Katy is The Lawyer’s Horizon editor. Returning to The Lawyer after a three-year break in 2020, Katy initially covered litigation and the Bar and was the publication’s senior writer between 2014 and 2017.
Plans for a radical overhaul and extension of the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s ability to issue financial penalties has been slammed by the City of London Law Society (CLLS) as “arbitrary and not fit for purpose”. The regulator launched a profession-wide consultation in June in requesting market opinions on a new penalty framework. This came after […]
Newly-qualified (NQ) lawyers have seen salary levels soar over the last decade. In 2014, a fresh-faced Clifford Chance lawyer could earn £67,500; that figure reached £150,000 this summer. It is US firms that have inflated the pot with constant base raises that align London and New York operations. But the ripples spread outwards. When Quinn […]
Eversheds partners aren’t really in the business of throwing curveballs. This week, partners in the International LLP – that’s everything outside the US – cemented Keith Froud as Lee Ranson’s chief executive successor in an uncontested election. We’d have stopped taking bets on this one years ago, you could see it coming a mile off. […]
Of the UK Top 50 firms, just 16 have no overseas offices, and of the remaining 34, more than half (19) were bigger outside the UK last year. Internationalisation is a hallmark of a Top 50 firm, but for many it is the UK that keeps the investment pipelines pumped. For firms with international offices, […]
Over the last decade, the UK’s Top 50 firms have trialled a variety of tactics to satisfy an incessant demand for revenue growth. Consolidation has been a feature of the decade, with ‘critical mass’ becoming a key term used by managing partners as they push forward their growth agendas. Internationalisation too is a hallmark of […]
Cash piles rose during the pandemic, but the latest year-end shows a turnaround. Across the UK 200, debt levels are increasing, and those precious cash reserves are being eroded by a tide of rising costs. This evidence suggests the trend is most prominent among firms that occupy the mid-tier; these firms are spending big as […]
Burges Salmon has awarded bonuses across the firm after the firm posted record revenue and net profit growth. Turnover jumped 27.1 per cent from £128.2m to £163m, while underlying net profit rocketed by 46 per cent from £34.6m to £54m. Burges Salmon’s revenue has jumped by 55 per cent since 2020 Managing partner Roger Bull […]
Both Taylor Wessing and Bird & Bird set €1bn (£858m) revenue targets in the summer. For Taylor Wessing, this means finding an additional £377m in revenue by its 2028 target date, while 2Birds needs £313m to hit its 2029/30 target. These firms are scaling up from a defensive position – they are contending with smaller […]
The cash boom that many firms enjoyed during the Covid-19 pandemic has been replaced with a surge in borrowing as costs rise and firms ready themselves for equity partner tax reforms. Early analysis of 2023/24 reveals that at least 20 per cent of the UK200 firms (43 of 200) increased their borrowings last year, while […]
Revenue growth rebounded at Howard Kennedy last year with turnover up 15 per cent to £74.4m (2023: £64.9m). The double-digit growth is the largest achieved by the firm since 2016, although it is shy of the £80m target set by managing partner Craig Emden upon his re-election in 2021. Emden said the £80m target could […]
Firms are taking longer to promote partners, but many are doing so in record numbers, new research for The Lawyer has found. Analysis of UK partnership promotions across the Top 50 since 2020, shows how the pathway to partnership has lengthened by two years since 2020. This year, firms promoted partners at an average 14.16 […]
TLT’s transition into national firm territory has been solidified after the firm posted a 12 per cent revenue rise from £157m to £174m. It has been a year of expansion for TLT, with the firm moving into Birmingham for the first time after taking a team of 10 from Shoosmiths. That group hire has helped […]