Even after Brexit, the British capital has remained the most important location for law firms and the largest market for legal advice outside the USA. The turnover of the 12 largest law firms in London grew to almost £5.50 billion last year, according to data collected by the trade magazine "The Lawyer". Since 2019, the revenues of the top 50 commercial law firms have increased by more than 25 percent. "The work hasn't immediately diminished because of Brexit, because any default has been replaced by the huge sums of private equity money that have flowed into London," says Catrin Griffiths, editor-in-chief of The Lawyer. "There was an extraordinarily high number of deals," she adds.

Philip Plickert

Business correspondent based in London.

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Marcus Jung

Editor in business.

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The City of London is traditionally considered a Mecca for business lawyers because of its proximity to the major financial and stock exchange centre and to the internationally recognised commercial and arbitration courts. Top earners there come up to million-dollar salaries. Linklaters tops the list of major law firms with the highest turnover with £788 million in revenue in London in 2022 and £1.9 billion in revenue globally. They are followed by Allen & Overy (£739 million in London), Clifford Chance (£687 million), Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer (£550 million), CMS (£540 million) and Slaughter and May (£512 million).

The "Magic Circle" - an elite club

With the exception of CMS, these law firms traditionally belong to the so-called Magic Circle, the elite club of the five most prestigious law firms in the city. They advise on the largest and most lucrative deals, employing a four-digit number of business lawyers and employees each. On average, the partners of the Magic Circle law firms, i.e. lawyers who share in the firm's profits, generate between three and five million pounds of gross income annually. Although London has been under pressure as a financial centre since Brexit, lawyers are still doing splendidly. "The medium-term outlook for the general financial industry is a bit bleaker," Griffiths estimates, "but within the global legal services sector, outside of the US, we don't see any serious rival to London."

The Thames metropolis is also attracting German law firms. Last week, the Munich-based law firm GSK Stockmann officially inaugurated its new office in the city. At the gala dinner in the historic Law Society Hall on the occasion of the opening, the ambassadors of Germany and Luxembourg spoke. It is not the only law firm to try to open a new branch in the UK. The German top 5 law firm Gleiss Lutz also opened its own London office last year. Competitors Hengeler Mueller, Noerr and Luther have been present in the British capital for some time. However, with a handful of lawyers plus a few trainee lawyers each, they are very small fish on the Thames compared to the major British and American law firms.

A few steps from the Bank of England

"We are only a small piece of the mosaic in the London market, but the office is an important bridgehead for us to acquire orders for Germany," says Florian Becker, head of Noerr's London office, which is located on the 40th floor of Tower 42, a high-rise office building a few steps from the Bank of England. "We then offer international companies the door to the German market." Becker sees London as an extremely important place for exchanging information and networking with other European law firms. "It's simply unbeatable here." Torsten Fett, co-spokesman for the firm, also sees the UK office as important for the development of employees and talent. "This increases the attractiveness as an employer when trainees see the opportunity to come to London."