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White & Case has taken another step towards the $3bn turnover mark, posting a 4.3% increase in global revenues to $2.95bn for 2023, despite London turnover dipping 1.6% to $444m.

The international firm saw global revenues rise from $2.83bn in 2022, when London turnover stood at $451m. Profit per equity partner (PEP) increased by 12.7% during 2023 to $3.16m, while revenue per lawyer rose 6.9% to $1.16m.

Speaking to Legal Business, vice chair and former London head Oliver Brettle said: ‘While many of the global challenges which characterised 2022 continued into 2023, it ended up being a very solid year for White & Case. These record global financial results were driven by our clear strategy to grow profitability, reflecting return on investment that we’ve made in key markets, practices and industries that matter to our clients and making sure that we invest long term.’

Globally, the firm made 36 lateral hires in 2023, with London laterals including Kirkland & Ellis competition partner Michael Engel and Travers Smith tax partner Jessica Kemp. This recruitment has continued into the new year, which has already seen 15 lateral hires, including Patrick Sarch, who is rejoining the firm as head of UK public M&A after three years at Hogan Lovells.

Inigo Esteve, who has been executive partner of the firm’s London office since November last year, agreed with Brettle that 2023 was a ‘solid’ year. ‘While revenue was marginally down on 2022, it was almost identical to our record year of 2021 – I think this continues to show the strength of the office, notwithstanding what was clearly a very challenging market backdrop.’

He added: ‘The way we look at the London office is not just on a single year. If you look at the growth over a prolonged period of time, it tells the true story. Over the last five years from 2019, the London office revenue has increased by nearly 32%. That is a more accurate reflection of the importance of the office in terms of how it contributes to the firm as a whole.’

In terms of practice areas, Brettle highlighted financial restructuring and insolvency, project development and finance and capital markets as having a particularly strong year.

On why the increase in PEP outstripped the revenue increase, Brettle attributed that to firm keeping a close eye on expenses, which increased by just 1% from $1.5bn to $1.53bn.

‘It goes back to careful management of expenses,’ he said. ‘We managed expenses broadly flat – if you do that and revenues go up, then you end up with strong PEP growth. Part of the trick in any business is that there is a tendency when people are busier to grow things. You do more travel, or you add more office expenses, but we were very careful last year to manage things carefully and the PEP increase came as a result.’

Headline London work over the last financial year included advising Vue International on its recapitalisation, while the banking practice advised the Ukraine’s Ministry of Finance on a UK Export Finance-backed £26.3m equivalent loan. The firm’s disputes team also acted for UK Finance, the official trade body for the UK’s banking and finance industry, in its Supreme Court intervention in Philipp v Barclays Bank, which considered banks’ duties to customers who are victims of authorised push payment fraud.

Looking forward, Brettle remains cautious: ‘A lot of the volatile features of 2023 have continued into 2024. The macroeconomic situation is looking better, but there are still lots of reasons for caution. The year has begun well, but I know well that you don’t predict on the basis of two months anything specific for the year ahead.’

‘So, on strategy we’re focused on delivering a client service which sets White & Case apart from our competitors. We’re going to continue to focus on that and we are going to continue to invest in the US, in the practices that matter most to our clients, but we’re also going to continue to invest in places like London and in people who can deliver exceptional service.’

holly.mckechnie@legalease.co.uk

White & Case was another firm to post muted financials for the last year, as a bullish 2021 gave way to a 2022 struggling under the weight of a deal slowdown, inflation, high interest rates, supply chain disruptions, and geopolitical conflict.

Global revenue declined by 1% from $2.87bn to $2.83bn, and net income dropped by 11% to $1.09bn. Profit per equity partner (PEP), meanwhile, suffered a significant 20% drop from $3.5m to $2.8m. This took its PEP figure below the $3m mark crossed in 2020, and was the lowest figure reported since 2019 when it hit $2.6m.

The decline in PEP must be seen in the context of continued growth in headcount. The number of partners rose by 5% to 678, with a 7% increase in equity partners, to 390. The total number of lawyers at the firm swelled by 6%, climbing from 2,464 to 2,616.

London revenue remained broadly flat, increasing 1% from $445m to $451m. For context, the City office saw an 18% revenue hike in 2020 and a 12% uptick in 2021.

Speaking to Legal Business, London partner and firm executive committee member Oliver Brettle emphasised external shocks. ‘I think we did well to keep our revenue at more or less the same level as 2021. Of course, you don’t want to go down at all. But to drop by only 1% on what was an exceptional 2021 is, I think, quite an achievement.’

‘We had to deal with, among other things, the closure of a substantial office as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, as well as the effects of the invasion on capital markets.’

Tumult in exchange rates also harmed the firm’s figures. ‘Lots of our UK work is billed in pounds, our European work in euros, our Japanese work in yen, and so on. And all of those currencies went down very significantly against the dollar.’

That headline 1% decline in revenue comes after a 20% jump in 2021  – the biggest year-on-year increase in 25 years. And this year’s $2.83bn remains significantly higher than 2020’s $2.4bn.

Brettle was keen to put the figures in a longer-term context, which has seen the firm’s revenue grow by 57% and net income by 51% since 2015, and to focus on continued investment.

‘Revenue is just one measure. Another is net profitability. And there, there was a substantial decrease. But part of that is because we continued to invest. We had significant headcount growth in 2022, in part because we had been phenomenally busy up to the end of February, and by the time we realised that things were getting a bit tougher, it still felt very close to when we’d been busy to start pulling back.’

London executive partner Dipen Sabharwal KC (pictured) took a similar longer-term view. ‘It’s gratifying that, when we look back on the last five years, we see consistent growth.’

He also took pride in the London office’s performance. ‘We’ve broken through the $450m barrier for the first time. That’s an all-time high. We were building on a boom year in 2021, and the environment really chilled in 2022. So to have grown our revenue at all, even modestly, was an achievement.’

Notably, while 2022 saw a significant drop-off in deal activity, the firm’s London corporate practice held steady. ‘If I were to single out one practice area for standout performance in London’, said Sabharwal, ‘it would be M&A. Despite the fact that deal levels were more muted, our teams in London really were gangbusters busy.’

Both Brettle and Sabharwal stressed that the firm’s strategy remains unchanged. ‘Our bread and butter’, said Sabharwal, ‘is cross-border work. That’s our sweet spot. It’s what we do well.’

Brettle echoed this. ‘Nearly half of our matters during 2022 were cross-border. We advised clients in 115 countries on matters spanning 195 countries.’

‘We are committed to our very strong presence globally. We are not ‘hub and spoke’ – we are a truly global firm. Our practices are truly integrated. We want to continue to do the right work, for the right clients, in a way that plays to our strengths as a global firm.’

alex.ryan@legalbusiness.co.uk