London's record year of partner moves and who felt them the most

Amid another record year for law firm partner moves in London - up 21% on the previous record set last year in fact - sometimes the more revealing story isn’t always who hired the most, but who lost the most.

Read at face value, partner attrition in London over the past 12 months puts Paul Hastings, A&O Shearman, Kirkland & Ellis and White & Case at the top of the rankings. Set against UK partnership size, however, those same numbers tell a more nuanced story.

The latest data from legal recruitment consultancy Edwards Gibson highlights where partner departures are felt most clearly at the London level, even if they sit more comfortably within the range of normal churn globally. Losing 15 or 20 partners can carry very different implications depending on the scale and structure of a firm’s UK partnership.

Hardest hit

Paul Hastings stands out most sharply. While the firm lost 19 lateral partners last year, its relatively compact London partnership means those departures represent around a third of its local partner base. 

Several of the exits were also high-profile. A three-partner private equity team jumped to Goodwin, a tax duo including Arun Birla, who served as global second managing partner, moved to White & Case, and real estate finance partners Miles Flynn and Rehan Hanif left to launch Milbank’s European real estate finance practice. The firm ultimately picked up nine partner hires, leaving it net down by 10 partners.

Sloane Poulton, director at Edwards Gibson, said: "There has been a bit of an exodus of senior partners moving to competitor firms. Many of the partners that left have been long-term, career partners and equity partners made up at Paul Hastings, who have decided that the firm is no longer for them."

On the face of it, the reasons behind the exodus are not immediately obvious. The departing partners were understood to be very well paid and Paul Hastings is projecting its London revenue to be up 20-25% year-over-year and up 70% over the past two years. The scale of the departures has nevertheless prompted questions about how its London platform is evolving.

The firm hired eight lateral partners last year, making a significant dent in refilling its bench, including securitisation partner Tom Picton from Ashurst and corporate tax partners Jenny Doak from Weil and Catherine Richardson from Cadwalader and fund finance partner Jennifer Passagne from Haynes Boone and Kirkland antitrust partner Sally Evans.

"Paul Hastings has been one of those firms that hasn’t been afraid to recruit, it has always been out there speaking to people and making big hires, but something hasn’t quite clicked this year in London," Poulton said.‍

A post-merger story

A&O Shearman lost 19 partners, 12 from legacy Allen & Overy and seven from Shearman & Sterling. While some of the exits could be chalked up to its post-merger shake-out which saw the firm set out to cut 10% of its partnership, several of the departures involved heavy hitters - indeed, Edwards Gibson estimates the firm would have probably preferred to retain up to 80% of all those who left.

The firm lost an 11-lawyer structured finance team including star partners Franz Ranero and James Smallwood to Latham & Watkins, while financial regulation partner Barney Reynolds left to join Sullivan & Cromwell. Funds partner Phil Baynes moved to Weil and top-ranked employment disputes partner Robbie Sinclair left for Gibson Dunn. 

Meanwhile, A&O Shearman has started out this year with a fresh hit from Latham & Watkins which poached a real estate-focused finance trio, and saw Lucy Oddy boomerang back to the firm.

Poulton said: "There has been quite a bit of collateral damage and some disharmony post-merger. These are proper partners leaving A&O Shearman, and I’m sure the firm would have wanted to keep many of them rather than lose them to elite US firms."

‍Moderate impact

While Kirkland & Ellis lost 15 partners, the Chicago powerhouse also landed the top spot in terms of new recruits bringing on 19 partners, though just five of them were laterals. London has been one of the firm's fastest growing offices and it made up 19 London partners in its most recent promotions round. 

Kirkland’s numbers are partly shaped by its partnership structure. With non-equity partners accounting for a significant proportion of its partnership, exits naturally don’t always carry the same implications as they might at firms with a more concentrated equity partnership.

White & Case similarly lost 15 partners including a high-profile trio of London infrastructure partners to Milbank. The losses were partially offset by eight lateral hires, leaving it net down by around 5% on a lateral partner basis. The firm also picked up six additional lawyers promoted to partner level upon hire. 

To rebuild, the firm made several big hires including Kirkland partner Serra Tar, three private equity lawyers from Ropes & Gray and tax partners Arun Birla and Jiten Tank from Paul Hastings. 

Who came out largely unscathed

DLA Piper hired nine lateral partners last year and lost 11, a level of churn that barely registers given the scale of its UK partnership. 

Ashurst, with its sizeable UK partnership, lost nine lateral partners and picked up six. The firm ran a noticeably smaller promotion round last year, perhaps a more cautious approach ahead of its later announced merger with Perkins Coie.

Growth mode

A handful of firms, meanwhile, stand out for being firmly in expansion mode, topping the list of partner recruits. Addleshaw Goddard, Baker McKenzie and Simmons & Simmons all made double-digit partner hires, the majority of them laterals.

Among US firms, Proskauer is one to watch. While still smaller in London than many American rivals, it has been steadily adding senior talent across leveraged finance and private capital, and recently secured Band 1 Chambers rankings in London for both secondaries and leveraged finance.

The firm hired 11 partners last year, taking its London partner count to around 60, as it pushes to deepen its already strong private capital offering - with private credit understood to be a key focus.