Magic Circle outfit now has three offices in America 🇺🇸
Clifford Chance has ramped up its presence in the US with the launch of a new office in Houston, Texas.
The Magic Circle player has scooped up seven partners from various law firms to staff its new US outpost, which will primarily focus on global energy and infrastructure work. They will join three existing CC partners who will relocate from other offices.
The outfit — which already has more than 300 US lawyers across two offices in Washington, D.C. and New York — says the new hub will support clients across the full breadth of traditional and renewable energy matters including carbon capture and trading, clean hydrogen, energy infrastructure and renewables.
“This move reflects an extended period of planning to ensure we identified a strong cohort of talented partners,” commented global managing partner Charles Adams. “Expanding our global energy offering in Houston, the world’s leading energy hub, reflects our strategy to build out our capability in geographies and sectors critical to our clients’ future growth.”
Adams continued: “Energy transition is a priority for our clients and our depth of knowledge across technologies and jurisdictions in this sector positions Clifford Chance to add real value to businesses pursuing a sustainable path.”
CC isn’t the only MC player looking to gain a stronger foothold on the other side of the Atlantic.
Last month news broke that Allen & Overy and Shearman & Sterling are set to combine to create a new global mega firm boasting revenues of approximately £2.7 billion. The tie-up remains subject to a partner vote.
The combo “inevitably will put pressure on the rest of the Magic Circle”, according to former Slaughter and May senior partner Christopher Saul. Offering his take on the combination last month, Saul said A&O’s rivals “may like to characterise this as an opportunistic strike back by the empire but will be wondering how to ratchet up their US strategy in response”.
