Continental Europe the next priority as firm chases larger international revenues
Kennedys formed another international association last month, this time with Buenos Aires firm Estudio Bunge – Bunge, Smith & Luchía Puig.
The alliance is the London-headquartered firm’s fifth associated office in Latin America, having joined up with Mexican firm Bufete Solís Marín a year ago.
This latest move comes a month after the firm moved into Scandinavia through the takeover of four-partner Danish firm Erritzøe, and associations with Norwegian practice Kogstad Lunde & Co and Swedish firm NorelidHolm. These new partnerships took effect at the start of this year.
‘Insurance clients are constantly consolidating so they want global law firm panels,’ said Kennedys senior partner Nick Thomas. ‘Back in 1977, we knew we were never going to be a Clifford Turner [now Clifford Chance], but we knew we could be a class insurance act. We have stolen a massive march on everybody else.’
While the firm’s City base is servicing some key markets in Europe, official tie-ups in Germany, France and Italy are next on the agenda.
Kennedys currently boasts 22 offices worldwide, along with 14 associate offices, and wants to eventually integrate these local offices completely.
‘Our cultural values are very important to us. With local integration, clients get used to the other lawyers first and then we can parachute them in,’ added Thomas.
‘We knew we were never going to be a Clifford Turner, but we knew we could be a class insurance act.’
Nick Thomas, Kennedys
Some 22% of firm-wide revenue is generated in the firm’s international offices and, over the next five years, this is expected to grow to more than 30%. While Thomas said the weak sterling contributed to the modest 1% revenue growth Kennedys achieved in the 2014/15 financial year, since 2010 the firm has grown turnover by 47% to £129.9m, with partner profits at £410,000.
In 2015, the firm made 21 lateral partner hires while growing its international footprint with an associated office in Moscow and two new offices in Scotland, and forming an alliance with Chilean insurance boutique Sateler Depolo Diemoz.
The firm also bulked up its presence in Singapore in March 2015 through a joint venture with 30-partner firm Legal Solutions and in January of last year entered into a co-operation agreement with the Chinese AnJie Law Firm.
This followed Kennedys’ 2014 push into Asia with the hire of a seven-lawyer aviation team, including two partners from Clyde & Co and another from Sydney firm Norton White.
jaishree.kalia@legalease.co.uk