‘There’s a bunch of defensive mechanisms firms are using to shore up their stars – they could be lost to Paul Weiss or some other big firm if they don’t do something,’ says one US partner of the fierce war for talent at the very top of the legal market.
The firms that appear in the 2024 Global 100 are the largest 100 law firms in the world ranked by revenue.
Continue reading “Global 100: Methodology and end notes”
What does it take to be part of the global elite? When Legal Business unveiled the very first iteration of its ‘global elite’ back in 2003, 15 firms made the grade, of which six were headquartered in the UK.
They were selected based on criteria including: being a leader in their home jurisdiction in at least two of the three key practice areas of finance, M&A and litigation; being one of the 50 most profitable firms in the world; and being a leader in M&A or banking on both sides of the Atlantic.
But with law firms expanding rapidly around the world in the time since that first elite was created, the metrics they should be assessed on have come under increasing scrutiny.
Should the measure of success be firmwide revenue, international revenue, profitability, headcount or perhaps geographic spread? Or should the true global elite simply be a list of the very best law firms in the world? In which case, the likes of Slaughter and May and Wachtell would make the grade despite a decided lack of international reach.
Twenty-one years after that first 15-firm group was drawn up, despite having more data available to us than ever before, it is perhaps less clear now who should and shouldn’t be included in a global elite than it was then.
The Global 100 ranking in this issue is a prime example. US firms make up roughly 70% of the biggest firms in the world by revenue; while there are fewer than 20 UK or equal UK/US heritage firms in the list. And the sheer size of the US legal market means that its domination over UK and international firms only increases year on year.
Similarly, the difference in approach towards global expansion (with UK firms generally having larger numbers of lawyers in more international locations than their US peers) means the profitability gap also continues to grow.
But, despite their strong financial performance, many of the US firms in the global elite lack any significant international footprint, which inevitably means that our Global 100 rankings are not really as globally-focused as they should be.
So we have decided to go back to basics, and revisit the questions of what it really means to be global, and what it really means to be elite.
Ask managing partners what global means and responses inevitably differ depending on the profile of the firm.
For Justin D’Agostino, global CEO of Herbert Smith Freehills: ‘It’s the quality of clients, the quality of the work you’re doing for them, and the quality of your talent. You also need geographic reach in the major markets of the world. It’s about strength, profitability, and sufficient scale.’
Simon Levine, DLA’s global co-CEO and international managing partner, says being truly global is about being able to offer the biggest corporates in the world the full breadth of services – from life sciences, to disputes, to regulatory advice – across multiple jurisdictions.
He asks: ‘When major global organisations – like Unilever, GE, or HSBC – require critical global services such as restructuring, dispute resolution, or regulatory advice, do they need to turn to multiple firms, or can one firm manage everything?’ In his view: ‘Simply focusing on corporate, M&A, PE, and litigation isn’t enough.’
On the other hand, one London head at an elite US firm counters: ‘I don’t think just being big makes you global. It’s about which markets you’re deep in, combined with an element of profitability’.
What everyone – including LB – is in agreement on is that being truly global requires a presence in the key financial centres around the world. That means London, the US, and major financial centres across Asia Pacific and EMEA such as Hong Kong and Frankfurt.
Here then, we’re presenting some new options for what it really means to be a globally elite firm by revisiting some of those 2003 criteria and combining them with definitive insight from our Legal 500 rankings.
Where UK and UK-heritage firms fare best is strong global coverage, as evidenced by their L500 rankings.
If we look at the global 100 firms by total number of L500 rankings worldwide, our top ten firms comprise: DLA Piper, Baker McKenzie, CMS, A&O Shearman, Dentons, Eversheds Sutherland, Clifford Chance, Hogan Lovells, White & Case and Norton Rose Fulbright.
Look at the best-performing global 100 firms by total number of top-tier Legal 500 rankings worldwide and the picture shifts slightly, but UK and UK-heritage firms still come out on top, with Bakers, A&O Shearman, CC, DLA Piper, CMS, Linklaters, Latham, Dentons, HSF and Pinsents making the grade.
But while UK-heritage firms are strong across key financial centres such as Hong Kong, Singapore and Frankfurt, to be truly global firms have to have a solid presence in all four L500 regions: UK, EMEA, APAC and the US.
Making this a prerequisite for inclusion in a global elite proves to be almost as big a blocker for many UK-heritage firms today as it was in 2003 – but with a bigger profitability gap to navigate to fix the problem. For example, of those leading firms by T1 rankings, CMS, HSF, Linklaters and Pinsents all lack any T1 rankings in the US.
As D’Agostino admits: ‘the quality of [UK firms’] client base and our scale in major markets is still a force to be reckoned with, but all of us are focused on the US market and how to scale up.’
