Sydney, Australia. Photo: Taras Vyshnya/Shutterstock.com

U.K. law firm Clyde & Co plans to continue its aggressive growth strategy in Australia, on the back of an upswing in litigation and by poaching partners from other firms.

The firm's Australian arm has experienced double-digit growth in revenue since it was established in 2012, with an increase of 33% in the last fiscal year and 28% the previous year.

"We are aggressively pursuing growth in each of the industries that we are focusing on," said Michael Tooma, managing partner of Clyde & Co Australia. "And we are doing that organically in terms of promotions from existing talent within Australia and we are doing it by actively being in the market for lateral partners in those industries."

Globally, Clyde & Co's revenue increased by more than 11%, to £611 million ($775 million) during the past year, according to Legal Week.

In Australia, the firm specialises in infrastructure and construction, transport, energy, insurance and cybersecurity. While it does have some transaction capability, it is mostly focused on pursuing litigation opportunities, be they funded by litigation funders, by corporations or by insurance policies, Tooma said, adding that the firm has benefited from a "very significant spike in litigation".

"The environment in that space has been quite favourable to law firms generally," he said.

Some of the spike has been driven by findings from various Royal Commissions – government inquiries into the banking and financial system, the aged-care sector and the disability services sector, Tooma said.

Michael Tooma

"What we're seeing is a rise in class action litigation. Australia was initially late to the party and has really taken to that as a platform and an area where our courts are highly organised," he said. "Even the thresholds are defined in a favourable way to allow for class actions to occur."

Tooma noted that Australia has been one of the "prime movers" behind litigation funding.

Additionally, a significant increase in regulation of occupational health and safety, the environment, cybersecurity and privacy breaches and corporate governance, and a focus on the personal accountability of directors and officers, have led to an increase in litigation in the regulatory space.

"I don't see many of those trends with litigation-based firms diminishing over the next few years – quite the contrary," Tooma said. "There certainly seems to have been a slowing down in some of the transactional areas but litigation as a component of law practice has been on the rise for some time and will continue to be on the rise."

Clyde & Co, which ranked as the 65th highest-grossing law firm in the world on ALM's 2018 Global 200 survey, became the latest in a stream of U.K. firms to target the Australia market when in 2012 it launched in Sydney and Perth with the hire of a four-person insurance team from local firm and Linklater-aligned Allens. It launched its Australian construction practice in 2013 by hiring partners from King & Wood Mallesons and Norton Rose Fulbright, and plans more hires.

"We are looking to make an announcement shortly in relation to another lateral in that space and a team of lawyers," he said. "There is a significant growth focus on that team."

In 2014, the firm opened what was its 40th office worldwide, in Brisbane, with the hire of a three-partner team from local firm Sparke Helmore. It also brought onboard a 30-strong team, including five partners, from Sydney insurance boutique Lee & Lyons in February 2016. Soon after, Tooma joined the firm from Norton Rose Fulbright.

Tooma described Australia as having a very sophisticated market for legal services and said most corporations the firm represents have a very significant in-house legal services capability. "They're very discerning in terms of their use of lawyers and law firms. Long gone are the days where corporates have an exclusive relationship with one particular firm, which they use across the board," he said.

Clyde & Co focuses on the areas in which it is known to be strong and leveraging both its local and global bench strength in those areas. "While that means we don't offer a number of areas of service, clients are generally well serviced by other firms in those spaces," Tooma said. "We are quite content with our clients using a number of firms."

The firm works as a single global entity, with partners based in one jurisdiction potentially working on matters and pitching for clients in other jurisdictions, which Tooma said provides clients with global expertise.

"There won't be any aspect of the areas that we specialise in that we haven't seen in some jurisdiction," he added.

In fact, Tooma said a lot of the firm's Australia-based lawyers end up working on matters outside of Australia because their expertise can "marry up" with the opportunity in that jurisdiction.

"We know who we are, we know what we want to be great at and what we are great at," Tooma said. "We go to market offering those services, we are focused on a certain profile of clients, global in nature, and we're trying to leverage our global expertise."

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