This must be a consequence of spending too much time talking to managing partners, but I can’t help feeling sorry for Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer’s chief executive, Ted Burke. There you are, presiding over one of the UK’s most globally successful businesses, and you produce a fantastic set of results against a challenging market backdrop. ‘Fantastic’ in this case means a near-40% hike in average partner profits to Sullivan & Cromwell-esque levels, achieving a long-term strategic aim of upgrading your ‘share price’ to compete at a global level. What’s more, this has been achieved to a considerable extent thanks to a high-risk restructuring of the business that attracted painful criticism and sniping from rivals.
But such is the current environment that the firm feels the need to wheel out Ted in sackcloth and ashes to deliver an almost penitential message regarding its success and promise that things will get worse – lest the firm be criticised for unacceptable success.
