We're Delivering On Our Ambition

A&O Shearman has come together as a powerful force among global elite law firms. Our leadership team, Khalid Garousha, Adam Hakki and Hervé Ekué, reflect on 18 months of steadfast progress and achievement.

It's just over 18 months since the creation of A&O Shearman. What are your highlights from the last year and a half?

Khalid: The rationale for the merger was to create a unique firm that our clients had been telling us they were seeking: one that could support them on their most complex matters, a firm that was global, truly integrated, consistently excellent in quality, with genuine depth, scale and expertise all around the world. For me, the highlight is that we've achieved that.

As a leadership team, we're proud of our success to date, which we measure in terms of client satisfaction, the quality of mandates we're handling and the solid financial results we've achieved—revenues of GBP2.9 billion (USD3.7 billion) in our first financial year. That illustrates the enormous potential of the combined firm.

Adam: For me it's bringing together 7,000 people, including 4,000 lawyers, in a common endeavor—one law firm, with one name, serving clients in a unified way. That's been terrific and getting to know so many new friends and colleagues has been a real treat.

To be in a place now where we're consistently being retained to handle matters requiring a firm that is unparalleled across the world, and doing work that would be difficult for other firms to do, gives you enormous optimism for the future.

Hervé: We have an incredibly strong brand and the feedback from clients confirms the rationale for the merger. They think what we're doing to help them deal with the complexity they face gives them a measurable edge. This is especially true for cross-border transactions and disputes involving international aspects.

The other highlight is the work colleagues have done to make the merger a reality. Partners, associates, and business teams have been working night and day to make sure we integrate as quickly as possible. Whenever I visit our offices, I'm energized by seeing people so focused on our project and the opportunities that lie ahead.

Big mergers take a long time. Are you surprised how quickly you've progressed?

Adam: In some respects, yes, but our people worked extremely hard on integration, and we're grateful for that. We used the time well in the year between announcing the merger and completing it. We were ambitious. We wanted to operate as one firm from day one—not all professional services mergers proceed that way. We're saying, "I'm legacy A&O" or "I'm legacy Shearman" less and less and are increasingly saying: "I'm A&O Shearman."

Hervé: We achieved remarkable progress during the first 18 months of the merger. Much of this success was thanks to the tireless efforts behind the scenes, and I would especially like to express my gratitude to all the business teams who worked so diligently to ensure the operational integration was completed as swiftly as possible. Some elements of the integration have taken longer than we would have liked, for instance bringing together IT systems, but that was inevitable. But with so much of the internal work now done or almost complete, it gives us a real objective for the second year—to be even more focused on clients.

Khalid: We sought to create a full-fledged combined firm from day one and we've done just that. The speed with which we put everyone under one roof where we had overlap has been incredible. We've created one harmonized compensation system and have consolidated ways of working and dealing with clients and client conflicts. We're supremely ambitious and impatient about getting to where we know the firm can potentially be.

Did you make assumptions about the merger that turned out to be wrong?

Khalid: I didn't foresee how much global geopolitical uncertainty and complexity would affect us—frankly, I'm not sure anyone did. It's impacted all international law firms in some way. Things aren't just changing from week to week in these febrile times; it's day by day.

Our strength lies in capitalizing on change—seeing it as an opportunity to guide clients through complexity and uncertainty.

Leading global businesses now see more opportunities worldwide but are seeking to navigate the constantly evolving global environment. They are seeking a firm that understands their business, their appetite for risk and their markets, and can provide trusted, nuanced advice wherever they operate. That plays into the heart of who and what our firm is and provides the real opportunity for us to deliver over and beyond our competition.

Hervé: Complexity pushes you to think more creatively. When you factor in geopolitics, commercial conflicts of interest, tariffs, war, and the resulting delays to investment decisions in some key jurisdictions, the complexity has clearly increased over recent years.

But our global coverage and expertise have enabled us to provide the service our clients need and deserve.

Because we moved quickly, there were challenges, and we changed direction as we encountered problems and found solutions requiring a different approach. It's been a learning process, and we should acknowledge that. But there's one key lesson for me: always consider the firm's medium and long-term interests in every decision we take. A number of decisions we take will benefit the younger generation in the coming years, and that's how it should be.

Can you point to recent matters that illustrate the difference between A&O Shearman can bring?

Adam: Clients want a top firm established in all the markets that touch the matter and deep expertise across key industries and sectors like artificial intelligence (AI), life sciences, and private capital, for example.

Exscientia's combination with Recursion, a cross-border life sciences deal from the UK to the U.S. involving significant elements of AI, is a great example but just one we could highlight. It sits at the crossroads of many things we've said distinguish us as a firm.

