geffen said: "Our global team has expertise covering the world's major business sectors and financial centres. This is an exciting step forward for Ashurst in achieving our goal of being among a small group of premier global law firms. This new combination of quality and scale will notably enhance our ability to meet the international needs of our clients."

Mary Padbury, chairman of Ashurst in Australia added: "This is very much a coming together of equals that strengthens both firms. Independently we are recognised as leaders in our respective markets and together we can offer clients access to local market expertise and experience, together with seamless international reach and capability. Operating as one team under a global brand will deliver considerable synergies and benefits for our clients and people."

While Blake Dawson (now Ashurst) and Ashurst are no strangers having worked closely together for more than a decade the close working relationship that has developed since the announcement of the combination and rebrand has already borne benefits for the firms, for the firms' clients, and for the firms' people.

To celebrate the new combination Ashurst Australia is hosting events across Australia. One of these was held in Sydney on Wednesday 7 March 2012 at the Sydney Town Hall. Over 200 clients attended the event, as well as 80 Ashurst partners and staff (including Ashurst LLP partners Carl Dunton, Logan Mair and Robert Ogilvy Watson).

The Ashurst Australia Sydney Event on 7 March 2012

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Ashurst community news

Pro Bono Success in the US

Two associates in our Washington DC office recently successfully represented a pro-bono client in an asylum hearing before the United States Department of Justice. Our client, a female of Kenyan descent, fled to the United States from Kenya to avoid being forcibly subjected to female genital mutilation by members of her tribe. The case presented substantial difficulties as a factual matter (obtaining witness statements from Kenya, etc.) and as a procedural matter (because the client had failed to timely file her asylum application and as a result was statutorily barred from receiving asylum without a finding of special circumstances by the court).

The Ashurst team worked with the client for nearly a year, culminating in the preparation of a legal brief to the US Immigration Court which, together with evidentiary exhibits, factual affidavits, and witness interviews, totalled over 700 pages, and an oral argument. In a written opinion recently issued, the Immigration Judge granted our client's application for asylum in the United States.

PRIME update

As signatories to PRIME, Ashurst is committed to providing quality work experience placements for talented, ambitious and motivated students from less privileged backgrounds. The inaugural Access Ashurst scheme launched on 13 February with eighteen students (mostly from our local community). The scheme saw students placed in departments across the business with a view to giving them a real insight not only into the range of jobs at Ashurst but also the range of people who work here and their very diverse career paths. The students were also given the opportunity to participate in a series of training sessions focusing on the written word, CV/interview techniques and communication skills.

"Thank you for everything! I'm more than certain that we all enjoyed this week of hard work. We appreciate all you have done for us and giving us a rare chance to gain invaluable experience."

"I would like to say a massive thank you for everything you have done for us. Hope you stay well and take care, hopefully I will see you in Ashurst one day."

"Just want to thank everyone for helping me with last week I had a great time in and out of the office. Being in London on my own was a bit scary but I'm glad I did it, so thanks again to everyone involved."

Quotes from students

The students outside the Royal Courts of Justice

Quotes from hosts "My student had done background reading on some of the things I talked to him about, so that he knows more about it when we are doing our stuff. And I have seen him produce things that look like revision sheets on the key issues in advance for example, on the new UK regulatory structure. It was all impressive. I would like to stay involved with him, catch up every couple of months, and take a look at his UCAS/CV to see if there is anything I can help with."

"I think the student has demonstrated a real enthusiasm for the work she has been involved in and told me she had opted out of some of the group skills sessions early in order to be involved in conference calls, which is quite impressive! She feels her experience here has reaffirmed that she wants to pursue a career in the legal profession so it sounds like it has certainly been a success."

IntoUniversity

A team from Ashurst London recently participated in a one day initiative with IntoUniversity, a Private Equity Foundation portfolio charity. IntoUniversity is an organisation offering an innovative programme that supports young people from disadvantaged backgrounds to attain either a university place or another chosen aspiration. Volunteers worked with young people aged 14 to 15 to develop viable social enterprise ideas which were then pitched to a business panel. This was an opportunity to pass on business skills in a fun and hands-on way.

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Save the Children

Save the Children is a charity that save children’s lives. They fight for their rights. They help them fulfil their potential. They run world-class programmes to save children’s lives and challenge world leaders to keep to their promises to give children a brighter future.

Its activities range from fighting child poverty and hunger, enhancing children's health, education and rights to providing protection to children who are exploited or not properly cared for.

From Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, Save the Children operates in 120 countries, including the UK, to improve children's lives. Its actions reach more than 80 million children a year.

Getting involved In 2011 Ashurst was pleased to be able to offer pro bono services to Save the Children and thereby to support the activities of this important charity. Our assistance has been focused on providing intellectual property advice and trade mark portfolio management services, including securing the BORN TO SHINE trade mark for Save the Children for use on the celebrity talent show of the same name, shown on ITV1. Ashurst continues to support the activities of Save the Children in 2012 and we look forward to helping Save the Children across a range of practice areas in the future. If you would like to get involved, please contact Elaine Hatton.

