UK law firm recap: shrinking circle

The financial crisis has meant less money for London lawyers – overall. But two of the City’s five “magic circle” firms hardly seem to have felt the pain. The winners are Linklaters and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer. They both managed to bring in revenues of nearly £1.3bn for the year ended April. For Linklaters, that was an all-time high, and for Freshfields it was close. The success springs from getting a big chunk of the business of massive failure – at Lehman Brothers and the Royal Bank of ...