Compared to the dramatic events that have defined each of the three previous years, 2018/19 was relatively benign for the world’s top 100 law firms. True, the world has been dealing with increasing protectionism, US-China trade wars and the endless saga of the UK-EU divorce. But none of these headwinds were a shock for an industry that three years ago was reeling from the Brexit referendum in the UK and in 2017 from the start of Donald Trump’s presidency in the US.
Last year’s Global 100 report spoke of two milestones, with the global legal elite smashing the $100bn collective revenue barrier and entering the age of the $3bn law firm. Those looking for events of a comparable magnitude this time around will be disappointed. But if the legal industry appeared resilient in summer 2017 and flourishing 12 months later, this year it is nothing short of booming. Collectively, these are the strongest results since the pain of the financial crisis started to be felt ten years ago. Overall revenue for the group grew by 9% to $113.51bn – the fastest rate of growth for a decade; gross profit rose by a healthy 8% to hit $43.44bn – a pace unmatched in ten years. Average profit per equity partner (PEP) also rose by a solid 7% to $1.87m.
‘There is a lot of work around because of all the disruption and regulation in the world,’ says DLA Piper co-chief executive Simon Levine. ‘We found the level of activity across areas and geographies to be very resilient. We’re pretty busy and that’s good – M&A remained strong for a good part of the year,’ adds Linklaters senior partner Charlie Jacobs.
Out of orbit
In what has become a recurrent theme over the last few years, geopolitical fears were offset by a continued boom in business activity, fuelled by cheap financing, cash-rich private equity houses and a robust US economy. But it has not just been about transactional activity. ‘Protectionism and regulation offer opportunities for lawyers,’ says Allen & Overy (A&O) managing partner Andrew Ballheimer. ‘Increased complexity creates greater cross-border opportunities.’
With contentious and non-contentious practices firing, as many as 35 Global 100 firms recorded double-digit revenue growth in 2018/19, more than doubling last year’s 16. Only four firms experienced a revenue decrease compared to 12 last year. Of those, only Morrison & Foerster (-2% to $1.04bn) is in the top 50.
‘Our continental European offices have been busier than ever. The benefits of a diversified model geographically are paying off.’
Charlie Jacobs, Linklaters
Much of the growth in the top line can be explained by the leap in lawyer headcount in this year’s report. The overall number of lawyers is up 11% to 146,542, but this is inflated significantly by the inclusion of 7,103-lawyer Chinese giant Yingke for the first time – without Yingke the increase would be 6%. Similarly, non-equity partner headcount is up 15% to 21,210 (6% without Yingke) and equity partner ranks are 4% larger at 25,602. However, the addition of larger firms like Yingke and mergers such as Hunton Andrews Kurth and Womble Bond Dickinson only tell part of the story. While there were some firms that cut back on their partnership numbers inevitably to improve profit-per-partner metrics, many hired prolifically and even brought large teams in, while others invested in their junior ranks by bringing along swathes of new partners (see ‘Partnership growth’ below).
Almost half of the world’s top 100 firms now turn over more than $1bn – 45 compared to 39 last year. While US giants Kirkland & Ellis and Latham & Watkins remain the only two with revenue over $3bn (they may be joined by Baker McKenzie and DLA Piper in 2020), the $2bn+ club grew to 14, with Linklaters, White & Case and Jones Day all breaking the $2bn revenue barrier – in Linklaters’ case for the second time since the boom years and favourable dollar/sterling exchange rates of ten years ago pushed most of London’s biggest players into the high-earning brackets.
Meanwhile, 19 Global 100 firms now have PEP above $3m compared to 15 last year. The only firm with PEP above $5m last year – Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz – passed another profitability milestone, becoming the first law firm with partner profits to hit $6m. Kirkland and Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison both posted PEP of over $5m, while the group with partner profits above $4m now includes eight firms compared to six last year.