A Save the Children fundraising event in Leeds

Nick Webber Trust

In 2004, Nick Webber, who was a newly qualified solicitor in the litigation department at Ashurst, tragically lost his life in a car accident in Malawi in 2004 while working for a human rights organisation. During his time at Ashurst, Nick was a passionate advocate for human rights and strongly believed in being able to make a difference at an individual level. He was heavily involved in the Ashurst Community Involvement Programme. In Nick's memory his family set up the Nick Webber Trust, a charity working to help some of the poorest and most marginalised people in Malawi, by working to increase access to justice, access to healthcare, and access to education.

Ashurst has worked with the Trust since its inception and provides support in a number of ways. In 2011 the newly formed Trainee CSR Committee was tasked with introducing an annual event for the firm which not only raised funds for the Trust but also recognised and celebrated the efforts of young lawyers making their mark in the world, in the way that Nick was able to do in such a short space of time. Nick was passionate about people and had an unquenchable lust for life; his commitment to pro bono work came straight from the heart.

The 2012 Nick Webber Trust Quiz, Raffle and Auction raised £2,849 which will be used to support the Trust's scholarship scheme for law undergraduates who commit to work in Legal Aid (where Nick was volunteering) for three years on qualification. There are four scholarships available, one in each year, costing approximately £1,250 per student.

Nick Webber Trust Quiz - The winning team

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Awards season!

Competition Team of the Year - Legal Business Awards 2012.

This was in acknowledgment of our landmark victory for Imperial Tobacco in successfully overturning ten infringement findings and a record fine of £112 million imposed by the Office of Fair Trading's tobacco decision. Advising on the longest case ever heard by the Competition Appeal Tribunal reflects the market-leading credentials of our competition team.

Latin American Social Infrastructure Deal of the Year (La Florida and Maipu hospital concessions projects, Chile) - Project Finance Magazine 2012

Grupo Sanjose closed the financing for the UF6.301 million ($238m) La Florida and Maipu hospital's concession in Chile on 11 February 2011. The deal was the first healthcare concession in a country with a long history of private investment in infrastructure. The country's health ministry, Ministerio de Salud, a novice grantor, and public works ministry, Ministerio de Obras Publicas (MOP), a veteran, plan to build on this first deal with at least eight additional hospitals around the country.

The construction plus 15-year design-build-finance-operate-maintain concession includes two hospitals in the Santiago metropolitan area. La Florida will cover 72,000 square metres with 391 beds and Maipu will cover 70,000 square metres with 375 beds. The concession includes supplying medical equipment, a marked departure from the UK, Canadian and Australian model. Sanjose Constructora is the engineering, procurement and construction contractor for the hospitals.

Shortlisted for Restructuring Team of the Year for advising Real Estate Opportunities – Legal Business Awards 2012

Advising Real Estate Opportunities (REO), Ashurst successfully saved one of London’s monuments, the Battersea Power Station, from changing hands while owners REO went through a restructuring. As part of this innovative mandate, the firm placed the Battersea station into a new subsidiary and converted £437m of debt-into-equity in the vehicle.

Congratulations to Tim West who is this year's winner of the Wig & Pen Prize

The Wig & Pen award is given by the City of London Law Society and the City of Westminster and Holborn Law Society, for pro bono legal work by a young solicitor. The Wig & Pen Prize provides an opportunity to give public recognition to the invaluable pro bono work undertaken by recently qualified solicitors. Nominations are sought for individual who have made a contribution to broadening access to justice in their communities and helping to ensure that the legal system is open to all.

Tim West, who is an associate in the Disputes Resolution department, has made a highly significant contribution to the Ashurst pro bono programme since starting as a trainee in September 2008. His contribution includes the implementation of a formal structure to capture and manage trainee engagement, the implementation of a pro bono scheme for our LPC students and the introduction of two new pro bono initiatives (with Reprieve and A4ID) resulting in a considerable increase in the number of lawyers involved in pro bono at Ashurst.

Tim was awarded a silver Wig & Pen ink stand and a £1,000 cheque for his chosen charity.

New office in Munich

Our office in Munich moved in April, into the newly designed Ludwigpalais in the historic building in Ludwigstraße 8.

"This move is part of our ambitious plans in Munich. We had been in the previous premises since 2002 and since then we have grown significantly, with more growth planned in the future. The old premises have slowly fallen short of up-to-date building standards and now fail to meet our client's

high expectations. The Ludwigpalais, with its central location and well fitted new premises, combines a prestigious new client area with ideal work conditions and room for future growth," says Peter Junghänel, managing partner of Ashurst Germany.

Ashurst first launched in Munich in 2001. Since then it has grown to five partners, with 14 fee-earners and around 20 support staff.

All contact details, including telephone and fax numbers as well as email addresses remain the same for all Munich staff.