London headcount: 91 lawyers, 28 partners
Lawyer headcount change since 2015: +38%
London managing partner: Justin Stock (pictured)
Office specialities: Funds, technology, life sciences, litigation
Representative matters:
– Snyk on its series D financing round, which valued the company at $2.5bn.
– General Catalyst Venture Partners as a lead investor in Cazoo’s £240m equity funding round, valuing the company at £2bn.
– The UK government on the Future Fund as part of the coronavirus pandemic.
– Silence Therapeutics on a strategic collaboration with AstraZeneca therapeutics.
In a year of few financial reversals among the Global London top 50, Cooley’s 4% London revenue dip proved a disappointing exception to the rule, especially given the office’s forte in sectors made hot by the coronavirus pandemic. Worse still, the City turnover fall to $70.3m from $72.9m in 2019 ended a striking run – a 9% increase in 2019 marked a third consecutive year of revenue growth.
On balance, the setback could be viewed as an anomaly brought on by the difficulties of a sluggish market in the immediate aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic, along with the departure of a revenue-generating City IP team led by Nick Bolter to Morgan Lewis. That optimistic stance is borne out by considerably healthier figures worldwide, with the Palo Alto-bred firm recording 17% global revenue growth to $1.55bn from $1.33bn in 2019 and a 10% hike in revenue per lawyer to $1.5m from $1.32m last year. Even more heartening is the 25% surge in profit per equity partner to $3.2m.
London managing partner Justin Stock downplays the IP exits as a short-term hindrance, insisting that it has not affected the City office’s profitability, and is bullish about Cooley’s position in London. ‘What has been exciting recently has been our capital markets and emerging companies and venture capital (ECVC) practices. Emerging companies is a big part of the history of the firm. We came to London six years ago from a standing start and that part of the business has really come into its own. We are leading in that space on bigger, fast-growing companies.’
As a relative newcomer to London having only opened up shop in 2015, detractors disparage Cooley’s City arm for being too dependent on referrals from its US network. The criticism is perhaps a little out of date. Notes Stock: ‘The majority of matters are originated in London. In M&A, work is primarily generated out of the group in London and now in the ECVC space, it’s mainly generated out of London, but the first three years it was connections with the States that started that ball rolling. It was probably 50% then and now it is 10% at most. We’ve established ourselves as one of the main players in that space in London. Overall, work is probably 70-75% generated here and the rest through connections in the States.’
‘We are crazy busy, unbelievably so, and as a result we are doing a strong hiring push, not only associates but laterals.’
Justin Stock, Cooley
He also points to an uptick in foreign private issuer work acting for foreign companies wanting to list in the US, as well as the recent hire of Guadalupe Sampedro as a data protection partner from Bird & Bird, as being particular highlights. ‘In a firm like ours it makes sense to have data protection capabilities. We have a fantastic team in the US and data privacy will very much be the flavour, not just of the month, but of the next several years.’
Before Covid struck, the office also went some way to fulfilling its ambitious growth drive, adding capital markets partner David Boles from Latham & Watkins and corporate partner Ben Shribman from Jones Day. Stock has a clear wish to build out the London office, especially on the transactional side. ‘We are crazy busy, unbelievably so, and as a result we are doing a strong hiring push, not only associates but laterals. In M&A, litigation, ECM and ECVC, everyone has been flat out and the pipeline shows no signs of abating.’
Pandemic notwithstanding, Stock is optimistic and makes all the right noises about the strategy: ‘We have come to terms with the new world order. Tech and life sciences clients have generally fared better than others and I don’t think it will slow down. What’s the ambition, what’s the next phase? We need to grow to be able to keep up with that increase in demand, not just at associate level but we need to bring in more lateral hires, particularly on the corporate side. My hope is that we increase the size of our corporate offering.
‘Our new offices are significantly bigger than our current ones and, obviously allowing for flexible working, we intend to fill them. There is a huge amount of growth in the offing.’