Posted on

Social mobility: An invisible problem

‘We have yet to make significant strides in fostering systemic change for social mobility. Our focus around diversity and inclusion has only been for the past 15 to 20 years, while the legal industry has a history spanning hundreds of years. So, when we gauge the progress made in proportion to this vast timeline, it becomes evident that there is still much ground to cover. Nevertheless, the industry has made commendable strides in a relatively short span, and I believe it can continue its journey towards greater equity with increased support, more allies, and greater investment,’ muses Akil Hunte, a former CMS trainee and current chair of NRG Lawyers, an organisation that helps non-Russell Group students into the legal profession.

Despite the plethora of initiatives seeking to solve social mobility in the legal profession, the underlying statistics remain unpromising. According to the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA), 22% of all lawyers attend a fee-paying school compared to just 7.5% of the general population. While lawyers from a lower-socioeconomic background make up just 17% of the workforce, contrasted to 39% of the national population. Continue reading “Social mobility: An invisible problem”

Posted on

Legal Business 100 2023: Stuck records

Overview: Here comes the rain again

Our 2023 Legal Business 100 report finds law firm leaders in unusually pensive mood with the inevitable end to the transactional bull run. How will firms adapt to having to change the record?

The LB100 main table

Key financials of the top 100 firms

The LB100 partner earnings table

The LB100 core stats

The second 25: Riders of the storm

After an uncharacteristically muted performance last year, the LB100’s longstanding pacesetters – firms in the 26-50 quartile – find that lightning can strike twice. What will it take for the group to rebound?

The second 50 – City and boutique: London falling?

A diverse mix of specialist boutiques and full-service firms, the London mid-market players are struggling to prove which strategy works in competitive conditions

The second 50 – Regional view: Coming together

Consolidation is rife among regional and national firms occupying the second half of the LB100. A sign of things to come?

Firm profiles

Firm profile Eversheds Sutherland: ‘Beyond the soundbites’

Firm profile Womble Bond Dickinson: ‘Joining the dots’

gunnercooke: ‘Cooking up a storm?’

Endnotes

Methodology and notes

Posted on

LB100: Methodology and notes

LB100 LAW FIRMS

The firms that appear in the Legal Business 100 (LB100) are the top 100 law firms in the UK (usually LLP partnerships but also some alternative business structures), ranked by gross fee income generated over the financial year 2022/23 – usually 1 May 2022 to 30 April 2023. We call these the 2023 results. Where firms have identical fee incomes, the firms are ranked according to highest profit per equity partner (PEP). Continue reading “LB100: Methodology and notes”

Posted on

LB100 – The second 50 – Regional view: Coming together

The 26 regional and national firms occupying the 51-100 places in this year’s LB100 come in with an average of 269 lawyers and 33 equity partners, a slight increase on last year. Average revenue increased 5% to £57.5m, three percentage points below the growth rate of the LB100 as a whole. This mirrors last year, where average revenue only increased by 4%, a departure from the 11% and 13% growth rates seen in 2020 and 2021 respectively.

More significantly, our 2023 report also sees a sharp decline in profit per equity (PEP) by 14% to £345,000, in a stark contrast to the 14% growth rate last year and a much heavier dip than that experienced by the LB100 at large. Continue reading “LB100 – The second 50 – Regional view: Coming together”

Posted on

LB100 – The second 50 – City and boutique: London falling?

This year, 24 London-headquartered and boutique firms can be found in the second half of the LB100, experiencing an average revenue of £57.3m from last year’s £53.4m. This 7% increase almost matches the average revenue growth experienced by the firms across the entire LB100.

Taking a closer look at the breakdowns of the group’s performance tells us that in FY22/23, the average number of lawyers among the City and boutique firms is up by 16% from last year to 207 from 179. However, profit per lawyer for the group is up 4% to reach 2021 levels at £85,000. Continue reading “LB100 – The second 50 – City and boutique: London falling?”

