Coming off the back of a 2015 that saw a more robust deal market and greater levels of activity in the real estate sector, the 2016 edition of The Legal 500 UK reflects a legal market which has not experienced this level of growth since 2008. Our coverage of the UK regions illustrates the divergent approaches firms have taken to achieve that growth. Firms with a broad national reach sit hand-in-hand with advisers that have chosen to focus on a single-site approach in many areas.
Consolidation has also been a pervasive theme across the UK legal industry; at the time of writing, the ink on the merger deal between CMS Cameron McKenna, Nabarro and Olswang has barely dried. Once the union completes, the combined practice will be the world’s sixth largest by lawyer headcount if you count the wider CMS grouping and the sixth largest in the UK by revenue.
