London's status as a financial center post-Brexit has understandably been a nagging concern for U.K. lawyers of late.

At the heart of the matter for law firms is whether they will be able to rely on the U.K. to remain Europe's center of activity for M&A, capital markets and litigation work despite it being outside of the European Union. Must firms move lawyers out of London and into EU locations to pick up work? Perhaps they will need to make cuts or merge in order to cope with a drop in revenue.

There are several reasons why these fears are overblown.

For a start, U.K. M&A activity has remained relatively steady throughout the Brexit process. Last year was the second-busiest for activity in the country since the financial crisis, and lawyers say Brexit has had no noticeable effect on activity levels.

The equity capital markets have not proved so resilient. U.K. IPO activity in the first part of 2019 was the worst since the financial crisis, as uncertainty caused clients to sit on their hands. But several lawyers in the practice area expect this to be a short-lived phenomenon, not least because companies remain keen on the U.K. and there are not many other thriving capital markets in the rest of Europe.

Although many predict London will suffer from Brexit, many feel that the lack of any single market rival to take its place as a financial center offers the city a degree of safety for the time being. Paris, Milan, Madrid, Amsterdam, Brussels, Frankfurt and Dublin have all been touted as possibilities to take some of London's market share, but none has emerged as a serious contender so far.

Only Frankfurt and Dublin can claim to have enjoyed any serious exodus from London's financial services industry since the Brexit referendum, and even then the numbers involved have been relatively small. Frankfurt is a larger ­financial center, but language and regulatory barriers make it less attractive than Dublin for a lot of U.K.-based institutions. While the likes of Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Barclays and Morgan Stanley have built up their operations in the Irish capital, local lawyers say the recent banker influx consists mostly of back-office staff. The city remains relatively small—with hardly any high-rise buildings—making the prospect of several huge financial institutions moving in hard to imagine.

Neither is there expected to be a decline in U.K. disputes work. Local litigators point to the fact that the U.K.'s legal system remains well respected across the world, meaning London's position as a popular location for disputes is unlikely to suffer. Attempts have been made by cities such as Amsterdam and Paris to set up English-language courts and take work away from the U.K., but few London litigators believe they will gain much traction.

And perhaps most important of all, the U.K. is viewed as a good place to do business, even in spite of Brexit. In the latest Global Competitiveness Report by the World Economic Forum, the U.K. ranked eighth, slightly lower than the year prior but still comfortably ahead of the likes of France, Australia, Canada and China. The U.K. is regarded as being among the best in the world for skilled employees, macroeconomic stability, hiring and firing practices, low corruption levels and top universities and business schools.

This is not to say that the U.K. will be just fine post-Brexit, of course. A weakening of ties to its closest and largest trading partner will almost certainly do some economic damage.

But a lack of alternative locations, a strong educational establishment and a well-regarded judiciary mean any change to London's status is likely to be gradual rather than sudden. And it might not come at all.