Getting granular
A closer look behind the numbers reveals some big caveats. Average growth across the key metrics of revenue per lawyer (RPL) and profit per lawyer (PPL) is far more subdued, with group RPL rising by 2% to $810,000, while average PPL is up 2% to $342,000.
The overall growth was not uniformly spread throughout the legal elite either. The gap between the haves and have nots – a small group of leaders and the rest – widened, helped by several economic factors. The US economy broke a number of records during the past 18 months. In July it reached its longest stretch of expansion at 121 consecutive months, while in the first half of 2019 it took the largest share of global M&A value ever – 53% – according to Mergermarket.
‘The US still dominates in terms of what clients are doing and how it drives work.’
Simon Levine, DLA Piper
‘If you look at the global legal market, the US still dominates in terms of what clients are doing and how it drives work,’ notes Levine. Even if cross-border transactional activity suffered the impact of trade wars with the US, Asia benefited from resurgent capital markets in Hong Kong, which regained its status as the largest initial public offering market in the world from New York after funds raised more than doubled to $36.5bn in 2018.
The situation in Europe was considerably more difficult, with a slowdown both in Brexit-battered Britain and the eurozone. With a few notable exceptions, the performance of UK-bred firms has once again been muted. And while a Chinese firm enters the G100 for the first time, the table remains utterly dominated by US players. Of the world’s 50 top law firms, 44 are either US-bred or the result of a transatlantic merger.
Unsurprisingly, most of this year’s strongest performers come from the US. Kirkland’s numbers are more impressive than ever – the Chicago-bred outfit has cemented its position as the world’s highest-grossing law firm by recording the fastest rate of growth of the entire 100 with a 19% year-on-year revenue uptick to $3.76bn. Such performance is no fluke – Kirkland is also the top performer on a five-year basis, with an 86% turnover increase since 2014. It continued to make waves both sides of the Atlantic in 2018 with several marquee partner hires, from A&O’s head of intellectual property Nicola Dagg in London to Cravath, Swaine & Moore’s leading M&A partner Eric Schiele in New York.
While Kirkland remains the strongest global player by a distance, two firms almost matched its pace of growth, hiking their top line by 18% in dollar terms. Covington & Burling passed the $1bn revenue mark to hit $1.12bn, while a revived Ashurst was the top non-US performer year-on-year.
In sterling terms, Ashurst’s revenue rose 14% to £641m and PEP was up 31% to £972,000. After a decade of poor performance, the firm appeared this year to have turned a corner thanks to a refocus on infrastructure, energy and TMT under managing partner Paul Jenkins’ watch (as chronicled in our May cover feature, ‘Inflection point’). It will, however, take a few years for the firm to confidently claim it has left its troubled past behind. It remains one of only two firms alongside K&L Gates to report a negative revenue growth in dollars on a five-year basis, its top line still 6% down on $907.2m in 2014.
‘We reached our 2020 revenue objective early. It was proof that it was part of sustained revenue growth.’
Oliver Brettle, White & Case
In total, nine firms in the top 25 recorded double-digit revenue growth, with Latham adding another $300m to its top line (+11%) even as the gap to Kirkland widened. White & Case was the second-strongest performer in the first quartile after Kirkland with a 14% revenue uptick to just over $2bn that saw the firm gain two positions in the table. ‘Last year was very strong,’ says executive committee member Oliver Brettle. ‘We reached our 2020 revenue objective early. It was proof, if any doubt existed over 2016 and 2017 being a flash in the pan, that it was part of sustained revenue growth.’ He points particularly to the firm’s ‘very strong US results’ off the back of launches in Houston and Chicago in 2018 following Boston in 2016.
