A record number of senior lawyers moved jobs in London this year as the arrival of US law firms in the capital continues to disrupt the market and fuel pay wars for talent. Law firms made 546 partner hires in London over the year to December 23, according to data from legal recruiter Edwards Gibson and shared with the Financial Times. The number surpasses last year’s record of 514 partner moves, as investment from US law firms in the UK shows no sign of abating.
The London legal market has undergone major disruption in recent years as a booming private equity market has driven the significant expansion of profitable American law firms in the City. Deep-pocketed US firms have lured partners from their UK-headquartered rivals, and increasingly, from their US peers. The UK’s “magic circle” group of firms, which includes Linklaters, Freshfields, A&O Shearman and Clifford Chance, have been particularly affected, losing a record 28 partners this year, according to the data, surpassing the previous record of 19. The war for talent has driven changes to firms’ pay structures as they fight to attract and retain rainmakers and more junior talent. Groups such as Clifford Chance and America’s Latham & Watkins recently added more flexibility to their own models in order to be able to better reward top performers, according to people familiar with those moves. Both firms declined to comment. “Unprecedented investment by US law firms in private equity-related hires has pumped scores of millions of dollars into the system,” said Scott Gibson, founder of Edwards Gibson. “This has distorted the market by causing compensation to spike and creating huge knock-on effects down the chain as hapless rivals have scrambled to restock.” US-founded firms Kirkland & Ellis and Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison were among the biggest recruiters in 2024, according to the data, which includes 155 lawyers that have moved from non-partnership roles to partne