Edwards Gibson Featured in Law.com International: ‘Why Private Equity is (Still) All About Individual Relationships’
We are pleased to share that Edwards Gibson and Director Scott Gibson have been extensively featured in a recent Law.com International article exploring the deeply personal nature of relationships in the private equity legal sector.
The article draws on insights from a number of leading private equity partners in London, such as Clifford Chance’s head of private equity, Johnny Myer, and managing partners from leading US firms, revealing how despite efforts to institutionalise client relationships, the industry continues to revolve around individual connections. Among the experts quoted, Scott Gibson stands out, having been cited five times throughout the piece, offering commentary on hiring strategies of top law firms and the enduring power of personal networks. The article also underlines that as firms have been poaching from others, their losses have also increased creating much more movement and volatility in the market.
As Scott Gibson notes:
“If you live by the lateral, you die by the lateral. Those traditional rules of partnerships are no longer immutable, and this is weakening the historic cohesion of law firms,”
This quote exemplifies the transformation sweeping through the legal sector, where firm increasingly hire partners for their personal books of business. The article highlights how both private equity and law firms rely on singular points of contact, whose movements can reshape entire books of business.
“The proof in the pudding that is often when these people move to a new firm, they bring these relationships with them, and the deal work to their new homes.”
Drawing on Edwards Gibson’s market-leading research into partner moves in London, Scott Gibson also discusses how hiring patterns at top US firms have evolved, with lateral hires now driven primarily by the strength of personal relationships and client loyalty. These issues have also been discussed in depth in our recent article 'Big Law Jenga; Why Private Capital Stars are a Tragedy for the Rule of Law'.
Read the full Law.com article here