T14 International Law Firms

We introduced the T14 International Law Firms, a designation for the fourteen firms that define the very top tier of the global legal market. The concept mirrors our earlier designations, the T14 UK Law Firms and the T14 US Law Firms, and draws its name and logic from the long-established T14 US Law Schools, the stable grouping of elite American law schools whose prestige has proved durable over decades. Applied here to the international market, the T14 International designation identifies the firms whose geographic reach, revenue scale, practice depth and historical standing place them in a class of their own on the world stage.

The list is deliberately diverse. It includes three of the five UK Magic Circle firms, three of the largest law firms on earth by headcount, and a cluster of American-headquartered firms that have transformed themselves into genuinely global practices over the past three decades. Several of the firms on this list have invented or popularised structures that came to define how international law firms are organised today, among them the Swiss verein model that now underpins the world's largest practices by headcount. The list also captures a market at an unusually active moment: within the past two years alone it has seen a landmark transatlantic merger completed, a historic firm rebrand, the world's first claimed transatlantic-and-transpacific law firm combination, and what has been described as the largest law firm combination in history, announced at the very end of 2025. These are not footnotes to the story of global law: they are the story. Below, we introduce each of the T14 International Law Firms in turn.

A&O Shearman

A&O Shearman was formed on 1 May 2024 through the combination of Allen & Overy, one of the five UK Magic Circle firms, and Shearman & Sterling, the American white-shoe firm founded in New York in 1873 that had long been a leading adviser on international capital markets and project finance. Allen & Overy itself traced its roots to 1930 and had grown into one of the most globally active of the Magic Circle firms, with particularly strong positions in banking and finance. The combined firm launched as the first Magic Circle firm ever to achieve a full merger with a major American partner, employing around 4,000 lawyers across approximately 48 offices in 29 countries. For its first full financial year, A&O Shearman reported revenue of approximately £2.9 billion, equivalent to around $3.7 billion, with profit per equity partner of around £2 million. The firm is best known for banking and finance, capital markets including Band 1 positions in ECM and DCM, and large-ticket M&A, and has already demonstrated the cross-jurisdictional scope of the merged platform through mandates such as advising Apollo on its €2.5 billion investment in Atlético Madrid.

Baker McKenzie

Baker McKenzie was founded in Chicago in 1949 by Russell Baker and John McKenzie, who shared a conviction that the future of business law was international at a time when most American firms were resolutely domestic. The firm lived up to that vision, landing in London in 1961 as one of the earliest US firms to establish a City presence, and today calls itself the original global law firm with some justification, having built a network of around 4,600 lawyers across 71 offices in 45 countries. In 2004 it became the first major law firm to restructure as a Swiss verein, the decentralised model that separates branding and strategy from profit distribution, a structure that has since been adopted by Dentons, DLA Piper, Norton Rose Fulbright and others. The firm reported revenue of approximately $3.4 billion for 2024, with profit per equity partner of around $2.1 million, and its London office, which opened in 1961 and now houses over 500 lawyers, remains the firm's single largest. Known above all for cross-border M&A, tax, TMT and antitrust, Baker McKenzie is consistently ranked among the top five firms globally for tax work, with over 900 tax practitioners in more than 40 countries. In October 2025 London-based partner Sunny Mann, an international trade and compliance specialist, became the firm's new global chair, the first to be based in the City.

Clifford Chance

Clifford Chance was formed in 1987 through the merger of Coward Chance, whose roots stretch back to 1802, and Clifford-Turner, another well-established City practice, and is today one of the five UK Magic Circle firms. In a symbolic break from the traditional Square Mile geography of British corporate law, Clifford Chance became the first Magic Circle firm to relocate its headquarters to Canary Wharf in 2003, moving into a purpose-built building in London's newer financial district. The firm employs approximately 3,400 lawyers across 32 offices in 22 countries and for its 2025 financial year reported record global revenue of £2.4 billion, a 9% increase, with profit per equity partner reaching £2.11 million. Clifford Chance is best known for banking and finance, where it holds top-tier rankings globally, alongside M&A, capital markets and international arbitration, and has been particularly active in technology-related financing work, including advising on Meta's $27 billion Hyperion data centre financing, one of the largest infrastructure transactions in the technology sector's history. The firm has made significant US lateral hires in recent years as part of a push to strengthen its American practice.

