While US law firms are rarely inclined to look outside Manhattan when defining the centre of the legal universe, many of the global players are raising a well-deserved glass to their London out-posts this year.

Not only do the largest US firms in London continue to defy the odds in terms of income growth – out-pacing their UK rivals for the first time during the financial year 2001 – they are doing so against a backdrop of the worst London corporate market in a decade.