Slaughter and May’s incoming senior partner, Chris Saul, is to take the helm at interesting times. Facing a globalising legal services market, for seven years under Tim Clark the firm’s response has been basically to buff up its best friends network and hope for the best. Given the quality of firms involved and the efforts made, this has had some success. But for all protestations to the contrary, this model, which Saul is set to continue, is only now facing up to the reality of competing against the maturing global law firms.
A related trend is the growing emergence of the big four as a replacement for the magic circle. The latter term has been a brand that has served its members very well but, despite valiant efforts from Ashurst and Herbert Smith, a successor grouping looks more likely to shrink than admit new members.
