There are many ways to enter the U.S. legal market. You can merge. You can poach. You can lateral raid your way into Biglaw headlines. Or… you can open an office in Manhattan and repeatedly clarify that you absolutely, positively do not want to practice U.S. law.
Enter London-based Macfarlanes — a firm that brought in $474,686,000 gross revenue in 2024, putting it at No. 18 on the UK 100 ranking and No. 139 on the Global 200 ranking — which is opening a New York outpost on April 1. (Yes, that’s April Fool’s Day, but the firm swears this is serious.) The office will be located at 667 Madison Avenue and led by former managing partner Julian Howard. It will house a team in the “single digits,” which in Biglaw expansion terms qualifies as more “field trip” than British invasion.
The firm has gone out of its way, repeatedly, to emphasize that this is a “representative office.” It will not practice U.S. law. It will not merge. It will not disrupt. It will not steal your lunch. The American Lawyer has additional details:
The firm’s incoming senior partner, Damien Crossley, emphasised that the new office … is not intended as a step towards competing with its relationship firms, such as Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, or any other firm in its “good friends” network. …
Crossley believes the launch will “help our European clients navigate the U.S.”, adding that the office is not intended as a referral office, but rather will serve firm-originated clients.
Crossley went on to put it quite plainly: “We have absolutely zero interest in merging. We have absolutely zero interest in practicing U.S. law. We do not need to practise U.S. law to understand what U.S. investors want.”
So what, exactly, is the point?
The office will house the firm’s investor intelligence team — part of its “beyond legal” offering — with a focus on building up its brand in the U.S., and strengthening relationships with U.S. investors for its European private capital and private wealth clients. “The worst thing that can happen to a law firm is being seen as irrelevant in a world of global elites,” Crossley said.
Crossley described Macfarlanes as “an evolutionary firm, not a revolutionary firm,” which is a charming way of saying, please don’t panic, nothing dramatic is happening, we’re simply here in Manhattan. To be honest, there’s something refreshingly restrained about the firm’s New York entry. No splashy lateral hires. No bold declarations of “full-service U.S. capability.” It’s just a small team, a Madison Avenue address, and a quiet insistence that they can understand American investors without becoming American lawyers.
In a legal market that often equates expansion with conquest, Macfarlanes is attempting something much more subtle: presence without practice. Whether New York views that as strategic sophistication or polite British hedging remains to be seen.
Macfarlanes Debuts in New York with Private Capital-Focused Office [American Lawyer]
Staci Zaretsky is the managing editor of Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Bluesky, X/Twitter, and Threads, or connect with her on LinkedIn.
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