List of largest United Kingdom–based law firms by revenue

Last updated January 13, 2025

This is a list of the world's largest United Kingdom-based law firms by revenue in the financial year 2024. This data is based off the law firms official financial report for the 2023/24 financial year running from 1st of April 2023 to the 31st of March 2024. The list contains the 17 law firms which generated over half a billion US dollars in this period. 16 of which are London-based and 1 headquarter in Manchester.

Note: A few UK based law firms have merged with another entity which may be located outside of the UK for example London's Allen & Overy merged with New York's Shearman in May of 2024, the result of this is the removal of the US revenue and number of lawyers from the list to just account for its UK operations. As well as this some data from the number of lawyers at the firms are from the 2022/23 financial year as the firms have not updated as of 12/01/25.

Largest United Kingdom Based Law Firms
Firm	Revenue (US$)	Number of practicing Lawyers	Revenue per Lawyer	Headquartered
Clifford Chance	$2.810 billion	3,319	$846,641	London, England
Linklaters	$2.730 billion	3,075	$887,805	London, England
Allen & Overy	$2.690 billion	3,358	$801,073	London, England
Freshfields BD	$2.550 billion	2,038	$1,251,227	London, England
Herbert Smith Freehills	$1,594 billion	2,299	$693,345	London, England
Ashurst	$1,173 billion	1,719	$682,373	London, England
Clyde & Co	$1,043 billion	2,138	$487,839	London, England
Eversheds Sutherland	$0.915 billion	2,616	$349,770	London, England
Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner	$0.840 billion	1,275	$658,824	London, England
Slaughter & May	$0.805 billion	594	$1,355,219	London, England
Pinsent Masons	$0.793 billion	2,330	$340,343	London, England
Simmons & Simmons	$0.701 billion	974	$719,713	London, England
Bird & Bird	$0.665 billion	1,600	$415,625	London, England
Addleshaw Goddard	$0.606 billion	1,197	$506,267	London, England
Taylor Wessing	$0.587 billion	1,179	$497,880	London, England
Osborne Clarke	$0.543 billion	1,205	$450,622	London, England
DWF	$0.531 billion	1,100	$482,727	Manchester, England

This is a list of the world's largest United Kingdom–based law firms by revenue in the financial year 2022.^[1]

Global rank	Firm	Revenue (US$)	Lawyers	Revenue per lawyer (US$)
12	Allen & Overy	$2,597,910,000	2,821	$921,000
13	Clifford Chance	$2,550,900,000	2,547	$1,002,000
16	Linklaters	$2,350,490,000	2,684	$876,000
17	Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer	$2,276,264,000	2,062	$1,104,000
24	CMS (EEIG)	$1,964,175,000	4,334	$453,000
35	Herbert Smith Freehills	$1,467,201,000	2,299	$638,000
36	Eversheds Sutherland	$1,453,516,562	2,616	$556,000
55	Ashurst	$1,087,411,000	1,719	$633,000
65	Clyde & Co.	$975,577,000	2,148	$454,000
74	Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner	$845,190,000	1,190	$710,000
81	Pinsent Masons	$749,559,000	1,728	$434,000
83	Slaughter and May	$729,889,000	594	$1,229,000
92	Simmons & Simmons	$644,529,000	973	$662,000
96	Bird & Bird	$612,365,000	1,543	$397,000
107	Addleshaw Goddard	$548,035,000	1,197	$458,000
109	Taylor Wessing	$543,087,000	1,079	$503,000
126	DWF	$470,222,000	694	$678,000
128	Osborne Clarke	$465,603,000	1,205	$386,000
129	Fieldfisher	$457,727,000	779	$588,000
147	Kennedys	$387,930,000	1,123	$345,000
150	DAC Beachcroft	$371,130,000	1,166	$318,000
152	Macfarlanes	$366,929,000	404	$909,000
154	Withers	$356,285,000	778	$458,000
158	Irwin Mitchell	$341,934,000	816	$419,000
169	Mishcon de Reya	$315,461,000	545	$579,000
186	Stephenson Harwood	$282,059,000	507	$556,000
188	HFW	$278,768,000	495	$563,000
194	Watson Farley & Williams	$266,471,000	579	$460,000

This list excludes firms with a large presence in the UK that structure their operations as a Swiss Verein. This is because these firms structurally differ from the firms listed above, especially when it comes to sharing profits. Some of these firms include DLA Piper, Baker McKenzie, Dentons, Norton Rose Fulbright and Squire Patton Boggs among others.

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Linklaters LLP is a British multinational law firm, headquartered in London, England. Founded in 1838, it is one of the four prestigious "Magic Circle" law firms known for their corporate and financial expertise. It currently employs over 3100 lawyers across 31 offices in 21 countries.

A law firm is a business entity formed by one or more lawyers to engage in the practice of law. The primary service rendered by a law firm is to advise clients about their legal rights and responsibilities, and to represent clients in civil or criminal cases, business transactions, and other matters in which legal advice and other assistance are sought.

