Knowledge

IPO: Who Will Be the First?

The question is not whether law firms will eventually open their capital to outside investors or to the public, through an IPO or otherwise. The question is: what firm will do it first? For many lawyers involved in day-to-day management of their firm, the idea of becoming a publicly listed company may look extravagant, but I am convinced that we will witness the phenomenon sooner than later. Conferences are organised on the subject, investment bankers are taking the pulse of the market (in the UK at least; not yet, to my knowledge, on the continent). Some big global law firms have the size, reputation, and profitability needed to build a strong business case. Some second-tier firms or smaller operations may be also interested in an IPO in order to finance their rise to the first league. In a world where law firms are increasingly considering themselves like “ordinary” business organisations, one firm eventually will go all the way down the corporatisation route and end up of them opening up to carefully selected investors (such as a private equity firm) and to the general public. 

Antoine Henry de Frahan | 6 July 2006 |