Global London: Resistance is futile – can firms keep the good times going as the market starts to cool?

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Global London: Resistance is futile – can firms keep the good times going as the market starts to cool?

It had to come. Among the Global London leaders interviewed in last year’s report, there was an inevitable consensus that the frothy post-Covid conditions that created a phenomenally successful 2021 would cool noticeably through 2022 and tougher times would lie ahead. However, while the predictions have been proven correct, the mood among the leading US firms in London is far from pessimistic.

Tamara Box, EMEA managing partner at Reed Smith, says of her own firm’s City office: ‘The mood is positive, not least following on from another strong year for the office in 2022. While we have seen a slowdown in transactional activity, there is still plenty to keep the litigators busy this year. Well-hedged firms are being kept busy advising clients on how to navigate the disruption caused by economic downturn, tremors in the financial markets and the Russia/Ukraine war.’ Continue reading “Global London: Resistance is futile – can firms keep the good times going as the market starts to cool?”

PE lessons: Shearman’s losses and Cravath’s gains show the value of City buyout teams – and the dangers of misfiring

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PE lessons: Shearman’s losses and Cravath’s gains show the value of City buyout teams – and the dangers of misfiring

While it may be an oversimplification to say that there has been a certain inevitability to Shearman & Sterling’s decline in recent months, that the firm’s losses should lead to Cravath, Swaine & Moore’s inaugural foray into English law is a coup even the most clued up of pundits could scarcely have foreseen.

Coming as they did from a venerable Wall Street institution which, while having had a London office for some five decades, has never ventured to hire a single English law practitioner, the hires of buyout partners Philip Stopford and Korey Fevzi from Shearman prompted a wave of speculation when they first hit the industry press in March. Continue reading “PE lessons: Shearman’s losses and Cravath’s gains show the value of City buyout teams – and the dangers of misfiring”