Latest news with #lawfirm
Yahoo
12 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Clifford Chance partners pocket record £2.1mn
Clifford Chance partners pocketed record average earnings of £2.1mn in the year to the end of April, after investment in the US and Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Irish Times
a day ago
- Business
- Irish Times
UK law firm partners pocket record £2.1m
Clifford Chance partners have taken home a record £2.1 million (€2.4 million) on average for the year to the end of April, after heavy investment in the US and high-profile work for clients including Disney led to the 'magic circle' law firm's highest-ever revenues. The pay-day for equity partners, who share in the firm's profits, marked an increase on the £2.04 million they earned last year on average, and came after revenues rose 9 per cent to £2.4 billion, Clifford Chance said on Wednesday. In the US, where the firm has three offices following a Houston launch in 2023, revenues increased by nearly 20 per cent. Critical mandates in the region included advising the US Department of Energy on its $1.5 billion sustainable aviation fuel programme and securing a successful verdict in a $2 billion suit against Caterpillar. The elite magic circle group of UK-founded law firms have been competing to expand in the US – the world's biggest legal market – in a bid to boost growth and win new clients. Unlike rivals Freshfields and A&O Shearman, Clifford Chance does not have a Silicon Valley office, but managing partner Charles Adams said a California base would be 'logical' at some point 'in the medium term'. READ MORE Clifford Chance is the second magic circle firm to report results this week, after Linklaters said its roughly 490 equity partners had taken home record average pay of £2.2 million, also buoyed by strong performance from its American offices. However, law firm finances are notoriously difficult to compare, due to relatively low disclosure requirements in the UK compared with listed companies. Clifford Chance did not share how many equity partners it has or its total profit figure. The firm said it would continue to expand in the US, where it has 122 partners, having hired 13 over the past year. That compares with Linklaters' 52 US partners and about 175 at A&O Shearman, which completed a transatlantic merger in 2024. 'We will continue to grow roughly at this pace in the United States,' said Adams. Revenues for its US division, which includes São Paulo, came in at £385 million for the year. Outside the US, the firm has benefited from its long-running role advising News Group Newspapers in its defence against a claim of illegal information gathering brought by Prince Harry, which was settled earlier this year. The firm has also picked up a role advising Disney on its new theme park resort in Abu Dhabi. Clifford Chance recorded a 36 per cent rise in revenues to £102 million from its Middle East and Turkey offices over the year, as Saudi Arabia's economy rapidly opens up and expands. – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2025
Reuters
2 days ago
- Business
- Reuters
Law firm Linklaters says US growth fueled record year
July 22 (Reuters) - Linklaters saw a surge in U.S. profits last year, the London-founded law firm said on Tuesday, boosting its global revenue and profits to record highs as it worked to further expand its U.S. business. The firm reported an overall 14% increase in profit before tax to 1.08 billion pounds ($1.46 billion) in its financial year ending April 30. U.S. profits grew by 57%, the largest increase among Linklaters' core markets. Linklaters, which has about 3,000 lawyers globally, is among the large London law firms that have prioritized adding lawyers and winning work in the United States. The firm said it now has more than 50 U.S. partners in its New York and Washington, D.C. offices. Recent hires included a litigation team from Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler and a finance group from A&O Shearman. Revenue grew by 11% overall to 2.32 billion pounds ($3.13 billion), including a 26% U.S. revenue increase over the prior year. Profit per equity partner jumped by 15% to reach 2.2 million pounds ($2.97 million). U.S. partners worked on some of the firm's large corporate deals, including representing Dow in its agreement in December to sell a 40% stake in some U.S. Gulf Coast infrastructure assets to a fund managed by Macquarie Asset Management for $2.4 billion. ($1 = 0.7418 pounds)
Times
2 days ago
- Business
- Times
Macfarlanes partners crack £3m pay barrier to beat ‘magic circle'
Partners at an elite City law firm that caters to the super-wealthy have broken through the £3 million barrier for average pay, outstripping its larger 'magic circle' rivals. Macfarlanes revealed on Tuesday that average pay for full-equity partners at the firm had risen by 8 per cent to £3.1 million each. That took average partner pay at the renowned 'private client' practice roughly £1 million ahead of that at the four international City firms that make up the so-called magic circle. The announcement from Macfarlanes came just hours before Linklaters was the first of that group of four to publish its annual financial figures, which showed that average partner pay at the firm leapt by 15 per cent to £2.2 million. Based on last year's figures, that rise had Linklaters level pegging with average partner pay at A&O Shearman. Freshfields is standing on an average partner pay figure of £2.1 million, with Clifford Chance on £2 million. A&O and Clifford Chance are expected to report earnings and profit within the next few weeks. However, Freshfields said last year that it would no longer actively publicise its figures, although as a limited liability partnership the practice remains obliged to file an annual report with