Summary: U.K. law firms have seen little growth the past year in comparison to the U.S. firms that have had a boom of mergers and acquisitions.
The four biggest law firms in London, which are part of the magic circle, include Allen & Overy LLP, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP
Allen & Overy LLP had the best performance with a 4 percent revenue increase to 1.28 billion pounds. The other three had revenues increases similar to their previous year. Linklaters reported around 1 percent of an increase to 1.27 billion pounds. Freshfields reported a 1 percent increase to 1.25 billion pounds. Clifford Chance reported very little of an increase to 1.35 billion pounds. The foreign-exchange was one influence on their minimal growth.
In the past, the magic circle has been greatly affected by international M&A. The global M&A activity increased by a third to $3.6 trillion in the past year while the U.K. only saw an increase of 11.6 percent to $509.9 billion.
Freshfields led the magic circle in advising on deals with a 10 percent market share on global advisory work for deals that are valued at $356.5 billion. Linklaters managing partner Simon Davies noted “Increased activity in complex cross border mergers has been a key driver behind our improved financial results. The uptick in deals was particularly noticeable in U.S. domestic deals which will have largely benefited U.S. based firms.”
The Greek crisis and promised U.K. referendum on the European Union membership has halted a lot of M&A activity throughout the EU so they are having to come up with other ways of increasing revenue. Clifford Chance is working on developing expertise in equity, insurance, and capital markets.
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