UK elite firms expand foothold in New York M&A market

The UK’s elite law firms are cementing their foothold in New York’s lucrative M&A market, with new data showing a sharp uptick in partner hiring - and no departures - in 2024.

The figures, compiled by transatlantic recruiter Macrae, confirm the longer-term push by the UK’s top firms to gain ground in the world’s most competitive legal market and chip away at the market shares commanded by the likes of Kirkland and Skadden.

By the numbers

According to Macrae:

• In 2020, UK firms made no M&A partner hires in New York.
• That rose to two hires in both 2021 and 2022.
• In 2024, they made 11 M&A partner hires in the city - more than five times the 2021 figure.
• Not a single M&A partner left an elite UK firm in New York in 2024, underlining the direction of travel.
• Freshfields added five M&A partners in New York last year, more than any other UK firm.

Freshfields: the standout performer

For years, the US - New York in particular - has been the final frontier for London’s legal heavyweights. They’re now starting to make real headway by leaning into their global reach and track record in cross-border work.

Freshfields has quietly built the most successful US corporate practice of any UK firm.

Last year, the Financial Times said the firm was now firmly part of "New York’s legal elite", with deals data for the first half of the year putting Freshfields among the top 10 advisers on M&A deals in the US.

Data from Bloomberg Law confirmed the trend at the start of this year, with research showing the firm ended 2024 as the fourth biggest M&A dealmaker of any firm globally, advising on deals worth a total of $264 billion.

Among the firm's biggest M&A mandates was its instruction on Johnson & Johnson’s $13 billion takeover of medical device maker Shockwave Medical where it was favoured over Cravath - probably the most prestigious name in the US.

In the 2023/24 financial year, US revenues made up nearly 20% of the firm’s global revenue of £2.1 billion - £391 million, up 147% since 2019.

Elsewhere in the Magic Circle

On the surface at least, Linklaters looks to be the most focused on a New York breakthrough after Freshfields.

It kicked off 2024 with a headline-making lateral raid on Shearman & Sterling, hiring a six-partner M&A team that included heavyweight dealmakers George Casey, Greg Gewirtz and Heiko Schiwek.

At the time, senior partner Aedamar Comiskey called the move "transformational", saying that growing the firm’s US M&A capability was a strategic priority.

Later in the year, it strengthened its New York finance bench by hiring a four-partner team from A&O Shearman, including David Lucking, global co-head of A&O’s financial markets practice.

And in early 2025, Linklaters moved again - this time in litigation - bringing in a four-partner team from New York disputes boutique Patterson Belknap.

A&O, meanwhile, is expected to post significantly stronger US numbers after its tie-up with Shearman & Sterling went live in May last year.

Even before the tie-up, the firm’s 2023/24 accounts showed US revenues had jumped 105% over the previous five years - second only to Freshfields among the Magic Circle.