This chart plots how well our 51 ‘survivor’ firms from the orginal LB100 have performed over the past twenty years. It plots how much each firm managed to increase both profits and turnover by on a compound rate each year for the past two decades.
Dewey & LeBoeuf went from 26th in last year’s Global 100 to filing for bankruptcy in May this year. What can the Global 100 learn from the firm’s demise? Finley, Kumble, Wagner, Underberg, Manley, Myerson & Casey; Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison; Heller Ehrman; and Howrey, the US legal market has quite a track record when …
Continue reading “Global 100 – Dewey & LeBoeuf – Lessons from a downfall”
The Global Elite continues to dominate the international legal market. But with ailing global markets and little to no M&A, not every firm has much to celebrate Europe is in crisis, the UK has hit a double dip recession and US markets continue to fluctuate. Likewise the debt markets are closed, M&A sits on ice …
Continue reading “Global 100 – Global Elite – Hollow victory”
THE GLOBAL 100: Legal Business examines the key financial data from the world’s top 100 law firms.
Turnover at Magic Circle firms rose by a modest 2.6% this year, with the UK’s five Global Elite firms pulling in over £5.2bn of fees and £4.2bn worth of profit in the 2011/12 financial year. As the UK’s financial reporting season kicks off, Allen & Overy emerges as one of the top performers after another …
Continue reading “Magic Circle sees revenues up after muted financial year”
As all eyes turn to energy as the safe hedge in a turbulent market, there is no doubt that the sector’s general counsel are in an excellent bargaining position In terms of legal spend, an energy company is a particularly lucrative client. To begin with, the acquisitive nature of these cash-rich corporates means that transactional …
After a series of shocks to the global economy, followed by Dewey & LeBoeuf’s downfall, there’s plenty of concern for US firms American managing partners have become accustomed to false dawns and 2011 had a depressingly familiar feel to it. The start of the year was promising, with counter-cyclical workflows in litigation and bankruptcy joined …
The world’s 100 largest law firms have faced another challenging year of depressed economic markets and little to no transactional work. So how have they fared? LB finds out The combined revenues of the 100 biggest law firms in the world reached new heights this year. Setting a five-year Global 100 record, combined turnover came …
There is a curious phenomenon that affects both the NHS and, now it seems, the legal sector. The reality gap. Ask a patient treated in hospital for a broken leg what their experience of the doctors and hospital was, and in the main it will be positive. But ask the same person what they think …
Acquisitive Birmingham firm Shakespeares has continued its explosive growth of the last few years by announcing that it is set to combine with Leicester-based stalwart Harvey Ingram on 1 August 2012. At press time both firms were expected to vote overwhelmingly in favour of a union in a partners’ ballot at each firm at the …
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