The Global 100: Methodology and notes

The firms that appear in the 2020 Global 100  are the largest 100 law firms in the world ranked by revenue.

Financial year end

Financial data shown is for the last financial year – either calendar year 2019 or 2019/20. Financial years differ – most end in December in the US and in April in the UK.

Legal Business takes the compilation of the Global 100 very seriously. We make every effort to ensure that the figures we publish are accurate and precise. The overwhelming majority of firms co-operate fully with us in this regard by providing us with the required information. Firms with a † symbol next to their name chose not to provide any official financial information.

Definitions

Turnover/revenue

Revenue figures do not include VAT, disbursements, interest or anything other than the worldwide fees generated by lawyers for their work during the last financial year.

Headcount

Total lawyer numbers include partners, trainees, assistants, associates, of counsel and all other fully qualified lawyers, but do not include legal executives, paralegals or other support staff. Firms have been asked for average full-time equivalent lawyers over the financial year.

Equity partners

We define full-equity partners as partners that are full participants in the firm’s profits. Fixed-share equity partners are considered non-equity partners for the purposes of this survey.

Non-equity partners

Non-equity partners, be they fixed-share
equity, salaried, or laterals on probationary periods, are those who are not full participants in the firm’s profits, though they may have voting rights.

Net income

We define net income as the total profit available to be shared among full-equity partners. We treat profit sharing with non-equity partners as an expense and it is therefore not included in the net income figure.

Profit per equity partner (PEP)

We calculate PEP by dividing net income by the whole number of full-equity partners (where applicable) at the end of the last financial year. PEP is an average figure used to benchmark the profitability of firms, which is not necessarily the same as saying that any partners take home this amount of money.

Revenue per lawyer (RPL) and profit per lawyer (PPL)

RPL is calculated by dividing turnover by the total number of lawyers. PPL is calculated by dividing net income by the total number of lawyers.

Profit margin

Profit margin is net income as a percentage of turnover.

Turnover change 2015-20

This figure is a straight percentage increase in revenue between the 2015 Global 100 report and the 2020 Global 100 report.

Exchange rates

We have used annual average exchange rates for 2019 given by the US Federal Reserve for any currency conversions.

• £1 equals $1.2768
• €1 equals $1.1194
• $1 equals ¥6.9081

All year-on-year and five-year revenue and profitability percentage changes are based on figures reported in dollars for the relevant years, which may not be an accurate reflection of how a firm has performed in its home currency during the same period (see box, ‘The currency effect’).

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