Twelve months ago, the global legal community was reeling from the shock UK referendum result to leave the EU. Senior industry leaders shook their heads and predicted even more turbulent markets in what was already an uncertain global economy.
The gap between top US firms and the middle-tier masses continues to widen as pressure to secure top-decile talent intensifies. Can the chasing pack keep up with America’s elite?
‘The competition is frenetic in terms of attracting talent as is the competition in being retained on the most complex and sophisticated client mandates,’ notes Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison chair Brad Karp. ‘When you think of the continuum with commoditised work on one end and hyper-complex big-ticket work on the other, firms like ours try very hard to ensure that 90% of work is in that tiny zone at the end of the spectrum.’
Continue reading “The Global 100: The Zone – The US elite turns up the pressure”
High-stakes recruitment, financial pressures and Europe’s largest law firm collapse – here is a recap of the stories that defined the global legal market through the past 12 months. Continue reading “The Global 100 – The stories of the year”
DLA Piper, the world’s second-largest Swiss Verein-structured law firm, saw global turnover in 2016 drop 3% to $2.47bn from $2.54bn. The drop in overall revenue was attributed by the firm to exchange rate fluctuations across the global firm’s international business, which is divided between an international LLP and a US LLP. In sterling, DLA says, turnover was up 3%.
Similarly, Norton Rose Fulbright saw turnover drop 3% to $1.69bn, with the firm again attributing the performance to currency fluctuations. In a statement, a spokesperson said the firm had seen a 3% increase on 2015 revenue using like-for-like exchange rates, adding: ‘Our stated US dollar figures are very susceptible to currency exchange moves and, in the past year, the sterling, euro, Australian/Canadian dollars and South African rand experienced significant negative moves against the US dollar.’
With a listless economy, an oil and gas industry decimated by low commodity prices, and uncertainty over its future relationship with the EU and the rest of the UK, Scotland is lacking both clarity and optimism over its future.
‘I prefer to use the Magic Circle rather than US firms. They are, if anything, becoming better-run businesses.’
Philip Bramwell, BAE Systems
It should come as no surprise that clients on the global stage continue to demand more from their advisers. Yet, for the most part, those London-headquartered firms at the top end of the Global 100 report are delivering for clients despite the influx of international firms, particularly those based in the US, into their home market.
‘I continue to believe that the Magic Circle firms offer excellent strength and depth on big-ticket issues,’ says Philip Bramwell, group general counsel (GC) of multinational defence, security and aerospace company BAE Systems. ‘Their strength is in their gene pool – their core systems and the processes that they continue to invest in – and they are, if anything, becoming better-run businesses.’