Standing out in the 26-50 group are two firms with successful tech practices and an established Silicon Valley presence, reflecting the growing importance of the West Coast client base for firms aspiring to legal elite status (see ‘Letter from Silicon Valley’). San Francisco-born Cooley is the second-best performer on a five-year basis after Kirkland, thanks to a 82% revenue uptick since 2013. Its top line climbed by 14% in 2018 to $1.23bn after passing the $1bn mark in 2017, meaning the firm gained another three positions in our table and is now within touching distance of the world’s top 25.
Boston tech and life sciences-focused firm Goodwin Procter grew revenue 16% to $1.2bn off the back of a successful year in some of its fast-growing international offices. London grew its top line by an eye-catching 58% to $66.8m and Paris by 60% to $30m, while the firm is to many observers the most successful entrant in Palo Alto’s emerging company legal space.
Zero gravity
Financially it was a strong year for much of the Manhattan elite too, reversing a trend that has seen Wall Street leaders suffer in previous years. After posting flat and falling revenues respectively last year, Wachtell and Cravath, Swaine & Moore returned to growth at 12% and 15% respectively. Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, Paul Weiss, Davis Polk & Wardwell and Milbank all recorded double-digit percentage growth too.
‘We saw from December onwards volatility resulting from the geopolitical environment: China-US trade wars; slowdown in China and eurozone growth; the US shutdown; and continued uncertainty with Brexit.’
Matthew Layton, Clifford Chance
Others had a more difficult 12 months. Weil, Gotshal & Manges halved the pace of its revenue growth to 5%, while Sullivan & Cromwell and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom grew by an unspectacular 3% and 4% respectively. And, despite doing better than last year, the five-year performance of Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton and Shearman & Sterling remains sluggish at 7% and 17%. The year also confirmed the New York elite’s reputation for conservatism when it comes to lawyer headcount, with Skadden, Simpson Thacher and Weil all shrinking their lawyer numbers.
While the US economy provided a boost to many US firms, the year was more challenging for the London elite, as the UK’s growth remains sluggish and Brexit looms large. ‘We saw from December onwards some volatility resulting from the geopolitical environment: China-US trade wars; slowdown in China and eurozone growth; the US shutdown; and continued uncertainty with the Brexit date being pushed back to 31 October,’ says Clifford Chance (CC) managing partner Matthew Layton.
‘It is looking really positive both on the transactional side and litigation front. Regulatory is also strong.’
Richard Trobman, Latham & Watkins
Overall, London’s big four firms showed some resilience, but their pace of growth hardly improved on last year, ranging from CC’s 8% to Linklaters’ 11% (their dollar figures were buoyed by a favourable exchange rate this year – see ‘Currency effect’ below).
One shared aspect helping the London elite is increased activity in continental Europe. ‘Our continental European offices have been busier than ever,’ says Jacobs. ‘The benefits of a diversified model geographically are paying off, because as bankers are keen to get more of a presence in Europe, we find offices like Paris, Frankfurt and Madrid getting very busy.’
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The trend was confirmed by the number of US firms expanding their presence on the continent. While Latham continued growing in Germany and Spain, Kirkland opened in Paris, Cooley launched in Brussels and Greenberg Traurig opened in Milan.
Space race
Worse for London’s big four Magic Circle firms is that the last year has further increased the gap between them and their US rivals, in a recurring theme post-Lehman (see ‘Light years’ below). Their issues with an underweight US presence are far from resolved. At the time of writing, A&O had been in merger talks with Los Angeles-born O’Melveny & Myers for more than a year in a bid to expand its presence across the Atlantic, while partners at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer insist expansion stateside is still one of the firm’s top priorities (see cover feature).
Meanwhile, US firms with strong London offices continue to apply pressure in the race for talent. While the push to update partner lockstep is not new, the last few months saw the City elite also affected at junior level. All five Magic Circle firms announced one of the largest real-term increases of the decade in newly-qualified salaries, bringing the base rate around a symbolic £100,000 to at least partly bridge the gap with the US elite.
‘There’s talk of a 2020 recession. That may be right, but it’ll be shallow and uneven; it might not even be a recession but a bit of a slowdown.’
