The big chill

These are peculiar times. Assessing law firm figures from last year – though that was just a few months ago – already seems historic. Weil, Gotshal & Manges, for example, had its best six months ever in London in the first half of 2008. By year end, though, it could only manage more or less static revenue and revenue-per-lawyer figures.

Without doubt, the economic downturn hit London hard in the second half. The question now is whether this will lead to a permanent change in strategy for Global London firms.

That 2008 turned out to be a rotten year was not entirely unexpected. Twelve months ago there was already serious pessimism among some firms. But this was because London had not yet entered the slowdown and the high cost of doing business in the UK capital put
dollar-denominated firms at a disadvantage. They were pessimistic because the English firms with which they competed were oblivious to the downturn in the US and seemingly had the upper hand in the recruitment market.

English firms, for their part, were increasingly gleeful and beginning to talk about the possibility of luring back star partners from the cash-strapped, dollar-denominated contingent.

In a move that was symbolic of the moment (and it was just a moment), star finance partners Maurice Allen and Mike Goetz moved from White & Case – one of the fastest-growing Global London firms in the past five years – to join Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer
in March. Allen had previously been one of the first English partners to make the move to a US firm when he joined Weil, Gotshal & Manges from Clifford Chance in 1995. To some this seemed like a watershed moment, but the real watershed occurred later that summer when the economic turmoil finally caught up with the UK.

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