April 29, 2006
The 2006 AmLaw 100: Ranked by Revenue per Lawyer
Today we have the AmLaw 100 ranked by Revenue per Lawyer, one of my favorite metrics. Why one of my favorites? First of all, it provides insight into the extent to which a firm actually achieves the Holy Grail sought by all—to do a larger proportion of "premium," money-is-no-object, work. Everyone claims to be focused on that magical realm, but the numbers don't lie.
And speaking of "numbers not lying," that's the second reason this is one of my favorite metrics: It's a lot harder to game total revenue and number of lawyers than it is to game profitability. This strikes me as a pretty hard number, all things considered.
So what do we see? Some firms clearly fall into the territory of [Revenue per Lawyer] ~ {[average hourly rate] x 2,000}, which reveals a lot. At the other extreme, the New York "bulge bracket" firms (Cravath, Davis Polk, Paul-Weiss, Simpson Thacher, Sullivan & Cromwell) generate over $1-million/year in revenue per lawyer, which means they're by no means charging it all on the clock.
And then of course there's the predictable, perennial, stand-out #1 leader, Wachtell, at nearly $2.4-million on this metric, over 47% higher than the second-place firm, Sullivan & Cromwell, at $1.63-million.
Only eight firms in total are over $1-million on this score, although Skadden and Shearman & Sterling missed that arbitrary cutoff by less than $10,000 (I rounded the numbers to the nearest $1,000 in the table that follows).
Bringing up the rear is Wilson Elser at $329,000, and smack at the median point is LeBoeuf Lamb at $719,000.
The most interesting point to me? The relative flatness of the distribution from #10 to #90. Sure, it covers a range of $500,000 to $1,000,000, but the steep parts of the curve are at the beginning and the end. Moral of the story: It's very very hard to excel, and by the same token you probably need to be doing a number of things very poorly to end up on the dog-house tail.
Keep reading to see the whole chart.
And later this weekend, I promise further analysis from a friend who is a retired finance executive of a major US bank, now a student of the legal industry, who sees some parallels between our industry and banking, so plan to stop back at "Adam Smith, Esq."
2005 Rank |
2004 Rank |
Firm |
2005 Gross Revenue |
Change From 2004 |
Lawyers |
Revenue per Lawyer |
49 |
44 |
Wachtell | $443,000,000 | 2.80% | 185 | $2,395,000 |
11 |
10 |
Sullivan & Cromwell | $875,000,000 | 5.00% | 538 | $1,627,000 |
40 |
37 |
Cravath | $500,500,000 | 10.00% | 391 | $1,281,000 |
26 |
23 |
Davis Polk | $604,500,000 | 0.00% | 529 | $1,143,000 |
20 |
19 |
Simpson Thacher | $727,000,000 | 5.20% | 647 | $1,124,000 |
32 |
30 |
Paul, Weiss | $563,000,000 | 11.70% | 546 | $1,032,000 |
19 |
18 |
Gibson, Dunn | $746,000,000 | 7.60% | 738 | $1,011,000 |
41 |
43 |
Milbank, Tweed | $496,000,000 | 14.90% | 494 | $1,005,000 |
1 |
1 |
Skadden | $1,610,000,000 | 11.80% | 1,616 | $997,000 |
13 |
11 |
Shearman & Sterling | $835,000,000 | 7.70% | 842 | $992,000 |
9 |
9 |
Kirkland & Ellis | $970,000,000 | 16.20% | 983 | $987,000 |
