New York may be an ultra-competitive legal market but many of the city’s leading law firms are becoming increasingly focused on taking market share in a different city: London.

In recent months, firms such as Cravath Swaine & Moore; Davis Polk & Wardwell; Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton; and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, among others, have all hired prominent laterals in London. Most of these are focused on growing their corporate practices in the U.K, to help service European deals, restructuring, funds and finance work, and their hiring is made easier by the fact they can offer larger compensation packages compared with U.K. firms.