Matt is The Lawyer’s deputy editor. He has a particular focus on the US legal market. He also leads many of The Lawyer’s market reports, including the UK 200.
At the end of May, Herbert Smith Freehills’s executive partner for EMEA, UK and US flew to New York with a proposition. Alison Brown was preparing to present an opportunity to a firm that had come top of an HSF-commissioned external audit of the US market. It was a firm that had virtually no platform […]
Has Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner (BCLP) turned a corner? Its new partners presumably think so. Certainly, for the six Londoners and 18 other senior lawyers around its international network who were yesterday unveiled as the firm’s newest partners, a personal milestone has been reached. Congratulations to all of the 24 lawyers in the partnership promotions […]
Here’s something obvious: scale really matters. Net profit, which is at least in part a function of scale, matters even more. With the battle for the top talent in the world’s legal hotspots never having been fiercer, firms’ financial metrics such as PEP, net and margin are simply shorthand for buying power. So, jump forward […]
Black box compensation systems are now a ‘thing’. Well, to be honest they’ve been a bit of a thing for decades, with firms such as Jones Day famously opting to not divulge what partners get paid internally, never mind externally. But ever since the previously transparent Paul Weiss decided the black box grass was greener, […]
Maybe it’s just us, and our obsession with the UK 200 metrics, which come most into focus around this time of year? Or maybe the legal market really has never been more competitive? Certainly, with the tidal wave of stories in recent weeks about sky-high partner profitability and the efforts firms are making to push […]
Once, let’s say around two decades ago, the most eye-catching lateral hires stories were all about US firms raiding the Brits in the latter’s back yard. Then, thanks to the sheer scale of the investment of US firms in London and the growth of this City market, came US-on-US moves. Now, the top UK firms […]
Lawyer headcount growth underscores the resilience of the profession
Norton Rose Fulbright (NRF) has unveiled a new global leadership structure that could see partners paid significantly more for originating or introducing work regardless of where it is carried out. The firm’s new system, which had been operating on an interim basis since former CEO Gerry Pecht retired from the firm last year, has now […]
The Brits are back. We don’t mean the annual popular music jamboree at which microphones are dropped, singers’ bums are bared and popstars challenge each other to punch-ups. We mean UK-headquartered firms and their financial fortunes. For years, the contrast with their oppos from across the Atlantic, most of which have been beavering away driving […]
Two firms in The Lawyer’s UK top 50 managed to increase revenue by more than 20 per cent over 2023/24, highlighting a buoyant year across the legal industry. Kennedys’ turnover rose by 22.5 per cent from £313.6m to £384.3m, while Burges Salmon, this year’s fastest-growing top 50 firm, saw its total revenue balloon by 27.1 per cent […]
Dickson Minto has made a rare dip into the recruitment market with the appointment of a real estate partner from Walker Morris. The former group head of Leeds-based Walker Morris’ real estate practice Jeremy Moore has joined Scotland’s Dickson Minto as a partner with immediate effect. Moore will be based out of Dickson Minto’s London […]
For years, particularly since 2016 and the vote for Brexit, much has been written about the odds of London’s decline as a world financial hub. Most of it has focused on deal and investment activity. But there’s another metric, one that amply underlines the sheer pulling power of the City and suggests that far from […]