The highest profits per partner on The American Lawyer «s Am Law 100 rankings in 2015 came in at $ 6.6 m (# 5.3 m) at Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz, while the rainmakers and leaders at a select few firms can make at least twice that.
In this case, the TNT that set off the avalanche was Herrmann's observation in an earlier post that of the 10 U.S. firms with
highest profits per partner, «only one has any connection to a blog.
Some of that wealth stems from her husband, George T. Conway III, a partner at the New York law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, which has long boasted the legal world's
highest profits per partner.
Not exact matches
The
profits -
per -
partner numbers for Canada's big firms are not widely available in the same way as those of Americans (AmLaw 200) and U.K. (U.K. 200) lawyers, and — so I've been told — are not as
high.
DLA Piper has posted a double digit increase in net
profit to a record
high of $ 667m (# 404m), while average
profits per equity
partner rose 12.5 % to $ 1.49 m (# 903,000), also a record
high.
They essentially have significantly
higher profits per equity
partner figures than the UK average.
But for MacEwen, asking whether $ 160,000 is too
high a salary is the wrong question; the ratio of associate salaries to PPP (
profits per partner) also matters.
Macfarlanes this week (24 June) reported that, while turnover jumped by 4.5 % to a new
high of # 110m, its
profits remained almost static, falling slightly from average
profits per equity
partner (PEP) of # 1.125 m last year to # 1.1 m.
Average
profits per equity
partner (PEP) have also steadily crept back to levels approaching 2007 - 08 ′ s record
high of # 616,000.
Using the
profit per partner metric allows comparing the relative contribution to the firm's
profits per equity
partner of, for example, a low - margin practice area having
high associate leverage and a
high - margin,
partner - intensive practice area.
Maister's Formula for Profitability, which has been influential in shaping law firms» profitability strategies, provides insight into the variables that can be leveraged to keep
profits per partner high.
His extended note begins, «A possible explanation for the lower
profits per partner in the U.K. is that clients in the U.K. are more sophisticated, demanding, less willing to pay
high rates, and more insistent on budgets... If U.K. companies spend less proportionally on legal fees, there's less money to go round...»
Mayer Brown saw revenue inch up 0.2 % last year to reach a new
high of $ 1.26 bn (# 1.03 bn), while
profit per equity
partner (PEP) fell 7.1 % to $ 1.45 m (# 1.19 m)
DAC Beachcroft has posted rising turnover and profitability for the 2016 - 17 financial year, with
profit per equity
partner (PEP) rising to a new record
high.
Profit -
per -
partner (PPP) and revenue remain
high at law firms, so how can they be on the way out?
With revenue growth near 12 percent and
profits per partner growth of close to 14 percent last year, Latham & Watkins blew past its previous
high - water mark for revenue, and roughly matched its prerecession record for profitability, according to reporting by The American Lawyer.
The firm also pushed profitability to record levels, with U.S.
profits per partner (PPP) jumping more than 12 percent to $ 1.38 million — its
highest returns since the three - way merger between U.K. firm DLA, Chicago's Piper Rudnick, and San Diego - based Gray Cary Ware & Freidenrich in 2005.
US firms» generally
higher profit per equity
partner (PEP) and top - of - equity figures help them hire the biggest billers, but the other enabling factor for many US firms is the flexibility of their
partner remuneration systems.
Wells Fargo's Jeffrey Grossman continues: «In past years, the
high -
profit firms — which the bank identifies as firms posting $ 2 million in
profit per equity
partner or
higher — have mostly bucked the wider trend of falling hours that has plagued their less - profitable peers.
Regional
partners also enjoyed
higher profits — more than 70 % of those who grew
profit per equity
partner (PEP) reported an increase of more than 10 %, compared to less than 40 % of City firms.
Professional services firms are struggling with a
high volume of write - offs, historically low realization rates, and delayed collections — all of which negatively impact working capital and
profits per partner.
While Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel's gross revenue hit a new
high in 2011, the firm's
profits per partner fell 3.5 percent, according to The American Lawyer's reporting.
Now, with clients increasingly demanding
higher - value performance and
partners equally demanding
profit -
per -
partner growth, training and mentoring have largely become optional extras.
Now, with clients increasingly demanding of
higher - value performance and
partners equally demanding of
profit -
per -
partner growth, mentoring and training has become largely an optional extra.