Duncan Weston, executive partner at CMS, comments: ‘Many law firms like to call themselves global, but they’re not. We don’t claim to be truly global yet, though we have those aspirations,’ he admits, pointing to CMS’s gaps in key markets like Asia and the US. Of course, T1 or not, not all L500 rankings are created equal. Echoing the approach LB took back in 2003, for elite status, let’s now consider only firms with at least one ‘prime’ L500 ranking (corporate/M&A, litigation, banking and finance) in major markets across all four core geographies – Asia Pacific, EMEA, the US and the UK. Again, UK-heritage firms still fare pretty well, with A&O Shearman, CC, DLA Piper, Linklaters, Hogan Lovells, Norton Rose Fulbright and polycentric Dentons all making the cut.
But now let’s add one of those other 2003 criteria: in addition to being global we want our list to be elite. So, for this, let’s add in the same profitability filter applied in 2003 –considering only the 50 most profitable global 100 firms.
Removing firms in the bottom half of the profitability table equates to a cut-off point of $2.38m based on this year’s financial results, meaning large but less profitable players like Bakers and Norton Rose Fulbright fall out.
So what are we left with? In total we end up with a list of around 20 firms, with UK or UK-heritage firms making up around six of the top ten by total ranking numbers (see tables below).
Of course, some may query the value placed on an EMEA and APAC presence – particularly given current scrutiny over whether a huge global footprint is as important as it once was. And others may query taking a volume-based approach to rankings.
But a true global elite needs to be made up of firms with broader horizons than just the US firms which make up so much of the Global 100. Otherwise it’s just a US elite.
Georgina Stanley and Anna Huntley
| Firm | APAC | EMEA | UK | US | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A&O Shearman | 20 | 49 | 25 | 23 | 117 |
| Clifford Chance | 16 | 46 | 16 | 14 | 92 |
| DLA Piper | 14 | 49 | 14 | 15 | 92 |
| White & Case | 14 | 38 | 17 | 20 | 89 |
| Latham & Watkins | 13 | 24 | 15 | 27 | 79 |
| Linklaters | 11 | 43 | 17 | 5 | 76 |
| Hogan Lovells | 10 | 37 | 17 | 10 | 74 |
| Freshfields | 8 | 28 | 14 | 11 | 61 |
| Mayer Brown | 8 | 8 | 15 | 25 | 56 |
| Skadden | 11 | 5 | 10 | 25 | 51 |
| Firm | APAC | EMEA | UK | US | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A&O Shearman | 9 | 24 | 19 | 1 | 53 |
| Clifford Chance | 7 | 26 | 15 | 0 | 48 |
| Latham & Watkins | 3 | 8 | 6 | 21 | 38 |
| Linklaters | 6 | 17 | 11 | 0 | 34 |
| Kirkland & Ellis | 4 | 2 | 4 | 9 | 19 |
| White & Case | 3 | 9 | 4 | 2 | 18 |
| Simpson Thacher & Bartlett | 2 | 0 | 1 | 15 | 18 |
| Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton | 1 | 3 | 0 | 10 | 14 |
| Freshfields | 2 | 7 | 4 | 0 | 13 |
| Davis Polk & Wardwell | 1 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 13 |
* Prime = at least one core M&A/banking/litigation ranking
‘It looked like we were in for a rough time – but the markets stood up well.’ DLA Piper global co-chief executive Simon Levine’s take on the financial year neatly sums up the overriding sentiment about the year gone by, which started with much-cited concerns over inflation and global instability, but ended with law firm leaders much happier than expected.
After total revenue across the world’s 100 largest law firms inched up by just 1% last year, this year the group broke through the $150bn mark for the first time, with combined income rising by more than 6% to $158.7bn. The increase in average profit per equity partner (PEP) across the group was even more impressive – up over 11% to $2.8m, bouncing back from a 3% decrease last year.
Continue reading “Global 100 Overview: G100 defy gloom to pass $150bn”
For years, while rivals like Kirkland & Ellis, Skadden and Latham & Watkins disrupted the London legal market, Paul Weiss had bucked the global trend, practising only US law from small offices outside of its domestic heartlands.
Its much-lauded English law launch last year marked a dramatic u-turn, with the firm following up with a new European office in Brussels earlier this year, as well as the launch of a fifth US office in Los Angeles on home ground.
It may still be a long way off truly global but there’s no denying the shift in Paul Weiss’s position. Its office count now stands at 11 worldwide, with its work focused around five core practices: private equity (PE); public M&A; litigation; white-collar regulatory defence; and restructuring.
Since August 2023 the firm has added more than 60 new partners, taking its total partnership to 250 and its lawyer count to more than 1,000.
Domestically, its recent hires include Joseph Glatt, former general counsel for Apollo’s credit arm, who joined as a corporate partner in New York; private equity M&A partner Bianca Levin-Soler, who joined from Ropes & Gray in Los Angeles; and fund finance partner Flora Go, who joined the New York office as head of fund finance from Fried Frank.
Meanwhile, in the UK, the firm most recently added financial regulatory specialist Revathi Raghavan as a partner from Kirkland.
‘We want to continue to attract the most consequential matters from the most important clients in the world in each of the areas in which we practice,’ says Paul Weiss chair Brad Karp of the firm’s expansion plans. ‘The depth of talent in our partnership has never been greater and, as a result, our firm’s market position has never been stronger.’