A number of clients have come to us wanting one firm to advise them on ESG legal matters globally, which involves dealing with a complicated, often conflicting, patchwork of laws and regulations. Others want a single competition law counsel everywhere in the world. This is work we're designed to do.

Khalid: Over the summer, we advised GSK on a complex mRNA vaccine patent settlement involving CureVac, BioNTech and Pfizer. It saw GSK receive a multimillion-dollar settlement and royalty entitlements in the U.S. and the rest of the world relating to flu, Covid, and other vaccine products.

GSK told us no other firm could have assembled such an effective multidisciplinary, cross-practice team of UK, U.S., and European partners. To hear that from such a significant client is a strong endorsement of what we now offer.

Hervé: Because we now advise some of our biggest clients across the board—on transactions, disputes, regulation, AI and innovation, and cybersecurity—our relationship is now closer than ever.

Many firms claim to be global. Has "global" become just a buzz word?

Hervé: Our objective is never global presence for its own sake. We take a highly strategic approach to developing our international network, ensuring we have the right expertise in the jurisdictions most important to our clients. What sets us apart is our commitment to collaboration and delivering technical excellence.

Where we lack presence, we've cultivated a powerful network of relationship firms to ensure a seamless client experience. To achieve that, we must operate daily as an integrated network.

Adam: Some firms hold themselves up as being global just because they happen to have offices in a lot of places. But for me, the differentiator is that we bring local depth as well as global scale.

We have full service in all our nearly 50 offices in 28-plus jurisdictions. We deliver one standard of excellence in a single profit pool partnership where the standards to make partner are the same everywhere. And when you bring those two things together with a commitment to having a balanced portfolio in all the major financial centers and all the markets where our clients do business, that sets us apart.

How do you gauge the current mood among clients?

Khalid: Our clients, who are the most sophisticated global organizations, are resilient. They recognize that current challenges and complexity create huge opportunities.

The types of clients we support will flourish, because they will seize on uncertainty and take on the risk of doing complex, difficult deals. I hear that from clients constantly. They're not sitting around waiting for the dust to settle. They recognize opportunities may not come again. That's the new normal; the new world in which business is being done.

Does the firm's scale present challenges to collaborating effectively?

Adam: The challenge with collaboration is often the logistics of bringing a lot of people together. It puts a premium on educating people about what exactly this firm can do.

All partners pride themselves on delivering the best possible client service, promoting the services of our firm, and on introducing other partners who can do the same. We expect that of all our partners but naturally it takes time to develop a sense of trust and see what they can achieve together. But walking the corridors of our offices, there's a sense that partners understand that collaboration is the secret sauce for a firm like ours to really excel and serve clients the best we possibly can. It gives people the confidence to cross-sell and collaborate.

Hervé: From the outset we decided we wouldn't impose a pre-existing system for collaboration but design something new for the combined firm that would serve us long term. It takes a little longer to do that. We're building and when you build, by definition, you don't have all the answers. But we now have the feedback that allows us to analyze the strength of our system and refine our approach.

Of all the key challenges the legal industry faces, such as geopolitics, the talent war, and pricing pressures, disruptive technologies, particularly AI, must rank among the biggest—is that right?

Hervé: It's important to stress that AI is disrupting every industry. In our sector, we've established a clear leadership position in adopting AI, developing AI-based tools, and providing legal advice on AI-related matters to help our clients manage their legal affairs. Tools such as ContractMatrix, built in partnership with Harvey and Microsoft, and our new collaboration with Harvey to develop multistep reasoning AI agents to handle complex legal workflows, are examples of our products.

Adam: We were the first firm to deploy generative AI at enterprise level and AI tools are now a key part of how we work. We were delighted to be named "The world's most innovative law firm" by the FT this year—a fantastic endorsement.

It's important we build on this early mover advantage. AI is already affecting clients in dramatic ways and will have a significant impact on how legal services are delivered. We're ideally placed to help clients understand the risks and benefits of this technology.

The impact AI is having on young lawyers is a major talking point. How are you ensuring your young talent are prepared for this new world?

Hervé: Our junior lawyers now operate in a fundamentally different way, with less focus on manual tasks and more emphasis on creative, critical thinking and essential skills like building relationships and delivering quality service.

What's clear is that the demand for complex and sophisticated legal advice is greater than ever. We see the rise of AI not as a threat, but as an exciting opportunity, and we are eager to meet this challenge head-on.

