Mishcon de Reya

Mishcon de Reya LLP

Headquarters	London, United Kingdom
No. of offices	Two
No. of lawyers	Over 500
No. of employees	Over 800
Major practice areas	Corporate, Dispute Resolution, Employment, Intellectual Property, Mishcon Private, Real Estate
Key people	Kevin Gold Managing Partner
Revenue	£149.4 million
Profit per equity partner	£1.2 million
Date founded	1937 (London)
Company type	Limited liability partnership
Website	mishcon.com

Mishcon de Reya LLP is a British law firm with offices in London and New York. Founded in 1937, it currently employs more than 800 people with over 500 lawyers.^[1] It is regarded as forming part of the "Silver Circle" of leading UK law firms.^[2][3]

In March 2017, the firm was announced Law Firm of the Year at the Legal Business Awards.^[4] Mishcon de Reya achieved revenue of £149.4m in 2016/17: a increase on 2015/16. PEP (Profit per Senior Equity Partner) hit £1.1m in 2017, a 10% increase on 2015/16.^[5]

Main practice areas

Mishcon de Reya's main practice areas are:

• Corporate
• Dispute Resolution
• Employment
• Intellectual Property
• Mishcon Private
• Real Estate

History

Mishcon de Reya was formed by the merger of Victor Mishcon & Co, a one-man office founded by Victor Mishcon, and Bartletts de Reya.

In 2008, the firm launched the specialist 'Pink Law' Legal Advice Centre in conjunction with Queen Mary, University of London and two other city law firms. The project offers free and impartial legal advice on issues affecting the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) community, such as employment discrimination, civil partnerships and cohabitation.^[6]

In January 2010 Mishcon de Reya opened an associated office in New York, Mishcon de Reya New York LLP.

The firm became a limited liability partnership on 9 October 2015.

Mishcon de Reya was named Law Firm of the Year at The Legal Business Awards 2017.^[7]

Notable clients

In 1995, the firm gained attention when Anthony Julius represented Diana, Princess of Wales in her divorce.

In 2000, the firm represented Deborah Lipstadt in the case David Irving v Penguin Books and Deborah Lipstadt. The 2016 film Denial was based on this case.

Mishcon de Reya's Employment team won a ground-breaking victory in the UK Supreme Court on behalf of its client, Krista Bates van Winkelhof, in which it was determined that members of LLPs do have the protection of whistleblowing legislation.^[8]

In 2016 the Supreme Court ruled financial claims can be brought over 20 years after divorce for client Kathleen Wyatt.^[9]

In 2016, the firm was accused of inappropriately pressuring the Crown Prosecution Service to bring a rape case to trial at which the defendant was acquitted in 26 minutes. Alison Levitt QC, a former Crown Prosecution Service lawyer, and Sue Akers, a former Metropolitan Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner who led Scotland Yard’s phone hacking cases were involved in the case.^[10]

In 2016 the company co-ordinated a challenge in the High Court by Gina Miller, an investment manager and philanthropist, against the process of the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the European Union. The law firm was subjected to abuse as a result of its involvement in the case, and Brexit supporters mounted a protest outside the firm's offices.^[11] The Government in January 2017, appealed the High Court ruling to the Supreme Court, but were unsuccessful. In a majority decision, it ruled that Parliament must vote on whether the Government can start the process of the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the European Union.^[12]

In June 2018, the firm sent a letter on behalf of British businessman Arron Banks to Guy Verhofstadt, a senior MEP involved in the Brexit negotiation process, instructing Verhofstadt to delete a Tweet he wrote which suggested that Banks was acting in collusion with the Russians, "to deliver Brexit." They wrote: "Anyone reading this Tweet would be left in no doubt that this defames our client by making these allegations," and demanded that the Tweet be removed from Twitter and that Mr Verhofstadt retract the allegations and apologise publicly. ^[13]

In July 2018, the Licensed Taxi Drivers' Association announced that they were consulting with Mishcon de Reya to bring an action worth over £1bn in loss of earnings to London taxi drivers due to Uber's previous legal status to operate in London.^[14]

In August 2018, The Guardian newspaper reported that Mishcon de Reya had filed a legal complaint against new UK anti-tax evasion measures, arguing that they infringe privacy and data protection rights. The firm also suggested it was considering a challenge against transparency measures introduced by David Cameron requiring UK companies to identify their true owners.^[15]

Mishcon de Reya has also been associated with the murdered Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. According to The Guardian:

"In the months before her death, the anti-corruption journalist received letters from the London office of the blue-chip firm Mishcon de Reya, which specialises in bringing defamation cases. Mishcon had been hired to defend the reputation of a client doing business in Malta. 'The firm sought to cripple her financially with libel action in UK courts,' Caruana Galizia’s three sons claim in a letter to the writers’ campaign group English PEN and seen by the Guardian. 'Had our mother not been murdered, they would have succeeded.'”^[16]

According to the British satirical magazine, Private Eye:

"Daphne also wrote about receiving 'harassing letters from Mishcon de Reya in London' that threatened 'to ruin me financially in a London court.' Letters from Mishcon, seen by the Eye, order her to remove articles discussing the lucrative sale of Maltese passports and the EU citizenship that goes with them."^[17]

See also

In 2016, Mishcon de Reya and children's charity Place2Be produced a book written for adults by children on the topic of parental separation 'Splitting Up: A Child's Guide to a Grown Up Problem'.^[18]

• News media phone hacking scandal reference list

References

External links

• Official website