Herbert Smith LLP

Herbert Smith LLP was a multinational law firm headquartered in London, United Kingdom. The firm was founded in the City of London in 1882 by Norman Herbert Smith and merged with the Australian law firm Freehills on 1 October 2012, forming Herbert Smith Freehills. At the time of the merger it had 13 offices across Europe, the Middle East and Asia,Herbert Smith LLP - a leading and full-service international legal practice - Locations
/ref> around 240 partners and 1,300 fee-earners. It was regarded as forming part of the " Silver Circle" of leading British law firms.

History

Herbert Smith was founded by Norman Herbert Smith in 1882. Edward Walker-Arnott took over as senior partner in 1992.

In 2000 Herbert Smith formed an alliance with German law firm Gleiss Lutz. Herbert Smith, Gleiss Lutz and the Dutch law firm Stibbe formed a tripartite alliance in 2002.

In April 2009 Herbert Smith opened an office in Madrid, Spain after recruiting three partners from Linklaters.

In 2009, Herbert Smith had total revenues of £444 million and profits per equity partner (PEP) of £845,000. In 2010, the firm's revenues were £450 million and PEP was £862,000.

In November 2010 Herbert Smith announced that it would be opening an office in Belfast, Northern Ireland, to perform litigation due diligence tasks.

In November 2011 partners at Gleiss Lutz and Stibbe voted against a merger with Herbert Smith. The alliance between Herbert Smith, Gleiss Lutz and Stibbe subsequently ended on 31 December 2011.

In February 2012, Herbert Smith entered merger discussion with the Australian law firm Freehills. Partners at both firms voted in favour of the merger in June 2012.

Practice

After specialising in company flotations and advising mining companies in the early part of the 20th century, by the time of its merger with Freehills, Herbert Smith's practice was dominated by litigation and corporate work ( M&A and equity capital markets in particular), with other practices including finance, real estate, energy, and competition.

Between 2004 and 2009, Herbert Smith gained more new FTSE 100/250 clients than did any other law firm in the UK, and, as of 2010, Herbert Smith had the fifth largest number of FTSE 100 clients and third largest number of combined FTSE 100/FTSE 250 clients of any UK-based law firm.

Herbert Smith was known for a strict recruitment policy and in August 2012 terminated the training contracts of students who failed any modules of the Accelerated LPC undertaken at BPP Holborn.

References

External links

Herbert Smith profile at TheLawyer.comHerbert Smith profile in the ''Chambers Student Guide''

{{Legal services in the United Kingdom

Law firms based in London
Defunct law firms of the United Kingdom
Law firms established in 1882
1882 establishments in England
Law firms disestablished in 2012
2012 disestablishments in the United Kingdom