The Rise of Latham & Watkins
The M&A journal - Volume 7, Number 5 The Rise of Latham & Watkins In 2006, Latham & Watkins came in fifth in terms of deal value.” the U.S. for deal value in Thompson Financial’s Mr. Nathan sees the U.S. market as crucial. league tables and took second place for the num- “This is a big part of our global position,” he says, ber of deals. “Seven years before that,” says the and it is the Achilles’ heel of some of the firm’s firm’s Charles Nathan, global co-chair of the main competitors. “The magic circle—as they firm’s Mergers and Acquisitions Group, “we dub themselves—Allen & Overy, Freshfields, weren’t even in the top twenty.” Latham also Linklaters, Clifford Chance and Slaughters— came in fourth place for worldwide announced have very high European M&A rankings and deals with $470.103 million worth of transactions, global rankings, but none has a meaningful M&A and sixth place for worldwide completed deals presence in the U.S.,” Mr. Nathan says. Slaughter Charles Nathan worth $364.051 million. & May, he notes, has no offices abroad. What is behind the rise of Latham & Watkins Similarly, in the U.S., Mr. Nathan says that his in the world of M&A? firm has a much larger footprint than its domestic “If you look back to the late nineties,” Mr. rivals. “Unlike all the other major M&A firms,” Nathan says, “Latham was not well-recognized he says, “we have true national representation. as an M&A firm. We had no persona in M&A.
[Show full text]