Matt Byrne

Matt is The Lawyer’s deputy editor. He has a particular focus on the US legal market. He also leads many of The Lawyer’s market reports, including the UK 200.

Scotland flag

Fast Financials: Not all Scot firms need mergers

As tie-ups continue apace in the Scottish legal market, there are still a few staunch independents that have all reported revenue rises over 2022/23. We dig a little deeper into their progress. Burness Paull and Shepherd & Wedderburn are among the firms to have reported revenue growth in the past financial year, with both steering […]

Morton Fraser to merge with MacRoberts as Scottish mid-sizers consolidate

Scottish firms Morton Fraser and MacRoberts are going ahead with one of the longest-discussed mergers in the history of the Scottish legal market, The Lawyer can exclusively reveal. The deal is broadly seen as a merger of equals, at least in terms of revenue size. In last year’s The Independents UK 200 report, Morton Fraser […]

Fast Financials: IPOs are out; private equity investment is in

House of Brands copycats stalk Shakespeares’ strategy Shakespeare Martineau is a bit complicated to describe these days. It’s now the largest constituent part of Ampa, a ‘House of Brands’ which also includes South East firm Mayo Wynne Baxter and a bunch of other legal and non-legal services. All partners are members of Ampa’s equity rather […]

Don’t specialise in ECM

Boy, are some parts of the market in the doldrums. None more so than equity capital markets (ECM) and, in particular, IPOs. The aborted IPO of WE Soda in June was another blow to an already depressed market. No wonder so much store has been placed on the listing of CAB Payments, an unusual bright […]

Clouds sky

Sidley awakes from its slumber

Corporate rankings are a bellwether of market conditions. Refinitiv’s recently published H1 global M&A data for 2023 was doom-laden for those who have made corporate law their trade of choice. In the first half of the year, worldwide M&A activity fell to a three-year low, down 37 per cent from H12022 to $1.3trn. But deals […]

James Libson, Mishcon de Reya

Mishcon stays schtum on PEP – as firm hits £255m turnover

Mishcon de Reya’s revenue reached £255m in the 2022/23 financial year, an increase of 10 per cent on 2021/22 and a new record. Total profit bucked the industry trend with a 22 per cent rise from £76m to £93m although the firm confirmed that its 2021/22 profit had been impacted by the investment in Mishcon’s […]

ChatGPT

Eversheds Sutherland unveils generative AI roadmap

Eversheds Sutherland is looking to rip up the traditional legal services rule book with a range of AI-focused policies and processes, in a direct response to the extraordinary rise of ChatGPT at the start of this year. The firm’s new approach is likely to result in Eversheds mandating the use of AI technology wherever possible […]

Pinsent Masons logo

Pinsents equity partners give themselves biggest pay rise in comp review

Pinsent Masons has boosted equity partner remuneration by around 13 per cent, while keeping pay rises for all other groups of staff at well below inflation. Last week, the firm completed a compensation review in which equity partners received a £2,500 per point pay rise. The hike took the value of a point to £21,400, […]

Embed AI before it embeds you

Partner conferences can be functional affairs but it wasn’t solely the fact that Burness Paull’s earlier this month was held at the splendidly futuristic V&A building in Dundee that helped it grab the attention. When the keynote topic is the Terminator, that tends to focus the mind. As you’ll have guessed, the topic very much […]