The odd success of White & Case

Is White & Case the strangest London outpost of a US firm?

The practice seems to go through endless debates about governance, never reaching agreement with the mother-ship; it gets little of the hype dished out to many of its US brethren; and the corporate practice is nothing to write home about. And yet it still outpaced pretty much every other comparable US firm on the City block in 2006.

UK turnover was up no less than 38% to hit $172.2m (£88m), with average partner profits rocketing 67% to $1.28m (£657,000).

But then the firm’s City finance practice has been on excellent form of late, bagging a series of premium mandates last year, including its underwriter counsel role for Goldman Sachs, Citibank and SocGen on a €10.9bn (£7.26bn) financing for Mittal Steel’s Arcelor acquisition, while structured finance advised Deutsche Bank as arranger on the closely-watched $400m (£205.4m) Eurocredit Opportunities deal at the end of 2005.

Aside from its increasing grip on Deutsche and the aforementioned in-roads with Goldman, the London client list now includes JP Morgan, Merrill Lynch, UBS and Morgan Stanley, as well as hot sponsor names like CVC and touted infra/structured houses like Calyon and BNP Paribas. With the firm also currently making discreet ground with one of the UK’s most coveted clearers, this is a broad-church finance team with real punch, already boasting around 160 fee earners.

The only mystery is why the office doesn’t get more freedom and love from the New York HQ, which isn’t exactly regarded as among Manhattan’s heavy-hitters.

alex.novarese@legalweek.com