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Slaughter and May has acted for the target in more foreign takeovers of British household names than any other law firm in the past five years. Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer is the only Magic Circle firm to have seen its FTSE 350 client base shrink over the same period. And it is Freshfields, Clifford Chance and Allen & Overy that most often get the call from bidders as foreign direct investment changes the face of the elite corporate client base in the UK.

Gordon Brown has encouraged foreign investors to buy British – most recently appearing at the Global Investment Conference in February extolling UK plcs’ virtues to 250 global chief executives – and the top UK law firms are watching their client lists change at a rapid pace. Legal Business research, in conjunction with the data provider mergermarket, shows that foreign investment represents a constantly evolving battlefield for the UK legal elite, who are either advising on major UK corporate takeovers or developing institutional relationships with FTSE 350 companies that have new foreign owners. It’s a battle no longer fought on traditional lines, but often won and lost far away from the City. To succeed, firms have to stay on their toes.

‘To put into context the challenge that all law firms face, there are perhaps 14 of the original constituent members of the FTSE 100 left compared to when it began in 1984,’ says Peter Baldwin, M&A partner at Jones Day – whose UK legacy firm Gouldens was itself taken over by a US rival. ‘In 25 years, you’ve seen 90% of the FTSE 100 turn over, and that means no firm in the UK or US is looking at its client roster as a fixed thing and all of us face the challenge of going and developing new client relationships.’

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