Editors' Blog

McDermott's ironic anniversary

Posted 14/03/2008 by Alex Novarese

It seems unfortunately symbolic that McDermott Will & Emery is about to celebrate its 10th anniversary in London under the management of a US-qualified lawyer. As announced yesterday, energy specialist Doron Ezickson is to succeed David Dalgarno as the firm’s new London managing partner.

It’s an ironic move for a firm that made its name nearly a decade ago by offering the then-princely sum of £1m for City partners and building its London practice around locally-qualified lawyers targeting European work. At the time, when most US firms were obsessed with servicing domestic clients’ foreign needs, this was pioneering stuff, with only White & Case having the dash to pursue a similar strategy. Yet these days, even Wall St conservatives like Sullivan & Cromwell hand over some management duties to foreign lawyers and whatever difficulties White & Case is experiencing at the moment, there is no doubt that the firm has delivered on its decentralised strategy.

In contrast, McDermott - which saw a stream of senior UK lawyers quit last year - has struggled to maintain the momentum of that early period. Likewise, recent evidence of problems with repayments of capital to departing partners has not given the impression of a smoothly-sailing ship.

Still, perhaps the change of leadership is for the best. Though undoubtedly a respected employment practictioner, McDermott critics would contend that Dalgarno was never entirely comfortable with his management brief (though he did have his admirers, with one former partner today saying he never got enough credit for his strategic thinking).

And given that a persistent theme of McDermott’s troubles in the City has been disconnection between the US and UK, perhaps putting an American lawyer in charge is the right call. McDermott has also made some interesting City appointments to counter-balance its losses and, crucially, the firm has been a consistently solid performer in its home market, as was underlined by its 2007 results.

But this anniversary should be a moment for reflection if McDermott ever hopes to fulfil its potential.