I like American firms, says Bernard Amory, top tele- Global stage - PDF document

BERNARDAMORYI ELECOMS PIONEER AN INTERVIEW WITH BERNARD AMORY BERNARD AMORY IS ONE OF THE LEADING TELECOMS LAWYERS IN THE WORLD. A FORMER EUROPEAN COMMISSION OFFICIAL WHO HELPED TO REVOLUTIONISE THE INDUSTRY, HE HAS CONTINUED TO RIDE THE TELECOMS WAVE IN PRIVATE PRACTICE “ I like American firms,” says Bernard Amory, top tele- Global stage coms/competition lawyer at Jones Day in Brussels. “I “Ten years down the line, there will be many more lead- like their culture and management. They’re democra- ing non-Anglo lawyers in rankings lists,” Amory predict- tic: people are assessed by their value as lawyers ed in March, 2000, when we profiled him for the ‘World’s alone.” That and their ability to bill some 2000 hours a Top Twenty Lawyers’ (see Issue 37). “Mergers with UK year. Not that this is a problem for Mr Amory – a key and US firms will enable continental lawyers to become player in several of the most significant telecoms deals in bigger players on the global stage.” recent years (see box), who also features in this issue’s They’re already well on their way. Of our ‘Europe’s Top By Bronwyn Eyre ‘Europe’s Top 50’. 50’, up to a third are from US or UK-based firms on the 12 NOVEMBER 2001

IBERNARDAMORY continent – such as Amory – or from merged UK/US- “US firms used to send in people to run their offices in continental firms. Europe,” Amory says. “Now, many are run by Europeans Except for his time at the European Commission – people who grew out of the organisation or were later- between 1989 to 1991, 43 year-old Amory has practised ally hired from outside. There’s no doubt that the legal exclusively at American firms. Before joining Jones Day in world is still dominated by Anglo-Saxon firms. But that 1996, he worked at Dechert Price & Rhoads (now known doesn’t mean that Anglo-Saxon lawyers are running the as Dechert, merged with English firm Titmuss Sainer), a legal world – at least in Europe.” Philadelphia-based firm that was one of the first US firms Half of Jones Day’s European offices (see box) are cur- ■ to open in Brussels. rently run by local lawyers. “Our firm, in Europe, has ▲ 13 COMMERCIAL LAWYER