Companies House. Slaughter and May, the fifth member of the magic circle, has remained a traditional partnership and is therefore not required to reveal financial figures. But partners at the firm are still thought to be the highest earners in the Square Mile, with average pay estimated to range between £3.5 and £4 million. Tuesday's figures from Macfarlanes and Linklaters will fuel speculation that partner pay at the rest of the magic circle and across other prominent City practices will rise well above inflation, which in the UK unexpectedly jumped last week to 3.6 per cent. It could also cast a harsh light on City partner fees. In February, a senior costs lawyer lambasted the 'greed' of City lawyers for charging up to £1,600 an hour and allowing fees to spiral 'totally out of control'. Rocketing pay for junior lawyers has also fallen into clients' crosshairs in the past few years. Newly qualified solicitors at the City offices of US firms can start on as much as £180,000. Starting pay at Linklaters and Macfarlanes trails slightly behind at £150,000 and £140,000, respectively. Macfarlanes reported that its overall turnover for 2024-25 rose by more than 10 per cent to £371.4 million, which generated an operating profit of £206.5 million. Sebastian Prichard Jones, the firm's senior partner, hinted that concern over the incoming Labour government's fiscal plans had 'underpinned a standout performance from our private client and tax practices'. Meanwhile, revenue at Linklaters for that period exceeded £2.3 billion, an 11 per cent increase. The firm said that translated to a pre-tax profit of £1.08 billion, an even bigger 14 per cent increase to eclipse £1 billion for the first time in the firm's nearly two-century history. Linklaters said its best-performing international region was the US, a market that City firms have struggled to crack. Growth in the American market rose by 57 per cent, the firm said, and this year, partners in its New York office advised General Motors in a deal with TWG Motorsports to form the Cadillac Formula 1 Team, which will join the championship grid next March. Asia at 13 per cent growth was Linklaters' next highest performing region, with the UK domestic market at 8 per cent and Europe lagging at 3 per cent.
Washington Post
2 days ago
- General
- Washington Post
Carolyn Hax: Family disappointed in daughter for choosing science PhD over law
Adapted from an online discussion. Dear Carolyn: My dad, uncle and grandfather are all lawyers, and I always thought I wanted to be one, too. Until I realized in college I was much more interested in science. I switched my major to microbiology and graduated with honors. Now I'm in my last year of my PhD program, but according to my dad, I'm a huge failure and a disappointment. My younger cousin graduated from law school and joined the family law firm, and it's all he can talk about. My mom said I shouldn't have gotten his hopes up all those years I said I wanted to be a lawyer. They also are still complaining that my switching majors cost them extra tuition. It's not like I pulled a deliberate bait-and-switch; I changed my mind. When my dad asked what my plans were and I told him I'd be looking for a postdoc position, he said I was going to waste my life in academia and never make any real money. I think most parents would be overjoyed their daughter is getting a doctorate, but mine act like I'm a dropout and a failure. There's no way to make your parents supportive or proud of you, though, is there? — Changed My Mind Changed My Mind: Not having these parents' support sounds like a compliment. I'm sorry. Your dad's ego is bad enough, but the flights of absurdity your mom undertook to normalize it were a thing to behold. A Blue Angel of enablers. Sweet deity. You can't make them stop complaining about your PhD (!), but you can take your ears somewhere blissfully free of their strain of narcissistic jerkery at its onset. First whisper thereof. Every time. Except when your dad asks about your work. Then say, always, verbatim, 'Wasting my life in academia and not making any real money.' I realize trashing your parents is complicated; no doubt there's love there, plus parental approval carries special weight. (Like a third doughnut.) But there's nothing defensible in their behavior — except perhaps in its power to motivate you to go all in on backing yourself. If détente is what you want, then don't underestimate the power of your father's vanity as a pathway back in: 'Pop, take some credit for the intellectual variety of the gene pool.' And since apparently it has occurred to no one in that pool to say this: Congratulations. Re: PhD: My parents don't understand my PhD, either. Mine is in studying fire. My mother literally referred to me as a 'pyro' throughout grad school and my postdoc. Now that I have a rather prestigious full-time position, I have been upgraded to 'scientist.' I can't help bring your parents around — they either will or won't on their own — but I can say there are jobs out there they can't even imagine. All they know of, probably, are the terribly paid and exploited adjunct professor positions in the news. They are worried about you and showing it in the worst way possible. Hopefully. — Scientist Scientist: Thanks. Not bad for a pyro. For PhD: If it makes you feel any better, my father said 'I hope this is not the end of your academic career' during my law school graduation. Why, yes, he has a PhD. — Lawyer Lawyer: Can we get the two dads together? (And then run?) Re: PhD: Please stop going to a well that is dry. You are asking for approval, acceptance, even an 'I'm happy for you,' and neither of your parents has it to give. Cultivate other relationships that are genuinely supportive. — Anonymous Re: Pyro: Now, now. That is Dr. Pyro to you. — Dr. Pyro Dr. Pyro: Right. My bad.
