We all know that Biglaw firms in America did well in 2024, but what about their Biglaw counterparts across the pond in the United Kingdom? How did they fare when it came to their financial metrics last year? Thankfully, the latest edition of the UK Top 50 is out, which measures gross revenue, revenue per lawyer, and profits per equity partner, just like the Am Law 100.
Collectively, the UK Top 50 did quite well, and it’s worth noting that U.S.-based firms are slowly but surely inching their way toward dominance across the pond. In fact, Kirkland & Ellis is very close to overtaking the top-ranked UK-based firm when it comes to revenue. Here are more details on the positive results from the UK, courtesy of Law.com International:
A ranking of the largest firms operating in the market, regardless of where the firm is based, shows that while the majority of the positions in the top 30 remain dominated by U.K.-based firms, U.S.-led firms are consolidating their foothold through steady year-on-year growth.
The London-headquartered firms, historically known as the Magic Circle, which traditionally had a stranglehold on the U.K. legal market, remain among the largest players – Linklaters, A&O Shearman, reporting figures as legacy Allen & Overy, Clifford Chance, Freshfields and Slaughter and May all feature at the top 10.
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Without further ado, here are the Top 10 firms in the UK by gross revenue:
- Linklaters: £954,800,000
- Kirkland & Ellis: £860,248,690
- Clifford Chance: £831,000,000
- Allen & Overy: £818,700,000
- Freshfields: £756,413,780
- Slaughter and May: £666,737,937
- Latham & Watkins: £657,000,000
- CMS: £618,723,437
- DLA Piper: £573,772,936
- HSF Kramer: £572,000,000
Click here to see the rest of the UK Top 30. The full Top 50 will be published next week. Congratulations!
The Largest 50 Law Firms by UK Revenue: US Firms Continue to Take Market Share [Law.com International]
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Staci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Bluesky, X/Twitter, and Threads, or connect with her on LinkedIn.