The British publication The Lawyer has published the UK equivalent of the AmLaw 100 called, inventively, the UK 100.

While many of the firms will be unfamiliar to a US audience, there are several interesting lessons to be drawn, particularly since The Lawyer has been doing this for five years now and they venture some five-year "trend" comparisons:

• Overseas expansion is anything but a guarantee of increased profitability:  In fact, of the four "Magic Circle" firms with the most aggressive overseas-growth plans, only one—Freshfields—has managed to pull off its investment with a profit-neutral impact.  (It didn't hurt that Freshfields' profit margin is in Microsoft-land at 45%.)  If this is sowing the seeds of future accelerating profitability (as the strategy's defenders claim), we are still awaiting proof.
• At the mid-range level (meaning, in the case of UK firms, annual revenues from, say, US$40--$140-million), specialization can pay off.  Even if that means,  harrumph, litigation.
• Finally, mergers seem a viable route to higher profits/partner, although the devil is in the execution.

Here's the full table, with one column I added converting the revenue numbers from £(000) to US$(000).

As a completely unexpected, and delightful, bonus, The Lawyer provides an additional article delving into the accounting practices and even financial-collection metrics of a sampling of firms.  [To the help with the jargon, work-in-progress, a/k/a WIP, is the value of completed but unbilled work, and "lockup" is the median period from delivering a bill to receiving payment.]

The main article ends on a speculative note, wondering whether US/UK mergers are slated to return.  If so, you'll hear about it here.