However, US firms have grown significantly more successfully in London, with the Arden report citing data from The lawyer Magazine to show that the leading US companies have almost doubled their corporate earnings in the UK since 2020. Magic Circle companies try to build mass in the US Freshfields, for example, this month hired ex-Weil Gotshal and Goldman Sachs leveraged finance attorney Allison Liff as a partner in New York. Having credible practices on both sides of the Atlantic is “increasingly the key factor” in winning the largest M&A deals, the report said. Kirkland & Ellis’ recent hiring of three-time partners from Allen & Overy and Clifford Chance to set up an infrastructure team in London underscores the ability of US firms to raid UK peers in search of talent. “Like the Wall Street bulge, this has given US law firms the wallet to pay for talent,” the report said. The report argues that US firms’ roots in the lucrative US legal market mean they will always be able to outperform their UK competitors in recruiting the best people. It’s not sustainable because if you can’t get elite people into an elite model, then it just doesn’t work,” the report said. “Faced with relentless wage inflation, the Magic Circle just can’t keep up.
“If you don’t pay them the same wages as American companies to put in the extortionate hours, how would you keep the top talent that rises through the organization?” said Louisa Waddell of Arden Partners financial news. The Magic Circle law firms were left adrift, with Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer paying newly qualified solicitors £125,000 and both Linklaters and Allen & Overy receiving both newly qualified £107,500.
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