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‘Quite unexpectedly, the skills and experiences you’ve had in your previous career make you a better lawyer and more successful. Having a completely different dimension to your personality makes you more interesting to the clients. It turns you into an asset.’ So observes James Anderson, almost-famous musician, and now head of Skadden’s European tax practice.
While Anderson may still be kicking himself over what he calls ‘the Radiohead misfire’, his view rings true for all of the lawyers interviewed for this piece. Perhaps his former career imbued in him a desire for recognition – he now features in the lofty ranks of The Legal 500’s Hall of Fame for corporate tax. Continue reading “Career changes: The measure of intelligence – Lawyers and the great career change-up”
‘There is a real mismatch in how gloomy the economy feels and how busy the legal professional feels,’ observes Deborah Finkler, Slaughter and May’s managing partner. ‘We’re incredibly busy and it wouldn’t surprise me that in the similar conversations you’re having with other managing partners, they will say the same. There is just a lot of work.’
When our 2021 Legal Business 100 (LB100) report was published, the profession was riding high on the back of booming deal flow that saw profits and revenues surge to previously unmatched levels. Fast forward 12 months, and the economic outlook is very different. Spiralling inflation, interest rate hikes and the macroeconomic issues resulting from Russia’s continued invasion of Ukraine have made discussions of ‘softening in the market’ commonplace. Continue reading “LB100: Overview – Turning tides”
If you only read the stats, you would be forgiven for thinking that the LB100’s 26-50 group has struggled this year. The numbers are uncharacteristically grim for the second quartile: profit per lawyer (PPL) dipped 8% from £79,000 to £73,000 and profit per equity partner (PEP) dropped 3% to £633,000.
Revenue metrics are more favourable – average turnover grew a solid 8% to £167m from £154.7m, while revenue per lawyer (RPL) was up 6% from £273,000 to £290,000. However, this pales in comparison to the blistering growth of the LB100’s top 25, and is a far cry from last year’s eye-catching 19% hike in PEP among the 26-50 group. Continue reading “LB100: The second 25 – Off the pace”
For the 23 City and boutique firms that fall into the second 50 in this year’s LB100, average turnover is up 11% to £53.4m, marking the largest growth across all groups.
‘A couple of years ago people were saying it was the death of the mid-market. We don’t buy that. We think that the mid-market is alive, strong and kicking,’ says Fladgate’s managing partner Grant Gordon. Continue reading “LB100: The second 50: City and Boutique – Living for the city”
The 27 regional and national firms occupying the 51-100 spots in this year’s LB100 come in with an average of 267 lawyers and 27 equity partners. But despite weathering Covid well, with average revenue increases of 11% and 13% in 2020 and 2021 respectively, our 2022 report sees growth flatten out, with average revenue up just 4% to £54.9m.
Alongside static revenues, profit per lawyer (PPL) fell 5% with average lawyer numbers up 7%. Meanwhile, although firms managed to make profit per equity partner (PEP) gains — with the average up 14% to £402,000, outpacing last year’s already robust 8% hike — this is coupled with a 10% decrease in average equity partner numbers. Continue reading “LB100: The second 50: Regional view – Steadying the ship”
‘Thirty years ago, the legal press didn’t exist,’ says Pinsent Masons managing partner John Cleland. ‘Deals were sometimes reported and occasionally they would find their way into the newspaper – but very rarely would the law firm’s name be mentioned. Now firms and the legal press have a very active dialogue on things, ranging from analysis to commentary on trends. We never had that thirty years ago.’
Indeed, much has changed in the 30 years since Legal Business first asked firms to cough up their financial results. And calling it the LB100 then would have been wildly inaccurate, what with the first report only including some 35 firms. It was not until the following year that the report graduated into a truer reflection of the business of law. Continue reading “30 years of LB100 – 1992-2002: Teen spirit”
More so than the decades which came before or followed, the years between 2002 and 2012 are defined as a stark binary between boom and bust for LB100 firms.
For many current law firm leaders who practiced throughout that decade (some of whom had just started their careers), the early 2000s was an intrepid time characterised by globalisation, with some firms more successful than others at embedding their brand across borders. Continue reading “30 years of LB100 – 2002-12: A decade of two halves”
