Annual Review 2009 - Watson, Farley & Williams

04 WIDENING OUR EXPERTISE
Widening our expertise
Over recent years Watson, Farley & Williams has
broadened its focus steadily and coherently to become
known for its expertise in a cluster of other sectors in
addition to shipping finance. At the same time, we have
grown our international coverage to 12 offices in Europe,
Asia and North America.
+10
Moved up 10 places in UK
legal ranking by turnover
– Legal Week
This strategy, for a number of reasons, gave us
relative stability during 2009, at a time when
many other firms were being forced to contract.
In an uncertain market, where solid advice is
paramount, clients tend to turn first to those
who have real expertise in their fields. This has
driven a steady flow of work our way in the past
year, particularly from the sectors we know
best and in which clients know we are leaders:
for example, shipping, energy and natural
resources.
We have also been fortunate that some of
the markets on which we focus have proven
to be less affected by the downturn than many
others. Even where they have been affected,
clients have still come to us for restructuring
and refinancing support to see them through
difficult times.
Finally, we can attribute our relative stability
to a business model that is not substantially
leveraged with a large number of junior lawyers.
Our small, partner-focused teams give our
clients excellent value for money and plenty of
high-level attention – appropriate in straitened
times when senior advice is particularly valued.