Macfarlanes’ Curious New York Move: A Manhattan Office With No U.S. Law

Macfarlanes Opens Manhattan Office – With a Deliberately Limited Mission Macfarlanes is joining the steady procession of London firms establishing a presence in New York. But unlike the usual BigLaw expansion playbook, the firm insists it has no intention of practising U.S. law. Instead, the profile City firm is opening what it calls a “representative office” in Manhattan from April 1, located at 667 Madison Avenue. The office will be led by former managing partner Julian Howard, (pictured) and will house only a small team in the single digits. In an era when firms often announce U.S. expansion with the sort of swagger normally associated with private equity acquisitions, Macfarlanes is striking a more cautious tone. The message from the firm is unusually explicit - it is not launching a US law practice, or merging with a US firm - or even planning any lateral hiring spree. Instead, the office will act as a client and relationship hub, supporting Macfarlanes’ work with U.S. clients and intermediaries while the legal work itself continues to be handled primarily from London. The move still matters. New York remains the gravitational centre of global finance and cross-border transactions, and even firms with no desire to practise American law often find it difficult to stay absent for long. A Quietly Profitable City Firm Macfarlanes is hardly a small player testing the waters. It is a highly profitable law firm focused on wealthy individuals, among other clients, and focused on top end legal work. The firm generated $474.7 million in revenue in 2024, placing it 18th in the UK 100 rankings and 139th globally, according to industry data reported by The American Lawyer. Founded in London in 1875, Macfarlanes has built a reputation in London and well beyond as a high-end corporate and private client firm, advising financial institutions, investment funds and ultra-high-net-worth clients. The firm specialises in private equity and M&A (which biglaw firm doesn't?), financial services, private wealth and tax. Those practices are heavily international, which helps explain the logic behind a modest New York base even without U.S. legal capability. Representative Offices: A Subtle Strategy The “representative office” model is hardly revolutionary, but it is unusual among UK elite firms targeting the U.S. market. While rivals such as Linklaters, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Allen & Overy Shearman have pursued aggressive U.S. expansion strategies in recent years, Macfarlanes appears content to build a relationship foothold rather than a full-service platform. For now, the New York office looks less like a BigLaw invasion and more like a carefully positioned listening post in the world’s busiest legal market. Given how global law firm expansion tends to evolve, however, lawyers will be watching closely to see whether “representative office” eventually becomes something rather more substantial.

Macfarlanes’ Curious New York Move: A Manhattan Office With No U.S. Law

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Tom Borman

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Tom Borman

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