Paul Weiss’s commitment to expanding in the US has been dwarfed by its efforts on this side of the Atlantic in recent months, with the firm building up a sizeable presence at lightning speed. Since making headlines with its English law launch in November 2023 via the eye-catching hire of a Kirkland team led by debt finance star Neel Sachdev and PE partner Roger Johnson in summer 2023, the office has expanded to around 170 lawyers – nearly doubling in size in just over a year. Thirty two of these are partners.
For context, according to LB’s Global London rankings, this puts the firm already at the size of long-term London players like Squire Patton Boggs and Ropes & Gray.
‘London is one of the world’s great financial centres and a gateway to Europe,’ Karp tells LB as he discusses how the London office fits in with the firm’s global strategy, which has been driven in large part by the firm’s PE clients demanding a credible and effective London solution.
Sachdev adds: ‘The growth of our London office and English law practice enables us to offer elite teams to corporate and private equity clients in London and New York.’
According to Sachdev, on the transactional side the London office has already been involved in multiple major European deals, including advising funds managed by Apollo on its £2.7bn acquisition of UK delivery company Evri from Advent International, the largest UK logistics sector private equity buyout in the past five years. A London team is also advising KPS Capital Partners on its €3.5bn acquisition of Innomotics from Siemens.
The hires and the mandates have undoubtedly shaken up the market. ‘The London market will never be the same,’ comments one head at a rival US firm, somewhat dramatically. ‘Paul Weiss seems to be taking a page out of the playbook Kirkland used so successfully in the early 2000s when it captured amazing talent by offering eye-popping deals to move people,’ they add, alluding to the fact Sachdev, who joined Kirkland in 2003, played a large part in driving Kirkland’s phenomenal growth in London.
‘The depth of talent in our partnership has never been greater and, as a result, our firm’s market position has never been stronger.’
Brad Karp, Paul Weiss
After kickstarting its European competition practice with the hire of Nicole Kar from Linklaters, the firm has also made its first move into continental Europe by launching a competition-focused office in Brussels ,with the hires of antitrust partners Ross Ferguson from Simpson, Thacher & Bartlett and Richard Pepper from Macfarlanes. Karp explains that clients had ‘long asked’ for the firm to scale London as well as develop a competition practice based in Brussels.
‘Our goal is to be the leading competition law firm in the world. To achieve that, a firm needs preeminent practice in Brussels,’ he says.
While the firm is continuing to grow in London and now has ten lawyers in Brussels, there are no current plans to extend in Europe beyond this, with the focus only on the most profitable locations that fit in with key client strategies.
It’s a strategy that some rivals believe makes sense. As a US private equity head comments: ‘It’s perfectly viable for Paul Weiss to operate from London and Brussels. You don’t need a presence in every city anymore. For international M&A, banking, and private equity, having London and New York is essential and anywhere else in Europe tends to be a bonus.’
At the same time as attempting to crack London, Paul Weiss has also been expanding its presence in key domestic markets in the US, with high profile moves including New York-based Eric Wedel leaving Kirkland with a team to launch the LA office in August 2023. Wedel, who co-chairs the global finance and capital markets group alongside Sachdev, brought along finance partners Ben Steadman, Caroline Epstein, and Matthew Leist.
Karp says the new LA office, the firm’s second California location after San Francisco opened in 2021, will also enhance the breadth of its private equity and alternative investment practice. It currently has 20 lawyers, with recent mandates for Wedel and co including advising Hg Capital on the financing for its acquisition of AuditBoard, valued at over $3bn.
Given the scale of the firm’s expansion in recent months, the obvious question in the market is where next?
Paul Weiss has been linked to a potential launch in Houston, where multiple firms including Kirkland and Latham have been building offices in order to capture lucrative energy and private equity work.
‘It’s perfectly viable for Paul Weiss to operate from London and Brussels. You don’t need a presence in every city anymore.’
US private equity head
With multiple US firms rethinking their approach to Asia, where Paul Weiss currently has small US law offerings in Beijing, Tokyo and Hong Kong, the firm’s name has also been linked with a potential launch in Singapore. Should it open in Singapore it would be following in the recent footsteps of Quinn Emanuel, which launched there in July this year with a boutique arbitration practice.
Karp is reluctant to go into long-term specifics, saying only that the firm is ‘continuing to monitor Asia closely’. In the shorter term he confirms that there are: ‘no presents plans to open an office in Houston or Singapore (or any other location)’.
Whether Karp’s statement ends speculation about the firm’s plans is another matter, given the scale of the firm’s disruption in the US and London in recent months. The firm now sits at 27th place in the Global 100, with revenues of more than $2bn, even without fee income from its most recent launches.
As one head at a rival firm summarises: ‘Paul Weiss has traditionally concentrated on litigation in New York, taking pride in its status as a prominent New York firm. However, over the years, it realised that the legal market extends beyond New York. To increase its revenue, it began exploring opportunities in other major cities. London is a big move – it forms part of the firm’s view that it must consider a wider variety of locations and client needs.’
For more on Paul Weiss, see LB’s feature ‘Market forces: Paul Weiss, Kirkland and the war for London talent’, LB319.
