The expansive Goodwin has leveraged its recent four-strong band of life sciences and technology laterals from Taylor Wessing to open a new office in the UK’s innovation hub, Cambridge.
The move follows Goodwin’s hire of a Taylor Wessing team including Malcolm Bates, David Mardle, Tim Worden and Adrian Rainey as part of its strategy to build out its City technology and life sciences bench.
The Cambridge office is led by Mardle, who joined his new shop in mid-June and will spend part of his time in London. Bates, who was previously head of the life sciences practice at Taylor Wessing, Worden and Rainey are currently working out their gardening leave and are expected to move over to Goodwin by the end of this year. The team also includes one counsel and five associates.
Rob Insolia, chairman of Goodwin, said: ‘Cambridge is home to some of the world’s most disruptive life sciences and technology companies. It has become a multi-billion pound innovation powerhouse, and is an obvious location for us to expand as we continue to build Goodwin’s unique capital-meets-innovation platform in Europe.’
More recently in August Goodwin hired for the same practice in London Ali Ramadan from Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe.
Goodwin has come a long way in London since its beginnings in 2011 with one partner (ex-Ashurst corporate real estate veteran and now Goodwin’s European chair, David Evans), a desk and a phone. Its investment in the core practice areas of real estate, private equity, life sciences and technology saw City revenue grow 58% in 2018, more than three times the pace of the firm globally, hitting $66.8m amid a punchy 16% hike in global turnover to $1.2bn.
Profit per equity partner saw a 14% spike to $2.46m and revenue per lawyer grew 10% to $1.25m, showing the firm has performed to every metric of success. Over the past five years, Goodwin’s European offices have increased from 20 to nearly 200 lawyers, primarily in the technology, life sciences, private equity and real estate industries.
The Cambridge office also follows the recent opening of Goodwin’s private investment funds-focused office in Luxembourg and technology and private equity-focused office in Santa Monica.