Mark Rigotti, HSF
Where UK and US leaders agree is in their optimism for the year ahead – surprising considering the persistent geopolitical issues and the Brexit deadline now set for the end of October. ‘We had a wonderful 2018 and we carried that momentum into 2019,’ says Latham chair and managing partner Richard Trobman. ‘The first half of this year has been really solid and we are optimistic about the outlook, notwithstanding the geopolitical challenges. It is looking really positive both on the transactional side and litigation front. Regulatory is also strong.’
The point is echoed by Herbert Smith Freehills chief executive Mark Rigotti: ‘There’s talk of a 2020 recession. That may be right, but it’ll be shallow and uneven; it might not even be a recession but a bit of a slowdown. It’s about finding a strategy to identify the tailwinds.’
In 2020, the Global 100 might see more significant milestones reached. Kirkland needs only to grow revenue by another 7% to become the world’s first $4bn law firm, which by its own recent standards would be a small step. Latham will require more of a giant leap, needing its turnover to grow around 18%. It is also possible that DLA and Baker McKenzie will become $3bn firms.
Overall, it is clear that momentum remains decisively with the US players, pushing some elite firms further clear of the chasing pack. Even if some anticipated turbulence could test their ability to excel in a less benign economic environment, by the time other players can feasibly raise their game sufficiently, they could already be light years ahead. LB
marco.cillario@legalease.co.uk
nathalie.tidman@legalease.co.uk
Additional reporting by Hamish McNicol and Thomas Alan.
Legal Business would like to thank SSQ for its sponsorship of the Global 100.
Winners
Kirkland & Ellis
Now a regular feature of our Global 100 Winners column, not only has Kirkland retained its position as the world’s top-billing law firm, the Chicago-bred giant was also the firm growing at the fastest pace in this year’s table, hiking turnover 19% to $3.76bn. It promoted the equivalent of 12% of its partnership to become new partners. The firm’s top line has grown by 86% between our 2014 and 2019 reports, more than any other law firm. Meanwhile, profit per equity partner (PEP) broke the $5m barrier after rising 7% this year.
Linklaters
After a mixed bag of financial results in 2017/18, Linklaters was the strongest performer among London’s four elite firms in 2018/19, increasing revenue 7% to £1.63bn and PEP 10% to £1.7m. In dollar terms, the firm passed two notable milestones, breaking the $2bn revenue barrier after a long hiatus, while its PEP rose to top $2m again. It also gained three positions, entering the Global 100 top ten.
White & Case
White & Case features among the winners for the second year in a row after another convincing performance. The firm broke the $2bn barrier for the first time thanks to a 14% revenue hike to $2.05bn (the second-best performance in the top 25), although PEP rose by a less spectacular 6% to $2.4m.
Cooley
Reflecting the growing pull of the Bay Area, Cooley’s five-year pace of growth is just behind Kirkland. The firm has hiked its top line 82% since 2014 and posted a solid 14% uptick in both revenue and PEP to $1.23bn and $2.38m respectively over 2018.
Goodwin Procter
Goodwin’s strong set of financial results came off the back of the firm’s big investment of late both at home and abroad. The fastest-growing firm in terms of headcount this year, the Boston-bred shop gained five positions in our Global 100 table to 33. Revenue rose by 16% to $1.2bn, while PEP increased 14% to $2.46m.
Covington & Burling
It was a memorable year for Washington DC-bred Covington. The firm grew its top line 18% to smash the $1bn revenue barrier, the second-best performance in the Global 100. It gained eight positions in our table to reach 37, the biggest jump of any firm in the top 50. It is now also one of the top performers on a five-year basis, thanks to a 70% uptick on the figures published in 2014.