Dentons

Dentons came into existence on 1 March 2013 through a three-way combination of SNR Denton, the transatlantic firm that itself combined Chicago's Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal with the City's Denton Wilde Sapte in 2010, the Canadian firm Fraser Milner Casgrain, and Salans, the French-rooted international firm. The Denton name traces back to 1788, when Samuel Denton founded a law firm in the City of London. From that starting point of around 2,500 lawyers, Dentons has pursued the most aggressive growth strategy in the history of the legal profession, merging with over 40 firms and reaching a peak of more than 20,000 lawyers and professionals across 200 offices in 80 countries, making it the world's largest law firm by headcount by a considerable margin. A 2015 combination with Chinese giant Dacheng doubled the firm's scale almost overnight, though government-imposed security restrictions forced a separation from the Chinese arm in 2023. Operating as a Swiss verein, Dentons has no single headquarters and distributes governance across hubs in London, New York, Toronto and Paris, a model it calls polycentric. The firm's US arm reported revenue of $828 million for 2025, a 7% increase, with profit per equity partner rising by more than 20% to $1.83 million; global revenue is not reported centrally due to the verein structure. Dentons is particularly known for its energy, mining and natural resources practice, the largest of any law firm in the world, alongside real estate, capital markets and banking and finance.

DLA Piper

DLA Piper was formed in 2005 through a tripartite combination of the UK's DLA, Chicago's Piper Rudnick and California's Gray Cary Ware & Freidenrich, with the firm taking its current name in 2006 and subsequently absorbing the Australian firm DLA Phillips Fox in 2011. Operating as a Swiss verein with separate US and international partnerships, it has grown into one of the two or three largest law firms in the world by headcount and by revenue, employing more than 4,500 lawyers across more than 80 offices in over 40 countries. For its 2024 financial year, DLA Piper reported gross revenue exceeding $4.2 billion, marking eight consecutive years of revenue growth and placing it third globally by revenue in the Am Law Global 200 behind only Kirkland & Ellis and Latham & Watkins. The firm has held the number one position for global M&A deal volume, ranked by number of transactions rather than value, for more than a decade, reflecting the sheer breadth of its cross-border transactional work across multiple market segments. In 2025 the firm welcomed former UK Prime Minister David Cameron as a senior adviser, adding a prominent public policy voice to its government affairs and geopolitical risk capabilities.

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer

Freshfields is the oldest of the five UK Magic Circle firms, with a history stretching back to 1743 when the firm was appointed solicitor to the Bank of England. Its modern form was created in 2000 through a three-way combination of the UK's Freshfields, Germany's Deringer Tessin Herrmann & Sedemund and Bruckhaus Westrick Heller Löber, producing what was briefly the largest law firm in the world by headcount. In October 2024 the firm undertook a significant rebranding, dropping the "Bruckhaus Deringer" element of its name to trade simply as Freshfields, while simultaneously retiring the distinctive angel emblem it had used since the 2000 merger, changes widely read as signalling a deliberate pivot toward presenting the firm as a streamlined US-aligned global elite practice rather than a European-inflected transatlantic one. The firm employs around 2,800 lawyers across 28 offices in 17 countries and for its 2024 financial year reported revenue of £2.1 billion, an 18% increase driven partly by a surge in US revenue, which grew from £311 million to £391 million in a single year, with profit per equity partner above £2 million. Freshfields is best known for M&A, banking and finance, antitrust and international arbitration.

Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer

Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer, known as HSF Kramer, traces its origins to two separate threads: the UK's Herbert Smith, founded in London in 1882, and Australia's Freehills, whose predecessor firms stretch back to Melbourne in 1853. The two merged in 2012 to create Herbert Smith Freehills, at the time a pioneering combination between a leading UK disputes and corporate firm and a major Australasian practice, and the combined firm went on to build a strong presence in APAC energy, resources, infrastructure and projects work. On 1 June 2025, HSF completed a further combination with Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel, the New York firm founded in 1968 that was particularly known for bankruptcy and restructuring, real estate and securities litigation, creating what the firm describes as the first truly transatlantic and transpacific law firm combination in history. The merged entity employs around 2,700 lawyers and 630 partners across 26 offices, with revenue exceeding $2 billion, placing it within the global top 20 by revenue. HSF Kramer is best known for international dispute resolution and arbitration, where it is consistently among the world's leading firms, alongside project finance, energy and resources, and corporate and M&A, with the Kramer Levin combination adding meaningful US restructuring and real estate depth.

