If you were a company in need of a tough litigator in the 1980s there would have been one name at the top of your list: Herbert Smith. The firm was acknowledged to be streaks ahead of its rivals, with star names including Lawrence Collins, Charles Plant, David Higgins, David Natali and David Gold helping to cement its reputation as the go-to firm for litigation.
After all, Herbert Smith pretty much wrote the book for the modern City litigator having, after World War II, pioneered a partner-led style of running disputes under legendary practitioners like John Barker and Francis Mann. Previously, litigation was run by clerks and outside counsel – but Herbert Smith developed a style of proactive litigation with parallels to the US tradition of trial lawyering.
