Biglaw, Partner Issues, Partner Profits, Rankings

Bow Before The Global 100, The Top-Grossing Law Firms On The Planet

Rankings! Here are the top ten law firms in the world by revenue, profits per partner, and attorney headcount.

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Before we get to the profits per partner ranking, let’s examine attorney headcount. Per Am Law:

Average head count for Global 100 firms was 1,169 lawyers in 2012, an annual growth rate of 5.3 percent. Thirty-nine of the 100 firms have more than 1,000 lawyers. U.S. and U.K. firms continue to dominate the chart: Sixty-four are American and 14 are British. Rounding out this year’s list are eight Chinese, five Australian, three Canadian, two French, two Spanish, one Brazilian, and one Dutch firm. The number of lawyers listed here is the average full-time equivalent for the 2012 calendar year.

Feast your eyes upon the biggest Biglaw behemoths in the world (click to enlarge; see the full list here):

Baker & McKenzie continues its reign, soaring past the 4,000-lawyer mark it first attained last year. Global revenue victor DLA Piper remains in second place, but grew its ranks to enormous proportions thanks to the addition of 290 attorneys. After adding 508 lawyers, DaCheng rose from tenth place to third place, and Jones Day fell in the rankings again this year, from fourth place to seventh place, after shedding 44 attorneys (following up on last year’s dispatch of 100 attorneys). Protip: size matters here; if you want to win the race to the top of the charts, you need to stop handing lawyers their walking papers.

And now, without further ado, here’s what Am Law had to say partners’ profitability for the 2013 Global 100:

Profits Per Partner among Global 100 firms averaged $1.53 million in 2012, an increase of 0.7 percent. Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz remains at the top of this chart, with a PPP of almost $5 million. Seventy firms topped $1 million, down from 74 last year. American firms constitute the top six, and are nine of the top 10 firms. Slaughter and May is the highest-ranking non-American firm, coming in at number seven. White & Case made the biggest jump this year of 14 spots, going from 42 last year to 28 this year.

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Here are the top 10 firms of the Global 100, ranked by PPP (click to enlarge; check out the full list here):

This year, the top seven firms on the list remained the same, but there were some notable differences in the bottom three thanks to Gibson Dunn’s rise from #12 to #8. Cleary Gottlieb and Simpson Thatcher were both affected by the move, slipping down one spot each, and Milbank Tweed found itself knocked out of the top 10 altogether (the firm’s new home is in the #14 slot). Poor Milbank, with only $2,445,000 in PPP.

And while partners are worried about getting the boot at other firms, by and large, equity partnership ranks grew in the top 10 of the Global 100 as ranked by profits per partner. Any losses were relatively small — SullCrom dropped from 171 to 170, Slaughter and May dropped from 121 to 117 — but the gains were gargantuan, with Quinn Emanuel growing from 111 to 121 and Kirkland & Ellis growing from 305 to 325.

Being a partner might be the “worst job in Biglaw,” but it definitely pays well. You can access additional commentary and charts via this portal page. We welcome your insights and observations in the comments.

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The 2013 Global 100: A Wild Ride [American Lawyer via Morning Docket]
The Recession’s Winners and Losers [American Lawyer]
The Global 100 – Most Revenue [American Lawyer]
The Global 100 – Most Profits Per Partner [American Lawyer]

Earlier: What Is The World’s New Top-Grossing Law Firm?
All Hail the Global 100, the Highest-Grossing Law Firms in the World
Is Being A Partner The Worst Job In Biglaw?
The 2013 Am Law 100: A Year of ‘Slow Growth’

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