Hogan Lovells

Hogan Lovells was formed in 2010 through the merger of Hogan & Hartson, the Washington-based firm founded by Frank J. Hogan in 1904 that had built the United States' pre-eminent regulatory and life sciences practice, and Lovells, the London firm founded in 1899 that had established a strong international corporate and finance reputation. The combination created a firm genuinely co-headquartered in London and Washington, D.C., which has proven well suited to an era of intensifying regulation in financial services, technology and pharmaceuticals on both sides of the Atlantic. Hogan Lovells employs around 2,800 lawyers across 51 offices and for its 2025 financial year reported record revenue of $3.285 billion, a 10.8% increase and its third consecutive annual record, with profit per equity partner rising 14.7% to $3.5 million. The firm is best known for its work in highly regulated sectors, particularly pharmaceutical and life sciences, financial services, telecoms and media and government regulatory work, alongside a strong corporate and disputes practice. In December 2025 it announced a planned combination with Wall Street's oldest firm, Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft (founded 1792), to form Hogan Lovells Cadwalader, described as the largest law firm combination in history by combined revenue, which would create the world's fifth-largest firm by revenue with annual turnover exceeding $3.6 billion; the combination was subject to a partner vote scheduled for spring 2026 with a planned July 2026 launch.

Jones Day

Jones Day was founded on 1 March 1893 in Cleveland, Ohio, by Judge Edwin J. Blandin and William Lowe Rice as Blandin & Rice, and has grown over more than 130 years into a firm employing more than 2,500 lawyers across 40 offices on five continents, currently headquartered in Washington, D.C., which it reaches after a series of expansions from its Cleveland origins. The firm is unusual among firms of its scale in two respects: it operates as a single global general partnership in which every partner is an equity partner with no separate nonequity tier, a structure that the firm argues aligns incentives and promotes genuine collaboration, and it does not publicly disclose its revenue, making it one of very few major firms to decline participation in the Am Law rankings. Estimates for 2024 place gross revenue at around $2.5 to $2.7 billion. Jones Day represents more than half of the Fortune Global 500 and has had only eight managing partners in its entire history, a stability of leadership that sits alongside the firm's reputation for a distinctive culture and long-term client relationships. It is best known for M&A and corporate transactions, high-stakes litigation, restructuring and antitrust, and in recent years has built a strong international arbitration capability alongside its core practice strengths.

Latham & Watkins

Latham & Watkins was founded in Los Angeles in January 1934 by Dana Latham, a tax lawyer who would later serve as Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, and Paul Watkins, a labour lawyer. From those modest beginnings, the firm grew steadily for decades before transforming in the 1990s and 2000s into a private-equity and M&A powerhouse, becoming the world's second-highest-grossing law firm behind only Kirkland & Ellis. For its 2025 financial year, Latham reported global revenue of $8.3 billion, an increase of nearly 19%, with profit per equity partner at $8.65 million, figures that place it among the elite of the global legal market by any measure. The firm employs more than 3,500 lawyers across approximately 30 offices in 14 countries. Its London office, the largest of any US firm in the City with around 600 lawyers, crossed $1 billion in revenue for the first time in 2025, a milestone it shared only with Kirkland & Ellis among American firms operating in the UK. Latham is best known for mergers and acquisitions, private equity, capital markets, banking and finance, and a significant energy transition and infrastructure practice; the firm, like several of its US peers, agreed in 2025 to commit significant pro bono resources to causes favoured by the Trump administration in order to avoid a punitive executive order.

Linklaters

Linklaters is one of the five UK Magic Circle firms, with a history stretching back to 1838 when John Linklater opened a legal practice in the City of London; the firm took its broader modern shape in 1920 through a merger with Paines Blythe & Huxtable, creating Linklaters & Paines, before continental and pan-European partnerships throughout the 1990s culminated in the firm shortening its name to Linklaters in 1999. It has operated in an alliance with the Australian firm Allens since 2012, providing collective coverage of the Asia-Pacific market. The firm employs around 3,100 lawyers across 30 offices in roughly 20 countries and for its 2024 to 2025 financial year reported revenue of £2.32 billion, an 11% increase, with profit per equity partner at £2.2 million, among the highest in the Magic Circle. Linklaters is best known for banking and finance, capital markets and financial regulation, where it is consistently ranked at the top of the global market, alongside M&A and a growing competition and antitrust practice. The firm has been actively expanding its US presence through targeted lateral hires, and has developed an in-house AI legal assistant named Laila to support client-facing work and internal training.

