Is Wachtell the way?

Do you have any idea what the ratio of business services staff to lawyers at Wachtell Lipton, the most profitable firm in the US, is? About 2:1.

As our ground-breaking UK 200: Business Services report revealed this week, the most common ratio among top UK firms is way, way off Wachtell’s apparently generous ratio. For most UK firms it’s around 0.7: 1.

What does this tell us? Most obviously it would seem to confirm that Wachtell’s management values giving its lawyers the time to be lawyers above anything else. In contrast, the image conjured up by this ratio of lawyers in the UK is one of fee-earners drowning in piles of admin.

But is this really the case? As this week’s new report underlines, the ratios only tell part of the story. An increasing number of UK firms are taking advantage of a growing range of specialist services that can reduce that burden while simultaneously improving the skill set.

See today’s blog on the Holborn fire for more detail on just one of these areas, switchboard services, where a growing number of firms – including most recently Simmons & Simmons – are taking advantage of the services offered by the likes of Comxo.

This is 21^st century legal services market in action. It might not suit everybody, but then not everybody is Wachtell.

Matt

Matt Byrne
Deputy editor

Also on www.TheLawyer.com:

• Watson Farley & Williams has seen its global revenue rise 5 per cent in the first half of the 2015/16 financial year, up from £56.8m to £59.5m
• Ince & Co has lost its third partner to specialist shipping and insurance boutique BDM Law following the niche firm’s launch in June this year
• Nabarro has reported a 4 per cent increase in turnover during the first six months of the 2015/16 financial year, with revenue increasing from £54.1m to £56.3m