Edwards Gibson Partner Moves extensively cited in The Lawyer Horizon article, ‘London loves a lateral’

September 2024

 

The Lawyer Horizon article, ‘London loves a lateral’ by Deputy Editor Matt Byrne, emphasizes the significance of Edwards Gibson’s findings from our 82nd Partner Moves report. Byrne writes that the high level of activity in the London lateral recruitment world is evidence of a robust legal market, and that the City is currently ‘about as dynamic as it could possibly be.’

To bolster this claim, Byrne cites statistics from our most recent Partner Moves Report, which found more hires this July and August than in any same two-month period since our records began in 2007. Using Edwards Gibson’s findings, Byrne specifies, ‘this is an 18 per cent increase on the previous highest years (jointly 2023 and 2017), 27 per cent up on the cumulative five-year average of 62, and 41 per cent up on the 10-year average of 55 for the same period.’

Edwards Gibson’s report also emphasised the nature of US firms in the London legal market, with large partner team hires from Paul Weiss and Sidley Austin, an angle Byrne similarly takes in his own article, writing that, ‘US firms … will keep on building, keep on hiring, keep on opening’.

Byrne concludes his article by proposing that the high-level of lateral hiring activity seen throughout 2023 and across this summer period may continue to increase, and in five to ten years, ‘you might just see one or two of Edwards Gibson’s records smashed’.