Picture the four major U.K.-founded law firms, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Clifford Chance, Allen & Overy and Linklaters, planning a race to a star-spangled finish line. A motor race to America, if you will.
Freshfields is the one carefully building its car, craning in a slick V6 engine, applying all manner of expensive aerodynamic retrofits, at intervals glancing at its blueprint. Clifford Chance is back in the design phase, its first car having spun spectacularly into the crash barrier, and is now tinkering with relatively low-key models, different drivers, seeing what goes.
Spotting an opportunity, Allen & Overy has caught a ride with an aging but experienced veteran. And Linklaters… Well, Linklaters had wondered whether motorsport was its thing at all. Jogging, after all, is better for the heart.
Last week, though, the firm brought in a 6-strong team from Shearman & Sterling—that ailing veteran—led by the firm’s former co-managing partner, George Casey.
‘How about that,’ is a broad summary of the reactions we’ve heard so far. To use our analogy again (bear with me), Linklaters has, maybe, found its driver. It took over half-a-century, but there we are.
These are probably the highest profile recruits the firm has added in its time in New York. At best, it's the first stage of a wider American play. And with Freshfields, we've seen how quickly large law firms can develop brilliant, competitive teams in the most cut-throat legal market in the world. At the very least, it's a statement of intent, that it no longer plans to coast while its competitors streak ahead.
It was something. But it’ll likely take a heck of a lot more than a single team hire to change Linklaters’ fortunes in the U.S. and turn it into a competitor...
