Delay has followed delay with the much-vaunted flotation of London’s Big Law Mishcon de Reya, but ‘market conditions’ have now seen the float of the law firm indefinitely postponed.
The firm was aiming for a valuation of £750 million in its IPO, but the float, which would have been the seventh for a legal services business in the UK, now has no proposed date set and is a further setback for UK’s sluggish IPO market, quite apart from Mishcon’s too.
The firm, which has a reputation for high profile disputes and litigation work, including representing Princess Diana in her divorce, has suffered a range of setbacks, often embarrassing such as the fine it attracted in January for a breach of anti-money laundering rules and for engaging in “Lawfare” on behalf of clients who were allegedly seeking to quell free speech and access to justice for opposing parties.
It also failed to file a hard copy appeal document for Premier League footballer Ricardo Alvarez, resulting in a large negligence claim.
Mishcon is among the largest law firms in the UK but well below the Magic Circle law firms and has suffered a slight downturn in revenues reporting its year-on-year turnover had slipped by 1.7 per cent to about £189 million.
