Lateral partner hires among elite US firms in London have slowed during the last year, according to research from Legal Week, which illustrates the uphill struggle faced by US firms attempting to recruit leading names in the City.

The survey of hiring trends at 23 US firms in London found they made a total of 65 lateral hires in 2007, up from 58 the previous year but down on 2005, when hiring activity peaked and 70 lawyers were recruited.

Significantly, some of the US' top firms saw a fall in partner-hiring activity with 10 firms, including Latham & Watkins, Kirkland & Ellis, Weil Gotshal & Manges and Baker & McKenzie, all reporting a drop in lateral appointments.

While a handful of bigger firms including Reed Smith Richards Butler, Jones Day and Mayer Brown managed to increase the number of partners they took on last year, the majority of those boosting their numbers were less established names in the UK such as O'Melveny & Myers, Paul Hastings Janofsky & Walker and Morrison & Foerster.

In addition, almost a quarter of the 2007 hires were not partners at their previous firms and a significant proportion came from other US firms rather than UK practices. Thirty-one of the hires came from UK firms, while an equal number came from rival US firms.

Weil Gotshal City head Mike Francies attributed the results to rising profits at UK firms. He said: "With the UK firms seeing their profits go up and the dollar going down, it means there is less financial incentive for people to move. Also, as very few people are motivated purely by money, when all the UK firms are doing well, generally people should be happy and therefore less motivated to move."

Abrahams Russell director Greg Abrahams said: "The bulk of the magic circle firms remain beyond US firms' reach. The majority of partners who move have a reason, such as falling out, being sidelined or retirement. It is difficult to winkle out the stars and, in the near term, that is likely to remain the case."

The most high-profile US firm hires from UK practices were Kirkland's capture of a three-partner funds team from SJ Berwin led by Mark Mifsud and White & Case's hire of Clifford Chance funds partner Matthew Judd.

The results demonstrate the increasing difficulty for US firms recruiting leading names in the competitive UK marketplace.

Commenting on the findings, Shearman & Sterling London head Kenneth MacRitchie said: "It may be that some of the bigger firms are getting to the point where they are the size they want to be, so hiring may slow down. There are a number of areas in which we would like to grow, but if we cannot get the right people, we would rather wait."

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