Chicago-headquartered firm McDermott Will & Emery has continued its post-financial crisis recovery, unveiling a 3.5% increase in revenue to $881m, as close US rival in revenue terms, King & Spalding sees its turnover increase by 4% to $861.4m.
McDermott’s net income also grew in 2013, with a 7% increase to $297m, fuelling an increase in profit per equity partner (PEP) to $1.545m. The top 40 Global 100 firm’s profit margin rose by a percentage point to 34%, while its revenue per lawyer increased by 4.2% to $865,000.
While the results are a considerable way off from McDermott’s 2009 turnover of $962m, after which it suffered a post-recession drop in revenue of over 18% in two years, it marks the continuation of recovery first tracked in the Global100 2012 edition, when the firm posted a 5% increase to $825.3m, followed by 3% increase to $851m last year.
The 1,024-lawyer firm was active in the lateral hiring market in 2013, bringing in 22 partners across 11 US and international offices. One of McDermott’s stand-out hires was that of former Ashurst German private equity head Nikolaus Von Jacobs in December last year to head up the firm’s private equity practice in Munich.
In the US, June last year saw McDermott hire former deputy associate attorney general, Marisa Chun to its Silicon Valley office, bolstering the firm’s trial practice. It further strengthened its white collar crime practice with the hires of Houston-based Michael Wynne, a former assistant US attorney in the Southern District of Texas, and Patton Boggs partner Todd Harrison in New York in September last year. The firm also secured the hire of the former general counsel of the US patent and trademark office, IP litigator Bernard Knight, in July last year.
Elsewhere, more profitable top 40 Global100 firm King & Spalding joins the growing list of US firms posting positive 2013 results, with revenue up by 4% to $861.4m from $827.5m and its PEP figure up by 8% to $2.14m from $1.99m.
Since 2009, the 873-lawyer firm’s revenue has increased by 27.1% from $677.5m.
The financial results come as Los Angeles-originated global firm Paul Hastings this week posted a 2013 increase of 3.6% in turnover to $941m from $908m last year. PEP is up by 4.6% to $2.175m, while RPL also grew by 5% to $1.06m.
This month US firms including Dechert, Sidley Austin, Goodwin Proctor and Latham & Watkins have all posted solid increases in revenue for 2013.
Latham revealed moderate growth figures, with revenue up by 2.7% to $2.29bn, while Sidley Austin posted solid 2013 results, with revenue up by around 7% to $1.6bn from $1.49bn and net profits up by around the same margin to $547m from $510.5m.
david.stevenson@legalease.co.uk
