Lawyers Raking It In In Activism
White & Case named #1 Activist Law Firm for the 5th Year
Activism is as much about reaping financial returns as it is about having legal muscle to win fights against corporate management, some times the target’s parent groups or affiliates and other times public opinion, which means engaging not just legal experts but also public relations people.
Well today, we will just focus on the lawyers.
Lawyers are the superheroes (or perhaps, more aptly the super agents but let’s go with heroes for effect) who can help to fight in boardrooms, courts and at times negotiate arbitrations. Just like the Avengers, lawyers become indispensable going up against corporate super villains.
Their work involves strategizing appropriate proposals, ensuring the proposals’ legalities as more high level stuff to the mundane work like proofreading and documentation. Rarely do they go to courts. Well, unless it’s necessary and required to win and make money.
Activist lawyers earn hundreds of millions of dollars globally and the top few names are listed above. When debating about the law, there are always two sides. So when activists hire one lawyer, the corporates would need to hire defense lawyers. That’s why our parents wanted us to study law! It’s good money. According to Google, the largest firm with the most successful track record is White & Case (also the first firm listed above). This law firm has been named #1 in shareholder activism for five years.
Individual cases cost can cost millions of dollars depending on the size of the investment. I would hazard a guess at an average of USD1-5m (if the size of investment is USD100-300m). For one-offs small activist campaigns against USD200-400m market cap companies, activists cannot justify paying those kind of lawyer fees, hence it would be much smaller cheque sizes.
When we use super heroes as analogies, it is not for just for fun. Activist lawyers being hired by big law firms are being picked up by Wall Street Journal. Apparently this is worth reporting alongside Goldman Sachs hiring ex-UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak (see link below). Well, this is more about shareholder activism in the US though. In Asia, activist lawyers are still mere mortals like the rest of us.
It may be some time before we see lawyers becoming superstars in Asia but as high profile cases get picked up by the newswires, we might see local law firms being mentioned. So, remember to pass on the same advice to our kids. Study law!
Huat Ah!
This post does not constitute investment advice and should not be deemed to be an offer to buy or sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy or sell any securities or other financial instruments.