The Lawyer came out this morning with its first-ever Transatlantic Elite, profiling the leading firms on both sides of the pond.
I’m not aware of a comparable journalistic project, or of one that matches
its ambition. What it’s not, first of all, is a financial or numeric
ranking: This is a first attempt to analyze the most high-profile legal
market in the world, that of transatlantic providers of absolutely top-end
legal services, and the selection criteria include:
- Finances, to be sure, because that is the world we live in;
- Client lists;
- Deal tables and rankings; and
- Talent.
And who are these "Sweet Sixteen" which anchor the Elite?
- Allen & Overy
- Cleary
- Clifford Chance
- Cravath
- Davis Polk
- Debevoise
- Freshfields
- Kirkland & Ellis
- Latham
- Linklaters
- Simpson Thacher
- Skadden
- Slaughter and May
- Sullivan & Cromwell
- Wachtell
- Weil Gotshal
A diverse group, you may be thinking, at least in terms of strategy? To
be sure. A handful are following the one-firm-one-office model (Cravath,
Slaughters, Wachtell), while others (the Magic Circle) are following the truly
international (with deadly serious local law capability) model, and yet others
(Cleary, Davis Polk, Simpson Thacher) have clients from across the globe but
only selective international offices.
For all their strategic differences, however, each firm has a pre-eminent
position across the New York/London axis. And if, as one anonymous New
York partner puts it, "no one has the perfect barbell yet," these are the heavyweight
contenders.
Other sections of the report include:
- Ten who will shape the market
- The M&A Elite
- Finance kings
- The battle for Asia
- And for the Mideast
- And lastly, four firms that missed
out:- Herbert Smith
- Jones Day
- Orrick
- Shearman & Sterling
It’s 52 pages of some of the most intelligent coverage I’ve read anywhere
lately. Let
me know what you think.
