Spanish legal market shows strain of economic slowdown
Rankings by turnover of the country's top firms and Spanish offices of City firms remained largely unchanged. As in 2001, Spanish heavyweights Garrigues, Cuatrecasas and Uría & Menéndez were the country's highest grossing firms in 2002.
Landwell and Ernst & Young, which were fourth and fifth in the table in 2001, kept their rankings in a year that saw accountancy-linked firms in Europe shrink and disband as a result of post-Enron regulatory pressures from the US.
Despite the quiet market, City firms in Spain grew at a healthy rate. Linklaters' turnover grew by 27 per cent. This was only slightly off the 35 per cent turnover rise the firm anticipated for the year.
Allen & Overy's revenue rose by 25 per cent, although this was in stark contrast to 2001, when turnover leapt up 52 per cent.
Clifford Chance, Spain's highest grossing City firm, experienced modest growth for the second year running. The firm's turnover rose by 7.5 per cent, compared with just over 4 per cent in 2001.
Borja Martínez-Echevarría, legal editor of Expansión, said: "Exposed to economic crisis, the legal market in Spain saw no relevant M&A activity, and only the litigation sector experienced any remarkable developments."
| Spanish firms turnover 2003 | ||||||||||
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| Rank | Firm | Turnover 2002 €m (£m) | Increase % | Revenue per partner €m (£m) | Number of partners | Revenue per lawyer €K (£K) | Number of lawyers | |||
| 1 | Garrigues | 160.0 (114.2) | 12.0 | 1.5 (1.1) | 106 | 174 (124) | 922 | |||
| 2 | Cuatrecasas | 113.7 (81.2) | 11.0 | 1.4 (1.0) | 84 | 223 (159) | 511 | |||
| 3 | Uría & Menéndez | 83.7 (59.7) | 7.1 | 1.6 (1.1) | 52 | 312 (2223) | 268 | |||
| 4 | Landwell/PwC | 67.7 (48.3) | 9.0 | 2.8 (2.0) | 24 | 124 (89) | 546 | |||
| 5 | Ernst & Young | 51.7 (36.9) | 10.2 | 1.4 (1.0) | 38 | 134 (96) | 385 | |||
| 6 | Clifford Chance | 38.5 (27.5) | 7.6 | 1.8 (1.3) | 21 | 269 (192) | 143 | |||
| 7 | kpmg | 38.3 (27.3) | 14.5 | 1.8 (1.3) | 21 | 169 (121) | 226 | |||
| 8 | Gómez-Acebo & Pombo | 33.6 (24.0) | 9.1 | 1.0 (0.7) | 33 | 206 (147) | 163 | |||
| 9 | Baker & McKenzie | 33.4 (23.8) | 34.7 | 1.3 (1.0) | 26 | 223 (159) | 150 | |||
| 10 | P&A | 30.2 (21.6) | 3.1 | 1.0 (0.7) | 31 | 174 (124) | 174 | |||
| 11 | Hispajuris | 26.0 (18.6) | 7.4 | 0.2 (0.1) | 115 | 107 (76) | 242 | |||
| 12 | Bufete Barrilero | 23.7 (16.9) | 26.0 | 2.2 (1.6) | 11 | 199 (142) | 119 | |||
| 13 | Iusfinder | 22.0 (15.7) | 12.0 | 1.1 (0.8) | 20 | 333 (238) | 66 | |||
| 14 | Roca Junyent | 15.6 (11.1) | 15.6 | 0.6 (0.4) | 25 | 111 (79) | 140 | |||
| 15 | Linklaters | 14.0 (10.0) | 27.3 | 1.8 (1.3) | 8 | 275 (196) | 51 | |||
| 16 | Albiñana & Suárez de Lezo | 12.8 (9.1) | 6.7 | 1.0 (0.7) | 13 | 160 (114) | 80 | |||
| 17 | Alzaga Caro G Palencia Sánchez-Terá& Asociados | 12.4 (8.9) | 8.7 | 1.8 (1.3) | 7 | 234 (167) | 53 | |||
| 18 | Bufete Díaz-Arias | 11.9 (8.5) | 10.2 | 1.5 (1.1) | 8 | 143 (102) | 83 | |||
| 19 | Práctica Legal | 8.4 (6.0) | 16.6 | 0.7 (0.5) | 12 | 70 (50) | 120 | |||
| 20 | Mullerat | 8.2 (5.9) | 34.4 | 0.8 (0.6) | 11 | 121 (86) | 68 | |||
| Other ranked City and US firms… | ||||||||||
| 24 | Squire Sanders & Dempsey | 7.0 (5.0) | 1.4 | 1.0 (0.7) | 7 | 250 (178) | 28 | |||
| 25 | Allen & Overy | 6.5 (4.6) | 25.0 | 1.3 (0.9) | 5 | 241 (172) | 27 | |||
| 26 | SJ Berwin | 6.1 (4.4) | 5.2 | 2.0 (1.4) | 3 | 226 (161) | 27 | |||
| 28 | Denton Lupicinio | 5.7 (4.1) | 5.8 | 1.0 (0.7) | 6 | 158 (113) | 36 | |||
| 31 | dla | 4.3 (3.1) | 8.3 | 0.9 (0.6) | 5 | 205 (146) | 21 | |||
| 32 | Ashurst Morris Crisp | 4.2 (3.0) | 110.0 | 1.4 (1.0) | 3 | 233 (166) | 18 | |||
| Source: Expansión | ||||||||||
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