The Lawyer Career Report is designed to give lawyers a clear picture of partnership prospects at the 100 largest UK firms and the top 30 international firms in London.
All figures are supplied by the firms themselves, except in those cases indicated in the individual firm statistics and in the ‘Name and Shame’ section of the Analysis.
The headcount figures are, in the vast majority of cases, taken from firms’ previous year-ends. However, headcount figures are notoriously difficult to collate; queries should be directed to the firms themselves.
In most cases the number of equity partners has been supplied by the firms themselves. In a handful of cases we have estimated the number of equity partners from information supplied by unofficial sources with knowledge of the firms. For the purposes of our research we have not specified hires into equity. That would constitute a separate project. Readers should refer to our data on the equity-salaried split within different firms and draw their own conclusions.
Years refer to the beginning of the financial year. Therefore, 2005 partners refer to those partners made up on 1 May 2005. In some cases firms have supplied figures on a calendar year basis; if so, this is indicated clearly within the text and tables.
The lateral hire figures for 2006-07 cover May to December of that financial year. While few firms have made vast numbers of hires so far in 2007, readers should be aware that our lateral figures underplay slightly the current total of laterals across the board.
In the International firm by firm section, Europe should be taken to refer to Continental Europe, with the UK figures counted separately.