Posted on

LB100 – The second 25: Riders of the storm

It has been another muted performance from the second 25, typically the strongest-performing group in the LB100 historically. Average revenue may be up 8% to £180.4m – in line with the LB100 as a whole – but revenue per lawyer (RPL) stayed flat at £289,000. Profit per lawyer (PPL) barely moved at £74,000 and neither did profit per equity partner (PEP), which more or less held steady at £629,000.

However, this performance is broadly in line with the other two groups in the LB100, where average RPL, PPL and PEP have barely moved either way. Continue reading “LB100 – The second 25: Riders of the storm”

Posted on

LB100 – firm profile – Eversheds Sutherland: Beyond the soundbites

Having achieved a steady rise in revenue over the past five years, can Eversheds Sutherland maintain its place in the top ten of the LB100?

‘I can’t think of a soundbite for the firm,’ dismisses one finance head at a peer firm when canvassed for his view on Eversheds Sutherland’s place in the market. Continue reading “LB100 – firm profile – Eversheds Sutherland: Beyond the soundbites”

Posted on

LB100 – firm profile – Womble Bond Dickinson: Joining the dots

With mergers and performance across the pond enduringly hot topics in this year’s LB100 report, LB checked in with Womble Bond Dickinson to see how the firm has performed since it became a transatlantic law firm, and how its strategy looks after its tie-up talks with BDB Pitmans fell through

‘They were the right discussions to have,’ says Womble Bond Dickinson (WBD) managing partner Paul Stewart (pictured) of the talks with Pitmans. ‘But law firm mergers are not easy things to do. I wouldn’t rule anything out, but there’s certainly nothing I would talk about at the moment in terms of that kind of transactional activity.’ Continue reading “LB100 – firm profile – Womble Bond Dickinson: Joining the dots”

Posted on

LB100 – firm profile – gunnercooke: Cooking up a storm?

With pacey revenue growth over the last five years, gunnercooke looks to be a poster child for operating under the fee-sharing model. Is the firm really cooking with gas or will it struggle to keep market share as economic pressures mount?

Now celebrating its second year in the LB100 main table, having risen five places on last year to 73rd place, gunnercooke is also notable for the fact that its revenue has more than doubled in a five-year timeframe. ‘The firm has been successful,’ notes one managing partner. ‘It appeals to individuals who are attuned to looking out for their own particular interests,’ he notes, referring to the firm’s less traditional fee-sharing model. Continue reading “LB100 – firm profile – gunnercooke: Cooking up a storm?”

Posted on

Silence is not golden as Legal Business 100 firms need a different tune

A glance at our Legal Business 100 table this year shows the post-Covid, frothy corporate market conditions have finally come to an end. The significant number of red, downward pointing arrows for profit metrics in particular means the leaders of the top 100 firms by revenue in the UK have reason to be nervous.

The choice of a music chart theme for our report is no accident – this year has seen more movement up and down the table than there has been since the pandemic hit hard. Continue reading “Silence is not golden as Legal Business 100 firms need a different tune”

Posted on

LB100 – Overview: Here comes the rain again

Last year’s LB100 report saw firm leaders bullish, overwhelmingly characterising a boom market, even as macroeconomic indicators had started to flash warning signs.

This year, it seems, some of the confidence of stellar recent years has finally started to dwindle. Revenue has continued to grow, though at a slightly slower rate: with turnover up on average 8% across the LB100 table, to a total of £33.77bn. For context, this is one percentage point less than the 9% increase in the group’s top line to £31.35bn recorded in 2022. Continue reading “LB100 – Overview: Here comes the rain again”

Posted on

Ireland focus: No line on the horizon

‘What’s happening with Kirkland would make a great Netflix documentary, although maybe a bit niche,’ quips one managing partner of the recent saga of the Chicago-bred powerhouse and Paul Weiss’ London office. ‘Let’s hope they’ve had cameras dotted around the office!’ The amused detachment with which the remark is delivered could be said to sum up the stance of Ireland’s law firm leaders in the round – often looking on at the dramas besetting other international markets from a rarefied position of relative immunity to the worst of the upheavals faced elsewhere in the world.

