Law Firm Partner Moves in London - Issue 88

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Welcome to the 88^th edition of Law Firm Partner Moves in London, from the specialist partner team at 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. Our records go back to 2007, and this is our methodology.

 

• July – August 2025

 

Last year’s July–August publication broke records with the highest number of partner moves for the same period since we began tracking in 2007.

Although this summer didn’t quite reach that historic peak, it still delivered a very strong showing with 71 partner moves and, whilst this was 10% down on last year’s historic high of 79, it remains the second busiest July–August period on record—8% above the five-year average of 66, and 22% above the ten-year average of 58.

 

 

The most covetous firms this round-up were: Charles Russell Speechlys, Hill Dickinson, Mayer Brown, and Proskauer which all hired three partners apiece.

 

• Top partner recruiters in London July – August 2025

 

Charles Russell Speechlys	3	(3 laterals)
Hill Dickinson	3	(2 laterals)
Mayer Brown	3	(3 laterals)
Proskauer	3	(3 laterals)

 

In addition, eight firms, hired two partners each: Blake Morgan, Crowell & Moring, DLA Piper, Freshfields, Goodwin Procter, Gowling WLG, Jones Day and Signature Litigation.

 

• Firms with largest attrition July – August 2025 (partnership to partnership moves only)

 

Dechert	4
EY Law	3
White & Case	3

 

Dechert saw the highest attrition this edition, losing four partners (three to Mayer Brown and one to DLA Piper); followed by EY Law which lost three (two to Jones Day and one to Greenberg Traurig); and White & Case, which also lost three (to DLA Piper, Latham & Watkins, and Proskauer).

In addition, eight firms lost two serving partners each: A&O Shearman, Cadwalader, Doyle Clayton, Eversheds Sutherland, Goodwin Procter, Hill Dickinson, Paul Hastings and Ropes & Gray.

 

 

• Team hires July – August 2025

 

The most sizable multi-partner team hire this edition was Mayer Brown’s lift out of a three-partner private capital team from Dechert comprising both co-heads of global leveraged finance and a corporate M&A lateral.

Elsewhere, four firms welcomed two-partner teams: Freshfields (private equity real estate) from Ropes & Gray; Hill Dickinson (direct real estate) from Taylor Wessing; Crowell & Moring (IP/Patents) from Dentons; and Jones Day (energy and infrastructure) from the seemingly hapless EY Law.

 

• Two Big Law Summer Weddings … and an Anniversary

 

Having announced their banns in November last year, Anglo-Australian outfit Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) and New York-headquartered Kramer Levin finally tied the knot on 1 June, forming Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer (HSF Kramer) — a global law firm with combined revenues of over $2 billion and more than 2,700 lawyers.

Then, after an even shorter courtship, Chicago leviathan McDermott Will & Emery and the much smaller, funds-focused New York firm Schulte Roth & Zabel (SRZ) announced their tie-up in May and got hitched on 1 August, creating McDermott Will & Schulte — a $2.8 billion outfit with 1,700 lawyers.

 

There has been much commentary on both mergers — overwhelmingly positive for HSF Kramer, and positively effusive for McDermott Will & Schulte. Both tie-ups involved much larger, multi-office out-of-towners (Herbert Smith Freehills and McDermott Will & Emery) effectively acquiring high-quality Manhattan bolt-ons, thereby dramatically boosting their presence in Big Law’s most important city: New York.

“… many commentators believe that the key to survival in Big Law is to be big”

Compared to their larger suitors — HSF and McDermott Will & Emery (founded in 1882 and 1934 respectively) — the New York cousins, born a year apart in the late 1960s, were relative newcomers. While not “white shoe,” both were quality outfits, with the more profitable SRZ widely considered a Wall Street firm. That said, both New Yorkers had likely seen better days and, in a market where many commentators believe that the key to survival in Big Law is to be big, their respective tie-ups may just have saved them from some unfortunate future mésalliance — or a shotgun wedding.

When law firms merge, there is often elevated partner attrition — both immediately before and after the coupling — as practice overlaps, client conflicts, partner egos, and issues around relative contribution almost always come into play.

Both the HSF Kramer and McDermott Will & Schulte mergers fully integrated the legacy firms’ profit pools — i.e., they did not “cheat” by using Swiss Verein-type structures. For McDermott Will & Schulte, the financial combination was comparatively straightforward, as both legacy firms had similar profitability and overwhelmingly generated revenue in the U.S.

For HSF Kramer, however, the financial gymnastics of creating a “one-size-fits-all” equity spread for a firm with three sizable — and very different — global profit centres will likely prove an ongoing challenge. Indeed, history tells us that unless management pays careful attention to this fraught issue, partner perceptions around relative contribution — whether justified or not — may prompt disgruntled laterals from both legacy firms to defect to rivals.

“When law firms merge, there is often elevated partner attrition — both immediately before and after the combination — as practice overlaps, client conflicts, partner egos, and issues around relative contribution almost always come into play”.

