Shearman & Sterling grows revenue to hit $1bn

Shearman & Sterling grows revenue to hit $1bn

MoFo reports its US financial results as well, with London revenue rising by 27percent to $82 million

Shearman & Sterling has recorded a strong rebound in its finances following a disappointing performance in 2021. The firm reported an impressive 58percent increase in a profit-per-equity partner (PEP) to approximately $3 million and revenue increased 18percent to $1.01 billion.

Morrison & Foerster also published its numbers this week, reporting that its global revenue grew 6percent to pass $1.2 billion for the first time, while profit rose 10percent from $2.22 million to $2.47 million.

Herman's increase in PEP comes after the firm's revenue declined 11percent in 2021, after declining 23percent. Shearman is one of a small number of top 100 firms unable to post positive growth. Nevertheless, the latest results more than make up for those declines.

David Beveridge, the senior partner at Shearman & Sterling, commented: "We generated our highest level of revenue and profitability in our history. We had a clear strategy throughout 2021 and we were able to deliver these results."

Shearman advised on a number of deals valued at more than $1 billion in 2021, including advising: SAP and Qualtrics International on a $1.56 billion deal to separate Qualtrics from SAP; Hitachi on its acquisition of Global Logic, a transaction valued at $9.5 billion; and Apax Partners and Warburg Pincus on their acquisition of T-Mobile Netherlands for €5.1 billion.

The New York firm said that it has prevailed in courtroom battles also for clients like SS&C Technologies, Bank of America, Citigroup, General Electric and Morgan Stanley.

Throughout the year, Shearman added finance partners Florian Harder and Jann Jetter in Munich from Linklaters to re-launch the firm in the city. Additionally, the firm added partners at its offices in the US, London, and Singapore. A key new arrival was corporate lawyer Phil Cheveley, who joined the firm from Travers Smith in March to lead its EMEA M&A group, part of a broader strategy to expand the firm's global capabilities.

A quartet of partners joined the firm in October from DLA Piper, specializing in advising financial sector clients on mergers and acquisitions, private equity, leveraged finance and restructuring matters. The meetings were attended by Xavier Norlain, co-managing partner of DLA Piper in France.

It did, however, part ways with eight arbitration partners in January 2020, including its global practice heads, who have now established their own firms.

According to MoFo, its 2021 financial results follow a string of strong financial results over the past four years. The revenue generated by the company's London office increased by over 20percent for the fifth consecutive year, rising from £48.2m ($60.8m) in 2020 to £59.9m ($82.1m) in 2018, an increase of 27percent.

Representative London deals include representing the official committee of unsecured creditors of Houston-based offshore drilling company Valaris and its affiliated debtors in their chapter 11 cases and parallel UK administration proceedings; advising Softbank on the $40bn sales of the multinational semiconductor and software design company Arm to US chip company NVIDIA.