‘In the event of a recession, the lawyers will be fine. They always are. Unless you work at Ince.’
Reflecting now on this remark made by a senior contact last August, it is clear that the writing has been on the wall for Ince for quite some time and that its parent company, Ince Group, going into administration was probably the only realistic outcome of this sorry saga. Continue reading “Cautionary tales: The downfall of Ince – a lesson in how not to run your law firm”
Looking at the recent wave of departures from Travers Smith brings to mind fears expressed by peers when we last did a major analysis of the firm back in 2019.
Four years ago, harbingers of doom were quick to jump on the perceived threat to such a UK-centric firm amid Britain’s exit from the European Union. Noted one corporate partner at a US firm at the time: ‘If profit starts to fall post-Brexit, what do you do with Paul Dolman? If Paul left, it would be a killer blow. He is talismanic.’ Continue reading “Stopping the bleeding at Travers will require hard-won loyalty and a pay overhaul”
It is a treacherous business, making market predictions for the year ahead. Too conservative and the pundit is guilty of clinging to the ‘cautiously optimistic’ soundbite, which is the ultimate in fence-sitting and has become one of the most banal phrases in legal industry history. Too adventurous and you run the risk of being over-zealous in predicting market-altering developments.
Of course, it is better to take a stab rather than be accused of being non-committal. Continue reading “A bonanza year for the Global 100 – is the table about to turn?”
‘I don’t think you will get any of the City firms to talk about this sort of thing… You have? Well. I am astonished. It is one thing for the Americans and accountants to get into this sort of thing, but not the lawyers.’
‘Anyone who gives you that information will be booted out of the partnership.’ Continue reading “Still vulgar to talk about money? Three decades have made the industry less coy”
‘In the event of a recession, the lawyers will be fine. They always are. Unless you work at Ince.’ So quips one senior market commentator when discussing early indications from our Legal Business 100 research this year.
Indeed and notwithstanding the unfortunate Ince (if you’ve missed it, more of its embattlement in ‘Ince owns up to pensions gaffe as cyber attack wreaks £5m havoc‘), the message coming through from the UK’s top 100 law firms by revenue is positive. In fact, it is very bullish indeed. Continue reading “A sneak preview of the LB100 – the lawyers are always fine, aren’t they?”
As we publish Legal Business’ second ESG report, the words years ago of a male partner at a Magic Circle firm suddenly returned in a flash. To paraphrase: ‘The problem with City law firms is that they do a big push to keep women, they have a couple of female partners rising through the ranks, they think they have the gender diversity issue fixed. They tick it off the list and move onto the next thing.’
While acknowledging the manifold nuances and difficulties in diversity and inclusion of all kinds, it is disappointing to see how predictable this faddy approach to social progress continues to be. Continue reading “The profession must not let yesterday’s ESG news turn into today’s chip paper”
That one of the chief concerns among law firm leaders in Legal Business’ annual Global London report is the retention of talent and the salaries required to do that in an ultra-competitive recruitment market is of course not ground-breaking news. Pundits have for years bandied around the term ‘the war for talent’, and with ever-more frequency in connection with demand for deal lawyers as the seemingly unstoppable private equity boom continues apace.
But when these phrases take hold they tend to stick and get churned out at every available opportunity when senior lawyers talk about the manifold challenges facing their businesses. Critical as the pipeline of talent unquestionably is, now that there is a real war on, the term seems hyperbolic. Continue reading “Time for a reality check on salaries”
When we first launched our Euro Elite report in 2016, much of the narrative was that the future of the elite European independent firms as a breed looked assured but individually they faced challenging headwinds and delicate balancing acts to modernise their businesses for a more globalised and networked world. But we were perhaps being charitable to the Anglo-Saxon firms that have striven so hard for decades to dominate Europe and have largely failed. Nobody is drinking that Kool-Aid anymore. The headwinds have come and gone, or at least remain with little of the effects that many anticipated. The 100 firms in 40 jurisdictions that make up this year’s report have taken Brexit, Covid and political turmoil in their stride and are largely going from strength to strength.
It was supposed to be so different; the mostly UK-based firms that threw their weight about in Amsterdam, Brussels, Madrid, Paris and Rome in the late 1990s and early 2000s, acting like bullies, predicted that legal services in those markets would be homogenised and those resisting would suffer. There were casualties – Loyens & Loeff was largely born of the ruins of Loeff Claeys Verbeke after Allen & Overy had picked it over. There were success stories too – Bruckhaus Westrick Heller Löber’s merger of equals with Freshfields was viewed as market defining, although there is an argument that it allowed Hengeler Mueller, Noerr and Gleiss Lutz to bolster their positions in Germany. There are many examples of Euro Elite firms rejecting formal advances from UK firms: Gleiss Lutz and Stibbe told Herbert Smith where to go, as did De Brauw (and others) to Linklaters. Few will have regretted that decision. Continue reading “Stronger together? Not really”
The words of BT Legal’s Leeanne Whaley, in ‘Held to account’, particularly stand out in this issue: ‘We spend a lot of money with external law firms. It historically suited law firms to not be transparent, but outside of big-ticket M&A and litigation, the job of a commercial lawyer is more replicable than ever.’
That this type of comment, made recently but equally has been repeated in many guises since the global financial crisis, needs to be repeated today is alarming. Put simply, in this day and age clients should not need to remind law firms that their existence is on a knife-edge: they should just vote with their feet. Traditional reputations should carry no weight with clients and firms should be judged on what they are doing now, rather than what they used to do. In the feature, Tony Williams of Jomati says firms can no longer rely on getting the lion’s share of the work based on their market reputation alone, adding that traditional law firms need to ‘get sensible’ and innovate on billing or risk being left behind. Continue reading “Take a good long look in the mirror before espousing change seriously”
This month’s issue of Legal Business may be dedicated to the largest firms in the UK by revenue but sibling title The Legal 500 is a much more inclusive church. The latest UK solicitors guide includes no fewer than 1,154 distinct firms operating in the UK across nearly 10,000 distinct rankings, of which nearly 4,500 are in the all-important London market. And with client feedback levels up 50% to more than 50,000 responses across the UK, they should reflect general counsel opinion better than ever.
We’re going to be taking a closer look at the rankings themselves and the performance of the LB100 in the next issue of Legal Business but there are a few important points about the most recent research that I want to highlight now. This year, on top of my general drive towards pushing for quality at the top of our core City rankings, improving diversity and ensuring our rankings are as reflective of the current market as possible, we have made two new tangible changes. Continue reading “We’ve listened: important new changes to The Legal 500 UK 2022”
