Profits Per Partner Up At WilmerHale and K&L Gates. Revenue Up At White & Case

A couple of internal emails came across our desk today, heralding good news — at least for the partners.

Profits per Partner are up at WilmerHale:

PPP are $1,080,000, which is up from last year by a little bit. Also, 6.7% of total hours billed by the firm were to pro bono matters.

And the firm is passing some of those profits back down to associates. Individualized bonus memos are making the rounds at WilmerHale today, and at 2000 hours associates will be receiving a Cravath level bonus. Our Boston based sources are pretty happy with that.

Perhaps more importantly, WilmerHale announced that they will not be freezing salaries. So while associates at Goodwin Procter will be getting a better bonus, WilmerHale associates will be getting pay raises that are reflected in their February paychecks.

White & Case also shows a revenue increase after the jump.


White & Case just announced a 7% increase in revenue for 2008. White & Case trumpeted the news in a firm wide email:

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Dear colleagues:

I am pleased to tell you that we achieved solid financial results in 2008, finishing the year with revenues of $1.467 billion. This is a 7% increase on our 2007 revenues, which is a real accomplishment, given the global economic instability of the past year.

We took steps in 2008 to ensure our business remains strong in uncertain times. We launched our new strategy and organizational structure, giving us the ability to better adapt to changes in market conditions and respond quickly to opportunities in high-priority regions and practices.

I would like to thank you for everything you did in 2008 to help us achieve this success. We will no doubt face continued market challenges in 2009, but I am confident that we are operating from a position of strength.

We imagine that the 70 people White & Case let go aren’t super happy about being part of the firm’s “new strategy and organizational structure,” but keeping partners happy directly impacts associate job security. Just ask former employees at Heller Ehrman, Thelen, or Thacher Proffitt what happens when PPP starts to drop.

For all the pain that was spread around Biglaw in 2008, it is pretty obvious that aggressive cost cutting does help firms keep partner profits high. AmLaw is reporting today that K&L Gates also so a nearly 7% increase in PPP. We’ve reported on K&L Gates’ cost cutting measures right down to nickels and dimes. But I guess you don’t pull in $855K a year by being frivolous with the bathroom supplies.

We’ll post additional PPP information as it rolls in, and try to remind you where some of that money came from.

THE AM LAW 100: Revenue, Profits Up at K&L Gates [AmLaw Daily]

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Earlier: Cleary Gottlieb Profits