The Legal 500

As advisers to many of the world’s leading businesses and business leaders, Macfarlanes offers discerning clients an alternative to the world’s legal giants. It provides comprehensive services in its chosen areas of expertise, handling work of a quality and scale that places it amongst the leading law firms in the City. Much of the firm’s work is international, advising both overseas based and UK clients on multi-jurisdictional projects.

Macfarlanes’ international strategy is founded on independence. The firm is not a member of any alliance of law firms, formal or informal, nor is it party to any ‘best friends’ relationships. The firm practises English and EU law, operating in small cohesive partner-led teams. Accordingly, Macfarlanes’ international offering is very different to that of the global law firms with whom it competes.

The firm: Emphasis is on close client relationships. The firm’s size – approximately 300 lawyers, is a clear advantage in this respect. It allows the firm to handle the largest matters whilst preserving a professional intimacy with clients that translates into a more cohesive, well co-ordinated and direct service. The discipline of using small teams wherever possible also means that the firm is naturally proactive, looking to add value for its client and their work. The firm is able to handle complex and high value transactions and disputes and still gives a flexible and cost-effective service. Nowhere is this personal connection more important than in the international arena. Clients rely on their lawyers to interpret the law and much more when they are operating away from the jurisdictions that they know best. Much of the firm’s practice is international in nature and it is driven by the firm’s excellent relationships with leading independent law firms outside the UK. Macfarlanes invests heavily in building these relationships to give clients a first class and seamless service.

Type of work undertaken: Macfarlanes is highly regarded for its work in public and private M&A, private equity (buyouts and secondary transactions) and corporate advisory. The firm’s rapidly expanding banking and finance group provides a diverse and multi-disciplinary service to banks, financial institutions, corporate borrowers and private equity sponsors. It includes an experienced restructuring and insolvency team. The leading tax, competition, IP, employment and pensions groups enables Macfarlanes to provide its broad range of commercial clients with high quality legal services, both in relation to corporate transactional work and at the client’s operational level.

The firm has a particularly strong reputation in advertising, marketing, brand, hospitality and sports-related work, as well as for its investment funds and financial services/regulatory practice. The firm’s real estate practice is substantial, covering all transactions involving the ownership, development, investment in and financing of real estate. Commercial property investment and development transactions are at the core of the firm’s real estate practice and its planning, environmental and construction groups are integral to much of this work.

Macfarlanes has a long-standing reputation for world class private client work. Combined with the firm’s corporate and real estate capability, this means that Macfarlanes is in a particularly strong position to advise high-net-worth entrepreneurs/business leaders wherever they are based in the world. The firm’s reputation is for advising these clients and their family trusts both domestically and internationally. Tax planning, including the creation and administration of trusts, the preparation of wills and the administration of estates is central to this work. The firm also advises on tax investigations, immigration, philanthropy and charitable giving.

The firm’s litigation and dispute resolution practice is highly regarded with a strong record on advising in relation to disputes arising out of: corporate acquisitions, shareholders and minority/unfair prejudice issues; employment matters; advertising and IP cases; marketing disputes; real estate disputes; financial services and regulatory issues and investigations; fraud and financial crime; trust and probate litigation; professional negligence; major construction and engineering arbitrations and in relation to environmental and health and safety matters (with particular emphasis on class matters).

Number of UK partners 72
Number of other UK fee-earners 230