Euro elite: focus Germany – Weltmeister
German independents maintain elite status in a fiercely competitive market, despite the attention of some formidable global players.
‘Our market is one of the most competitive in the world,’ asserts Tobias Bürgers, co-managing partner of Noerr, Germany’s largest independent law firm with 427 fee-earners. In 2015, Noerr increased turnover by 5% to €207.7m.
‘Over the last eight years, we’ve had 70% revenue growth. We’ve outperformed the market proportionately, relative to other firms,’ he adds.
Euro elite: focus Italy – La dolce vita?
A new generation is revitalising the performance of a trio of Italian leaders committed to remaining steadfastly independent
It’s been a hard decade for Italy, not least for its law firms: the product of a flat economy and relatively few deals. Even before the crisis, the economy had the lowest sustained growth of any OECD country. But there has been a recent renaissance, of sorts, with GDP optimistically predicted to rise by 1.6% in 2016, while concluded deals totalled €50bn in each of the last two years, according to KPMG.
Focal points – Law boutiques and the art of focus
The recent rise of the high-end boutique has redefined the legal industry. We chart the last 12 months for the UK’s leading speciality shops
‘I’ve always thought the future of the disputes market would be prosperous for two camps: very big, full-service firms and boutiques,’ says Royal Dutch Shell general counsel (GC) for global litigation Richard Hill. ‘It’s the firms in the middle that will increasingly lose out. We use Norton Rose Fulbright, Clifford Chance or Baker & McKenzie but then we will also go to Quinn Emanuel for alternative pricing… they can be creative and are freer with their model. Boutiques have a bright future.’
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Euro elite: focus France – Liberté, égalité, fraternité
Strong competition from UK and US firms in Paris and a penchant for tight, focused practices means French firms do not feature large among the Euro Elite.
With its lack of large full-service domestic law firms, the French legal market is unique when compared with other European jurisdictions. A traditional culture of non-partnership and a low threshold when it comes to international investment has created a legal landscape where the few larger French firms face fierce competition from smaller French boutiques, as well as the significant US and UK presence that dominates the Paris market.
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The Brexit debate: The big uneasy
The biggest issue facing business for a generation looms on 23 June with the Brexit vote. We assembled a group of GCs to find out how they are managing the unmanageable.
It is the business issue that has dominated headlines for months and represents for UK plc a potentially far more profound impact than any general election or change of government. The vote on 23 June on the UK’s membership of the EU promises ominous levels of uncertainty for business and unprecedented challenges for general counsel (GCs) trying to help their companies manage systemic risks. In the second part of a collaboration withHerbert Smith Freehills (HSF), we gathered a group of senior in-house counsel to assess what legal teams should be doing now… and potentially on 24 June.
Euro elite: focus Iberia – Pushing boundaries
Dominant in their home markets, law firms from Spain and Portugal have weathered the tempest by heading for far-flung locations.
As the EU’s fifth-largest economy, Spain is home to two of Europe’s legal giants, Garrigues and Cuatrecasas, Gonçalves Pereira: between them they have more lawyers worldwide than Linklaters – 1,410 and 970 respectively. In dwarfing the local competition, their reach is also significant. Madrid-based Garrigues has 34 offices in 13 countries and its Barcelona opponent, Cuatrecasas, 25 offices in 11 countries.
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Euro elite: focus Central and Eastern Europe – The tiger by the tail
Price wars, political and economic tensions and prolonged attention from large Anglo-Saxon players in the region have made the going challenging for independent firms in CEE.
With a few notable exceptions, the last five years have seen some international law firms retreat from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) – in part a belated reaction to the financial crisis – while others have downsized due to profitability problems. But for independent law firms, good opportunities remain in the region as local markets recover. On aggregate, the CEE economies grew by 3.6% last year and are projected to increase by 3.1% this year, according to the International Monetary Fund.
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Euro elite: focus Switzerland – Like clockwork
All the cultural stereotypes are ingrained in Swiss law firms – well-organised, independent and highly-impressive.
Six Swiss firms make the Euro Elite – impressive for a country of just 8.4 million people. But then the Swiss have a longstanding reputation for being well organised, well educated and well resourced, while the economy – lightly regulated and low taxed – consistently ranks as the world’s most competitive, enjoying the highest per-capita income of any major country, except Norway.
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Euro elite: focus Ireland – Back with a bang
Independent firms dominate the Irish legal market but a slowdown in inversion-style deals threatens a robust post-crisis recovery.
‘The Irish economy is very small, open and independent, which is to a large extent very dependent on international capital,’ says Brian O’Gorman, managing partner of Arthur Cox. ‘One of the things that helped Ireland recover from the financial crisis and beyond was the willingness of international private equity and in particular major US private equity to invest in Ireland.’
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