Top 50 firms ranked by highest top of equity Continue reading “Legal Business 100 2018: Partner earnings”
LB100 Second 50: London stalling?
With initial post-referendum Brexit shock giving way to pre-breakaway uncertainty, the boutique and mid-market London firms in the second half of the Legal Business 100 are maintaining a brave front in the face of political and economic uncertainty.
Overall the story is encouraging for London firms in the second 50, with total revenue up 6% to £774m, with an average revenue of £40.7m across the 19 City firms in the second – the same number as last year. Average profit per equity partner (PEP) spiked by 12% to £409,000. Continue reading “LB100 Second 50: London stalling?”
LB100 Second 50: Regional view – Comfortably numb
Consolidation, planning, investment and ‘cautious optimism’ proved dominant themes for the smaller regional and national firms in this year’s Legal Business 100 (LB100). The 31 non-City firms in the 51-100 bracket grew steadily amid a slow summer and dip in confidence during the 2016/17 financial year. Last year, however, the group’s collective revenue only managed a weak 1% rise to £1.27bn, with an average revenue of £41m. While real estate and construction continue to boom, deal flows are noticeably beginning to slow for many.
While regional firms are typically less productive per capita than London counterparts, that gap has widened. Revenue per lawyer was £181,000, down 8% and much lower than the £264,000 in London. Profits tell a similar story: profit per lawyer down 10% at £38,000, against £80,000 in the City. Continue reading “LB100 Second 50: Regional view – Comfortably numb”
LB100 case study: Harbottle & Lewis
Harbottle & Lewis maintained its status as one of London’s fastest growing law firms last year, with the West End firm continuing its recent trend of double-digit growth and proving itself as a Legal Business 100 (LB100) standout. Overall revenue increased by 26% to £35.5m, up from £28.1m last year, while profit per equity partner (PEP) increased by 32% to £670,000 from £509,000 last year when the PEP figure suffered 2% decrease. Over the last five years, the firm has seen revenues grow 48% and profit by 86%. The favourable figures also saw Harbottles hustle its way into the top ten fastest-growing LB100 firms in both PEP and overall turnover, no mean feat considering the sharp-elbowed nature of London’s legal market.
The tip of Harbottles’ spear remains its private client and media and entertainment practices, recently strengthening the latter with the hire of ex-Barclays managing director Jonathan Burt from Harcus Sinclair, as the two practices saw a significant pick-up over the last 12 months contributing to strong growth at the firm. Continue reading “LB100 case study: Harbottle & Lewis”
LB100 case study: Shepherd and Wedderburn
Scotland’s third-largest firm by revenue, Shepherd and Wedderburn, had largely been thought to have fallen behind Brodies and Burness Paull recently. However, Shepherd has matched the revenue growth of its larger peers over the last five years, up 49%. And after a dip in 2016/17, revenue and profit both returned to growth this year, up 6% and 10% respectively. Revenue now sits at £53.5m and profit £22m, while profit per equity partner (PEP) increased more than 15% to £403,000.
Highlights from the year included advising FanDuel on its proposed merger with Paddy Power Betfair, as well as becoming the first top-100 UK law firm to offer funded litigation in partnership with Burford Capital. Chief executive Stephen Gibb (pictured) says real estate and corporate have been particularly busy, with deal activity flowing through into the start of this financial year: the firm advised fintech company Nucleus Financial Group on its £140m AIM listing in July, for instance. Continue reading “LB100 case study: Shepherd and Wedderburn”
LB100 shrugs off Brexit fears as fees hit £24bn but leaders wary of chaotic winter ahead
Framed by mounting unease in the face of bitter Brexit negotiations, an uncertain business outlook and an inconclusive 2017 general election, the Legal Business 100 (LB100) has defied expectations to post one of its strongest performances of the last decade.
Despite a wider environment harking back to the turmoil and divisions of 1970s Britain, the LB100 shows the UK’s leading law firms driving group turnover up 10% to £24.2bn. The group generated total profits of £7.6bn, for comparison roughly ten times that of FTSE 100 retailer Sainsbury’s, or twice that of banking giant Barclays. Continue reading “LB100 shrugs off Brexit fears as fees hit £24bn but leaders wary of chaotic winter ahead”
Summer news in context
New Law buyout sees EY acquire Riverview Law
A sign of things to come?
After Lawyers On Demand (LOD) earlier this year secured private equity backers, fellow New Law pioneer Riverview Law in August announced a sale to Big Four group EY. The deal, which saw original backer DLA Piper offload its remaining 14% stake, has been cited as evidence of the Big Four’s renewed push into legal services. EY’s global head of alliances for tax, Chris Price, has become the chief executive of the rebranded EY Riverview Law. Continue reading “Summer news in context”
Moves that matter
- Herbert Smith Freehills’ (HSF) corporate practice saw a seasoned trio of partners quit in August for Morgan, Lewis & Bockius’s London arm. They were led by HSF’s head of London private equity Mark Geday, and included corporate partners Nicholas Moore and Tomasz Wozniak.
Disputes Eye: Hunting krakens – As finance and Russian work slows veteran litigators look to key trends and opportunities
As the torrent of post-financial crisis litigation continues to slow, litigators are increasingly wondering: ‘What next?’ Certainly, 2018 has so far been quieter than 2017 from a disputes perspective, across big-ticket and mid-level matters.
