Senior partner Wim Dejonghe reflects on a game-changing year for A&O, culminating in the transformative merger with Shearman & Sterling, record full-year revenues and progress across many other strategic areas.

As A&O announced the results, we learned that managing partner Gareth Price was leaving.

Yes, sadly, Gareth decided to retire from A&O for personal reasons, after 30 years.

I’d like to express our gratitude for Gareth’s loyal and stellar contribution to the firm – starting out as a trainee, becoming one of our youngest partners in 2003 and being elected managing partner in 2020.

He led our market-leading energy and infrastructure practice for many years and, as managing partner, steered us through the pandemic and played a pivotal role in the negotiations with Shearman & Sterling that have set us up for success in the future.

Following Gareth’s departure, I’m delighted the Board unanimously voted to appoint Khalid Garousha as interim global managing partner until the end of April 2024.

The energy transition is one of the greatest challenges of our times. What are the opportunities for clients?

Our activity has grown exponentially in this area and it’s really exciting. We now have more than 250 energy transition specialists who have advised on over 200 projects in 45 jurisdictions, across new energy transition technologies.

The size and scale of this challenge – and thus, the opportunity – can be hard to comprehend. Our recent study in partnership with Climate Policy Initiative helped us visualise just how big the net zero financing gap is: tracked climate finance passed USD1 trillion for the first time in 2022 and yet an estimated USD6-7tn of climate finance is required annually to deliver net zero by 2050.

We’re working across the full breadth of transition technologies that will help accelerate net zero, including hydrogen, carbon capture, batteries and green manufacturing. Many of these projects are truly groundbreaking, and these technologies are advancing – quickly. For instance, we’re currently advising the sponsor in relation to the development and financing of the GBP20bn Xlinks Morocco–UK power interconnector project as well as the U.S. Department of Energy on the USD11bn BlueOval battery projects in the U.S.

Has A&O been performing as strongly where technology and private capital are concerned?

Yes, very much.

We’ve advised on some standout tech deals, including OpenText’s USD6bn acquisition of MicroFocus and many digital infrastructure deals. And we’re right at the forefront of emerging technologies such as AI, quantum computing and blockchain. We were the first firm to test and integrate Harvey, a GPT-4-based generative AI tool that’s fine-tuned for lawyers, into our practice, and that means we’re best-placed to advise clients on using AI across their businesses. Our Markets Innovation Group (MIG) also develops tech-based solutions for clients, which means that we understand the intricacies of this technology better than most.

Our Silicon Valley office, now in its second year, advises not only tech companies, but companies across sectors on how to capitalise on technology transformation. And we continue to build our capabilities with important hires, not least around privacy, data and cybersecurity.

Revenue from clients in the private capital space has grown by a fantastic 60% in the past two years, with our infrastructure and private credit teams particularly active. Notable matters include EQT Infrastructure’s EUR3.4bn stake in Wind Tre’s mobile and fixed network and Macquarie Capital’s acquisition of a majority stake in CloudExtel.

U.S. money dominates this sector, so this is another area where the merger boosts our capabilities. Outside the U.S. law firms, we’re leading the market. With the merger we can grow that position much further.

It’s been a strong year too for Advanced Delivery & Solutions, hasn’t it?

Absolutely, and we’re proud of what we’ve achieved in the last ten years with the creation of businesses such as aosphere, Peerpoint, Fuse, MIG, A&O Consulting and Advanced Delivery legal.

All these businesses are flourishing, but we know some could grow faster with a change of approach. As we continue to invest, we’ve been considering how to boost their performance further. For example, we recently announced that A&O has forged a strategic partnership with Inflexion Private Equity to drive the continued growth of aosphere.

Being a responsible business is a core part of A&O’s strategy. How is this embedded into the wider firm?

It’s crucial for every business to have a genuine sense of responsibility and purpose.

For me, the starting point is simple. As lawyers, many of us are privileged and we have a responsibility, beyond making money, to give back to our people, our clients, and wider society.

Of course, that’s about looking at environmental sustainability, and we set our own science-based targets and work with clients that share our goals, another area where progress has been strong. We’re on track to reduce our absolute global carbon emissions by 50% by 2030, and this year we began reporting our global emissions through the Carbon Disclosure Project, along with some 18,700 other companies, many of them our clients.

But equally important is our social impact work, creating a culture that prioritises wellbeing, and working hard to improve diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) – particularly retaining diverse talent by creating a truly inclusive workplace.

Culturally, going back to the merger, I’m glad to say there’s complete alignment on this between our two firms. Our values fit well together and were at the centre of the very first conversations we had.

There’s a perception that the big U.S. law firms are all “eat what you kill” but that’s not true. Shearman & Sterling is 150 years old and its roots are in lockstep. Cohesion and providing quality client service within a collegiate workplace lie at the heart of its culture, like ours.