And, From Across the Pond,...

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.