London Legal Sector: The US Invasion

Lawfuel quantifies the force field taking over the London legal sector. It's the surge in the number of lawyers who are working there in offices operated by US-based law firms:

"US law firms have turned London into their most important international bridgehead, increasing their lawyer ranks in the City by nearly 60 percent over the past decade and reshaping the U.K. legal market in the process."

The implications are huge. They range from boosting standard compensation in the legal market to anointing the London as the Promised Land where ambitious lawyers want to be. 

Paul, Weiss has been in the front lines of the American invasion. Although it had launched an office in London way back in 2001, it's only been in the past several years that it seemed to make growing that location a strategic objective.​

The big bang had been in 2023. That was the year of the talent raids on Kirland & Ellis' London office. Among those stars poached had been the iconic Neel Sachdev. For the recent Paul, Weiss partner class, 8 of the 28 were based in the London office. As the law firm states on its website in that office are more than 200 lawyers.

This strategy has developed the London location into a major profit center for Paul, Weiss. It also signals that the law firm has a dominant presence where the action is. On professional anonymous networks Reddit and Fishbowl junior lawyers post questions how to be hired for the London location and what kind of culture exists. 

Overall, Paul, Weiss has been growth-driven. In a 2021 interview with Bloomberg Law, the chair Brad Karp put it this way: A law firm has to keep growing or it will go out of business. A large reserve of funds is necessary to finance that. For example, it is expensive to recruit, retain and motivate stars.

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