Following Weil Gotshal & Manges’ impressive profit increase, other US firm numbers continue to paint a positive picture Stateside with Baker Botts recording 11% revenue growth while Dechert, Goodwin Procter and McDermott Will & Emery all see increased turnover.
Baker Botts’ firm-wide revenues saw an 11.4% jump as they leapt from $586m in 2013 to $653m in 2014. Profits rose even faster, moving from $244m to $299m, a 22.6% growth rate, while profit per partner was boosted 25.5% from $1.36m to $1.7m as partner numbers fell from 180 to 176.
Andrew Baker, managing partner at Baker Botts said that the results had been achieved while ‘making sizable new investments in our long term growth in the form of substantial new marketing, business development, practice management, pricing and information technology systems.’
Turnover at disputes shop Dechert also grew strongly at 8%, increasing to $893.4m in 2014 from $777.2m the year before, while revenue per lawyer stood at just over $957,000 – up 4% on last year’s total of $920,000. Profit per equity partner (PEP) also rose to $2.3m from $2.2m posting a 7.7% increase while including non-equity partners brought that average down to $1.6m.
Nearly three quarters of the revenues were derived from the firm’s offices in North America, followed by Europe with just under a quarter, and around 1% of revenue coming each from the firm’s Asia and Middle East offerings.
Dechert’s partnership comprises 164 equity partners, just one more than in 2013, while the number of non-equity partners grew from 119 in 2013 to 124. Total lawyers at the firm grew 4% from 845 to 877. However, the firm’s figures show that only 11% of the equity partnership are female, with the remaining 89% being male.
Meanwhile, Goodwin Procter posted a revenue increase of 4% to $785.5m for the year ending 31 December 2014, up from $752.5m in 2013, and leading to revenue per lawyer breaking the million dollar mark posting an increase of 6% from $979,000 to $1.04m. The firm’s PEP also rose by 7% to $1.7m from $1.6m.
Slightly slower growth of 2.1% at McDermott Will & Emery still saw the firm increase its turnover from $881m to $900m and generate profits of $311m. Revenues were created by fewer lawyers with headcount at the firm dropping 2.4% from 1021 to 997. However, the number of equity partners rose by 11 to 203 resulting in a slight drop in PEP from $1.54m to $1.53m while non-equity partners remained broadly flat going from 369 to 368.
jaishree.kalia@legalease.co.uk