Top 50 leaders give their perspective on an extraordinary 12 months – and their expectations for the year ahead

Ted Burke, chief executive, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer
On 2008-09:
"It was a difficult year, at times a traumatic one. The events of last September were particularly worrying but the worst certainly seems to be over. Currency fluctuations did affect us and our increase in income can be chalked up to foreign exchange movement. Otherwise, our income would have been flat, which is still a good performance given the circumstances.We expect this year to be more difficult and income to be down."

On the law firm model:
"In any context, leverage will magnify gains and losses. Most law firms that increase gearing in a bull market live to regret it when the market turns and I would guess that some have such regrets right now. Our preference is to focus on true value-added work that requires versatile and creative lawyers but not necessarily high gearing."

Peter Martyr, chief executive, Norton Rose
On 2008-09:
"In what has been a difficult environment, the work we have put in has paid off. The overall togetherness of the firm and the relationship we have with our staff has been important. Flex was a bold thing to do but it showed that the firm was prepared not to follow the pack."

On the market:
"We were disappointed to see the Middle East slowdown as fast as it did. I am also worried by how people reacted to the downturn. The profession didn't respond particularly well. I don't think people should expect it to be a better year. It might get relatively better in the second half but there is nothing to give you the sense that matters are going to get worse."

Howard Morris, chief executive, Denton Wilde Sapte
On 2008-09:
"It has been a year of two halves. The second half was the worst. For us it happened around 12 October when the UK banks came close to collapse and suddenly everything in the City went quiet. During the first half, the UK was already in an economic situation where we were moving into a downturn, but what took everyone by surprise was the sudden severity by which the economy fell. Still, we had strong performances in banking, TMT, energy and infrastructure throughout the year."

On the future:
"The year ahead will still be tough – we won't start seeing an uptick for a while. The industry has descended to the bottom."

Simon Bromwich, managing partner, Ashurst
On 2008-09:
"It was a tough year, especially post-Lehman. Despite a good first half it was clearly going to be hard to maintain any sort of growth. Calendar 2009 has been improving month by month but we are some way from where we need to be."

On Ashurst:
"What we will see at Ashurst is a long period of steady growth. We know what firm we want Ashurst to be and if we stay focused on that then we will come out of this in a very strong position. Although there will be changes in the market we don't think the world will be fundamentally different."

David Childs, managing partner, Clifford Chance
On 2008-09:
"It has been a difficult year. In September and October a number of our banking clients went into severe difficulties. Performance in the second half was much poorer and thus it has been a very tough year. The financial crisis started in July 2007 and to be frank, we didn't see it getting as bad as this. Activity before September was exactly in line with what we were thinking. [But] one bad year will not stop our strategy of aiming to be a strong firm across all six of our practice areas. We are good at taking a long-term view."

On the legal market:
"Given what happened to our clients, the legal industry has held up better than expected. The work mix will change, there will be much more restructuring work and capital markets work. Real estate looks like it will take longer to come back."

Simon Johnston, senior partner, Nabarro
On the outlook:
"I hope this is going to be a year of two parts. There are signs that the transactional work is coming back and hopefully, come September, we will see an upturn in work. But this is not going to change overnight – although there is more talk about doing deals it does not instantly translate into deals."

Chris Carroll, managing partner, Travers Smith
On 2008-09:
"It would be hard to imagine less ideal trading conditions for our particular model and practice mix. It was the perfect doldrums."

Simon Davies, managing partner, Linklaters
On 2008-09:
"It was a year of exceptional circumstances – a lot of crisis work where our people responded incredibly well. Big multi-practice deals like Lehman [Brothers' administration] involved 17 different practices, 11 offices and around 300 lawyers that tested our expertise – a unique experience in many ways."

On the legal market:
"Over the last year there has been something of a shake-out and there is no reason to think that the flight to quality will not continue."

On the top 50:
"If one looks at the overall performance of the top firms it shows how remarkably robust the legal industry is but, as we all know, the full impact of the recession will not be felt until some time after its impact on the real economy. This year will prove much more challenging than the last."

David Dickinson, senior partner, Simmons & Simmons
On 2008-09:
"Our financial markets practice performed better than expected.  One area where we were especially pleased with our activity was in the equity capital markets field, where we acted on several rights issues."

