‘We will continue to hire lawyers we see as adding something. That continues to be the mantra: hire great lawyers and your practice will grow.’
Richard East, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan
As our Global London report hits desks, the leadership at US law firms in the City weigh up the challenges ahead
MISSION STATEMENT
‘The firm has a clearly defined strategy for where and how we will grow. We will continue to build our top-ranked transactional, regulatory, litigation and trial practices and focus on the industries that are driving the global economy. Mission drift can happen if you take your eye off the strategy. The investments we make are for the long term and are key to ensuring we stay focused on what we need to do to serve our clients’ needs today, and in the future.’
Richard Trobman, vice chair, Latham & Watkins
US POWER
‘The size and strength of the US economy continues to drive so much commercial activity across the world, we all knew 15 years ago we would be talking about industrial strength and electronics, now we are talking about the presence of the US in new technologies.’
Oliver Brettle, London executive partner, White & Case
THE LONDON FORMULA
‘There are a range of different formulas that work. One is having a particular calling card; if you are very well known for M&A or a type of disputes work, that works for some international law firms. Our approach has been to be full service and very international, To work for multinationals across multiple practices and countries, for us, feels like we are many lawyers from many cultures. Simply operating on the basis that London is just a branch is not what we do.’
Alex Chadwick, London managing partner, Baker McKenzie
A QUESTION OF STRATEGY
‘US firms are generally still growing, in order to establish the scale to compete. We have always tried to avoid overspecialisation in any particular area, which is slightly swimming against the tide because you get some firms that are carving out niches.
There is some danger that the market is becoming overlawyered. When you have firms saying they have the ambition of going head to head with Freshfields or Linklaters in their home markets, I question that type of strategy. You need to differentiate yourself, provide something different, which will be attractive to clients.’
Simon Jay, corporate partner, Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton
A FLUID MARKET
‘Most US firms in London are focused on PE or capital markets, but we want to build a broader capability that has a good private and public and private M&A, finance, real estate, antitrust, tax and litigation. While Latham and White & Case are seeking to do that, that is not where they started, and the market is more fluid than when Latham started 15 or 16 years ago.’
Charlie Geffen, London corporate chair, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher
BREXIT BUTTON
‘There is a core group of firms that will continue to do well and be profitable. We remain committed to growing in the UK, although there will always be challenges and the button being pushed for Brexit remains a cause of general uncertainty.
Our firmwide desire to grow in London has not changed at all. Everyone knows the UK will remain a major player on the global stage and we will continue to guide our clients towards success.’
Justin Stock, London managing partner, Cooley
FLAVOUR OF THE MONTH
‘Our hires have very complementary practices in private equity and energy work. That’s been a focus of ours for quite a while and over the years we have seen more private equity interest in energy, telecoms and emerging markets. That means lots of the areas in which we were already strong have taken on a more intense private equity flavour and have more momentum to build that further.’
Alex Msimang, London managing partner, Vinson & Elkins
THE MANTRA
‘There’s been a drop in the amount of financial crisis work because the limitation periods are expiring or have expired already. Some of the cases that have come out of the courts, for example, the recent property alliance decision, have a considerable dampening effect on claims.
Growth in international arbitration has an impact on what we do here as well, and white collar and regulatory has become a much more significant part of what we do in Europe.
We continue to be inquisitive and we will continue to hire lawyers we see as being entrepreneurial and add something. That continues to be the mantra: hire great lawyers and your practice will grow.’
Richard East, London co-managing partner, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan
UNCERTAIN BACKDROP
‘2016 ended very strongly for us. In spite of the uncertain political backdrop, our investment fund client base continued to invest in Europe and globally. The oil and gas sector continued its restructuring, and the emerging markets continue to be a focus for our corporate, private equity and litigation teams.’
James Roome, senior partner, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld
CONFIDENCE BUSINESS
‘King & Wood Mallesons underlines the pretty obvious point that these businesses are confidence businesses and if the confidence goes, whether that’s losing key people or losing key clients, unfortunately once that starts to happen the demise quite often is pretty quick. But there have been cases when firms in different situations have turned it around quite successfully so it doesn’t always end in disaster.’
Paul Maher, London office chair, Greenberg Traurig