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.
Partner conferences can be functional affairs but it wasn’t solely the fact that Burness Paull’s earlier this month was held at the splendidly futuristic V&A building in Dundee that helped it grab the attention. When the keynote topic is the Terminator, that tends to focus the mind. As you’ll have guessed, the topic very much […]
The traditional US giants in London are being overtaken
After a booming 2022 comes a cooler 2023 for the US 50
Don’t miss out on hearing from The Lawyer’s superstar US managing partner panel at our live webinar to mark the launch of this year’s US 50 report. Where will growth come from in 2023, how is law firm culture changing and what does the A&O/Shearman merger mean for the global elite market? Register here
Significant salary hikes provoke outrage among the legal elite. “Newly qualified lawyers are paid how much?” is the common response to the latest NQ pay jump. Still, at well over £100,000 a pop for a lawyer straight from university, it’s a fair question. This level of pay at a time when costs are spiralling is […]
Shearman & Sterling has fallen three places in an annual ranking of the largest US firms in the UK, just a fortnight after the announcement of its merger talks with magic circle firm Allen & Overy (A&O). Shearman has dropped three places in the new edition of The Lawyer’s US 50 report 2023, published this […]
Latham & Watkins has retained its position as the largest US-headquartered firm in the UK, with an estimated City growth rate of 4 per cent in 2022. Latham is thought to have generated $702m in London last year, the highest level of fee income ever achieved either by it or any US firm. However, the […]
No way is this a merger of equals
You might think that those with the heaviest pay packets cough up the most income tax. And in an ordinary year, you’d be right. But this isn’t an ordinary year. The wholesale reform of how partners are taxed means the majority of UK partners will pay more to the taxman regardless of whether profits are […]
In 2022, the total number of partners in the US 50 rose by 6 per cent, from 2,100 to 2,228. Those additional 128 partners makes it a record year for female progression, but of itself that isn’t the interesting bit. For the first time since The Lawyer began recording gender data in this market segment, every firm in […]
Over the past decade, the choice of joining a US-headquartered firm in the UK from a career perspective, whether as a senior partner or a trainee, has become more of an option and less of a risk. Numerous US firms now have partners who trained at their firm with the infrastructure to match. And for […]
April is the busiest month as the end of the financial year looms. As firms rush to get bills out and paid, The Lawyer takes a deep dive into key financial hygiene and behavioural issues. The year-end is imminent and the market is still in the doldrums, and so as day follows night many law firm leaders […]