The merger of the British law firm Allen & Overy with the US law firm Shearman & Sterling came into effect on 1 May. The merger creates an international law firm with 4,000 lawyers and 800 partners in almost 50 offices, and a turnover of 3.5 billion US dollars. The merger brings together two traditional firms: Shearman & Sterling was founded in New York in 1873, and Allen & Overy started as a City of London law firm in 1930.

In June, the partners of A&O Shearman met for the first time in the new formation in Copenhagen. „There was a clear spirit of optimism at the event,“ says Wolf Bussian, litigation lawyer and Managing Partner of the firm in Germany. The attendance rate was notably high. „Many wanted to get to know the new global firm management and new partners from all over the world personally," he says. Obviously there was a bit of trepidation, but „the atmosphere was really as if the firm had always been together.“

According to Bussian, the global positioning of law firms is becoming increasingly important. This is the only way to provide standardised advice across jurisdictions. „Clients operate globally, which is becoming increasingly difficult for them in the face of protectionism, trade wars and political upheaval," he says. "Companies need lawyers for all of these issues.“

A central theme of the new law firm is growing together in the regions. While there is little overlap in Europe and Asia, more extensive integration tasks are pending in the USA. Allen & Overy had built up six offices with almost 300 lawyers in North America. In New York alone, there were 50 partners, who have now moved to the Shearman building. „We see it as complementary – because even with the size of the new firm there is still room for growth – the market is deep and there is definitely still a need for partners in litigation, M&A and financing."

In the German market, integration is easily manageable. Many of Shearman's teams already left the firm in the course of the (abandoned) merger talks with Hogan Lovells. Shearman has, therefore, effectively disappeared from the German market.

For Bussian, the priority in Germany is, therefore, to push ahead with the growth strategy that was initiated before the merger. „We are too small in Germany, that was already true before the merger,“ he admits. „We are 59 partners, the biggest players have 100 to 120 partners. I'm not concerned with size per se, but we can't be number 16 in terms of turnover in Germany, but number 3 worldwide.“

Allen & Overy identified very precisely three years ago the areas in which the firm wanted to grow. „We are in the middle of a race to catch up in the German market. We want to take the network to the stage of expansion that we believe will match the size of the global network,“ says Bussian, pointing out that Allen & Overy is the only London Magic Circle firm that has not merged with another firm in Germany.

Bussian hopes that the new global size and visibility will make it easier to „retain top talent and attract new talent“. Organic growth is at the forefront. „We prefer to fill our growth areas with internal talent. We appointed five internal partners on 1 May, which is a record for Germany,“ he emphasises.

Diversity also remains an issue. The proportion of female partners in the firm has risen from 8.5% to 17% over the past three years. „But we still need more female partners, we need more diversity, and we are working on that,“ he says.

Bussian cites private equity and private capital in many different forms as growth areas, explaining that „this applies to funds as well as regulatory issues and large M&A transactions“. Restructuring is also in demand. In addition, litigation and investigations have become an increasingly important topic in the firm's strategy in recent years. „Interest rate hikes, exploding energy prices, trade conflicts, sanctions, supply chain problems, and new requirements for supply chains, are triggering more and more disputes and official investigations," he says. "Unfortunately, this is also booming.“

Antitrust law is also gaining relevance in order to be able to map global transactions. There is also a demand for advice on labour law, in the wake of skills shortages and mass redundancies.

In the past financial year as of 30 April, the law firm showed dynamic growth in Germany. Turnover increased by 14% to 192 million euros. According to Bussian, higher prices contributed significantly to this, which he sees as a „good sign for the quality of our services“. In terms of profitability, turnover per professional increased by 5% to 839,000 euros based on 229 full-time employees. With these key figures, the law firm has achieved what it set out to do „despite an unexpectedly difficult market environment“. The new cycle got off to a good start with a similar increase in turnover in the first few months. „We are very satisfied and are exceeding our own growth plan.“

With regard to important mandates, Bussian mentions restructurings in the property sector. For example, the law firm supported the company Corestate in a complex cross-border restructuring. At Branicks, the firm advised on refinancing as part of the StaRUG proceedings. In the transaction business, the software group SAP has mandated the law firm in various M&A deals.

In the energy sector, in addition to overcoming the energy crisis, there are several mandates in the course of transactions or financing. Allen & Overy assisted Uniper in the largest restructuring in the sector, with a transaction value of 50 billion euros, and subsequently advised on numerous arbitration proceedings for Uniper and RWE.

In the Energy segment, Bussian is also proud of the mandate from Iberdrola. The law firm supported the Spanish energy group in the sale of 49% of the offshore wind farm „Baltic Eagle“ to Masdar from Abu Dhabi, whereby the wind farm in the German Baltic Sea was valued at 1.6 billion euros. The mandate included advising on the shareholders' agreement and all key project agreements.

Bussian also expects global mergers to provide impetus in the German legal business. There has already been a positive response here. „We don't just want to offer German clients the full range of advisory services in the US and globally, but also provide US clients with the same offer. We have already received assignments for precisely this reason,“ he says.

When it comes to advising American clients around the globe, Germany is the most important jurisdiction ,because it has the strongest economic ties with the USA. Bussian exudes confidence: „Business from the USA to Germany should have a positive impact on our turnover development over the next five years and become a permanent fixture, that is quite clear. The axis is very important and not many law firms are as well positioned in the full-service sector as we are," he says.