Clifford Chance LLP is a British multinational law firm headquartered in London, England, and a member of the "Magic Circle", a group of leading London-based multinational law firms.

Allen & Overy LLP was a British multinational law firm headquartered in London, England. The firm has 590 partners and over 5,800 employees worldwide. In 2023 A&O reported an increase in revenue to GBP2.1 billion and is the second largest law firm headquartered in the UK by revenue.

Freshfields LLP is a British multinational law firm headquartered in London, England, and a member of the so-called "Magic Circle". The firm has 28 offices in 17 jurisdictions across Asia, Europe, the Middle East and North America. It advises national and multinational corporations, financial institutions and governments.

Sidley Austin LLP is an American multinational law firm with approximately 2,300 lawyers in 21 offices worldwide. It was established in 1866 and its headquarters is at One South Dearborn in Chicago's Loop. It is one of the largest law firms in the world in terms of revenue. Among its alumni are former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama as well as Vice President-Elect J.D. Vance.

Ashurst is a British multinational law firm headquartered in London. It has 27 offices in 15 countries apart from the United Kingdom, across Asia, Australia, Europe, the Middle East and North America, and employs around 1,600 legal advisers. Ashurst is 55th in the list of 100 largest law firms in the world by revenue, and 8th in the list of largest UK law firms by revenue.

The American Lawyer is a monthly legal magazine and website published by ALM Media. The periodical and its parent company, ALM, were founded in 1979 by Steven Brill.

Latham & Watkins LLP is an American multinational law firm. Founded in 1934 in Los Angeles, California, Latham is the second-largest law firm in the world by revenue. As of 2022, Latham is also one of the most profitable law firms in the world, with profits per partner exceeding US$5.7 million.

Irwin Mitchell is a full service law firm in the United Kingdom, established in Sheffield in 1912. The firm offers legal and wealth management services from its 20 offices, and employs more than 3,000 people.

Reed Smith LLP is a global law firm with more than 1,500 lawyers in 30 offices throughout the United States, Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

Bingham McCutchen LLP was a global law firm with approximately 850 attorneys in nine US offices and five international offices. It ceased operations in late 2015, when several hundred of its partners and associate lawyers left the firm to join Philadelphia-based Morgan Lewis.

Clyde & Co is a global law firm headquartered in London, United Kingdom. The firm is one of the top 10 largest law firms in the City of London and has the largest dispute resolution practice of any UK law firm. It employs 2,600 legal professionals and more than 5,000 total staff. In 2022–23, Clyde & Co's revenue was £788.6 million.

Ince & Co was a United Kingdom-based holding company with a core business in legal services, which was listed on the London Stock Exchange. The company also offered complementary services in accounting, financial services, consulting, and pensions advice. It was previously known as Ince Gordon Dadds LLP, following the acquisition of Ince & Co by Gordon Dadds Group LLP, and rebranded as The Ince Group in August 2019.

Nabarro LLP was an international law firm headquartered in London, United Kingdom. In 2014/15 it achieved total revenues of £126 million, making it the 34th-largest UK-based law firm by this measurement, and profits per equity partner of £576,000. It is part of an international alliance with other independent law firms covering Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the UK.

King & Wood Mallesons (KWM) is an international commercial law firm based in Asia-Pacific. It is the largest international law firm in Asia-Pacific. It has 26 offices and more than 3,000 legal professionals across Australia, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore and the United States.

Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) is a global law firm with headquarters in London, England and Sydney, Australia. HSF has been widely acknowledged as one of the world's most elite and selective law firms, and, as of 2024, was the 33rd largest by revenue. It was formed on 1 October 2012 by a merger between the United Kingdom-based Herbert Smith founded in 1882, then a member of the Silver Circle of leading UK law firms, and Freehills founded in 1852, one of the Big Six Australian law firms.

The legal services sector of the United Kingdom is a significant part of the national economy; it had a total output of £22.6 billion in 2013, up from 10.6 billion in 2001, and is equivalent to 1.6% of the country's gross domestic product for that year. The sector has a trade surplus is £3.1 billion in 2013 and directly employees 316,000 people, two-thirds of whom are located outside London. The UK is the world's most international market for legal services. It allows virtually unrestricted access for foreign firms, resulting in over 200 foreign law firms with offices in London and other cities in the UK. Around half of these are US firms, with the remainder mainly from Europe, Australia and Canada. The UK legal market has a strong global position due to the popularity of English law. Some 27% of the world's 320 legal jurisdictions use English Common law.

DWF is a global legal business headquartered in Manchester, England, with 31 offices across the world. In March 2019, DWF was listed on the London Stock Exchange. With a £366m valuation and offer size of £95m, DWF became the UK's largest listed law firm.

References

↑ "The 2023 Global 200 Ranked by Revenue". Law.com International. Retrieved 11 March 2024.

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[1] "The 2023 Global 200 Ranked by Revenue". Law.com International. Retrieved 11 March 2024.

[1]

List of largest United Kingdom–based law firms by revenue

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