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.
Generative AI and its likely impact on the legal market has been one of the themes of 2023 but as we close in on Q4, at least we can all take solace in the fact that substantive structural change is years away. Right? Well, maybe. This year’s UK 200 report, available now on the City […]
Macfarlanes this week pushed the button on its roll-out of generative AI tool HarveyAI, following the largest pilot ever carried out in the history of the firm. Around 15 per cent of Macfarlanes’ fee-earning population across every practice area and all levels of seniority spent time this June using the tool. The results were then […]
As tie-ups continue apace in the Scottish legal market, there are still a few staunch independents that have all reported revenue rises over 2022/23. We dig a little deeper into their progress. Burness Paull and Shepherd & Wedderburn are among the firms to have reported revenue growth in the past financial year, with both steering […]
Few sectors have faced as much change in recent years as commercial real estate. In particular, the way offices are now used looks radically different from only a few years ago. The pandemic emptied them, changing workers’ lives potentially forever. ESG-related demands have seen them ripped apart in a bid to meet current needs. Soaring […]
Scottish firms Morton Fraser and MacRoberts are going ahead with one of the longest-discussed mergers in the history of the Scottish legal market, The Lawyer can exclusively reveal. The deal is broadly seen as a merger of equals, at least in terms of revenue size. In last year’s The Independents UK 200 report, Morton Fraser […]
In this week’s edition: Womble Bond Dickinson invests in UK real estate, Penningtons approaches a “year of strategy”, while Fieldfisher issues a call to action.
House of Brands copycats stalk Shakespeares’ strategy Shakespeare Martineau is a bit complicated to describe these days. It’s now the largest constituent part of Ampa, a ‘House of Brands’ which also includes South East firm Mayo Wynne Baxter and a bunch of other legal and non-legal services. All partners are members of Ampa’s equity rather […]
Boy, are some parts of the market in the doldrums. None more so than equity capital markets (ECM) and, in particular, IPOs. The aborted IPO of WE Soda in June was another blow to an already depressed market. No wonder so much store has been placed on the listing of CAB Payments, an unusual bright […]
Corporate rankings are a bellwether of market conditions. Refinitiv’s recently published H1 global M&A data for 2023 was doom-laden for those who have made corporate law their trade of choice. In the first half of the year, worldwide M&A activity fell to a three-year low, down 37 per cent from H12022 to $1.3trn. But deals […]
Mishcon de Reya’s revenue reached £255m in the 2022/23 financial year, an increase of 10 per cent on 2021/22 and a new record. Total profit bucked the industry trend with a 22 per cent rise from £76m to £93m although the firm confirmed that its 2021/22 profit had been impacted by the investment in Mishcon’s […]
Eversheds Sutherland is looking to rip up the traditional legal services rule book with a range of AI-focused policies and processes, in a direct response to the extraordinary rise of ChatGPT at the start of this year. The firm’s new approach is likely to result in Eversheds mandating the use of AI technology wherever possible […]
Pinsent Masons has boosted equity partner remuneration by around 13 per cent, while keeping pay rises for all other groups of staff at well below inflation. Last week, the firm completed a compensation review in which equity partners received a £2,500 per point pay rise. The hike took the value of a point to £21,400, […]