Herbert Smith LLP is a leading international legal practice with over 1,400 lawyers working globally.
The firm: The firm is committed to providing legal services of the highest quality to major corporations, financial institutions and governments. Herbert Smith offers a distinctive balance of transactional, projects and dispute capability to its clients worldwide. The firm’s international coverage spans Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Africa. Its international capability is further enhanced by its formal alliance with top-tier European firms Gleiss Lutz and Stibbe, and its formal associations with leading law firms Al Ghazzawi Professional Association (GPA) and Hiswara Bunjamin & Tandjung (HBT), in Saudia Arabia and Indonesia respectively.
Types of work undertaken: Corporate and commercial: Herbert Smith provides a comprehensive range of legal services across all areas of corporate and commercial activity. Frequently, its role puts it at the centre of industries that are reshaping and the firm is well-known for its innovative work on groundbreaking deals and restructurings. The firm has a long-standing reputation for advice on mergers, acquisitions and takeovers and is highly regarded for its expertise in corporate finance. Other areas of corporate expertise include: competition law; corporate recovery; employment; European law; insurance; investment funds; media; telecoms; pensions and share schemes; trusts and charities. The firm’s expertise is reflected by its consistently high ranking in the major league tables of top law firms.
Banking and finance: Herbert Smith’s growing finance practice is known for the distinctive quality of its debt finance capability, advising on international and domestic deals in the bank lending (including acquisition finance and property finance), securitisation and capital markets, asset finance and project finance markets, as well as on corporate recovery matters. Its experience of acting for parties on all sides of transactions and its reputation for innovation give the firm a broad and original perspective when approaching deals, particularly those that are complex. With a focus on service delivery, Herbert Smith has a full finance offering in its London, Hong Kong, Madrid, Moscow, Paris and Singapore offices, as well as alliance firms.
Dispute resolution: the firm has a formidable reputation for domestic and international litigation, arbitration and ADR – a pre-eminent position it has held for decades. It has consistently been ranked as the leading UK and Asian firm for commercial litigation. It is the breadth of the firm’s practice and the experience and quality of its practitioners that distinguish it from its competitors. The firm’s new disputes office in Belfast, which is focused on the document review often found in major contentious cases, enables it to offer clients an attractive combination of quality, efficiency and pricing.
Areas of specialism include commercial litigation, international arbitration, advocacy, ADR, banking and regulatory disputes, intellectual property, insurance litigation, private wealth and charities, international public law, competition litigation, fraud and investigations, health and safety, professional negligence and trusts litigation. Herbert Smith has experience before every type of court and tribunal, and conducts arbitrations in all parts of the world. The firm increasingly uses ADR procedures and several of the partners are accredited mediators. As a firm, Herbert Smith is strongly committed to the development of its advocacy practice. The firm’s unique in-house advocacy unit provides a number of benefits for clients, including ease of instruction and reduction in cost.
Real estate: the firm has a reputation for executing the largest and most complex real estate deals with accuracy and at speed. Its broad practice covers development, investment, infrastructure/projects, corporate occupier, planning, construction and property litigation.
Clients: the firm represents many of the world’s leading corporations and most of the pre-eminent investment banks. Its client base includes a growing number of the Middle East’s and Asia’s blue-chip multinationals.
International: in addition to its network of international offices, the firm has a tripartite formal alliance with the German firm Gleiss Lutz and the Benelux firm Stibbe. The firm’s formal association with HBT in Jakarta provides further expertise in Asia, while its capability in the Middle East now covers Dubai, Abu Dhabi and, through its exclusive association with leading Saudi firm GPA, Saudi Arabia. The firm also expanded in Europe by opening an office in Madrid in June 2009.
Other offices: Abu Dhabi, Bangkok, Beijing, Belfast, Brussels, Dubai, Hong Kong, Madrid, Moscow, Paris, Shanghai, Singapore, Tokyo, Jakarta (associated firm)
UK
Number of partners 167
Number of assistant solicitors 487
Number of other fee-earners 234
International
Number of partners 99
Number of assistant solicitors 334
Number of other fee-earners 130
Above material supplied by Herbert Smith LLP.