BERNARDAMORYI ■ reached a level where we can rely on internal growth,” work in one sector and stay in that sector. Now, they move ▲ Amory says. “We have an increasing number of young around, and somebody who starts a case may not finish it people who are making their way through the ranks. two years later.” And the firm continues to expand – most recently in All in all, however, his experience at the Commission Milan and, next, in Rome. “Jones Day is not a recent was positive. “I’m a big believer in Europe,” he says. “I entrant into Europe like some other American firms,” think the EC is very much in line with the global econo- Amory says. “I like a firm where I can contribute to the my and, specifically, with what the Americans are doing. expansion, but which has a sufficiently strong base that I In competition matters, for instance, there’s very close BELGIUM don’t have to start from zero.” cooperation.” Leading firms He cites the attempted merger between MCI, 1 Jones Day, Reavis & Liberalisation WorldCom, and Sprint last year – which he, acting for BT Pogue, Squire, Sanders Starting from zero is what Amory had to do at the and AT&T, helped to block. “The merger was blocked by & Dempsey, Weil, Gotshal European Commission when he was in charge of apply- both US and European authorities for the same reason: & Manges ing competition rules to the computer and telecommuni- these three companies would have been unassailable by 2 Allen & Overy, Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton cations sectors.“It was an exciting time,”he says.“In 1990, anybody else – and everybody would have been depen- Coudert Brothers – key directives were being adopted that really set the dent on them for exchanging internet messages. Coppens van Ommeslaghe groundwork for the liberalisation of the telecoms indus- “It’s fun to block things,” Amory says of the MCI case. & Faurès Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, try. We opened up the market to competition.” “Every time I’ve had such a big project I’ve thought, god, Olswang For the first time, governments moved away from it can’t get any bigger than this. And then, another case 3 Baker & McKenzie, White monopolies and authorised second operators to enter the has come along that was even more challenging. My prac- & Case, Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering market. “There was great expectation that mobile tele- tice has always exceeded my expectations.” phones would become a huge business,” he says. “And Other cases that he counts among his most significant 4 Bird & Bird, De Bandt, van Hecke, Lagae & Loesch, look at them today: everyone has one. Look at the are the first global alliance between MCI and BT in 1993 Liedekerke Wolters turnover – it’s absolutely huge!” – when he was still at Dechert – and their later merger in Waelbroeck Kirkpatrick & Cerfontaine, Stibbe Does he have any criticisms of the Commission from 1998. He also mentions his successful opposition of the his perspective now, in private practice? “Over the last few merger between Sweden’s Telia and Norway’s Telenor, on Firms are listed alphabetically in each band. years, the EC has changed its mind in the middle of vari- behalf of Tele Denmark, before the EU in 1999. ous cases,” he says, “which creates a lot of uncertainty.” A major deal of the moment – currently in the process One such case involves mobile ‘roaming charges’. of closing – is the acquisition of GE Americom, the Amory’s client, GSM Association, which consists of more American satellite company, for Amory’s client, Société than 500 mobile telecoms operators in 170 countries, Européene des Satellites (SES). “As a European,” Amory notified the Commission of its standard roaming agree- says,“it’s nice to help a small European company based in ment and inter-operator tariffs in 1996, and again in Luxembourg to obtain a business in the US that will make 1998. The EC issued a so-called ‘comfort letter’ in April it the largest satellite operator in the world. Because gen- 2000, stating that after careful analysis, it approved of the erally, it’s the Americans who buy out things.” industry’s proposals. However, last month, in an about- More sophisticated face, it announced that it was launching an investigation into alleged anti-competitive behaviour in the mobile Why did Amory originally choose telecoms law? “There industry. was no doubt it was going to be a very rich area from the What was behind the change? “Sometimes there are competition law point of view,” he says.“There were state political considerations,” Amory admits. “There’s also a monopolies and a huge demand for more and better ser- lack of continuity: people at the Commission used to vices. Inevitably, there were going to be issues of liberali- sation and abuse of dominant position. Companies had to learn to cooperate, which, in turn, also led to joint ven- THERE’S NO DOUBT THAT THE LEGAL WORLD IS STILL tures and mergers and acquisitions.” DOMINATED BY ANGLO-SAXON FIRMS. BUT THAT Naturally, the sector has evolved considerably over the DOESN’T MEAN THAT ANGLO-SAXON LAWYERS ARE last decade or so.“When I started practising,”Amory says, “there were very few people in the area. Now, it’s become RUNNING THE LEGAL WORLD – AT LEAST IN EUROPE. more sophisticated. The more lawyers and business peo- ple there are, the more imaginative you have to become. “A couple of years ago,” he continues, “it was all about JONES DAY IN EUROPE established 1989 established 1991 established 1986 BRUSSELS OFFICE FRANKFURT OFFICE LONDON OFFICE Partners: 5 Other lawyers: 13 Partners: 11 Other lawyers: 39 Partners: 10 Other lawyers: 38 Key practice areas: Key practice areas: Key practice areas: Banking/finance ■ Commercial ■ Banking/finance ■ Commercial/restructuring ■ Banking/finance ■ Commercial/restructuring ■ Corporate transactions ■ Dispute resolution ■ Corporate transactions ■ Competition and trade ■ Competition and trade ■ Corporate transactions ■ European Union ■ Labour and employment ■ Labour ■ Dispute resolution ■ New technologies ■ Environmental ■ Labour ■ Dispute resolution ■ New technologies ■ Securities ■ Tax Real estate ■ Securities/capital markets ■ Tax New technologies ■ Real estate ■ Securities ■ Tax 14 NOVEMBER 2001