Market forces: Paul Weiss, Kirkland and the war for London talent
Paul Weiss is attracting the kind of headlines once reserved for Kirkland as it cherry-picks big names from the breadth of the City’s elite. But will its dream team approach pay off? And where does it leave the ambitions of the world’s biggest law firm?
Talk of the town: Why Kirkland/Paul Weiss underlines the value of controlling the management message
Clandestine conversations, a recruitment strategy on steroids, eye-watering salaries and internal politics galore, the Paul Weiss/Kirkland story has enough drama in it to keep the attention of even those outside the legal market.
Shuffling the pack – Paul Hastings raises the stakes in London
Paul Hastings is one of the fastest-growing US firms in London – can it bed down a succession of big laterals in London, or has it bet too big? Anna Huntley reports
A&O’s Wim Dejonghe on mergers, money and his plans for life after law
Ahead of the A&O Shearman merger next week, outgoing A&O senior partner Wim Dejonghe sat down with LB to discuss lessons from previous merger talks, his plans for the future and his views on the ‘unhealthy’ levels of money in law
The Last Word: Capital call
As part of our annual Global London report, management at US firms in London give their views on today’s market challenges
Moves of the month: recruitment market picks up as leading firms think laterally
Lateral hiring saw a notable pickup during the first quarter of 2024, with partner moves across sectors from litigation to corporate, finance, and restructuring, to ESG, energy and competition.
Global London 2024 main table
The full table of stats and data from this year’s Global London report, which ranks the top 50 international law firms (firms headquartered outside of the UK) by London lawyer count
After the party – market slowdown pushes US leaders to take stock in London
The easy narrative is that the party is over. After years of rapid expansion by international law firms in London, 2023 saw lawyer headcount at Global London firms inch up by just 1.8% – a figure which appears to provide confirmation that the City interlopers are finally starting to apply the brakes in London as deal volumes dry up.
The Client Profile: Christian Keim, Adobe
The multinational software company’s international legal head on his professional journey and experience working in-house at a tech company
The Latin American mosaic
Contemporary Latin America reflects the divergent social, political and economic pressures that mark a world that is not just post-pandemic, but – more profoundly – post-globalisation