History

Slaughter and May was founded on 1 January 1889 by two young solicitors, William Capel Slaughter and William May. They met while training together at Ashurst Morris Crisp & Co and shortly afterwards went into business together as the new law firm, "Slaughter and May".

From the very beginning we had an excellent client base. The first clients were Baron Emile d'Erlanger, Schroder and Company, railway contractor George Pauling and the Home and Colonial Stores. The international nature of our client base from the outset meant that both Slaughter and May travelled widely in the early years of the firm.

In the 1920s and 1930s we had more merchant bank clients than any other law firm. Together with long-standing clients such as Schroders and Erlangers, we acted for Barings, Rothschilds, Morgan Grenfell and a number of the smaller banks. These clients kept us very busy. In particular, Barings and Rothschilds were involved in making foreign loans and issues to European countries.

The partnership increased to ten in 1932, making us one partner short of being the largest law practice in the City. We worked on many refinancings and corporate recoveries and insolvencies in the difficult and turbulent economic conditions of the time. These ranged from domestic insolvencies to the restructuring of the Chilean nitrate industry.

In the 1940s and 1950s the new and increasing demands of commercial legal practice led to changes at Slaughter and May. While retaining our multi-specialist approach, we established departments to handle specific areas such as conveyancing, tax, probate and trust, and later pensions.

In the 1950s our US client base expanded considerably partly through connections with our American bank clients, Morgan Guaranty and Bank of America.

In the 1960s and 1970s syndicated loans accounted for a major part of our banking work and we were also involved in many significant project financings including the opening up of the North Sea for exploration. We were also at the forefront of the development of the Eurobond market in the 1970s and 1980s.

The growth of international business led to the firm setting up offices in Paris and Hong Kong in 1974. Slaughter and May was the first City law firm to establish itself in Hong Kong. An important early client of our Hong Kong office was the Mass Transit Railway Corporation, builders of the Hong Kong underground system, for which we acted in negotiating financing arrangements and a number of construction contracts. They remain to this day an important client of the firm.

Our role as the leading law firm in the City of London was confirmed in the 1980s and 1990s, as we acted on a huge number of privatisations, including British Aerospace, British Airways, Jaguar, British Telecom, BP, British Gas and British Steel. We also had a large team working for several years on the fall-out following the collapse of Barings bank.

The turn of the century brought about the development of our distinctive international approach and we have continued to see the relationship with our "Best Friends" flourish.

We are proud of our heritage but embrace the future. History shows that we move with the times and are constantly striving to retain our position as a premier international law firm.