Is Skadden's Revenue Closer to $1.5-Billion or to $7.5-Billion?

It's official, according to The Lawyer:  For Skadden and six other firms, 2005 was indeed, as Skadden's New York-based M&A partner Tom Kennedy put it, "a very good year." 

For the first time ever, seven US firms topped $1.0-billion in revenue, Skadden first among this august pack at $1.58B, and Weil-Gotshal at $1.00B (the suspiciously round number doubtless making some wonder if they've been taking accounting lessons from Jack Welch (and see this), but at "Adam Smith, Esq." we tend to take these reports at face value absent insider info to the contrary—which we utterly lack here).  Here's the breakdown of the top 20 US firms by revenue:

The indubitable Financial Times, which has always covered law-land better than the WSJ, also has the story.

As you can see, more than half recorded revenue jumps in the double-digit percentages, and PPP increases were even better.

More impressive still?  What I call the "Complexity Quotient" of managing a sophisticated professional services firm.  According to my friends in management-consulting ranks, the rule of thumb they employ when estimated the challenges facing leaders of a professional services firm as contrasted to those facing management of a retail, manufacturing, or construction firm (say) is that $1.00 of professional service revenue is 5 times more complicated than $1.00 of garden-variety revenue. 

Which means Skadden isn't strictly comparable to a $1.5-billion/year "regular economy" firm, but rather to a $7.5-billion/year firm in more conventional sectors.  This would make them, by revenue, one-quarter the size of Intel, or nearly as large as the domestic video-game industry.

Which leads those of a contrarian frame of mind (moi?!) to pose the following question to you, smart and savvy readers:

Rules of the poll road:

• I will leave it up for about 10 days.
• Multiple answers are permitted, but we trust your discretion in keeping them internally consistent.
• You'll read all about the results right here, so stay tuned.

In the meantime, my kudos to Earle Yaffa.