Ashurst
There is no hiding that Ashurst has faced a troubled few years, but 2018/19 marked a dramatic revival, with the firm in dollar terms seeing an 18% hike in revenue to $856.6m, pushing the Anglo-Australian player up six spots in the main table to 56th place. Profit growth was even more impressive, surging 36% to $1.3m. While the firm has to demonstrate it can sustain solid form, the results will be seen as a big win for well-regarded managing partner Paul Jenkins.
Womble Bond Dickinson
Less than two years into its transatlantic union, mid-market player Womble Bond Dickinson enters the Global 100 for the first time in 93rd place with revenue of $474.7m and PEP at $552,000.
Taylor Wessing
Tech-focused verein firm Taylor Wessing re-enters the Global 100 thanks to two consecutive years of double-digit revenue growth. In 2018/19 the firm hiked turnover by 13% to £339.7m, following 12% growth the previous year. The dollar figure of $453.9m puts the firm in 95th place after two years of absence from the world’s top 100.
Losers
Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton
While returning to growth after a fall in revenue last year, Cleary’s five-year revenue growth is still sluggish. The New York firm has grown its top line by just 7% since our 2014 report. This year’s 5% revenue uptick to $1.27bn and 3% PEP growth to $3.16m are hardly impressive in a year in which several Wall Street rivals reported solid double-digit increases in both metrics.
Reed Smith
Another poor performer on a five-year basis, Reed Smith’s revenue growth since 2013 is in the single digits (9%) and the firm lost two spots to 34th this year. PEP growth was also subdued, rising by just 3% to $1.21m.
Morrison & Foerster
The 25% revenue growth at MoFo’s City office in 2018 was not enough for the San Francisco-bred firm to turn around a poor few years. Global revenue dipped by 2% to $1.04bn in 2018, losing the firm six positions in the table. It is also one of the five worst performers on a five-year basis, growing its top line by only 3% on our 2014 report.
K&L Gates
The worst performer on a five-year basis by some distance, K&L Gates is the only Global 100 firm alongside Ashurst to report negative revenue movement over that timeframe. The unspectacular 2% revenue uptick to just over $1bn in 2018 means the firm turned over 13% less than in 2013.
Shearman & Sterling
Despite a faster pace of revenue growth than last year, Shearman & Sterling remains one of the weakest performers of the post-Lehman era. A firm that ten years ago was safely among the world’s top 25 is now on course to lose its spot in the top 50. The New York-bred shop now sits in 49th position with revenue of $955.5m, 4% up on last year.
O’Melveny & Myers
Well over a year into its merger talks with Allen & Overy, O’Melveny looks ripe for a transatlantic union, dropping six places to 65th this year. Despite 8% revenue growth to $800.6m, the Los Angeles-bred shop is the worst-performing firm in revenue terms over the past decade. Its top line is 12% down on our 2009 table.
Baker Botts
After a standout 2016 in which it grew its top line 20%, Texas-born Baker Botts had falling turnover in both 2017 (-14%) and 2018 (-7%), seeing previous gains eradicated. PEP also fell by 10% to $1.66m in 2018 – the biggest fall of all Global 100 firms this year. With revenue of $678.2m, the firm has fallen from 46th to 70th place in two years.
Light years: the Global 100 ten-year view
A ten-year analysis makes uneasy reading for the UK firms in the Global 100. In our 2009 report, the first effects of the global banking collapse became clear and the 2008/09 financials of the Global 100 firms on both sides of the Atlantic were hit hard. Only six firms in the top 25 that year recorded revenue growth, while Allen & Overy (A&O), Clifford Chance (CC), Linklaters, DLA Piper, Paul Hastings, White & Case and Mayer Brown saw double-digit turnover reverses.
But it is the firms that have flourished since then that stand out. The currency effect has played an inevitable role over the decade (back in our 2009 report, £1=$1.56593 compared to £1=$1.3363 this year), meaning that the growth rates of the UK elite appear far worse. It is no coincidence that four of the five worst-performing firms over the last ten years are UK-bred: Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Linklaters, CC and Simmons & Simmons. The outlier is O’Melveny & Myers – the worst-performing firm over the last decade is the California-based suitor of A&O.
