Law Firm Partner Moves in London - Issue 83

Download the full Partner Moves Issue here >>

Welcome to the 83^rd edition of Law Firm Partner Moves in London, from the specialist partner team at Edwards Gibson, where we look back at announced partner-level recruitment activity in London over the past two months and give you a ‘who’s moved where’ update.

 

• September – October 2024

 

This bi-monthly round-up contains 124 partner moves – astonishingly 3% up on the 120 we saw for the same period last year which was itself sharply inflated by the final collapse of Axiom Ince; a 100 plus partner national law firm whose hapless London partners were forced to rapidly find new homes.

 

In keeping with the rest of 2024, partner recruitment remains at record levels - 27% up on the cumulative five-year average (97); and 38% up on the cumulative ten-year average of (90) for the same period.

 

 

• Top partner recruiters in London September – October 2024

 

TLT Solicitors	8	(8 laterals)
Eversheds Sutherland	5	(3 laterals)
Addleshaw Goddard	4	(2 laterals)
Cooley	4	(4 laterals)
Fox Williams	4	(3 laterals)
Howard Kennedy	4	(2 laterals)
Hunton Andrews Kurth	4	(4 laterals)
Mishcon de Reya	4	(1 lateral)
Goodwin	3	(3 laterals)
Greenberg Traurig	3	(2 laterals)
McDermott Will & Emery	3	(3 laterals)
Morgan Lewis	3	(2 laterals)

 

In addition, seventeen firms, hired two partners each: A&O Shearman, Covington & Burling, Cravath, DLA Piper, Fladgate, Gowling WLG, King & Spalding, Kirkland & Ellis, Latham & Watkins, Mayer Brown, Mills & Reeve, Paul Weiss, Pinsent Masons, Shoosmiths, Sidley Austin, Simmons & Simmons and Weil.

 

BDB Pitmans saw the highest attrition this edition, haemorrhaging nine laterals - eight to TLT and one to Mills & Reeve. Two firms saw the departure of four serving partners: DLA Piper (two to Goodwin, one to Dechert and one to Pinsent Masons); and EY Law (two to Hunton Andrews Kurth, one to Ashfords and one to Ashurst). Four firms lost three partners: CMS (to Gowling WLG, Jones Day and McDermott Will & Emery); Eversheds Sutherland (to McDermott Will & Emery, Norton Rose Fulbright and Simmons & Simmons); Kirkland & Ellis (two to Paul Weiss and one to Addleshaw Goddard); and Orrick (to Addleshaw Goddard, Alston & Bird and Goodwin).

 

• Firms with largest attrition in September – October 2024 (partnership to partnership moves only)

 

BDB Pitmans	9
DLA Piper	4
EY Law	4
CMS	3
Eversheds Sutherland	3
Kirkland & Ellis	3
Orrick	3

 

• Team hires September – October 2024

 

The most sizeable multi-partner team move this edition was Bristol headquartered TLT’s hire of an eight-partner infrastructure planning and real estate team from BDB Pitmans. The team, which is a leader in the planning and public law aspects of major infrastructure developments, comprises a real estate lateral and septet of planners - two of whom have the rare distinction of being “Roll A Parliamentary Agents” authorised to promote and oppose hybrid and private bills in Parliament.

 

In addition, seven firms hired two partner teams: A&O Shearman (private equity from Sidley Austin); Cravath (leveraged finance from Linklaters); Fox Williams (employment from Deloitte Legal); Goodwin (real estate and sports finance from DLA Piper); Hunton Andrews Kurth (which hired two separate two-partner finance teams -  an asset finance duo from EY law and a project finance duo from Morgan Lewis); Paul Weiss (financial services regulatory from Kirkland & Ellis); and Sidley Austin (high yield from Latham & Watkins).

 

• Dickson Minto Fight(s) Club Back …

 

This edition sees an incredibly rare lateral hire by  clandestine Scottish private equity boutique Dickson Minto which, following Milbank Tweed’s (almost) lock, stock, and barrel acquisition of its London office in 2022, has quietly re-spawned its City offering with an unspecified number of internal transfers, but has now augmented these with a real estate partner from Walker Morris in Leeds. Both the lateral hire and the practice area is inconsistent with the secretive Caledonian outfit of old, and it is unknown if this signals a wider change of direction for the firm in London – we’d ask, but as every commentator knows, “the first rule of Dickson Minto is that you don’t talk about Dickson Minto”.  

 

 

“the first rule of Dickson Minto is that you don’t talk about Dickson Minto”.      

 

• London’s New York Law Firm Carousel

 

As usual, this round-up sees US founded law firms continue to dominate much of the upper echelons of the partner hire market and, whilst this edition is no exception, it is notable just how much once highly conservative New Yorkers feature - both winning and losing laterals.  

 

New York firms featured in this edition include: Cadwalader, which makes a vertical partner hire of a Slaughter and May associate; Cahill, which after being cut to the quick following a series of high-profile defections to rivals, hires a US capital markets lateral from Clifford Chance; Curtis, which admittedly is an atypical New York firm but which nonetheless hires a finance/DCM partner from Katten;  Cravath which, following its dramatic launch into English law last year with a two-partner leveraged finance team from legacy Shearman & Sterling, poaches another two-partner leveraged finance team from Linklaters; Debevoise & Plimpton which welcomes a private equity lateral from Goodwin; Paul Weiss, which, in what has become something of a Big Law cliché, continues its more than year-long rolling raid on Kirkland & Ellis totting-up its 14^th and 15^th hires from its Chicago rival in as many months by adding a two-partner financial services regulatory team; Proskauer Rose, which hires a disputes lateral from fellow New Yorker Fried Frank; and Weil, which adds a private credit lawyer from in-house, and a private funds vertical from Cleary Gottlieb.

 

On the flip side Davis Polk - that whitest of white shoe Wall Street outfits- loses its first ever London lateral to another law firm as Los Angeles-born Paul Hastings swipes an equity capital markets partner from its Manhattan rival just months after itself losing a leveraged finance partner to Davis Polk.     

 

• Other Fun Facts September – October 2024

• 30% of moves this edition were female (37).
• 8 firms hired from in-house or business: Covington & Burling (from the Information Commissioner’s Office), Fieldfisher (from Cred22), Fladgate (from Accel), Greenberg Traurig (from the Competition and Markets Authority), Kirkland & Ellis (from Harvey), Mayer Brown (from Legal & General), Mishcon de Reya (from Hatch) and Weil (from PSP Investments).
• 29% of all moves (36) were moves from non-partnership roles (either moves from in-house or non-partners elevated to partnership upon moving from another law firm).

 

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you would like to discuss this article or any other aspect of the market in more depth.

 

Scott Gibson, Director scott.gibson@edwardsgibson.com or +44 (0)7788 454 080

 

Sloane Poulton, Director sloane.poulton@edwardsgibson.com or +44 (0)7967 603 402

 

Please click here to understand our methodology for compiling Partner Moves

 

Download the full Partner Moves Issue here >>

If you would like to subscribe to our Partner Moves Newsletter, email us at support@edwardsgibson.com

• Edwards Gibson Partner Round-Up - Our Methodology
• Previous editions of Partner Moves in London
• Quantifying your following and writing an effective law firm business plan
• Specimen partner business plan template
• The Partnership Track and Moving for Immediate Partnership
• Legal directory rankings and their effect on lawyer recruitment
• Restrictive Covenants and Moving on as a Partner