Herbert Smith LLP was a multinational

law firm A law firm is a business entity formed by one or more lawyers to engage in the practice of law. The primary service rendered by a law firm is to advise clients (individuals or corporations) about their legal rights and responsibilities, and to ...

headquartered in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...

. The firm was founded in the City of London in 1882 by Norman Herbert Smith and merged with the Australian law firm

Freehills Freehills was a commercial law firm operating in the Asia-Pacific region.Dun and BradstreeCompany360(database online), entry: Freehills Services Pty Ltd. Accessed 13 August 2011 It was known as one of the " Big Six" Australian law firms. In 201 ...

on 1 October 2012, forming

Herbert Smith Freehills Herbert Smith Freehills is an international law firm with headquarters in London, United Kingdom and Sydney, Australia. It was formed on 1 October 2012 by a merger between the United Kingdom-based Herbert Smith, then a member of the " Silver ...

. At the time of the merger it had 13 offices across

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

, the

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...

and

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an are ...

,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 Gleiss Lutz Hootz Hirsch, frequently referred to as Gleiss Lutz, is a business law firm headquartered in Stuttgart, Germany. It is one of Germany's largest law firms, with six German offices in Berlin, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Munich, and ...

. 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 Linklaters LLP is a multinational law firm, headquartered in London, England. Founded in 1838, it is a member of the " Magic Circle" of elite London-headquartered law firms. It currently employs over 5,000 lawyers across 31 offices in 21 coun ...

. 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

. 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 - A lawsuit is a proceeding by a party or parties against another in the civil court of law. The archaic term "suit in law" is found in only a small number of laws still in effect today. The term "lawsuit" is used in reference to a civil act ...

and

corporate A corporation is an organization—usually a group of people or a company—authorized by the state to act as a single entity (a legal entity recognized by private and public law "born out of statute"; a legal person in legal context) and r ...

work ( M&A and equity capital markets in particular), with other practices including

finance Finance is the study and discipline of money, currency and capital assets. It is related to, but not synonymous with economics, the study of production, distribution, and consumption of money, assets, goods and services (the discipline of f ...

real estate Real estate is property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this (also) an item of real property, (more genera ...

energy In physics, energy (from Ancient Greek: ἐνέργεια, ''enérgeia'', “activity”) is the quantitative property that is transferred to a body or to a physical system, recognizable in the performance of work and in the form of ...

, and

competition Competition is a rivalry where two or more parties strive for a common goal which cannot be shared: where one's gain is the other's loss (an example of which is a zero-sum game). Competition can arise between entities such as organisms, ind ...

. 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 BPP may refer to: Education * BPP Holdings, a holding company based in the United Kingdom * BPP Law School, a law school based in the United Kingdom and a constituent school of BPP University * BPP University, a private university based in the ...

Holborn Holborn ( or ) is a district in central London, which covers the south-eastern part of the London Borough of Camden and a part ( St Andrew Holborn Below the Bars) of the Ward of Farringdon Without in the City of London. The area has its ro ...

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