7 |
8 |
Weil, Gotshal | $1,016,500,000 | 11.90% | 1,066 | $954,000 |
42 |
46 |
Cadwalader | $483,000,000 | 16.10% | 514 | $940,000 |
37 |
34 |
Debevoise & Plimpton | $535,500,000 | 11.90% | 579 | $925,000 |
18 |
17 |
Cleary Gottlieb | $760,000,000 | 9.40% | 833 | $913,000 |
94 |
85 |
Cahill Gordon | $229,000,000 | 0.90% | 254 | $902,000 |
59 |
59 |
Fried, Frank | $390,000,000 | 8.60% | 438 | $891,000 |
2 |
3 |
Latham & Watkins | $1,412,500,000 | 17.10% | 1,615 | $875,000 |
67 |
69 |
Seyfarth Shaw | $321,000,000 | 9.90% | 371 | $866,000 |
49 |
46 |
Willkie Farr | $443,000,000 | 6.50% | 516 | $859,000 |
88 |
86 |
Finnegan, Henderson | $235,000,000 | 4.70% | 277 | $849,000 |
14 |
12 |
Wilmer Cutler | $815,000,000 | 8.60% | 964 | $846,000 |
34 |
49 |
Ropes & Gray | $558,000,000 | 37.90% | 664 | $841,000 |
15 |
16 |
O’Melveny & Myers | $808,000,000 | 15.90% | 977 | $828,000 |
46 |
39 |
Arnold & Porter | $465,500,000 | 2.50% | 571 | $816,000 |
43 |
35 |
Heller Ehrman | $475,000,000 | 0.60% | 590 | $806,000 |
84 |
87 |
Fish & Richardson | $246,500,000 | 9.80% | 306 | $806,000 |
62 |
58 |
Kaye Scholer | $383,500,000 | 5.90% | 478 | $803,000 |
89 |
103 |
Kramer Levin | $232,000,000 | 18.40% | 290 | $800,000 |
27 |
26 |
Bingham McCutchen | $593,000,000 | 4.90% | 750 | $791,000 |
39 |
37 |
Vinson & Elkins | $510,000,000 | 12.10% | 645 | $791,000 |
80 |
102 |
Dickstein Shapiro | $257,500,000 | 30.70% | 329 | $783,000 |
58 |
53 |
Dewey Ballantine | $392,500,000 | 3.20% | 502 | $782,000 |
79 |
79 |
Stroock & Stroock | $258,000,000 | 8.40% | 330 | $782,000 |
24 |
21 |
Akin Gump | $618,000,000 | 1.00% | 794 | $779,000 |
5 |
5 |
Sidley Austin | $1,124,000,000 | 9.20% | 1,454 | $774,000 |
17 |
13 |
McDermott Will | $799,500,000 | 7.30% | 1,034 | $774,000 |
63 |
64 |
Covington & Burling | $380,000,000 | 12.60% | 491 | $774,000 |
35 |
33 |
Orrick | $554,000,000 | 14.50% | 723 | $767,000 |
23 |
22 |
Paul, Hastings | $667,000,000 | 9.50% | 871 | $766,000 |
54 |
54 |
Wilson Sonsini | $412,000,000 | 9.10% | 548 | $752,000 |
78 |
82 |
Steptoe & Johnson | $258,500,000 | 11.20% | 344 | $752,000 |
8 |
7 |
Mayer, Brown | $980,000,000 | 7.60% | 1,307 | $750,000 |
53 |
67 |
Goodwin Procter | $415,000,000 | 37.20% | 554 | $750,000 |
100 |
103 |
Hughes Hubbard | $218,000,000 | 11.20% | 292 | $747,000 |
47 |
51 |
Proskauer Rose | $453,500,000 | 14.80% | 609 | $745,000 |
21 |
20 |
Hogan & Hartson | $700,000,000 | 11.10% | 953 | $735,000 |
22 |
24 |
Morrison & Foerster | $687,000,000 | 15.90% | 935 | $735,000 |
72 |
74 |
Jenner & Block | $287,500,000 | 13.40% | 393 | $732,000 |
70 |
70 |
Cooley Godward | $298,000,000 | 3.10% | 413 | $722,000 |
51 |
60 |
LeBoeuf, Lamb | $440,000,000 | 23.40% | 612 | $719,000 |
31 |
29 |
Winston & Strawn | $571,000,000 | 10.60% | 796 | $718,000 |
61 |
61 |
Howrey | $384,500,000 | 9.20% | 540 | $713,000 |
75 |
78 |
Thelen Reid | $278,000,000 | 15.80% | 392 | $710,000 |
77 |
83 |
Sheppard, Mullin | $264,000,000 | 14.80% | 372 | $710,000 |
29 |
40 |
Dechert | $577,000,000 | 30.70% | 823 | $702,000 |
52 |
45 |
Baker Botts | $434,500,000 | 3.50% | 624 | $697,000 |
16 |
14 |
