May/June 2018 round up of lateral partner moves in London

Welcome to the latest round-up of lateral partner moves in the legal market from 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.

There are a total of 68 lateral partner moves in this edition, which, although a 5% increase on our March-April edition, is 13% fewer than the statistical average for the preceding five year period.  Indeed, at the half year point, the number of lateral partner moves in London was down 23% on the (admittedly record breaking) same period in 2017 – a drop which, as we observed in our last edition, is only partially explained by the 2017 figures being artificially buoyed by the collapse of King & Wood Mallesons’ European verein.

Still, there are plenty of exciting comings and goings for market watchers in this edition which includes seven moves by in-house lawyers into partnership (including two from litigation funders) along with the hire by Linklaters of the Director of Public Prosecutions – Alison Saunders. 

Also of note; the reclaiming of one of its own by Allen & Overy - in the form of leading financial services partner Bob Penn, after a two year sojourn at Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton - represents a rare riposte in the battle for talent by a magic circle firm against the US elite.

The largest single team move in this round-up was by Irwin Mitchell which nabbed a three partner employment team from Bindmans. 

Top partner recruiters in London May-June 2018

    Paul Hastings                                     4

    Eversheds                                          4

    Irwin Mitchel                                      3

    White & Case                                     3

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.

The Edwards Gibson Team  

+ 44 (0) 207153 4903