Stephenson Harwood LLP is a law firm with over 1100 people worldwide, including more than 180 partners. Headquartered in London, United Kingdom, with nine offices across Asia, Europe and the Middle East. In 2014/5 it achieved total revenues of £145 million and profits per equity partner of £763,000
History
When attorney William Harwood returned to London after practising in China, he and Henry Stephenson created the firm of Harwood & Stephenson in 1875. The firm's history can be traced back to 1828 and the City law firm Tatham & Lousada. In 1920 Tathams merged with Stephenson Harwood - as the firm was by then known - to form Stephenson Harwood & Tatham, renamed Stephenson Harwood in 1977. Two years later as one of the first UK firms to enter the Asian market, it has now been in Hong Kong for thirty years. In 2002 the merger with City shipping specialist Sinclair Roche & Temperley gave it a Shanghai office. Stephenson Harwood played an instrumental role securing release of American hostages during the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis. Acting for Bank Markazi, a leading Iranian financial institution, their personnel became de facto mediators between Iran and America. At the time all foreign Iranian assets, including those of Bank Markazi, were frozen. A key factor delaying release of the hostages was the unfreezing of Iranian assets. Stephenson Harwood engineered the means by which this could be done, causing US Secretary of State, Cyrus Vance to laud the firm. In 2011, in the largest Boeing deal in aviation history, the firm advised Lion Air on purchasing 230 model 747 aircraft worth US$21.7 billion. The signing was witnessed by the American Chief Executive.
2012
The financial results for 2011/2 show the firm increased turnover to £110.2 million, and grew equity partnership year on year by almost a fifth. In February 2012 the firm became the first UK firm to serve court papers via Facebook. In March 2012 the firm converted to LLP status. In 2011 the firm counselled Piramal Healthcare's $3.7 billion sale of generic branded business to Abbott Laboratories. In April 2012 the corporate team acted for Piramal Healthcare acquiring molecular imaging products from Bayer in a deal worth $1.5 billion. In June 2012 it won Litigation Law Firm of the Year at The Lawyer magazine's annual awards for work undertaken for the Tchenguiz Family Trust. In December 2012 the firm opened an office in Dubai, its first in the Middle East.
2013
Announcing strategic growth in Asia, it opened an office in Beijing, and formal associations in Yangon and Singapore with and Virtus Law. The Yangon deal was struck 8 May 2013. In March it secured a Court of Appeal win for client Dmitry Skarga in a dispute with his former employer Sovcomflot, a Russian tanker company. The same month the aviation practice advised a US$24 billion deal for 200 passenger jets for Indonesian carrier Lion Air. A key Oxford Street development of new mixed use buildings including retail, office, and residential space along the new cross rail route, and the sale of the Park Lane InterContinental Hotel were supported by the real estate practice. The firm's rail finance practice won Rail Finance Law Firm of the Year 2013 at the Global Transport Finance awards.
2014
In January the firm became advisor for The Myanmar Federation of Mining Association. In August it received a license to practice in Seoul.