Morgan, Lewis | $804,500,000 | 11.20% | 1,176 | $685,000 |
25 |
28 |
Foley & Lardner | $610,500,000 | 12.50% | 892 | $685,000 |
10 |
25 |
Piper Rudnick | $890,500,000 | – | 1,303 | $684,000 |
38 |
36 |
King & Spalding | $514,500,000 | 5.80% | 755 | $682,000 |
48 |
48 |
Sonnenschein | $448,000,000 | 9.00% | 662 | $677,000 |
60 |
57 |
Katten Muchin | $386,500,000 | 5.00% | 577 | $670,000 |
30 |
42 |
Pillsbury Winthrop | $574,000,000 | 32.70% | 862 | $666,000 |
12 |
15 |
Greenberg Traurig | $860,500,000 | 20.90% | 1,334 | $646,000 |
36 |
32 |
Fulbright & Jaworski | $539,000,000 | 9.70% | 858 | $629,000 |
92 |
77 |
Chadbourne & Parke | $229,500,000 | -4.80% | 368 | $624,000 |
33 |
31 |
Reed Smith | $562,500,000 | 11.70% | 913 | $617,000 |
55 |
52 |
Squire, Sanders | $410,000,000 | 4.20% | 680 | $603,000 |
4 |
4 |
Jones Day | $1,285,000,000 | 8.00% | 2,136 | $602,000 |
95 |
90 |
Andrews Kurth | $225,000,000 | 3.70% | 374 | $602,000 |
64 |
62 |
Nixon Peabody | $373,500,000 | 7.30% | 622 | $601,000 |
6 |
6 |
White & Case | $1,046,000,000 | 9.80% | 1,744 | $600,000 |
57 |
50 |
Alston & Bird | $395,000,000 | -1.60% | 661 | $598,000 |
90 |
96 |
Pepper Hamilton | $231,000,000 | 10.30% | 387 | $597,000 |
43 |
41 |
Hunton & Williams | $475,000,000 | 8.00% | 798 | $596,000 |
97 |
107 |
Sutherland Asbill | $222,000,000 | 18.40% | 374 | $594,000 |
71 |
72 |
Duane Morris | $290,500,000 | 10.00% | 490 | $593,000 |
86 |
89 |
Venable | $239,500,000 | 8.10% | 407 | $589,000 |
91 |
91 |
Mintz, Levin | $230,000,000 | 6.20% | 391 | $589,000 |
74 |
117 |
Edwards Angell | $278,500,000 | – | 485 | $575,000 |
69 |
68 |
Perkins Coie | $318,000,000 | 7.10% | 555 | $573,000 |
76 |
76 |
Blank Rome | $266,000,000 | 7.50% | 468 | $569,000 |
68 |
65 |
Dorsey & Whitney | $318,500,000 | -3.50% | 563 | $566,000 |
45 |
55 |
Kirkpatrick & Lockhart | $469,000,000 | 25.90% | 837 | $561,000 |
97 |
93 |
Patton Boggs | $222,000,000 | 4.20% | 401 | $554,000 |
82 |
80 |
Kilpatrick Stockton | $250,500,000 | 6.10% | 455 | $551,000 |
96 |
92 |
Drinker Biddle | $223,000,000 | 4.40% | 408 | $547,000 |
56 |
55 |
Bryan Cave | $398,500,000 | 7.00% | 733 | $544,000 |
66 |
66 |
Seyfarth Shaw | $336,500,000 | 7.50% | 633 | $532,000 |
85 |
75 |
Shook, Hardy | $246,000,000 | -2.60% | 471 | $523,000 |
92 |
99 |
Faegre & Benson | $229,500,000 | 12.20% | 449 | $512,000 |
65 |
63 |
McGuireWoods | $341,000,000 | -0.90% | 674 | $506,000 |
28 |
27 |
Holland & Knight | $581,500,000 | 5.50% | 1,168 | $498,000 |
83 |
97 |
Troutman Sanders | $249,000,000 | 20.60% | 501 | $498,000 |
87 |
81 |
Womble Carlyle | $238,000,000 | 2.10% | 505 | $472,000 |
73 |
71 |
Baker & Hostetler | $284,000,000 | 0.00% | 605 | $470,000 |
99 |
98 |
Cozen O’Connor | $220,500,000 | 7.30% | 482 | $458,000 |
3 |
2 |
Baker & McKenzie | $1,352,000,000 | 10.10% | 2,984 | $454,000 |
81 |
88 |
Wilson Elser | $255,000,000 | 14.90% | 777 | $329,000 |
Posted by Bruce at April 29, 2006 10:27 AM | TrackBack
Posted to Finance | Globalization | Leadership | Partnership Structures | Practice Group Management | Strategy Printer-friendly version
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