Legal News

AmLaw 100 Rankings: Is the Golden Age of Growth Over?

By Ashby Jones

For a lot of law-firm managing-partner types, today is a big day, as the AmLaw 100 hits their in-boxes. The AmLaw 100, or the American Lawyer magazine’s annual list of the top-grossing law firms for the year previous, represents not only a boatload of work for AmLaw staffers. For law firm heads, it’s a report card of sorts. For law students and lawyers looking to move laterally, it’s a handy reference guide to who’s hot and who’s not. For GCs and other industry watchers, it’s a snapshot of BigLaw as a whole.

And what, looking through the AmLaw 100 prism, do we make of 2007? To Aric Press, the magazine’s editor-in-chief, the year marks the end of BigLaw’s “Golden Age,” a half-decade of better-than-average growth in both revenue-per-lawyer and profits-per-partner. “The great run may be over,” writes Press. “The sharp decrease in deal activity is well-known. And the classic countercyclical practices — litigation and bankruptcy — have not yet lifted all boats.”

Still, the year turned in some impressive numbers. The top two finishers, Skadden Arps and Latham & Watkins, both topped $2 billion in gross revenues and saw increases of some 17% and 23%, respectively.

Some other noteworthy results:

• In the profits-per-partner ranking, New York heavyweight Wachtell Lipton again topped the charts, at nearly $4.95 million. Wachtell was followed by Cravath ($3.3 million); Sullivan & Cromwell ($3.06 million); Quinn Emanuel ($3.01 million); and Simpson Thacher ($2.88 million). The year was especially good for Quinn Emanuel, which saw a 23% jump in PPP.
• Some of the better showings in the gross-revenue department: Latham (revenues up 23.5% over ‘06); Baker & McKenzie (20%); Simpson Thacher (21%); Reed Smith (39%); and Proskauer (22%). On the other end: Holland & Knight (revenues down .2% from ‘06); Heller Ehrman (-3.6%); and Kilpatrick Stockton (-.2%).
• One of our favorite charts is the value rankings, which lists, in order, the firms that need the fewest lawyers to generate $10 million in revenue. Topping the chart was Wachtell (5.42 lawyers to generate $10 million); Sullivan & Cromwell (12.05 lawyers); and Cravath (13.89 lawyers).

LB Readers, the floor is yours.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on April 30, 2008 (boomark / email).