Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Legal News Blogs -> Law Blog - WSJ.com

OR PHONE (866) 635-1838 for Bankruptcy Help, (866) 635-6190 for Divorce,
(866) 635-2689 for Personal Injury or (866) 635-9402 for Criminal Defense

Find a Local Lawyer

Bankruptcy (866) 635-1838
Divorce (866) 635-6190
Personal Injury (866) 635-2689
Criminal Defense (866) 635-9402

Legal News

: Law Blog - WSJ.com

For Law Firms Too, 2008 Shaping up to be Tough

By Ashby Jones

ADVERTISEMENTS

After several years of rising revenue and profit and all the accompanying salary wars and ever-higher client rates, the nation’s largest law firms are bracing for a period that might not be so flush.

dfad Such is the opening to Law Blog colleagues Jamie Heller and Nathan Koppel’s story Why Big Law Is Bracing For a Leaner 2008 in tomorrow’s WSJ. The skinny: the lackluster economy is taking its toll on big firms, and not just at those which had beefed up on mortgage-related work. Rather, transactional work (M&A and the like) is down at a wide swath of law firms. And while legal clean-up from the subprime mess is giving firms an injection of new work, such a boost is typically not enough to make up for the fallout elsewhere. Compounding the problem, write Heller and Koppel: counter-cyclical practice areas like litigation and bankruptcy have yet kick into high gear.

Still, 2007 was a record year for a bunch of law firms, many of whom have been releasing their financials over the past few weeks. We thought now was as good a time as any to get you caught up on much of what’s been reported so far, either by the firms or legal pubs like the Recorder and the Lawyer (Click through on the link to get the source of the data for each firm). We’ve tried to be comprehensive, but if we’ve missed any big firm, feel free to send it to lawblog@wsj.com.

In the meantime, back to 2008. Increasingly we hear tale of associates getting bumped from one practice area to another and partners who actually have time to tool around on YouTube. Law Blog readers, are such tales apocryphal or truly reflective of troubled times? Talk to us.

	Gross Revenues 2007	Increase over 2006	Profits-Per-Partner 2007	Increase over 2006
Paul Hastings	$975 million	20%	$1.9 million	20%
Cooley Godward Kronish	$485 million	45%	$1.4 million	42%
Fenwick & West	$183 million	9%	$1.02 million	8%
Gibson Dunn	$907 million	12%	$1.9 million	9%
Irell & Manella	$227 million	10%	$1.91 million	14%
Latham & Watkins	$2.01 billion	23%	$2.27 million	22%
Littler Mendelson	$307 million	28%	$420,000	-10%
Loeb & Loeb	$218 million	21%	$1.29 million	10%
Luce Forward	$111 million	6%	$605,000	6%
Manatt Phelps	$242 million	14%	$1.3 million	14%
Morgan Lewis	$1.0 billion	12%	$1.4 million	15%
Morrison & Foerster	$894 million	16%	$1.3 million	12%
Munger Tolles	$205 million	10%	$1.33 million	9%
O’Melveny & Myers	$934 million	8%	$1.64 million	1%
Orrick Herrington	$772 million	16%	$1.67 million	16%
Pillsbury Winthrop	$590 million	2%	$985,000	13%
Quinn Emanuel	$385 million	21%	$3.01 million	24%
Reed Smith	$892 million	39%	$1.01 million	7%
Sheppard Mullin	$333 million	11%	$1.22 million	19%
Townsend & Townsend & Crew	$146 million	-15%	$740,000	-48%
Cleary Gottlieb	$887 million	9%	$2.14 million	2%
Dechert	$836 million	15%	$2.35 million	18%
Paul Weiss	$651 million	10%	$2.60 million	4%
McDermott Will	$978 million	14%	$1.52 million	8%
Dorsey & Whitney	$330 million	11%	$672,000	30%
King & Spalding	$615 million	6%	$1.40 million	6%
Skadden	$2.02 billion	9%	$2.28 million	9%
White & Case	$1.37 billion	16%	$1.67 million	11%
DLA Piper	$2.1 billion	19%	$1.28 million	8%
Cadwalader	$587 million	5.5%	$2.72 million	-6%
WilmerHale	$944 million	5%	$1.06 million	8.6%
Howrey	$475 million	4%	$1.01 million	-18%
Weil Gotshal	$1.18 billion	12%	$2.11 million	11%
Sidley Austin	$1.39 billion	11%	$1.38 million	5.8%
Mayer Brown	$1.18 billion	9%	$1.24 million	9%
Paul Hastings	$976 million	20%	$1.92 million	20%
Baker & McKenzie	$1.83 billion	20%	$1.06 million	22%
Shearman & Sterling	$921 million	9%	$1.85 million	12%
Hogan & Hartson	$880 million	17%	$1.19 million	18%
Willkie Farr & Gallagher	$603 million	20%	$1.12 million	10%