However, no market is an island, and many of the challenges faced by Ireland’s leading firms this time last year not only remain but have become more urgent. Managing partners are just as alive to reversals created by an ultra-competitive recruitment environment, not helped by a cost-of-living crisis that shows little sign of releasing its grip any time soon, while the ongoing war in Ukraine and related upward spiral of interest rates and inflation continue to make themselves felt. Continue reading “Ireland focus: No line on the horizon”

Posted on

The Last Word: LB100: Market comment

‘AI is the bandwagon of the day. The last six months or so have seen an explosion of law firms talking about the impact of AI, but not really working out whether it is even a good or bad thing.’ John Banister, Wiggin

From AI to economic headwinds to flexible working patterns, leaders at Legal Business 100 firms give us their views on the past financial year and look ahead to the next

Continue reading “The Last Word: LB100: Market comment”

Posted on

The Client Profile: Alessandro Galtieri, Colt Technology Services

It is fair to say that Colt Technology Services does not look out of place in its trendy environs of Shoreditch, East London. Decorated with the UK’s largest wall mural, which the company commissioned a collection of graffiti and street artists to create, the building comes complete with its own beehive, shortly to produce its first batch of honey. Colt’s deputy general counsel (GC) Alessandro Galtieri, ever the attentive host, proudly shows the artwork off when LB drop by for a chat.

As both his parents studied law, it was perhaps inevitable that Galtieri would pursue a legal career, despite initial attempts to resist: ‘I did try to escape!’ he quips, ‘I wanted to do something else – I was passionate about astrophysics.’ Continue reading “The Client Profile: Alessandro Galtieri, Colt Technology Services”

Posted on

Life During Law: Sandra Paul

I head up our criminal defence and police investigations team as well as our sexual misconduct in the workplace practice. I am interested in people, and I guess I am a nosey person.

I decided to become a lawyer because I wanted to have my own voice. In my twenties, I was a team leader in a child protection social services team. I would have done an assessment, done the work, known the family, thought I had made good decisions, but then it would get reinterpreted a couple of times for me. The legal department would say ‘this is what you mean’, then the barrister would say ‘this is what the legal department have told me that you mean’. I thought: ‘Actually – maybe I can say what I mean.’ These people were doing a job that I knew was hard, but nowhere near as hard as turning up to these families’ homes and making decisions about their children. So, I decided to do the conversion and see what would happen. I didn’t know if it would be for me, as I am not the usual type of person that becomes a lawyer. Continue reading “Life During Law: Sandra Paul”

Posted on

Kirkland endures more losses as Magic Circle firms continue expansion in the US and Middle East

September saw it finally confirmed that, as suspected, M&A lawyer Roger Johnson will join Paul Weiss’ new English law offering, leaving Kirkland after the firm’s management discovered that he was in discussions to take a team to a US rival firm. Johnson joins former Kirkland colleague Neel Sachdev who moved to Paul Weiss in August. Indeed, September was not the easiest month for Kirkland, which suffered further losses to McDermott in New York and London from its transactions and employment practices.

The rest of the London and international markets have also been hectic, picking up after the summer lull with notable lateral activity reported in corporate, energy and infrastructure, finance and employment in particular. Continue reading “Kirkland endures more losses as Magic Circle firms continue expansion in the US and Middle East”

Posted on

Partners vote yes on A&O Shearman – now they have to make it work

‘You’ve now got one more 64,000lb gorilla,’ said one former UK firm leader, in response to the news that the merger of Allen & Overy (A&O) and Shearman & Sterling will proceed.

On 13 October, the firms announced the end of partnership voting on the combination, with more than 99% of votes cast at each firm in favour. The firms are due to combine as A&O Shearman from May 2024 at the latest, creating ‘the first fully integrated global elite law firm’, with nearly 4,000 lawyers across 48 offices in 29 countries. Continue reading “Partners vote yes on A&O Shearman – now they have to make it work”