Law Firm Partner Moves in London - Issue 82

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Welcome to the 82^nd 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.

 

• July – August 2024

 

Our July-August edition, traditionally the quietest period of the year for partner hire announcements, contains by far the highest number for the same two-month period since our records began in 2007. This bi-monthly round-up records an astonishing 78 partner moves– 18% up on the (joint) record 66 we saw for the same period in 2023; 27% up on the cumulative five-year average of 62; and 41% up on the ten-year average of 55 for the same period.

 

 

It seems that the red-hot market which saw the highest ever number of partner moves in 2023, and an even stronger first-half of 2024, has somehow dramatically accelerated over the summer. Despite a relatively weak economy, the partner hire market continues to be driven by US law firms making private equity related investment bets on individual partners and teams. Indeed, all bar one of the top recruiters this round-up were US law firms - predominately poaching private equity flavoured lawyers. The most covetous firms were: Gateley, Sidley Austin, and Paul Weiss - which hired five partners each; followed by Akin and Kirkland & Ellis (which hired four partners apiece); and Greenberg Traurig and Proskauer Rose, which both hired three.

 

• Top partner recruiters in London July – August 2024

 

Gateley	5	(1 lateral)
Paul Weiss	5	(3 laterals)
Sidley Austin	5	(5 laterals)
Akin	4	(4 laterals)
Kirkland & Ellis	4	(2 laterals)
Greenberg Traurig	3	(3 laterals)
Proskauer Rose	3	(3 laterals)

 

In addition, ten firms, hired two partners each: Ashurst, A&O Shearman, BCLP, DWF, Hill Dickinson, Hogan Lovells, Latham & Watkins, Milbank, O’Melveny & Myers, and Stephenson Harwood.

 

• Firms with largest attrition in July – August 2024 (partnership to partnership moves only)

 

Latham & Watkins	6
Cooley	3
Kirkland & Ellis	3
Pinsent Masons	3

 

Latham & Watkins saw the highest attrition levels, losing six finance laterals this edition - five to Sidley Austin and one to Milbank. Three firms saw the departure of three serving partners: Cooley (to Akin); Kirkland & Ellis (two to Paul Weiss and one to A&O Shearman); and Pinsent Masons to Greenberg Traurig.

 

In addition, five firms lost two partners each: Ashurst, A&O Shearman, BCLP, Cahill and White & Case.

 

 

 

• Team hires July – August 2024

 

The most sizeable, not to mention most dramatic, multi-partner team move this edition was Chicago outfit Sidley Austin’s hire of a five-partner leveraged finance team from Latham & Watkins, led by Latham’s former London managing partner together with its onetime chair of the London finance practice.  In addition, two firms hired three partner teams: Akin (corporate from Cooley); and Greenberg Traurig (international arbitration/construction disputes from Pinsent Masons).

 

Lastly, two firms hired two partner teams: O’Melveny & Myers (private equity from Ashurst); and Proskauer Rose (leveraged finance and high yield from Cahill).

 

• Happy Birthday to the Apex Predator

 

This August marked the first anniversary of New York firm Paul Weiss’ fiery rebirth of its London office with an English law offering. Since then, the relentless London regeneration project has witnessed an astonishing 26 lawyers join its City partnership. Of these, 22 were laterals, 2 were vertical hires and 2 were from in-house – they have come from a narrow selection of just five firms and a couple of private equity houses.

 

The first firm to suffer from Paul Weiss’ predations was Kirkland & Ellis which, since last summer, has continued to gently haemorrhage London partners to its rival losing a total of 13 – an average of over one per month. The Big Law raptor has bitten far smaller chunks out of Linklaters (4 laterals and one vertical), and Clifford Chance (3 laterals and one vertical); happily for them, it has barely scratched Akin and Ropes & Gray – which have lost just one partner apiece. Its most recent hires, both from in-house, and both former Kirkland & Ellis or Linklaters partners, come from Blantyre Capital and client TDR Capital respectively - the latter at least appearing to be a far more gentle affair, with the apex predator seeming to ask permission to court its General Counsel before snapping him up.

 

 

• Meet me in St Louis - US firm closes in London after three years

 

In August it was revealed that St Louis headquartered Armstrong Teasdale is to close its London office.  The ephemeral City outpost was opened in February 2021, when the Missouri outfit acquired the (then) 16 partner low-key commercial firm Kerman & Co. Since then, the firm has bled partners at a faster rate than it could acquire them and, at the time of writing, has shrunk to just 10 partners, most of whom have an IP flavour.  This closure comes alongside the firm’s departure from Boston and Salt Lake City – suggesting that its struggles are not exclusively Europe-centric, although the  Midwest firm is reportedly also shuttering its only other non-US outpost in Dublin.

 

• Cahill clings on

 

If further proof was needed that US law firms don’t always have it their way in London, as one US law firm closes, another - New York firm Cahill – has had its London office cut to the quick after suffering a series of high-profile defections to rivals. Since January the Wall Street firm has lost seven leveraged finance/ high yield lawyers who have taken partnership elsewhere (four to Latham & Watkins, two to Proskauer Rose and one to White & Case), leaving its London outpost with just two disputes partners.

 

• Other Fun Facts July – August 2024

 

• 19% of moves this edition were female (13).
• 8 firms hired from in-house or business: A&O Shearman (from Barclays Investment Bank), Bristows (from TikTok), Cleary Gottlieb (from the Competition and Markets Authority), Fox Williams (from Algbra), Gateley (from business), Latham & Watkins (from Patria Investments), Paul Weiss (from TDR Capital and Blantyre Capital) and Stephenson Harwood (from Triton Partners).
• 13% of all moves (10) were vertical hires (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

 

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• 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