Law Firm Partner Moves in London - Issue 37

September - October 2016

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Welcome to the latest round up of lateral partner moves in the London 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.

Despite, or perhaps because of post-Brexit economic uncertainty, the London lateral partner market remains reasonably robust with 61 announced hires - including four partners joining, and three partners leaving magic circle firms over the two month period.

Around 40% of the announced hires were to US law firms, showing that at the top of the market elite US firms continue to vie for top talent. The hires announced by Latham & Watkins and White & Case (two and four respectively) bring their totals this year to around a dozen each. The team hires from UK law firms announced by Paul Hastings and Proskauer Rose may be a sign of things to come as the strength of the US dollar vs £ sterling acts as an emollient to further US law firm lateral hires.

Of note, around 10% of the announced hires were associate-to-partner hires, something normally associated with a reasonably frothy market. Finally, an unprecedented seven moves highlighted in this edition were in the rather niche area of planning law. In large part of this was due to the launch of new planning law boutique -Town Legal – seeded by partners from Herbert Smith Freehills, King & Wood Mallesons and Gowling WLG.

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

Sloane Poulton, Director sloane.poulton@edwardsgibson.com

Mark Coates, Senior Consultant mark.coates@edwardsgibson.com

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