Hopes, it has to be said, weren’t high when Herbert Smith starting making noises about building a serious finance practice three years back. The investment needed is considerable, the competition now well established, and you could argue the firm had missed the boat by a good five years.
And, even leaving aside the considerable challenge, it was by no means an essential move for the firm. With a top-tier litigation team and highly credible M&A and property practices, Herbert Smith had no burning need to build a self-standing banking team. There are plenty of corporate-driven firms in the City that have had no problem maintaining an upward trajectory with only cursory banking capability. But it was obvious that Herbert Smith had never been able to reconcile itself with that reality, an insecurity which used to manifest itself in the firm habitually talking up its meagre banking credentials.