 

• The London nuptials

 

Their honeymoon in London should provide very few direct snags for either newly married couple. Since Kramer Levin had no presence in town, there will be no attrition arising from London office integration. More broadly, any European issues stemming from Kramer Levin’s only other overseas office — a small Paris outpost — were sidestepped when the office was spun off to Morgan Lewis & Bockius in December 2024.

Aside from potential friction around the integration of senior management at McDermott Will & Schulte — due to both legacy London managing partners sharing responsibility for the local office — the tie-up appears to be a match made in Big Law heaven. SRZ’s West End office was comparatively bonsai (27 lawyers), nearly all of whom focused on private funds – in particular hedge funds - and related support. By contrast, McDermott Will & Emery’s London office fielded an increasingly capable private capital-flavoured bench which, while three times larger than SRZ’s, completely lacked a partner-level private funds offering.

 

• Paper Anniversary – A&O Shearman turns one

 

While Manhattan’s Big Law community was busy celebrating the nuptials and bidding farewell to both Kramer Levin and Schulte Roth & Zabel this summer, another of its own — the white-shoe patrician Shearman & Sterling — marked the anniversary of its union with UK Magic Circle outfit Allen & Overy. The celebration came in the form of its first fully integrated financial results, released in August, following the formation of A&O Shearman on 1 May 2024. [For a summary of what each party bought to that gilded wedding see: So, it’s A&O Shearman!]

The A&O Shearman results were mixed. On the one hand, combined revenue was slightly greater than the sum of its parts. On the other, profits per partner — at £2 million — were 10% down on those of legacy Allen & Overy in its final year of trading. That said, those figures had been buoyed by the one-off disposal of aosphere, a legal and compliance data subscription platform, to private equity house Inflexion.

Last year, the newly merged firm announced plans to cut its global partnership by 10% in order to eliminate practice overlaps, reduce exposure to less profitable sectors and geographies, and ultimately boost profits. At the same time the firm eliminated its non-equity partner tiers and moved over to an all-equity partnership structure. Such wide-ranging restructures are both distracting and expensive in the short term, so maintaining revenue — let alone like-for-like profits per partner, as the firm insists it has — is, in many respects, impressive.

That said, although A&O Shearman is now a top 10 global firm by revenue, its profits per partner remain modest by US Big Law standards. If the firm wants to continue competing in the US — let alone be part of the global elite — it will need to show, by next year, clear evidence that its painful restructure is adding to the bottom line. Otherwise, it risks losing more key partners it would far rather keep.

“… although A&O Shearman is now a top 10 global firm by revenue, its profits per partner remain modest by US Big Law standards”

In London, the impact of the merger has already been felt. Since the merger went live, 24 partners have left the firm — comprising 17 from legacy Allen & Overy and 7 from legacy Shearman & Sterling — between May 2024 and August 2025*. In contrast, the firm has welcomed just 6 new partners during the same period: 5 from rival firms and 1 from in-house.

Although A&O Shearman has publicly committed to downsizing its global partnership, Edwards Gibson estimates that 13 to 15 of the departing partners were not part of the firm’s intended reduction — suggesting a possibly more disruptive fallout than planned.

Still some disruption was inevitable and, just like any new marriage, law firm mergers come with a bit of chaos — mismatched habits, name changes, and the occasional identity crisis. All three Big Law newlyweds — A&O Shearman, HSF Kramer, and McDermott Will & Schulte — will doubtless discover that, whilst “marriage is hard work: it’s waking up every day and choosing each other”… it does have its compensations.

*By comparison in the nearly two and a half years prior to the tie-up (calendar years 2022, 2023 and the four months prior to the “go live” date on 1 May 2024) the two firms combined, lost a total of 22 partners to rivals in London, with legacy Allen & Overy losing 8 and, an increasingly unstable, Shearman & Sterling losing 14.   

 

• Other Fun Facts July – August 2025

 

• 24% of moves this edition were female (17).
• 4 firms hired from in-house: Simmons & Simmons (from Millennium Capital Partners), Blake Morgan (from Nursing and Midwifery Council), Olaniwun Ajayi (from Abu Dhabi National Oil Company), and Clifford Chance (from Amazon).
• 28% of all moves (20) were moves from non-partnership roles (either moves from in-house or non-partners elevated to partnership upon moving from another law firm).

 

CLICK BELOW FOR OUR FULL JULY – AUGUST 2025 REPORT

 

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.

 

Scott Gibson, Director scott.gibson@edwardsgibson.com or +44 (0)7788 454 080

 

Sloane Poulton, Director sloane.poulton@edwardsgibson.com or +44 (0)7967 603 402

 

Please click here to understand our methodology for compiling Partner Moves

 

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• Edwards Gibson Partner Round-Up - Our Methodology
• Previous editions of Partner Moves in London
• Quantifying your following and writing an effective law firm business plan
• Specimen partner business plan template
• The Partnership Track and Moving for Immediate Partnership
• Legal directory rankings and their effect on lawyer recruitment
• Restrictive Covenants and Moving on as a Partner