Bloomberg cites Edwards Gibson in “When Top Lawyers Earn $30 Million, Who Pays?”
Edwards Gibson is delighted that two of its market leading reports (issues 84. and 87. of Law Firm Partner Moves in London), as well as our recent opinion article on the newfound instability of super elite law firms, “Big Law Jenga”, were featured in Bloomberg, “When Top Lawyers Earn $30 Million, Who Pays?”, by Chris Bryant.
The Bloomberg article, which also extensively features comments from Edwards Gibson Director Scott Gibson, delves into the economics of hyper-profitable US law firms and the pressure that a sustained war for talent fuelled by private capital is having on partner compensation, and the potentially punishing impact this is having on the structural stability of elite US law firms.
Bryant’s article references multi-sourced data to delve into the reasons behind the dramatic hikes in average law firm billing rates, the near universal abandonment of all equity partnerships, the widening of equity spreads and the fluidity of the partner hire market which, according to the Edwards Gibson data cited in the article, is at record levels. In the article, Scott Gibson discusses the portable nature of private equity client relationships and how, in conjunction with the above, pay disparities arising from star partner hires, can erode the collaboration and shared purpose of law firms. As evidenced by their reactions to the Trump Administration’s executive orders, this has made elite law firms uniquely brittle in the face of external shocks which imperil their sky-high probability. As Gibson summarises, “Too many lateral hires can breed resentment. Super elite firms are probably more vulnerable structurally than at any time in history”.
To read the Bloomberg article in full click here (paywall)
To read Edwards Gibson’s article Big Law Jenga (also hyper-linked in the Bloomberg article) click here
To read issue 84 of Edwards Gibson’s Law firm Partner Move in London (also hyper-linked in the Bloomberg article) click here
To read issue 87 of Edwards Gibson’s Law firm Partner Move in London (also hyper-linked in the Bloomberg article) click here