Euro elite: focus Iberia – Pushing boundaries

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Dominant in their home markets, law firms from Spain and Portugal have weathered the tempest by heading for far-flung locations.

As the EU’s fifth-largest economy, Spain is home to two of Europe’s legal giants, Garrigues and Cuatrecasas, Gonçalves Pereira: between them they have more lawyers worldwide than Linklaters – 1,410 and 970 respectively. In dwarfing the local competition, their reach is also significant. Madrid-based Garrigues has 34 offices in 13 countries and its Barcelona opponent, Cuatrecasas, 25 offices in 11 countries.

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Euro elite: focus Central and Eastern Europe – The tiger by the tail

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Price wars, political and economic tensions and prolonged attention from large Anglo-Saxon players in the region have made the going challenging for independent firms in CEE.

With a few notable exceptions, the last five years have seen some international law firms retreat from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) – in part a belated reaction to the financial crisis – while others have downsized due to profitability problems. But for independent law firms, good opportunities remain in the region as local markets recover. On aggregate, the CEE economies grew by 3.6% last year and are projected to increase by 3.1% this year, according to the International Monetary Fund.

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Euro elite: focus Switzerland – Like clockwork

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All the cultural stereotypes are ingrained in Swiss law firms – well-organised, independent and highly-impressive.

Six Swiss firms make the Euro Elite – impressive for a country of just 8.4 million people. But then the Swiss have a longstanding reputation for being well organised, well educated and well resourced, while the economy – lightly regulated and low taxed – consistently ranks as the world’s most competitive, enjoying the highest per-capita income of any major country, except Norway.

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Euro elite: focus Ireland – Back with a bang

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Independent firms dominate the Irish legal market but a slowdown in inversion-style deals threatens a robust post-crisis recovery.

‘The Irish economy is very small, open and independent, which is to a large extent very dependent on international capital,’ says Brian O’Gorman, managing partner of Arthur Cox. ‘One of the things that helped Ireland recover from the financial crisis and beyond was the willingness of international private equity and in particular major US private equity to invest in Ireland.’

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Euro elite: focus Greece, Turkey and The Balkans – Bouncing back

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They may not be out of the woods yet, but independent firms from the south-east tip of Europe are showing their resilience.

In a region of Europe marred by economic crisis and political unrest, many firms in Greece, Turkey, Cyprus and the Balkan Peninsula have remained resilient. The expectation that testing circumstances could lead to bad news for many firms has been offset by international interest or domestic legal work that came with the uncertainty.

John Dryllerakis, managing senior partner of Greece’s Dryllerakis & Associates – a firm that despite having just 44 lawyers scores highly in The Legal 500 EMEA – has the most ominous outlook. Capital controls, a possible exit from the Eurozone and two general elections have caused significant uncertainty in the country.

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Euro elite: focus Baltics – All change

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Consolidation among the biggest players in the Baltic states has led to the creation of an elite tier of independent firms.

2015 was a significant year for the Baltic legal market, with rapid consolidation between firms in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania creating, as Sorainen’s co-managing partner Laimonas Skibarka describes it, a ‘Baltic Magic Circle’.

Rival firms Raidla Lejins & Norcous and Lawin confirmed they had traded their Estonian offices to form two new firms – Cobalt and Ellex. In late 2015, Cobalt acquired the Baltic offices of Finnish firm Borenius, taking its numbers to 31 partners and 176 lawyers. Ellex (technically three firms under one common brand) sits at 30 partners with 167 lawyers, keeping it in close competition with its rival.

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Euro elite: focus Nordics – Power, soft and hard

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The Euro Elite is dominated by independents from the Nordics – large, high-quality and able to resist the advance of international firms.

The Nordic countries – Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland and Iceland – are diverse legal markets that are home to a strong array of independent domestic firms, including Mannheimer Swartling and Vinge in Sweden, and Denmark’s ‘big four’: Kromann Reumert, Plesner, Gorrissen Federspiel and Bech-Bruun.

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Euro elite: focus Benelux – Perfect triptych

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While local firms in the three Benelux countries have had to fight global law firms at one time or another, the independents have successfully held their own.

The Benelux countries – Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg – may be closely-knit neighbouring states in central Europe, but their legal markets are distinctly different. And while historically these countries joined West Germany, France and Italy to form the European Coal and Steel Community – a predecessor to the EU – the rules and regulations for each market have created unique landscapes for law firms.

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Euro elite: focus Russia and CIS – Cold fronts

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While international firms have enjoyed tussling with leading independents in Moscow for years, a hardening market has seen the local players show their resilience.

Russia’s legal market continues to struggle after international sanctions were imposed in 2014 during the Ukraine crisis, affecting corporate, commercial and capital markets. These penalties added to the problems the region was already grappling with following the global financial crisis and low oil prices that were hitting the nation’s industry.

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Elite indies carve out role as the one-stop shop shuts in Europe

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Much like British voters ahead of this month’s vote on EU membership, City law firms have been shaped in recent decades by mainland Europe, even as they have become increasingly ambivalent about that mingled destiny. It was the huge bet on European integration that gave birth to the global law firm as pioneered by London’s legal elite through the 1990s. At the turn of the millennium, the key strategic battles among City law firms were as likely to be fought in Frankfurt or Milan as London.

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