London walls

Take a law firm with a successful merger under its belt, more than £500,000 profits per equity partner (PEP) and rising, a management team with vision and big sums to invest, and, on paper at least, you have a practice with a fair chance of becoming a major contender in the City outside the Magic Circle.

Addleshaw Goddard ticks all those boxes. But so do Berwin Leighton Paisner and DLA Piper, whilst firms like SJ Berwin and CMS Cameron McKenna, which Addleshaws strives to compete with, are ahead of it in the City. ‘Our challenge is to develop banking and corporate,’ says managing partner Mark Jones, ‘to the levels that will be required for a top-15 firm to sustain long-term operation in the upper mid-market.’

So how will Addleshaw Goddard up its game in corporate and finance? And while it plays catch-up in London, will the rest of the market have moved on to a different, more international, game?

Waiting for Goddard

The story begins four years ago, in May 2003. ‘The Addleshaw Booth & Co and Theodore Goddard (TG) merger was all about critical mass and addressing the City,’ explains Jones. Addleshaw Booth had cracked the North, but organic growth in the capital had only reached 120 lawyers, and more credibility was required in the Square Mile. ‘TG was by any analysis a proper City firm,’ says Addleshaws senior partner Paul Lee. And lest we forget just how good TG was, one of the City’s most successful laterals, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom corporate star Michael Hatchard, is an alumnus. TG boasted a strong transactional pedigree and a top media practice, but had, to put it mildly, lost its way.

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