Adam: We've expanded training on AI and are exploring a hybrid qualification, so junior lawyers gain expertise in both legal practice and technology. By staying current on AI, data, and cyber regulation, our lawyers will be well-equipped to advise on emerging issues and remain highly relevant.

Being a responsible business is a top priority for the firm. How does that manifest itself?

Khalid: Our impact goes way beyond providing legal advice. Being a responsible business is a strategic priority for us because it's what colleagues, clients, and society expect of us—it's also what we rightly expect of ourselves. Our focus is on creating an inclusive culture, on providing our people with an environment where they feel they belong and are encouraged to excel. We want to encourage sustainable high performance and use our skills and global platform to play our part in addressing global social and environmental issues.

Inclusion is as important to us as ever. It means fostering an environment where everybody feels at home, can bring their true self to the office and are given every opportunity to succeed irrespective of their background. It means not tolerating behavior that fails to uphold those values. We will never shy away from those principles. We were proud to be named by The Times as a "Top 50 employer for gender equality" and to be awarded a silver ranking in Stonewall's LGBTQ+ workplace equality list in 2025.

Adam: We want the best talent and that means being able to recruit the best from all backgrounds and experiences. But it also means developing people in a way that makes them want to stay. That's how we build the strongest teams for our clients. An important part of that is ensuring we have a healthy workplace where colleagues can truly excel and where ways of working promote positive well-being.

Hervé: Inclusion is also critical because it allows us to capture a real perspective of the 28-plus jurisdictions we operate in—a perspective clients need to navigate a complex world.

Research shows that inclusive firms also perform best. That's a view many clients share as we saw in the summer of 2025 when our Madrid office brought colleagues from across Europe and the Middle East together for a fantastic inclusion roundtable with Banco Santander, Repsol, and Acciona.

Operating sustainably is another key part of our approach to being a responsible business. We have been working on reducing our environmental impact for many years in line with our Science-Based Targets to halve our global direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 against the 2019 baseline.

For example, we've been engaging with our supply chain to reduce our emissions and in FY25, we finished our first year of reporting to EcoVadis, obtaining a CDP "B" rating, in recognition of the proactive measures we're taking for environmental management, including disclosing our direct and indirect carbon emissions.

We've started rolling out EcoVadis in pilot offices across the network, and in early 2027, we'll move to a new, more sustainable office in London, which is projected to achieve a 90% reduction in carbon emissions for our London office.

Does pro bono work continue to be a priority for the firm?

Khalid: Absolutely. It's an important part of who we are. We always encourage our lawyers to use their talent and skills to make a positive impact on the lives of people, and our pro bono practice is now truly global, whether that's in helping people gain access to justice or protecting their rights.

Hervé: This work resonates strongly with colleagues. It's terrific that in the past financial year we recorded almost 120,000 hours of pro bono work, a 23% increase in average hours per lawyer. Interestingly, I note that this work is often done in collaboration with either clients or relationship firms, like when we worked with colleagues in India and Albania to help an Afghan family find safety in the U.S.

How has your global social impact partnership with Women for Women International gone?

Khalid: It's been an enormous success. During our two-year partnership we raised a fantastic GBP1.2 million to support its work. But our partnership with Women for Women International was not just about charitable giving; it was also about providing pro bono support, and professional, in-kind advice to support their work.

This project is all about giving women survivors of conflict the chance to take back control of their lives, giving them the life skills to make a living, build communities and support their families and communities. I was fortunate to witness their work firsthand in Rwanda and it was truly uplifting.

We're now looking forward to developing an equally strong relationship with United for Global Mental Health, our new global social impact partner.

One final question for you all. Pick one thing that excites you about the future and one challenge for the industry in the months ahead.

Khalid: Actually, I think they're the same thing—technological disruption, particularly AI, but also all the associated challenges it brings around data and cybersecurity. I don't think there is anything bigger for our industry, but it's exciting because it's an immense opportunity and we're right at the forefront of our industry.

Hervé: I'm energized by the ongoing evolution of our strategy, which enables us to deliver even greater value to our clients and in a way that makes sense and is meaningful for them. Geopolitics is the key challenge because it could mean we make slightly slower progress than we'd like. But that's life. We need to embrace it.

Adam: Khalid, Hervé and I have spent all or pretty much all of our careers at one firm. Only by merging did we get to be part of creating a new firm without needing to leave our firms! As we go forward, we'll be passing new milestones and achieving things that neither firm could have done on its own. It's exciting to be a part of that.

Our challenge is to commit to collaborating to serve clients at the highest possible level and to getting the most out of this firm together. If we can do that, all things are possible.