As the latest firm to report its global financial results, Winston & Strawn had revenue growth of less than 1% last year to $823m, while Goodwin Procter saw its revenue increase by 5% to $912m as the firm made a series of lateral hires in 2016.
After a strong 2015, Winston’s profits per equity partner (PEP) last year also rose by 1% to $1.83m, as net income fell by the same amount. The US firm shrunk headcount by 10 lawyers from 808 to 798.
This month, Winston has also made a number of lateral hires globally, most recently taking on 21 partners in Dallas and hiring Shearman & Sterling’s former global chair of tax controversy and litigation Lawrence Hill. The firm also took on King & Wood Mallesons (KWM) finance partner Ian Borman in London in December last year, after making more than 20 job offers to partners of the collapsed EUME arm of KWM.
Meanwhile at Goodwin PEP remained relatively flat at $1.98m, a $10,000 decrease on 2015 as the US firm made a splash in Europe in 2016 taking on a number of notable partners. Goodwin opened in Paris with the hire of six partners in April from KWM. Shearman & Sterling partners Arnaud Fromion and Frederic Guillox also exited their firm for Goodwin’s Paris office in 2016, while in London the firm also confirmed Mark Soundy and Sarah Priestley would join following their resignation from Shearman, while the firm’s Frankfurt office also received a boost with the hire of Ashurst tax partner Heiko Penndorf.
Goodwin has continued its growth trajectory in 2017 with the firm confirming the hire of a six partner KWM funds team including influential partner Michael Halford in January, alongside 15 associates and five trainees.
Other US firms which reported earlier this month are Latham & Watkins which saw revenue grow by 7% to $2.8bn as PEP broke the $3m mark for the first time, while Reed Smith’s global revenues fell for the second consecutive year in 2016, by 4% to $1.08bn.
georgiana.tudor@legalease.co.uk