What makes O’Melveny particularly stand out is that two of the five best-performing firms of the last ten years also hail from the Golden State: top performer Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan and Cooley. And it is no surprise that the firms that have outperformed the market over the last decade are among the leading pack today: the two Californians, plus Ropes & Gray and Covington & Burling, as well as the familiar sight of Chicago powerhouse Kirkland & Ellis leading from the front with a striking 178% leap in turnover.
Also notable is the absence of New York firms in the top five, demonstrating the strength of thrusting ambition over the patrician-like behaviour of the Wall Street elite. Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison – which has done things a little differently itself over the years, excelling in both high-end disputes as well as M&A – is the only Manhattan resident among the ten best-performing firms of the past decade.
Revenue growth 2009-2019
BEST
| Firm | 2009 | 2019 | Change |
| Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan | $442m | $1,250.9m | 183% |
| Kirkland & Ellis | $1,350m | $3,757m | 178% |
| Cooley | $552m | $1,226.1m | 122% |
| Ropes & Gray | $797m | $1,748.2m | 119% |
| Covington & Burling | $531m | $1,117m | 110% |
WORST
| Firm | 2009 | 2019 | Change |
| O’Melveny & Myers | $907.6m | $800.6m | -12% |
| Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer | $2,215.8m | $1,967m | -11% |
| Linklaters | $2,234.7m | $2,176.4m | -3% |
| Simmons & Simmons | $501.6m | $500.3m | 0% |
| Clifford Chance | $2,172.7m | $2,262.4m | 4% |
Global 100 averages
NB: Revenue per lawyer average is with Yingke taken out, while profit figures are calculated without the firms for which no profit data was available.
The ins and outs
IN
| Rank 2019 | Firm | Turnover | Change |
| 77 | Yingke | $624.5m | n/a |
| 84 | Nelson Mullins | $517m | 28% |
| 93 | Womble Bond Dickinson | $474.7m | n/a |
| 95 | Taylor Wessing | $453.9m | 17% |
OUT
| Rank 2018 | Firm | Turnover | Change |
| 94 | Williams & Connolly | $429m | 1% |
| 95 | Schulte Roth & Zabel | $440m | 4% |
| 98 | Crowell & Moring | $401.1m | -4% |
| 99 | Fish & Richardson | $430.9m | 3% |
Best and worst: Global 100 growth 2014-19
REVENUE
Best:
| Firm | 2014 | 2019 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kirkland & Ellis | $2,016m | $3,757m | 86% |
| Cooley | $674m | $1,226.1m | 82% |
| Ropes & Gray | $997.5m | $1,748.2m | 75% |
| Covington & Burling | $656.9m | $1,117m | 70% |
| Morgan, Lewis & Bockius | $1,291m | $2,095m | 62% |
Worst:
| Firm | 2014 | 2019 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| K&L Gates | $1,158.9m | $1,007.6m | -13% |
| Ashurst | $907.2m | $856.6m | -6% |
| Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer | $1,927.1m | $1,967m | 2% |
| Herbert Smith Freehills | $1,251.4m | $1,290.5m | 3% |
| Morrison & Foerster | $1,010.8m | $1,042.8m | 3% |
PROFIT PER EQUITY PARTNER
Best:
| Firm | 2014 | 2019 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nixon Peabody | $710k | $1,503k | 112% |
| Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson | $1,636k | $3,269k | 100% |
| Weil, Gotshal & Manges | $2,066k | $3,835k | 86% |
| Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton | $700k | $1,120k | 60% |
| Kirkland & Ellis | $3,280k | $5,037k | 54% |
Worst:
| Firm | 2014 | 2019 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Morgan, Lewis & Bockius | $1,565k | $1,391k | -11% |
| Arnold & Porter | $1,266k | $1,242k | -2% |
