America’s elite law firms are booming

ALAWYER INSPAC his early 30s pauses outside an elegant clothing shop in New York’s Tribeca district. It is the first time he has been out in 30 days, he says, turning away from the shuttered establishment. Covid-19 is only part of the reason for his isolation. Unlike many main-street businesses that have not survived the lockdowns, his employer has been swamping him with work of late. And it is not alone. America’s elite law firms are having a banner year. Associates, often toiling from home, have melded with their laptops. Senior partners, holed up in their second homes in the Hamptons, barely have time to enjoy the beach. The pandemic has pushed huge numbers of companies to raise capital, merge, buy rivals or be acquired by them.Nearly 16,000 deals involving at least one American party have been announced in the first six months of this year, roughly half as many again as in the same periods in 2016-20 (see chart). Many involved novel legal structures such as special-purpose acquisition companies (s), which list on a stock exchange in order to reverse-merge with a promising startup. On top of that, lockdowns have introduced fresh legal wrinkles (Does an infectious disease count as ? How to conduct due diligence on a deal by Zoom?). Some law firms are so busy that they are declining assignments, in violation of an unwritten rule never to do so which, in the industry, is as revered as the constitution.