Over the past year, the UK legal climate has experienced a lot of changes. Trying to understand trends has become increasingly difficult, but remains an important task. 

It might come as a surprise that the most popular destination for Magic Circle firm leavers in 2020 was US law firms in the UK, absorbing 56.8% of leavers, while non-Magic Circle UK firms absorbed a total of 36.6%. Only 6.6% of these leavers left to join another Magic Circle firm.

We took this a step further and looked at which Magic Circle firms were losing the most to US firms, and which US law firms were gaining the most of these leavers. 

Finally, we took a look at who left their respective Magic Circle firms to make partner elsewhere. There seems to be a slight favouring of UK law firms as destinations for new partner promotional moves. While Allen & Overy and Slaughter and May have been seemingly unaffected by these moves, Linklaters has experienced the most leavers seeking partnership at other firms, both US and UK.

So there you have it: in 2020, a majority of 56.8% of lawyers who left Magic Circle firms joined US firms in the UK, followed by 36.6% joining non-Magic Circle UK firms. It’s worth noticing that Linklaters and Allen & Overy experienced the most leavers to US firms, while Clifford Chance experienced the most leavers to UK firms. Kirkland & Ellis and Latham & Watkins seem to be the US firms to watch as they collect Magic Circle leavers and grow in their UK presence.