Continue reading “Legal Business 100 2015: Interactive main table”
LB100 2015: Partner Earnings
LB100 2015: Behind the numbers – profitability revealed
LB100 2015: Core Stats
LB100: The Second Quartile – The first shall be last…
The City’s mid-tiers defied the critics to achieve market-leading pace through 2015, cementing the gains of recent years. How big an upset can the tortoises deliver?
There are a few simple ideas that define the pecking order in the UK legal industry. The big boys are international, materially larger than the tiers below and two to three times as profitable as their mid-pack cousins.
Continue reading “LB100: The Second Quartile – The first shall be last…”
LB100: The Second 50 – More or less
Specialist practices and focused City firms in the second 50 thrived in what remained an uncertain market.
The second 50 is a hard place for any law firm without a strong claim on their chosen patch. Overall this section of the market saw a flat year despite the support of a relatively upbeat domestic economy and surging property market.
LB100: The Second 50 – The Lion & the Unicorn
Regional firms are experiencing mixed fortunes. Can they take advantage of a less London-focused client base?
Regional and national firms dominate the second half of the Legal Business 100 (LB100), but typically they do not enjoy the same success as the London-based firms that also occupy the lower end of the table. This year, 32 firms ranked 51-100 are regional or national law firms based outside London, totalling £1.2bn in revenue from 6,308 fee-earners.
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Small gestures – can a new wave of social inclusion schemes deliver?
Despite much debate in recent years, social inclusion in the legal profession remains woeful. Are a new range of initiatives the latest diversity fads or steps towards a breakthrough?
Ray Berg, UK managing partner of Osborne Clarke, recalls first getting his foot in the door of the legal profession: ‘I only got work experience because my dad started talking to someone in the back of his cab. He was so proud to say his son was this, that and the other. That someone was the then managing partner at Nicholson Graham & Jones and he said: “Would your son like to do a week’s work experience with us?” That was extremely fortuitous but people without those contacts shouldn’t have to rely on fortune like that.’
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LB100 2015: Methodology and notes
LB100 LAW FIRMS
The firms that appear in the Legal Business 100 (LB100) are the top 100 firms in the UK, ranked by gross fee income generated over the financial year 2014/15 – usually 1 May 2014 to 30 April 2015. We call these the 2015 results. Where firms have identical fee incomes, the firms are ranked alphabetically.
SOURCES
An overwhelming majority of firms that appear in the LB100 co-operate fully with its compilation (see ‘Transparency’, right) by providing our reporters with the required information. A limited number of firms choose not to co-operate officially with our data collection process and in these circumstances we rely on figures given to us by trusted but anonymous sources. Continue reading “LB100 2015: Methodology and notes”
The Global London debate – Tipping points
To mark our annual Global London report, Legal Business teamed up with Venturis Consulting to assess the dramatic progress made by US law firms in the City. Can anything slow the advance?
It has been the defining force in the City legal market this decade: the emergence of US law firms as credible and increasingly potent operators in the Square Mile. With these firms representing an increasingly existential challenge to City rivals, we assembled a group of senior practitioners to mark the publication of our 2015 Global London report.
The wide-ranging debate – covering strategy, dramatically shifting transatlantic markets and the fierce battle to attract the best lawyers – proved one of the most incisive discussions Legal Business has ever held.
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