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A record number of senior lawyers have moved their jobs to London this year as the arrival of US law firms in the capital continues to disrupt the market and ignite pay-for-talent wars.
Law firms recruited 546 partners in London over the year to December 23, according to data from legal recruiter Edwards Gibson and shared with the Financial Times. This surpasses last year's record 514 partners, as investments by US law firms in the UK show no sign of abating.
The London legal market has seen significant turmoil in recent years as a booming private equity market has led to a significant expansion of profits American law firms In the city. Wealthy US companies have attracted partners from their UK rivals and, increasingly, from their US counterparts.
UK Magic Circle Group of Companies.which includes Linklaters, Freshfields, A&O Shearman and Clifford Chance, was particularly affected, losing a record 28 partners this year, according to the data, surpassing the previous record of 19 partners.
The war for talent has sparked changes in companies' pay structures as they struggle to attract and retain rainmakers and others. Junior talent. Groups such as Clifford Chance and US-based Latham & Watkins have recently added more flexibility to their own models so they can better reward top performers, according to people familiar with the moves. The two companies declined to comment.
“The unprecedented investment by US law firms in private equity hires has pumped tens of millions of dollars into the system,” said Scott Gibson, founder of Edwards Gibson. “This distorted the market by causing compensation to rise and creating massive ripple effects along the chain, as unlucky competitors rushed to restock.”
U.S.-based firms Kirkland & Ellis and Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison were among the top hiring firms in 2024, according to the data, which includes 155 lawyers who moved from non-partnership to partner roles.
Over the past year, Paul Weiss has sought just that Build quickly It has grown its presence in London 10-fold across Europe, including by opening an office in Brussels, to meet the needs of US private equity clients on the continent.
“Our private equity and corporate clients focus on having elite legal counsel in New York and London,” said Neil Sachdev, co-head of Paul Weiss's London office. “Many companies seek to replicate the growth in London because it is a key legal market for mergers, acquisitions and capital markets and a gateway to Europe.”
Some UK-headquartered mid-cap firms have also benefited from the decline, as larger firms withdraw from less profitable practice areas, such as routine, low-value work for financial services firms.
Simmons & Simmons has hired 16 new partners this year, according to the data, making it the second-largest employer in 2024.
“The influence of corporate America is so great, you see some companies have decided that they are committing themselves to a particular profit target. This is the driver behind some of their strategies and they can no longer provide advice in certain areas of the market,” said Jeremy Hoyland, managing partner of Simmons & Simmons. .
“Some of the partners we talk to don't feel as loved as they used to,” he added.
The hiring frenzy has led to raids on a number of top groups; Latham & Watkins and Linklaters saw some of the largest numbers of departures.
Latham has lost eight of 13 partners leaving for Sidley Austin this year, while Linklaters has also seen a number of departures for its US peers. Ed Barnett, Latham's managing partner in London, said the capital had “been a strategic priority for decades” and that the firm had “enjoyed an incredibly strong year”. Linklaters declined to comment.
Charlie Harvey, founder of legal recruitment firm Harvey and Partners, said that while not all exits could be seen as losses, it was difficult to compete with the large pay packages on offer to partners.
“We worked with partners at a law firm in the London market who doubled or tripled their compensation on relocation,” Harvey said. “We see no signs of lateral partner hiring slowing down as we move into 2025.”
