(Can't get no) satisfaction

Eversheds has long enjoyed a close relation-ship with Leeds-based retailer Asda. But it nevertheless came as something of a surprise in January when news broke that the firm had enticed Asda's head of legal Denise Jagger to head back into private practice after a two-decade absence.

But although Jagger is joining Eversheds as a partner, she will not be fee earning. Her primary role will be to use her in-house experience to advise Eversheds on how it can enhance its service to and relationships with its clients.

"I wanted to combine my general management expertise with my keen interest in the law," she explains. "Having had one of the best in-house jobs in the country, going into another in-house role did not interest me. So moving into general management with a law firm, given my expertise and contacts, seemed a logical step.

"I could not have gone to just any firm, but I could see with Eversheds that there were a lot of like-minded people. My job is to help them to understand their clients. I know how they want to be served."

Jagger, who was group company secretary and general counsel at the supermarket chain, is one of the UK's more high-profile general counsel and was at Asda for more than 20 years. She is also one of the more outspoken in-house lawyers when it comes to highlighting the deficiencies of law firms' client service. It promises to be an illuminating experience for Eversheds.

"Law firms' ideas of good service and clients' ideas of good service are miles apart," she says. "I do not think it is rocket science, but the way that lawyers are trained does not teach them about customer service. There is not much to differentiate the top law firms in knowing the law, but what does differentiate them is their service delivery."

Jagger's view is that law firms and their clients can only work effectively if they really know – and trust – each other. And she sees the trend of big companies developing closer relationships with a smaller number of advisers as one that can only continue.

"Law firms need to find out what clients want to do with their advice – very rarely do you find a law firm that is able to give advice in a form that can be used immediately. Clients need to improve as well. All clients want their advisers to be proactive, but they cannot do it if they are not given the information."

The other important element of Jagger's new role at Eversheds is to develop the firm's HR strategy in order to allow the firm to achieve its strategic goal of being a "great place to work". Asda is well known for its progressive employment policies, which it applies to its legal staff as much as anyone else, and Jagger promises to make sure that Eversheds implements similar measures such as flexible working patterns, career breaks and, most radically, less time at the office.

"Law firms generally are not great places to work – the partnership set-up and the ways in which people are rewarded do not help and actually creates poor customer service because it does not encourage people to work as a team," she says. "I know law firms can be organised differently because I did it at Asda, but at the moment people think that if they take advantage of flexible working then it is the end of their careers.

"Lawyers in commercial law firms are paid incredibly well. They do not want more pay, they want more time for themselves. I am certain there is a commercially viable way for lawyers to have slightly less pay and work fewer hours. It is not just a 'nice' thing to do, it is a 'win-win' situation – you cannot expect lawyers to do a great job if they are exhausted and have no home life."

Whether the more far-reaching of Jagger's ideas – especially the shorter hours aspect – will survive economic reality remains to be seen, although she claims the support of the senior management. It will certainly be an interesting experience for both sides.

In the meantime, Jagger will also be keeping up her outside commercial interests, which include a number of non-executive directorships. "It is important that I keep in touch with the commercial world," she says. "I do not want to start thinking like a private practice lawyer."

Top of the pops

The highest new entry in last year's M&A charts is also likely to drop straight back out again. Nevertheless, Yorkshire firm Gordons is determined to enjoy – and capitalise on – its year in the limelight.

Gordons' lofty position of 19th in the Mergermarket M&A table – ahead of such illustrious names such as Macfarlanes and Travers Smith Braithwaite – was the result of a single deal, the £3bn takeover of retail giant Safeway by Bradford-headquartered supermarket chain William Morrison, which completed this month.

The supermarket has been a client of Bradford-based Gordons for as long as any of the current partnership can remember (the best guess is about 40 years) and the firm handles the vast majority of its legal work. Morrisons is unique among FTSE 100 companies in not having a relationship with a major national or City firm (partly because it has never really had the need), never having become involved in a major takeover battle before.

While Ashurst was the lead adviser for the Safeway takeover, which was hotly contested by almost all of the major supermarket chains and was the subject of a Competition Commission inquiry, Gordons took on a 'liaison' role between Morrisons and Ashurst not dissimilar to that of an in-house legal team in the course of bid, according to Gordons' head of corporate John Holden.

"For this deal, they wanted people who they trusted, but they also needed specific City expertise in the form of Ashurst. Morrisons is an unusual organisation – it has a very straightforward approach and over-lawyering is alien to their culture. It has been a fantastic experience," Holden says.

As well as the increased profile that the Safeway deal has produced, the Morrisons link has brought in the quality of work that most medium-sized firms can only dream of and provided a springboard for its ambition to be a "viable alternative to the big six" in Leeds, where the firm acquired an office in 2000 through its merger with Cranswick Watson.

The opportunity for Gordons is to get at the local market that the big six are leaving behind. "We are definitely seeing that the big firms are leaving local work behind," Holden says.

"There will be plenty of excellent deals that national firms are too expensive for. They are very good lawyers, but not necessarily suited for a large swathe of deals in the region, and there are good opportunities for ambitious mid-sized firms."

Gordons is not the only firm to have spotted a gap in the market below the top tier – Cobbetts has invested strongly in its Leeds practice since its merger with Read Hind Stewart in 2002, and Ford & Warren is also competing strongly in this market. But in some respects, the William Morrison connection is a double-edged sword – the challenge for Gordons is to establish its own image in the market and rise above the perception that it is more than just Morrisons' in-house legal team.

If Gordons can capitalise on its new-found fame, then it really will have proved that it's more than a one-deal wonder.

Getting behind the team

The ongoing woes at cash-strapped premiership football club Leeds United may not have done much for the team's performance on the pitch, but they have provided a demonstration of the strength of the city's firms when it comes to big-ticket restructuring work.

Leading the line is DLA, whose Leeds-based insolvency partner Richard Obank headed the team given the task of restruc-turing the club's debt, amounting to some £90m, before Christmas. Other Leeds firms involved are Addleshaw Goddard, which is representing the club's bankers HSBC, Walker Morris, which is advising the consortium looking to take over the club, and Eversheds, which is solicitor to the administrators-in-waiting, Ernst & Young.

However, Obank is quick to point out that the presence of so many Leeds firms on the 'workout' of the city's football club is not simply down to location. DLA was instructed largely on the back of Obank's previous work with football clubs Leicester City and Ipswich Town, both of which ran into financial trouble after relegation from the Premier-ship. And, as he emphasises, Leeds is home to some very capable insolvency lawyers.

Obank also points out that insolvencies and restructurings of this magnitude are rarely contained within one geographic region. "At the bigger end of the market, many of the local jobs are driven from London," he says. "Very often the Yorkshire business is banked in London, and other stakeholders may be in different parts of the country, so there is often a national aspect to jobs."

Obank, who was a partner at Herbert Smith before moving north to join DLA, says that his new base in Leeds has yet to prove a disadvantage in gaining instructions from London, citing a number of £100m+ transactions that his team has handled in recent years.

For big-ticket insolvency and restruc-turing work, he adds, national firms such as DLA are now able to emulate the accountants, putting together teams from different parts of the country with no discernable difference in quality. "That is where you want to be. We need to get away from the provinciality of the firm," he says.

Nevertheless, given the profile and importance to the region of the football club, perhaps an exception can be made, if only for sentiment's sake.

"It would be a shame if Yorkshire's major football club was not advised by local firms," Obank adds.