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Generation gameLeading law firms in Portugal have seen unprecedented growth in the last few years. But, while established partners are keeping the equity tight, the pressure is mounting from talented young lawyers, keen to reshape the market. By Miguel Cortez Linklaters’ Lisbon office has lost five of its seven managing associates in the last six months. Its former head of public law José Luís Esquível and dispute resolution expert António Andrade de Matos led the breakaway in January. They established a firm, provisionally named Esquível, Andrade de Matos & Associados, and were joined in May by Linklaters’ Lisbon head of tax Patrick Dewerbe, corporate and capital markets expert Francisco Xavier de Almeida and banking and finance expert António Payan Martins. The Portugal office is the second smallest in Linklaters’ extensive international network. The departures were bound to have an impact on the firm’s now 32-strong Lisbon capability. As Legal Business went to press, Linklaters hadn’t yet replaced any of the five former managing associates. ‘We haven’t yet found replacements for those departures,’ one of Linklaters’ Lisbon equity partners, corporate heavy-hitter Jorge Bleck, explains. ‘Some will be replaced through internal appointments. Obviously, we cannot cover the losses with internal appointments alone. They were five lawyers that we miss and we are sorry they left. But I believe in moving one step backward in order to move two steps forward.’ Linklaters’ Lisbon managing partner Pedro Siza Vieira, meanwhile, does not concede that the firm has suffered. ‘I don’t think we have regressed,’ he says. ‘Clients will not think that we have lost our responsiveness.’ However, when Legal Business approached two City-based investment banks that regularly instruct Linklaters’ Lisbon office, they voiced genuine concerns. ‘We are worried,’ says Credit Suisse’s London headquarters’ country manager Francisco Sottomayor. ‘Linklaters has lost its legal management; the guys that would be partners in five years’ time. We will see if they will replace these departures, give them time to rebuild the team. However, it is very likely that we will start instructing the five lawyers that left in the near future.’ To read the rest of this article subscribe to Legal Business.  |
