Slaughter and May inarguably exudes the most mystique of any UK law firm. It plays on that reputation to great extent, rarely revealing much about its internal workings and steering clear of marketing gimmicks. If there is some truth to its reputation as a conservative, old-school-tie firm where a comma out of place evokes shudders of horror, it has certainly not held Slaughter and May back. It has – by far – the highest profit per equity partner of any
Slaughter and May inarguably exudes the most mystique of any UK law firm. It plays on that reputation to great extent, rarely revealing much about its internal workings and steering clear of marketing gimmicks.
If there is some truth to its reputation as a conservative, old-school-tie firm where a comma out of place evokes shudders of horror, it has certainly not held Slaughter and May back. It has – by far – the highest profit per equity partner of any UK firm and is frequently instructed on many of the most significant deals in the market.
While often listed as part of the UK’s magic circle, The Lawyer has never classified it as such. Slaughter and May differs markedly in its strategy from the magic circle firms. It has shunned international growth, has not converted to a LLP and is the only pure lockstep big firm left in London. In many ways it shares much more in common with Macfarlanes and Travers Smith, corporate powerhouses with global reach despite a limited geographic footprint. While Slaughter and May has not grown in anything like the way its peers have, it did significantly ramp up its partnership numbers in the early half of the 2000s.
Unwilling to go beyond corporate Britain and increase its presence overseas, Slaughters has prioritised its ‘best friends’ model over any other international strategy, building on relationships with firms including Bredin Prat, Bonelli Erede Pappalardo, De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek, Hengeler Mueller and Uría Menéndez. In fact, it pulled out of some overseas jurisdictions, ceding its Paris office to Bredin Prat in 2005. The set-up means Slaughters has not felt the need to grow in headcount overseas, with its model giving enough ‘credibility’ to focus on London alone.
Change comes slowly at Slaughter and May, but it does come eventually. In many ways, the firm has moved away from the traditional beast it is so often painted as. The firm made its first ever lateral partner hire in 2014 with the addition of Morrison & Foerster’s co-head of China capital markets John Moore. Then in 2017 came its first ever lateral in London when the firm took on Herbert Smith Freehills head of pensions Daniel Schaffer.
Closer to home, the firm has also been busy shaking up its traditional career progression structure. Until early 2013 the firm operated a pure lockstep at all levels above trainees, but it took the major decision to throw a merit-based aspect into the mix for its more senior associates.
If changes have been made, the outside perception of the firm hasn’t much, and Slaughter and May’s ‘elite’ reputation can be a hindrance in some respects. In particular, it has been making more effort of late to attract the type of graduates who might be put off by the external perception of it as white, male, Oxbridge and frosty.
| Practice partner | Executive partner | Senior partner | |
| 1993 | – | Giles Henderson | |
| 1996 | – | Melvyn Hughes | |
| 2001 | David Frank (role created) | Tim Clark | |
| 2008 | Paul Olney | Graham White | Chris Saul |
| 2013 | Richard Clark | ||
| 2015 | David Wittman | ||
| 2017 | Paul Stacey | Steve Cooke | |
| (role retired) | Managing partner | ||
| 2022 | – | Deborah Finkler | |
| 2024 | – | Roland Turnill |