Canvassing industry veterans on the trends to watch, however, shows plenty of areas of opportunity litigators spy on the horizon. Perhaps the most talked-up area right now is the prospect of litigation linked to this year’s implementation of GDPR, the EU-wide regime updating data protection and privacy law. The complexity of the legislation, and potential fines of up to 4% of global turnover for companies that breach the new rules, unsurprisingly means many lawyers forecast plenty of compliance and enforcement-related work. Continue reading “Disputes Eye: Hunting krakens – As finance and Russian work slows veteran litigators look to key trends and opportunities”
High (street) stakes as Gaucho collapses into administration and House of Fraser saga takes yet another twist
‘There’s going to be a lot of distress on the high street,’ Weil, Gotshal & Manges partner Adam Plainer told Legal Business last autumn in an extended assessment of the City restructuring outlook. Given that insolvency lawyers have been confidently – and wrongly – predicting a flood of work since the banking crisis, such claims generally attract some scepticism. Yet the forces battering the high street did indeed in 2018 send a string of familiar names to the corporate vultures.
This summer’s collapse of Gaucho Group, the owner of premium Argentinian steak purveyors Gaucho and Cau, became only the latest casualty, amid a malaise that has seen dining and retail stalwarts struggle with shifting consumer behaviour and rising overheads. Continue reading “High (street) stakes as Gaucho collapses into administration and House of Fraser saga takes yet another twist”
The one true law – in conversation with Lord Neuberger
Richard Lissack QC: David, why a career in the law?
Lord Neuberger: It was after cancelling out other possibilities. I was a scientist at university – a chemist. I was influenced by my father, a successful scientist. I quickly proved to be an unsuccessful scientist. I went to career advisers. They said do law or go into the City. In those days the City involved no exams and law did, so I went into the City. Continue reading “The one true law – in conversation with Lord Neuberger”
Legal Business 100 2018: Core stats
LB100 averages
Average revenue £242.3m
Average revenue growth 10%
Revenue per lawyer £355,000
Profit per lawyer £112,000
Profit per equity partner £805,000
Legal 500 Data: The data behind the story
DLA Piper top-tier global rankings from The Legal 500
DLA Piper has topped this year’s Legal Business 100 with revenue of £1,799.5m, an increase of 7% from last year. See our full coverage of the Legal Business 100. Continue reading “Legal 500 Data: The data behind the story”
The Legal Business 100 – Contents
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Government letter reveals conditions of ex-SFO boss Green’s Slaughter and May role
Following the much-anticipated confirmation of David Green’s move to Slaughter and May earlier this week, a government document has revealed the extent of limitations on the ex-Serious Fraud Office (SFO) chief’s new role.
Topping the list was a permanent restriction on Green drawing on any privileged information seen during his six-year SFO stint. Continue reading “Government letter reveals conditions of ex-SFO boss Green’s Slaughter and May role”
DWF revenue jumps to £236m ahead of stock exchange float
DWF has added 18% to its top line as the thrusting national operator gears up to become the largest UK law firm float yet.
Revenue at the top 25 firm for the year to 30 April, announced today (13 September), was £236m, up from £199m last year. The firm also said profit per equity partner (PEP) increased, without specifying a figure, but this year’s LB100 estimates it rose 9% to £327,000. Continue reading “DWF revenue jumps to £236m ahead of stock exchange float”
Comment: A decade since Lehman the profession still mired in the New Normal
Within days of this issue hitting desks, it will be ten years since Lehman Brothers’ collapse marked what swiftly became the great financial crisis. That event was only the clearest symptom of a disease that had been infecting the banking system for more than a year before Lehman filed for bankruptcy on 15 September 2008.
Yet the process unquestionably signalled changes that have reverberated through economies, politics, business and, yes, the legal profession ever since. By the summer of 2009 the UK profession had for the first time engaged in industrial-scale job cuts, axing more than 5,000 roles at top 100 UK firms alone. Through the lens of the LB100, the profession starkly divides into performance patterns pre and post-Lehman. During the long boom, London’s elite was utterly untouchable. Within the Circle they could falter and scrap for fleeting inter-club advantage. But as far as the rest of the industry was concerned, they were in a world of their own. The initial advances of major US law firms had by the mid-2000s been comprehensively repelled – what chance did mid-tier rivals have? Continue reading “Comment: A decade since Lehman the profession still mired in the New Normal”
Bircham Dyson and Pitmans seek reversal of revenue fortunes with £52m merger bid
The partnerships at City law firm Bircham Dyson Bell (BDB) and Reading headquartered Pitmans will this month vote on a proposed merger to create a £50m-plus firm.
A merger would be good for a partner headcount of 80, while overall staff numbers would be 404. A combined revenue of about £52m would put the merged firm close to the UK’s top 60 by revenue. A vote is set for 27 September. Continue reading “Bircham Dyson and Pitmans seek reversal of revenue fortunes with £52m merger bid”
‘No way a sign of retrenchment’: Ropes axes four partners amid London refocus
In what has been termed by one rival City partner as a ‘night of the long knives’, Ropes & Gray has axed four of its London real estate and restructuring partners.
The move comes as the firm shifts the focus of the real estate practice back to its prized client base of asset managers, hedge funds, credit funds and direct investors amid a recent drift. The firm’s restructuring – or ‘special situations’ – practice is also being repackaged to appeal to the desired client base. Continue reading “‘No way a sign of retrenchment’: Ropes axes four partners amid London refocus”
‘Natural fit’ – Slaughters confirms long-anticipated hire of ex-SFO boss Green
Slaughter and May’s high-profile move for former Serious Fraud Office (SFO) director David Green QC has finally been confirmed, following a drawn-out regulatory approval process.
Green will join the firm as a senior consultant on 22 October, six months after leaving the SFO. The firm says Green, who led the SFO for six years, will not work on any matters at the firm that he was involved with while at the SFO. Continue reading “‘Natural fit’ – Slaughters confirms long-anticipated hire of ex-SFO boss Green”