The ravages of the global recession and the European sovereign debt crisis have threatened to turn the long boom law firms have enjoyed into a painful bust. But Europe’s resilient full-service firms are weathering the storm, and many are finding that economic turmoil is bringing opportunities as well as challenges.
In law’s long boom years, it seemed to many that the bumper revenues and profits from an ever-rising tide of transactions would last forever; there was always another wave of deals to be done. But since the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008 and the global financial crisis, law firms that once thrived on a seemingly insatiable demand for everything M&A have faced the painful realisation that this lucrative era is over.