Global 100 – Global Elite – Hollow victory

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 and big-ticket litigation is few and far between. But the Global Elite retains its dominant position. The world’s behemoths remain relatively unscathed by the knock-on effect of ailing global economic and financial markets.

Continue reading “Global 100 – Global Elite – Hollow victory”

Global 100 – Podium Standings

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 to over $81bn, greater than the Olympian levels the market reached in the boom year of 2007. In broad strokes it has been another year of single digit rises in revenues, profits and lawyer numbers. But with inflation running at around 3% in the UK and the US, performance in real terms has been more muted than those top-line figures suggest. The past financial year was essentially a flat market, a solid performance but nothing to set the world alight. 

Continue reading “Global 100 – Podium Standings”

The reality gap and the Global 100

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 of the NHS on the whole, and usually they will say that the whole system is going to the dogs.

Continue reading “The reality gap and the Global 100”