Top 50 firms reliant on financial services clients for deal work
Sector as a whole generated record revenue but financial sector still dominates deals work
February 25, 2015 at 10:05 AM
2 minute read
Nearly half of all deal activity at the UK's top 50 City firms over the last five years has been for financial services clients, a new report by lobbying group TheCityUK shows.
Between 2009 and 2014, the financial services industry accounted for 43% of the total value of deals on which top 50 UK firms advised.
Energy and utilities accounted for 10% of the total value of deals; technology, media and telecommunications for 9%; real estate and construction 5%; and manufacturing only 2%.
The remaining 31% of deals were for a variety of other client groups.
The report said that the "attractiveness of the UK as a place to set up and grow a financial services business" had contributed to the high volume of work in the sector.
It added: "Consolidation in investment banking and a fall in investment banking fee revenue in recent years has resulted in less advisory business for law firms.
"Practice areas which performed better since the recent economic slowdown have included insolvency/bankruptcy and restructuring."
The report also shows the combined turnover of law firms in the UK reached a record high in 2013-14, growing 8.4% to £30.6bn.
That figure represents 1.6% of UK gross domestic product (GDP) and 7% of global legal services fee revenue.
The report highlighted the UK's reputation for dispute resolution, with 80% of Commercial Court claims in 20133 involving at least one party from outside the UK.
It also found that around 40% of all governing law in global corporate arbitrations was English law.
However, attendees at the launch of the report today at the government's Global Law Summit were keen to espouse the wide ranging success of the industry.
Fiona Woolf, former Lord Mayor of London and CMS Cameron McKenna partner, said: "I'm very much of the view that we are missing an opportunity as a legal profession by saying that lawyers only seem to add value in dispute resolution, or that that's primarily what they do.
"I do think that TheCityUK and its members could do the whole of the legal sector a service by focusing on the value that lawyers add."
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