After a year of significant legal market consolidation in 2012, do you think we will see more mergers involving UK law firms this year? If so, what kind of deals are most likely, and why?
The Last Word
Law firms forced to prove their worth
Panel reviews are a cut-throat business these days, even for firms like SNR Denton and Slaughter and May. The duo was recently evicted from the Land Securities legal panel after a year-long review by group general counsel and company secretary Adrian de Souza. It seems not even the big hitters are immune to facing the chop.
All hail the comeback kings
Two features this month focus on firms that have dusted themselves down and have come back fighting. For markedly different reasons, both Clifford Chance and Bristows have returned from positions of perceived weakness to enjoy something of a renaissance post-economic crisis.
In 2012 Clifford Chance was one of the stronger performers in a UK Global Elite that has been pretty beleaguered of late. Its performance in the most recent LB100 outstripped its rivals, posting a 7% growth in turnover and a 9% rise in profit per lawyer. But in particular, its corporate practice enjoyed a very strong 2012, topping mergermarket’s M&A tables for deals by value right up until the end of the year until Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom posted a trio of high-value deals in December. Continue reading “All hail the comeback kings”
Another conventional wisdom
A lot of firms talk a lot of rubbish about cohesive, collegiate partnerships these days but the competitive spirit within law firms is alive and well. Politicking, back-stabbing and underhand, cut-throat tactics are all employed to help everyone ascend the greasy pole. But there is another way. Snubbing the hard-nosed approach can work: just look at Bristows.
Norton Rose Fulbright aims at Global Elite
The worst-kept secret in global law finally became official in November. Norton Rose and Fulbright & Jaworski announced their 3,800-lawyer tie-up in June 2013, creating a $1.9bn firm comfortably inside the top ten largest in the world. It’s been a long time coming. We first spoke of merger rumours between the two firms in 2008 and the market has been awash with speculation ever since. Continue reading “Norton Rose Fulbright aims at Global Elite”
Cohesion critical in proving three into one does go
By the time you read this Dentons (as anyone sane will call it), a three-way merger between SNR Denton, Salans and Fraser Milner Casgrain, should be formally approved (see opposite). That is unless there’s a late spanner in the works, and with merger negotiations you can never be sure.
Continue reading “Cohesion critical in proving three into one does go”
The Last Word
From our first ever in-house survey, released in October 2012, it was clear that the hourly rate is still very much alive and kicking. After years of calling for its demise, why do clients still accept it, and will it ever die?
The appeal of the hourglass
One particularly interesting statistic emerged from our in-house survey last month: 33% of respondents said they felt law firms were not handling their work at the appropriate level. And the biggest losers in all of this? The senior associates. Continue reading “The appeal of the hourglass”
Lateral thinking required with international expansion
Last month, Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton did something that it has only done once before – open two non-US offices in the same year. Seoul became the firm’s sixteenth office, launching just a month after Cleary opened its fifteenth office in Abu Dhabi. The only time the firm has previously opened two offices in a year was 1991 when it launched in Frankfurt and Moscow.
Continue reading “Lateral thinking required with international expansion”
Panic has ramped up merger mania
A clear message from last month’s LB100 report was that the merger of two firms that have ‘simply cuddled together for bodily warmth to escape the chill of the recession’ could be a defective strategy. However, it seems that the appetite for mergers between struggling firms in the mid-market shows no signs of slowing down. Continue reading “Panic has ramped up merger mania”