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The Global Top 100 Law Firms for the year 2008 : Profits per Partner : Most Lawyers : Most Revenue

By Andis Kaulins

The Global 100 Law Firm rankings for the year 2008 are available at Law.com,
ranked by 1) Most Profits per Partner , 2) Most Lawyers, and 3) Most Revenues.
As written at Law.com:
"[t]he Global 100 is a joint project of The American Lawyer and Legal Week, a sibling publication." [links added by LawPundit]

It is interesting for us to see that our former law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, headquartered in New York City, ranks 9th in the world for profits per partner, a top-10 ranking tied to the firm's heavy litigation practice, as Law.com writes:

"Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, a U.S.-law-only shop where about half the lawyers are litigators, rose from 15th in The Global 100's profits per partner rankings in 2001 to fifth in 2002, and has not left the top 10 since."

Of course, some of those profits are also connected to the firm's highly rated information technology and telecommunications practice. As noted at the Paul|Weiss website:

"On September 19, for the eighth time, Paul, Weiss was awarded the "Best IT/Telecom Law Firm" by Asian Legal Business. This prestigious award is given in recognition for outstanding client service as well as the firm's ability to combine rigorous analysis with astute judgment to give clients a competitive edge. Winners were selected based on interviews with industry professionals."

Although the U.S. law firm Baker & McKenzie International continues to hold its place as the world's largest law firm, the United Kingdom has 5 of the 7 largest law firms in the world, a consolidation development accounted for by the growth of these firms internationally.

Indeed, three UK firms top the list of law firms in terms of gross revenues in the recent fiscal year:

1. Clifford Chance International
2. Linklaters International
3. Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer International

If we compare just a single law office in a single city, according to Law.com:

"Clifford Chance has the largest office in London, with around 1,000 qualified attorneys, while New York's largest firm, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, has 845 attorneys in New York, according to The National Law Journal's 2007 NLJ 250. (The National Law Journal is a sibling publication of The American Lawyer.)"

Links to sources featuring the Global 100

The AmLaw Daily

Editor's Blog at LegalWeek.com

MarketWatch

Full post as published by LawPundit on October 02, 2008 (boomark / email).