What does the demise of Weil, Gotshal & Manges tell us about elite legal business in London?
First, it is an unsettling reminder that for all the bullishness, the UK capital remains very much a branch economy for US behemoths that are nevertheless thriving in the Square Mile. The big decisions are made across the Atlantic.
I dug out the London LLP accounts. These entitle non-partner fee-earners slogging away in the UK branch to feel mightily pipped by their sudden redundancy.
Just three months ago, Weil’s London managing partner was boasting of the Fetter Lane outfit’s vigour and prosperity. Partner profits surged 25% from £102m in 2024 to £128m last year, the equivalent of more than £2m each on average.
But so what? When you’re a player in this league – in both senses of the word – two million can appear a mere bagatelle.
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One of the designated partners who signed off those accounts was top dealmaker David Avery-Gee. Last month Avery-Gee defected to Sullivan & Cromwell.
‘Sullivan & Cromwell has long worn the badge of the original “MoneyLaw” firm, a name synonymous with the eye-watering pay packets of the City’s salary wars,’ observes Legal Cheek in a primer for ambitious junior lawyers. Quite so.
Christopher Saul, former senior partner at Slaughter and May turned consultant and commentator, surely has it right: ‘[Weil’s implosion] does seem to be a symptom of the growing reality that many Big Law firms are no longer “partnerships” in the true sense of the term. They are increasingly “platforms” which are federations of teams led by stars who bring in the clients and earn big numbers – but whose loyalties are to themselves and their teams, not the firm. So, they can, and do, “lift and shift” if another platform offers even more money.’
This dovetails with my perception (though it is not original) that elite City solicitors are more akin to bankers than lawyers. An accountant is an accountant, whether they work at KPMG or Chingford Bookkeepers LLP. That’s not true of lawyers.
A final observation: Weil’s story is a cautionary tale for external investors. A law firm quickly becomes an empty shell without its talent, whatever last year’s bottom line. What else is there?
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