On the outlook:
"I do not see transactional levels picking up just yet. Although disputes resolution was a very successful area last year, generally I do not see the increase being as large as was anticipated. I am not making any predictions on the current year's financial results but our aspiration is to be ahead on this year's profits, while we hope for about the same level of revenues."

Charlie Geffen, senior partner, Ashurst
On 2008-09:
"It's the transactional work that ultimately provides the leverage and increase in activity, which then turns into profitability. That, in all its forms has substantially declined, which is going to hurt. The work that there has been has been biased towards senior lawyer time."

David Ryan, managing partner, Pinsent Masons
On 2008-09:
"It was a difficult year for us just like other firms. But we have continued to follow our strategy of investment in people and offices for the benefit of the long-term, and to do all we can to safeguard jobs. Our commitment to staff retention is part of the reason for our lower profits."

On the outlook for 2009-10:
"It is right to be cautious at the moment but there is a fragile confidence in the marketplace. We are planning to take advantage of the opportunities ahead of us and make progress as a result, even against a very challenging backdrop."

Jonathan Blake, senior partner, SJ Berwin
On the firm's 48.8% drop in PEP in 2008-09:
"It is clearly a pretty substantial decline. It reflects the fact that we are very reliant on our transactional practices, which account for around two-thirds of our business. The credit crunch affected these areas badly so we were affected by this."

"We are disappointed with the results. They are not acceptable for a firm with our level of ambition. We are going to focus on improving these results in the future by looking at our areas of strength and deepening our client relationships as well as increasing efficiency and looking at costs."

On the outlook for 2009-10:
"Based on our experience we are well-placed to recover as the market does. That's not to say we will sit around and wait for this to happen but our clients are talking more optimistically and we believe there will be a recovery this financial year."

David Harris, managing partner, Lovells
On the outlook for 2009-10:
"It is a difficult one to predict. It is generally accepted that we are now through the worst and the concerns of a financial collapse have passed. However, while there is talk of green shoots, the underlying data does not really support that so far and at best I suspect we will see a slow and gradual recovery. It will therefore be a tough year in which many clients will continue to suffer, with work levels remaining uneven. Many firms will be looking to the counter cyclical areas of their practices to drive their performance. We see this market as an opportunity to strengthen our position relative to the top firms.

Neville Eisenberg, managing partner, Berwin Leighton Paisner
On 2008-09:
"On the one hand, we have made great progress on our strategy, including internationally, but we also had a challenging year financially. Our strategic growth was made possible through our partners continuing to be supportive of the strategy.

"In strategic terms, it was a very good year. When the markets collapsed and the recession struck, clearly our initial expectations as to our financial performance were not going to be met."

On opportunities during the downturn:
"There is considerable mobility in the market and therefore more opportunity to develop the practice, but at the same time one has to be careful to be selective."

David Willis, managing partner, Herbert Smith
On 2008-09:
Last year could have been better but considering how ghastly the outside world has been doing it could have been a lot worse. Overall I'm pleased with the financial performance.

On the firm's redundancy programme:
"We concluded we needed to rebalance our London headcount, which was a shame, but hopefully leaves us well-positioned. We've never done that before and I hope we never have to do it again."

On the performance of the top 50:
"There is a significant range in performance across the group with few clear trends. In some ways it's remarkable how robust the businesses of law firms are considering how difficult external economic conditions have been. PEP has tailed off but it's still up on five years ago and, for most firms, the year before represented a high base.

David Kerr, managing partner, Bird & Bird
On 2008-09:
"We actually grew in every country, including the UK. I wouldn't single out any region as the financial downturn has been such a global factor. The economy has been tough in every country but what pleased us was the consistency of our performance."

On profit levels:
"Profits are important for every firm but most important is client service. If we manage to deliver a high level of service then a reasonable level of profits will follow."

Clint Evans, chief executive, Barlow Lyde & Gilbert
On Barlows:
"We're in a good position to further align our practice to what our clients are looking for. For us, the future is looking good. We have the right size and shape to take on disputes and the corporate practice will focus on client numbers and sectors."