London lawyer hiring frenzy breaks record as pay wars rage

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A record number of senior lawyers have moved jobs to London this year, as the influx of US lawyers to the capital continues to disrupt the market and fuel pay wars for talent.

Law firms made 546 partner hires in London in the year to December 23, according to data from legal recruiter Edwards Gibson and shared with the Financial Times. The number surpasses last year’s record of 514 partner moves, as investment by US law firms in the UK shows no sign of abating.

London’s legal market has undergone major disruption in recent years, as a booming private equity market has driven significant expansion in profits. American legal studies in the city. Deep-seated American firms have drawn partners from their UK-based rivals, and increasingly, from their American peers.

The United Kingdom “Magic circle” group of companieswhich includes Linklaters, Freshfields, A&O Shearman and Clifford Chance, have been particularly hard hit, losing a record 28 partners this year, according to the data, surpassing the previous record of 19.

The war for talent has brought changes to companies’ pay structures as they battle to attract and retain the rains and more. junior talent. Groups such as Clifford Chance and America’s Latham & Watkins have recently added more flexibility to their own models so they can better reward top performers, according to people familiar with the moves. Both firms declined to comment.

“Unprecedented investment by US law firms in private equity hires has siphoned tens of millions of dollars into the system,” said Scott Gibson, founder of Edwards Gibson. “This distorted the market by causing offsetting peaks and creating huge knock-on effects in the chain as hapless rivals scrambled to restock.”

US-based firms Kirkland & Ellis and Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison were among the biggest recruiters in 2024, according to the data, which included 155 lawyers who moved from non-partner roles to partners.

Last year, Paul Weiss searched build quickly its presence in London and has grown 10 times throughout Europe, even opening an office in Brussels, to meet American private capital clients on the continent.

“Our private and corporate clients are focused on having elite legal counsel in New York and London,” said Neel Sachdev, co-head of the Paul Weiss London office. “Many firms are looking to replicate the growth in London as it is a key legal market for M&A and capital markets and a gateway to Europe.”

Some UK-based mid-tier firms have also benefited from churn, as larger firms move away from less profitable practice areas, such as low-value routine work for financial services firms .

Simmons & Simmons hired 16 new partners this year, according to the data, making it the second largest recruiter in 2024.

“The impact of the companies of the United States is very significant and you see that some companies have decided that they are committed to a particular profit goal. This is driving some of their strategies and they can no longer afford to advise in some market areas,” said Jeremy Hoyland, managing partner of Simmons & Simmons.

“Some of the partners we’ve talked to don’t feel as loved as maybe they did before,” he added.

The hiring frenzy led to raids on a number of top outfits; Latham & Watkins and Linklaters saw some of the biggest numbers of departures.

Latham has lost eight of its 13 partnership departures to Sidley Austin this year, while Linklaters has also seen a number of departures for American peers. Latham’s London managing partner Ed Barnett said the capital “has been a strategic priority for decades” and the firm “had an incredibly strong year”. Linklaters declined to comment.

While not all exits will be seen as losses, the eye-watering pay packages offered to partners were hard to compete with, said Charlie Harvey, founder of legal recruiter Harvey and Partners.

“We’ve worked with attorney partners in the London market who have doubled or tripled their compensation when they move,” Harvey said. “We see no signs of lateral partner hiring slowing as we head into 2025.”