Norton Rose Fulbright

Norton Rose Fulbright was created in 2013 when the City of London firm Norton Rose, whose origins go back to 1794, merged with the Houston-based energy law giant Fulbright & Jaworski, creating an instant global top-ten firm with a substantial American presence. The combined firm subsequently absorbed the New York firm Chadbourne & Parke in 2017, adding around $250 million of additional revenue. Operating as a Swiss verein, it now employs more than 3,700 lawyers across more than 50 offices globally. For 2025, Norton Rose Fulbright reported global revenue exceeding $2.8 billion, a 16% increase, with global profit per equity partner rising by 27% to approximately $2.1 million; US revenue grew by more than 23% to $1.2 billion, reflecting strong demand for the firm's project finance, M&A and disputes capabilities on the American side. In July 2025 the firm integrated its EMEA and Australian operations into a single entity covering 1,800 lawyers across 28 offices in 18 jurisdictions and generating around $1 billion in combined annual revenue. Norton Rose Fulbright is best known for energy, infrastructure and resources, asset finance across aviation and shipping, and insurance, where it holds multiple Band 1 rankings, alongside a growing M&A capability; it advised on the ground lease for the Stargate AI data centre project in Texas, one of the most significant infrastructure mandates of 2025.

White & Case

White & Case was founded on 1 May 1901 when two Wall Street lawyers, Justin DuPratt White and George B. Case, each contributed $250 from their own savings to open a two-room office on Nassau Street in Manhattan. The firm pioneered the international law firm model when it opened a Paris office on the Place Vendôme in 1926, one of the first American firms to establish a permanent presence outside the United States, and has spent the century since building what is now one of the most internationally dispersed practices in the world, with around 2,600 lawyers across 46 offices in 31 countries and a particular concentration of strength in emerging markets, Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa. For its 2024 financial year, White & Case reported global revenue of $3.3 billion, a 12.5% increase, with profit per equity partner rising 27% to $4 million, reaching $4.4 million for 2025. In 2023 Heather McDevitt became the firm's first woman chair. The firm is best known for international arbitration, having ranked first by Global Arbitration Review in multiple consecutive years, capital markets and M&A, and has set itself a target of exceeding $5 billion in revenue by 2028 through a plan focused on energy and infrastructure, technology and private capital. Cross-border work represents a remarkable 52% of the firm's total revenue, reflecting the depth of its international orientation.

Sidley Austin

Sidley Austin was founded in Chicago on 1 May 1866 as Williams & Thompson by Norman Williams and John Leverett Thompson to serve the railroads, telegraph companies and manufacturers that were transforming post-Civil War America, making it the oldest firm on this list by date of founding. William P. Sidley joined in the late nineteenth century and gave the firm his name, while the Austin half of the current name arrived through a later succession of mergers; the modern firm's shape was largely set by its 2001 combination with Brown & Wood, the New York financial services firm. Today, Sidley employs approximately 2,300 lawyers across 21 offices in major commercial centres including Chicago, New York, Washington D.C., London, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore and Sydney, and for its 2024 financial year reported revenue of approximately $3.44 billion under the Am Law 100, placing it sixth in the United States, with profit per equity partner of around $5.2 million; a 2025 estimate from nonbillable.co.uk puts the figure at around $3.7 billion reflecting continued strong growth. The firm is particularly known for financial services regulation, life sciences and pharmaceuticals, private equity and a highly regarded appellate and complex litigation practice. Its London office, which opened in 1974 as one of the first US firms to enter the City, has been one of the fastest-growing US practices in London in recent years, reaching $299 million in London revenue, in part following the hire of 18 finance lawyers including eight partners from Latham & Watkins in 2024. Among Sidley's notable alumni are former US President Barack Obama and current US Vice President JD Vance, both of whom practised at the firm early in their careers.

The T14 International Law Firms collectively illustrate every major direction that the global legal market has taken over the past century and particularly the past three decades. The Magic Circle names, A&O Shearman, Clifford Chance, Freshfields, Linklaters, and now HSF Kramer, carry the institutional weight of the City of London and its centuries-long role as the centre of international finance and commerce. The American firms, from Latham and Sidley to White & Case and Jones Day, represent the export of US corporate law culture to every major financial centre in the world. The verein giants, Baker McKenzie, Dentons, DLA Piper and Norton Rose Fulbright, have pushed the definition of what a law firm can be in terms of geographic scale. And Hogan Lovells stands as the model for the fully integrated transatlantic firm that is comfortable straddling both the London and Washington regulatory worlds simultaneously. What all fourteen share, despite their very different histories, structures and growth strategies, is a sustained record of handling the most consequential cross-border legal work on earth, and it is that record, more than any single year's revenue ranking, that earns each of them a place in the T14 International Law Firms.