April 14th in City, Legal News, U.S. Firms, White & Case by Editor .
US firms in City misery
The top 10 US law firms with offices in London reported an average 12 per cent fall in revenue for 2009…
Which isn’t bad for the ones that actually report in Dollars.
Generally though, with a heavy bias towards banking, capital markets and M&A; the US firms have not found much gold on the streets of London in the last year.
Meaning London headcount at the top US law firms took a pasting. On average more than 10 lawyers per firm were shown the door – White & Case axed around 116 lawyers during the year.
But most are here to stay. As M&A and IPOs improve so will American optimism. And the London legal market will once again be under seige from US challengers.
April 14, 2010
Surely for the most part, the drop in the financials is due to the weak pound, which has fallen from over $2 to $1.35 at one point (a 30% decline). Against that backdrop, some of the figures look pretty impressive.
April 14, 2010
Most of the U.S. firms have a fairly narrow focus in London so this is not that surprising.