King & Spalding is in growth mode in London. The office increased revenue by 48% last year, has expanded its footprint at 8 Bishopsgate and recently hired a major international arbitration and litigation team from WilmerHale.
London managing partner Tom Sprange explains why the office has become central to the US firm’s international strategy. It is now King & Spalding’s fourth-largest office, its biggest outside the US and a hub connecting the firm’s practices across Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
The ambition is not to become a conventional full-service firm. Sprange describes a more selective model built around elite disputes, finance, private capital, investigations and regulatory work. He also explains why collaboration matters more than individual books of business, and why King & Spalding looks for practice builders rather than lawyers who simply claim to bring clients with them.
The conversation also explores the changing economics of international arbitration, the rise of the highly paid superstar partner and how firms can stop their best lawyers being poached. Sprange closes by setting out where King & Spalding could expand next and why the firm’s trainee pipeline remains important to its London plans.
Chapters
00:01 Introduction
01:40 Why London matters to King & Spalding
03:33 Revenue growth and the London practice mix
09:48 Not going full-service
13:12 Fund finance and making major team hires work
19:53 The WilmerHale raid and the changing arbitration market
23:36 How international disputes lawyers win clients
27:44 Superstar partners, pay and retention
32:51 The modern partner, AI and what comes next
