Biglaw, Rankings

The Global 100: The World's Top Law Firms Ranked By Revenue, Profit, And Headcount

Which law firms landed in the top 10 according to these different metrics?

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The past few weeks have been a roller coaster for the global economy and global stock markets. But global law firms seem to be doing just fine (for the time being, knock wood)

The American Lawyer just released its latest Global 100, a ranking of the world’s 100 largest law firms by total revenue. These Am Law rankings have their critics — e.g., Bruce MacEwen of Adam Smith Esq., Peter Kalis of K&L Gates, and Elliott Portnoy and Joe Andrew of Dentons — but the Am Law numbers are still, for better or worse, the biggest game in town. They are worth looking at, at least for getting a sense of broad industry trends, even if they should be taken with the proverbial grain of salt as to particular firms.

And in terms of those broad industry trends, the picture painted by the Global 100 this year is quite rosy, according to this analysis by Chris Johnson:

The Global 100 appears to have found its groove. After the turbulence of the financial crisis, which in 2009 caused the world’s 100 highest-grossing law firms to collectively suffer their first-ever fall in aggregate fee income, the group has now settled into a pattern of slow, steady growth. Aside from a slight spike in 2011, when total Global 100 revenue increased 6.8 percent, top-line growth has for the past five years hovered at around 4 percent.

This year is no different, with total Global 100 revenue rising 4.5 percent, to $92.7 billion, a sum just shy of the gross domestic product of Ecuador, the world’s 63rd-richest country, according to World Bank data. Although a far cry from the double-digit gains routinely achieved by firms before the financial crisis, at current growth rates, Global 100 revenues will still top $100 billion within the next two years.

As noted by Am Law, 84 out of the 100 firms grew their revenue in 2014, so this wasn’t a case of a few thriving outliers driving results. And this revenue growth wasn’t just headcount-driven; in fact, total headcount for the Global 100 fell a little, by 0.8 percent to just under 112,000. Increasing revenues and decreasing headcount produced a nice 5.1 increase in revenue per lawyer to $830,000, the highest-ever Global 100 RPL. Total profits for the Global 100 grew by an even more robust 6.9 percent to a record $35.6 billion.

Here are the top 10 firms of the 2015 Global 100 (i.e., the top 10 firms ranked by 2014 revenue):

1. Latham & Watkins: $2,612,000,000
2. DLA Piper: $2,480,500,000 (verein)
3. Baker & McKenzie: $2,430,000,000 (verein)
4. Skadden: $2,315,000,000
5. Clifford Chance: $2,225,500,000
6. Kirkland & Ellis: $2,150,000,000
7. Allen & Overy: $2,112,000,000
8. Linklaters: $2,088,000,000
9. Freshfields: $2,052,500,000
10. Jones Day: $1,850,000,000

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Latham taking the top spot shouldn’t surprise folks who recall that the firm topped the latest Am Law 100 rankings, thanks to a remarkable financial performance in 2014, the final year of Robert Dell’s two-decade reign as global chair. Baker & McKenzie fell from #1 to #3, while DLA Piper held steady at #2. The rest of the top 10 remained fairly static, although Jones Day and Norton Rose Fulbright traded the #10 and #11 spots (just as they did last time around).

Latham, by the way, was one of five firms to achieve growth of 10 percent or more in three major metrics: gross revenue, revenue per lawyer, and profits per partner. Congrats to Latham and its four fellow firms: Jenner & Block, Pinsent Masons (U.K.), Simmons & Simmons (U.K.), and Wachtell Lipton.

Speaking of profits per partner, how did firms fare on this closely watched metric? To the top 10 in PPP we now turn….

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