US-headquartered law firms dominated UK lateral hires in 2024 across a range of financial practice areas, taking seven of the top 10 spots, according to exclusive data from the IFLR+ Talent Tracker.
This report covers the banking and finance, M&A, investment funds, restructuring and insolvency, project development and financial services regulatory practices.
In the UK, Sidley Austin, Paul Weiss, Kirkland & Ellis and McDermott Will & Emery made up the top five after British firm Simmons & Simmons in top spot.
In the US, meanwhile, the top three hiring firms were Paul Hastings, Holland & Knight and Kirkland & Ellis.
The UK trends reflect the rapid expansion of US-headquartered firms also across the Atlantic, where law firms’ optimism remains high going into the new year, particularly in M&A.
IFLR+ launched Talent Tracker, an interactive database that follows partner moves across the global financial legal market, in January 2024.
Users can search or filter the database by date, jurisdiction, region and law firm to gain key insights into global moves and hiring trends in different practice areas.
The Talent Tracker data is not exhaustive, but we have stayed abreast of the top moves announced in 2024.
Big law’s big bucks
In global terms, the US outpaced other countries with 861 hires. This was followed by the UK (261) and India (114).
In the US, the hiring firms that took the top five spots were Paul Hastings (37), Holland & Knight (28), Kirkland & Ellis (20), Latham & Watkins (18), Simpson Thacher (18) and Wilkie Farr & Gallagher (18).
Several of the firms made bulk hires from their rivals. For instance, Paul Hastings hired nine lawyers from King & Spalding specialising in restructuring, private credit and special situations in June. The team included Jennifer Daly, who was co-head of the global finance and restructuring practice and previously headed the private credit and special situations practice, as well as corporate partners Roger Schwartz and Matthew Warren.
The firm also hired regulatory partner Eva Temkin in February and M&A partner Timothy Fesenmyer in September from King & Spalding.
“We are incredibly excited about building on our premier restructuring and finance platforms with the addition of one of the leading private credit and special situation groups in the US,” said Paul Hastings firm chair Frank Lopez in June.
“Jennifer, Roger, Matt, and the entire team will provide our clients with exceptional talent and reputations … and will enable us to gain market share at the top of the market,” he added.
Another firm Paul Hastings poached from was Vinson & Elkins. An eight-partner global finance team, including the practice co-chairs, joined the firm in March 2024.
“We are incredibly excited to welcome this exceptional group who will expand the capabilities of our market-leading global finance practice while also creating a formidable presence for us in Texas,” said Lopez in March.
Kirkland & Ellis also made bulk hires from Goodwin in the US. The firm hired Paul Delligatti, Chris Palmer, Jason Monfort, Andrew Zutz and Nicole Griffin as partners for the investment funds practice in February 2024, as well as James Donohue in April 2024.
“Registered funds and products designed for high-net-worth and retail investors remain significant growth areas where Kirkland continues to add talent to meet the needs of our clients,” said Jon Ballis, chairman of Kirkland’s executive committee in February.
The top hiring firms were primarily larger players that have more leverage on compensation.
Speaking to IFLR, Kent Zimmerman, principal at legal consulting firm Zeughauser Group in California, says: “Firms that have more scale and profitability relative to peers often have a talent advantage because they have more flexibility on compensation, starting at the top.
“Larger and more profitable firms generally have greater benefits of scale than other firms. That allows them to scale even more,” he adds.
The ability to scale is also enhanced by the global reach of bigger firms.
Stefano Barbagallo, director of New York at legal recruitment company Sonder Consultants, tells IFLR: “Something that lots of the bigger US outfits do well is that they're truly global. Lawyers at firms like Kirkland and DLA work across offices on global deals.”
These global platforms give lawyers the potential to build more contacts and bigger books of business as they move towards partnership.
“Different origination models as well as partnership tiers are also driving much of the movement in the market,” Barbagallo says.
“Newer firms in the market, like Paul Weiss, who have a blank cheque or cheque book mentality, have the benefit of attracting top talent away from more established teams where rainmakers are potentially being overlooked as part of succession plans within the firm,” he adds.
American English
Across the Atlantic, in the UK, the top eight hiring firms were primarily US-headquartered ones: Sidley Austin (11), Paul Weiss (10), Kirkland & Ellis (9), McDermott Will & Emery (9), White & Case (8), Latham & Watkins (7), Proskauer Rose (7) and Simpson Thacher (6).
There is a sense of optimism for growth by top hiring firms, particularly for transactions practices such as M&A.
“We have recruited nine partners in London [in 2024], but we are just getting started," says Aymen Mahmoud, co-head of the London transactions practice and London office managing partner at McDermott Will & Emery.
“The amount of inbound lateral interest has been fantastic and really underscores our growing profile in the market. There is no doubt that we will continue to add top talent to an already wonderful London team,” he adds.
Speaking to IFLR about Sidley Austin growth, Tom Thesing, the firm’s London managing partner, says that the firm continued to invest in and build its high-end premium M&A and finance offering in 2024.
The competition for talent is expected to be fierce, with US firms continuing to attract UK-based partners.
Rebecca Adlington, global marketing manager at Sonder Consultants in London, says: “The big US firms like Paul Weiss, Latham & Watkins and Paul Hastings are poaching talent by using their strong profit growth to put serious money on the table for top partners.”
Leading US firms’ “stellar market reputation” and growth in London are appealing to ambitious lawyers, she adds.
As most US firms have a growing profitability advantage over their UK rivals, this has changed the talent landscape.
“It used to be that the most profitable US firms were neck and neck on profitability with their UK peers,” says Zimmerman. But now, he adds, the highest-performing UK firms are typically at least 50% less profitable than their US counterparts.
This allows US firms to have more flexibility on attracting and retaining top talent relative to most UK firms.
Konstantinos Adamos, group lead legal counsel at Revolut in London, says that US firms have had a huge impact in the UK legal market.
“Not only have they managed to get a strong foothold in the local market, antagonise magic circle firms and in many cases even surpass them, but by raising associate compensation, they have forced UK firms to do the same,” he says. “This has resulted in increased fees for clients, adding to cost pressures for businesses.”
M&A drive
Globally, the M&A practice saw the highest number of lateral hires (750), followed by banking and finance (317) and financial services regulatory (251).
Law firm hiring activity is reflected in the rise in M&A deal activity, with global deal value rising year on year, particularly for the US.
While 2024 saw a dip in the number of M&A deals globally, with 50,200, deal value has risen. The year saw $3.2 trillion worth of deals, up 10% year on year.
US dealmaking accounted for nearly half (45%) of 2024’s overall global M&A activity, marking a three-year high. In terms of value, deal activity for US targets jumped 5% on 2023, totalling $1.4 trillion.
With a strong sense of optimism, particularly for transactional practices, more lateral hiring activity can be expected from top law firms in the year to come.
For more information about the latest partner moves, access the Talent Tracker here.
