Hallelujah and rejoice, for there are new Biglaw rankings upon us. Today, the American Lawyer magazine announced its Global 100, a ranking of the world’s 100 largest law firms in terms of total revenue. As we learned from the 2014 Am Law 100, the super-rich among the world’s Biglaw firms are only getting richer, and the latest rankings serve only as confirmation of this fact.
Last year, there were some surprising moves among the top 10 global firms, with DLA Piper swooping in to steal Baker & McKenzie’s thunder as the top-grossing firm in the world. Did the global mega-firm manage to reclaim its glory in the Global 100?
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This time around, Baker & McKenzie was able to soar to the top of the charts after posting a 5 percent increase in revenue year over year. DLA Piper’s revenue, on the other hand, grew by only 1.7 percent.
Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, the big question on everyone’s minds, of course, is how other firms fared in metrics like total revenue, profits per partner, and attorney headcount. As usual, we’ll start with the financial figures. Here’s some of the record-breaking news from the American Lawyer:
The Global 100 continues its tentative postrecession recovery. Driven by stabilizing economies, resurgent transactional markets and the continued expansion by law firms into new markets across Europe, Asia, Latin America and Africa, the world’s 100 largest legal businesses collectively had a solid, if unspectacular, year in 2013.
Aggregate Global 100 revenue rose 4.3 percent last year, to a record $88.7 billion—11 percent higher than the group managed at the height of the boom in 2008.
Without further ado, here are the top 10 firms of the 2014 Global 100 (check out the full list here):
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1. Baker & McKenzie: $2,540,000,000 (verein)
2. DLA Piper: $2,481,000,000 (verein)
3. Latham & Watkins: $2,285,000,000
4. Skadden Arps: $2,235,000,000
5. Clifford Chance: $2,125,500,000
6. Kirkland & Ellis: $2,016,000,000
7. Linklaters: $1,936,000,000
8. Allen & Overy: $1,930,500,000
9. Freshfields: $1,927,000,000
10. Norton Rose Fulbright: $1,904,000,000 (verein)
This year’s top billing is much the same as last year’s, at least at the top of the list (with the exception of Baker and DLA trading places). In the bottom half of the top 10, we saw a rousing game of musical chairs, with Linklaters and Allen & Overy each moving up a spot, and Freshfields dropping two spots. One firm, Jones Day, was bumped out of the top 10 entirely, and replaced by newcomer Norton Rose Fulbright.
Outside of the top 10, we saw a remarkable performance from Simpson Thatcher & Bartlett, a firm that’s been known to make moves in terms of Biglaw base compensation for associates. Will the firm be able to make NY to 190 happen in the future? Take a look at these outstanding numbers and decide for yourself:
[T]he biggest leap in revenue was seen at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett. The New York firm’s revenue smashed through the $1 billion barrier in 2013, growing almost 15 percent, to a new high of $1.129 billion. Simpson Thacher also posted a near-15 percent rise in revenue per lawyer, to $1.35 million, and pushed its PPP past $3 million, to $3.165 million, thanks to an almost 19 percent increase in that metric. It was the fifth-largest gain in partner profits among the Global 100.
Speaking of partner profits, on the next page, we’ve got the scoop on which firms rose in the PPP ranks…