| CMS | $763k | $768k | 1% |
| Ashurst | $1,236k | $1,299k | 5% |
| Reed Smith | $1,139k | $1,211k | 6% |
PROFIT PER LAWYER
Best:
| Firm | 2014 | 2019 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Weil, Gotshal & Manges | $311k | $580k | 87% |
| Nixon Peabody | $197k | $324k | 64% |
| Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson |
$433k | $661k | 53% |
| McGuireWoods | $176k | $266k | 51% |
| Willkie Farr & Gallagher | $561k | $632k | 40% |
Worst:
| Firm | 2014 | 2019 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| CMS | $150k | $115k | -23% |
| Baker & Hostetler | $177k | $144k | -19% |
| Baker McKenzie | $211k | $180k | -15% |
| K&L Gates | $111k | $98k | -12% |
| Morrison & Foerster | $380k | $339k | -11% |
Global 100 headcounts
* NB: This figure is significantly inflated by the addition of 1,600 non-equity partners at Yingke, without which headcount would be up 6%
** NB: This is 6% growth when discounting 7,000 lawyers at Yingke
The currency effect
The dominance of the US dollar against sterling continues to affect the ranking of Global 100 firms that report in sterling, despite all recording positive revenue growth – albeit an improvement in the exchange rate since last year has helped the UK firms marginally. In the 2018 report, the exchange rate was £1=$1.2890. This year, the exchange rate used was £1=$1.3363, meaning the majority of firms posted underwhelming results in dollar terms compared to US firms. The table below shows the actual year-on-year growth in home currency for these firms.
NOTE: As per the methodology, the financial data in this table for UK firms is unaudited or estimated figures. Please see the Legal Business 100 report in the September issue for the full results.
| G100 rank | Firm | Revenue | % change | PEP | % change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 | Clifford Chance | £1,693m | 4% | £1,620,000 | 1% |
| 9 | Linklaters | £1,628.7m | 7% | £1,697,000 | 10% |
| 10 | Allen & Overy | £1,627m | 5% | £1,660,000 | 1% |
| 16 | Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer | £1,472m | 5% | £1,839,000 | 6% |
| 27 | Herbert Smith Freehills | £966m | 4% | £949,000 | 11% |
| 56 | Ashurst | £641m | 14% | £972,000 | 31% |
| 58 | Slaughter and May | £635m | 10% | £2,985,000 | 12% |
| 62 | Clyde & Co | £611m | 11% | £690,000 | 5% |
| 74 | Pinsent Masons | £482m | 7% | £620,000 | -5% |
| 91 | Simmons & Simmons | £374m | 6% | £710,000 | 4% |
| 93 | Bird & Bird | £361m | 7% | £575,000 | 4% |
| 96 | Taylor Wessing | £339.7m | 13% | £655,000 | 13% |
Global 100 total gross profits and revenues
Partnership growth
The total lateral hires among the Global 100 are up significantly – 18% on last year. There were 1,809 reported partner hires in 2018, up from 1,527 the previous year. Seventy-three firms reported making partner hires, at an average of 25 hires per reporting firm. Promotions are up by an eye-catching 24%, from 1,332 to 1,657, from 77 firms reporting. Each firm averaged a total of 22 promotions.
Top three partner hirers relative to size
| 1. King & Spalding | 2018/19 hires: 54 | % of partnership: 13% |
| 2. Polsinelli | 2018/19 hires: 53 | % of partnership: 11% |
| 3. Holland & Knight | 2018/19 hires: 66 | % of partnership: 11% |
Top three partner promoters relative to size
| 1. Kirkland & Ellis | 2018/19 promotions: 122 | % of partnership: 12% |
| 2. Goodwin Procter | 2018/19 promotions: 36 | % of partnership: 10% |
| 3. Willkie Farr & Gallagher | 2018/19 promotions: 13 | % of partnership: 8% |