3 ASIAN LEGAL BUSINESS – OCTOBER 2023 WWW.LEGALBUSINESSONLINE.COM THE BRIEFING: YOUR MONTHLY NEED-TO-KNOW U.S. DEALS KEEP LAW FIRMS The hourly billing rate of celebrity litigator David Boies, as revealed by his firm during a class action lawsuit brought by victims of the late financier Jeffrey Epstein against Deutsche Bank. BUSY AMID GLOBAL M&A LULL (Reuters) With worldwide mergers and acquisitions mired in their worst slump in a decade, U.S. dealmaking has emerged as a bright point for law firms that advise on corporate transactions, the London Stock Exchange Group said in its rankings of M&A legal advisers. U.S. dealmaking accounted for a greater share of overall worldwide M&A during the first nine months of 2023 than last year, rising from 42 percent to 44 percent, LSEG said. The total value of globally announced M&A deals in the first three quarters of 2023 was $2 trillion, a 27 percent drop compared to the same period last year, according to LSEG. This year marked the slowest nine-month dealmaking period since 2013. Kirkland & Ellis took the top spot in LSEG’s principal adviser ranking by value of globally announced deals through the third quarter. The Chicago-founded firm worked on about $265 billion worth of deals. Kirkland was also LSEG’s top-ranked legal adviser by value for deals with any U.S. involvement and deals targeting U.S. companies. $2,110 The UK’s Macfarlanes has become the second law firm to announce a deal with AI startup Harvey this year, after a portion of the firm tested out the technology. Allen & Overy earlier said it would use Harvey for some document drafting and research. IN THE NEWS The UK’s Solicitors Regulation Authority has shut Axiom Ince, shortly after the firm filed a notice with the court giving notice of its intention to appoint administrators. The firm had previously told the SRA that it could not continue “in its current format.” “THIS LAWSUIT IS THE MOST RECENT IN [ELON MUSK’S] MISSION TO PROVE THAT CONTRACTS BIND OTHERS, NOT HIM.” QUOTE UNQUOTE U.S. law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz files a motion in response to X Corp’s lawsuit demanding the return of most of the $90 million in legal fees it received from Twitter before the Musk takeover. (Reuters) Australian law firms finished the second half of fiscal year (FY) 2023 strong, rebounding in the face of softening demand and rising expenses in the first half of the year. That’s among the takeaways from the 2023 Australia: State of the Legal Market Report, which examines Thomson Reuters Financial Insights data from 20 law firms in Australia alongside metrics from more than 230 firms in the United States and the UK. The report found that Australian firms offset the first-half decline in demand with a 6 percent surge in the second half of FY 2023 and solid growth in worked rates, which jumped 5.3 percent year-on-year. Australian firms’ second-half comeback was driven, in part, by the rise of counter-cyclical practices. Counter-cyclical practices, including dispute resolution, and insolvency and restructuring, accounted for one-third of all hours logged. AUSTRALIAN LAW FIRMS RALLY DESPITE EXPENSE GROWTH CHALLENGES 90% - Proportion of small-to-medium-sized law firms in the UK that are optimistic about their financial performance in 2024, according to a survey by NatWest.
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