Brand Latham is under siege
Of the firms with any pretence to global credibility, there is no doubt that Latham & Watkins, until recently, had the best brand. That’s not to say its partnership or client base match up to a Linklaters or Skadden – plainly, they don’t. But having hauled itself out of its Drexel-induced hangover of the early 1990s, the firm had built a phenomenal brand that obscured the odd shortcoming and made it the easiest client in recruitment. The building blocks of this were strong leadership, clear strategy and sound quality control. But the key factor was its genius in marrying a performance culture with a supportive atmosphere. Many firms have achieved one or the other but Latham was the only one of its global peer group that managed both for any length of time. It was this trait that led the firm to be once described in an influential US directory as “a cult, but a happy cult”. And bottom-line performance was every bit as impressive. When in 2007, Latham became one of only two US firms to generate more than $2bn (£1.4bn) in revenue, the firm crowned a five-year period in which it achieved incredible growth, while profitability and its global network had likewise expanded.
