No. of offices 47 Revenue $683 million (2015/16) Founder Richard Arthur Clyde | No. of lawyers 1,400 Date founded 1933 Number of offices 47 Founded 1933 | |
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Major practice areas Insurance, Energy, Trade & Commodities, Infrastructure and Transport Subsidiaries Clyde & Co Claims LLP Profiles | ||
Clyde & Co is a global law firm with a focus on five core sectors: insurance, energy, trade & commodities, infrastructure and transport. The firm employs 1,400 lawyers in 47 offices in every global region, including Latin America, Africa, Europe, the U.S., Canada, the Middle East, Asia Pacific and the UK. In 2016, Clyde & Co was the 60th largest law firm in the world with revenues of over $683 million.
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Clyde & Co was named Law Firm of the Year 2016 by the British legal publication The Lawyer.
History
Clyde & Co was founded by Scottish lawyer Richard Arthur Clyde. He came from a distinguished legal family, which in the last century has produced two Lords President of the Court of Session in Scotland. Richard Clyde's nephew, the late Lord Clyde of Briglands, was a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary from 1996 to 2001.
The earliest record of Dick Clyde as a solicitor in independent practice dates from 1928, although it was in 1933 that having left his position as an assistant solicitor with a well known firm of City marine lawyers, he set up his own office in Lime Street in the heart of the insurance district of the City of London. He managed to attract instructions from Lloyd's underwriters and insurance companies, and within a short time went into partnership with Maurice Hill, a member of the founding family of the Liverpool solicitors Hill Dickinson and a descendant of Sir Rowland Hill, who had established the penny post.
Michael Payton, who had joined the firm in 1966, assumed the post of Senior Partner in 1984, a position he held until 2013 when he assumed the role of Chairman. James Burns was elected Clyde & Co Senior Partner in 2013 and during his tenure Clyde & Co grew revenues by one third (£336m to £447m). More than 15 new offices were added on five continents including: Dusseldorf, Miami, Cape Town, Johannesburg, Melbourne and Edinburgh. James Burns was named Management Partner of the year by Legal Business in April 2016. In October 2016 Simon Konsta was elected Senior Partner having previously been the firm's Head of Insurance since 2013 and a member of its Global Management Board since 2011.
In July 2016, Clyde & Co was named Law Firm of the Year by The Lawyer.
Expansion
Reflecting the firm's growing international outlook, in 1981 Clyde & Co opened its first overseas office in Hong Kong. Many others followed in the Middle East, Asia, Europe and America.
Clyde & Co has expanded rapidly in recent years. Since 2011 the firm has added 25 offices and 2000 staff globally.
In 2011 the firm announced mergers with Canadian firm Nicholl Paskell-Mede and Barlow Lyde & Gilbert (BLG). The merger with BLG was reported as the largest merger between two UK law firms with an expected turnover of over £300 million.
The firm became the first international law office to open in Libya after the overthrow of the Gaddafi regime with the opening of an office in Tripoli in August 2012.
In October 2012 the firm opened in Australia with launches in Sydney and Perth. Additional offices were opened in the ensuing years in Melbourne, Beijing, Madrid, Atlanta, South Africa, Brisbane, Miami, Düsseldorf, Chicago and Washington, D.C., among others.
In September 2015, the firm merged with leading Scottish firm Simpson & Marwick.