The Euro Elite: Italy – And yet it moves

The Euro Elite: Italy – And yet it moves

Looking out of the window of his office overlooking the picturesque Piazza del Duomo on a rainy April afternoon, one veteran Milan partner is feeling sentimental: ‘I remember the firms that used to dominate the market back when I started – Graziadei, Carnelutti, Pavia Ansaldo. No-one hears of them anymore.’ What on the surface seems nostalgic reflection poses a pressing question for Italy’s current legal elite: what will become of today’s top independents in the near future?

‘It is as if the market gets tired of dominating firms every ten years or so and replaces them with others,’ agrees a partner in another office in the northern Italian city. Continue reading “The Euro Elite: Italy – And yet it moves”

The Euro Elite 2017

The Euro Elite 2017

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The Euro Elite 2016

The inaugural Legal Business report on Europe’s top 100 independent law firms.

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The Euro Elite top 25 – Wars of Independence

While the advance of global law firms has stalled in recent years, high-quality independents have regained their purpose. Welcome to the Euro Elite, our first study of the advisers redefining the Continent’s legal market.

‘There’s economic value in the culture of a firm,’ says João Vieira de Almeida, managing partner of Portuguese firm Vieira de Almeida & Associados (VdA). If that culture is driven by independence, his sentiments are echoed by managing partners from Paris to Prague.

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Euro elite: focus Germany – Weltmeister

German independents maintain elite status in a fiercely competitive market, despite the attention of some formidable global players.

‘Our market is one of the most competitive in the world,’ asserts Tobias Bürgers, co-managing partner of Noerr, Germany’s largest independent law firm with 427 fee-earners. In 2015, Noerr increased turnover by 5% to €207.7m.

‘Over the last eight years, we’ve had 70% revenue growth. We’ve outperformed the market proportionately, relative to other firms,’ he adds.

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Euro elite: focus Italy – La dolce vita?

A new generation is revitalising the performance of a trio of Italian leaders committed to remaining steadfastly independent

It’s been a hard decade for Italy, not least for its law firms: the product of a flat economy and relatively few deals. Even before the crisis, the economy had the lowest sustained growth of any OECD country. But there has been a recent renaissance, of sorts, with GDP optimistically predicted to rise by 1.6% in 2016, while concluded deals totalled €50bn in each of the last two years, according to KPMG.

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Euro elite: focus France – Liberté, égalité, fraternité

Strong competition from UK and US firms in Paris and a penchant for tight, focused practices means French firms do not feature large among the Euro Elite.

With its lack of large full-service domestic law firms, the French legal market is unique when compared with other European jurisdictions. A traditional culture of non-partnership and a low threshold when it comes to international investment has created a legal landscape where the few larger French firms face fierce competition from smaller French boutiques, as well as the significant US and UK presence that dominates the Paris market.

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