Paul Weiss has reported its financial results, with revenue up 32% to $2.63bn from $2bn, nearly tripling last year’s 11% growth.
PEP grew 15% to $7.5m from $6.5m, mirroring last year’s increase, while revenue per lawyer rose 6% to $2.1m from $1.98m. Net income for equity partners surged 28% to $1.5bn.
Over the past year, the firm has made headlines with bold moves in London and beyond, including its English law launch in November 2023, highlighted by the high-profile hire of a Kirkland team led by debt finance heavyweight Neel Sachdev and PE partner Roger Johnson.
While focusing on London, Paul Weiss also strengthened its presence in key US markets, with notable moves such as New York-based Eric Wedel leaving Kirkland to launch the LA office with his team.
In a conversation with LB today, chairman Brad Karp (pictured) stated: ‘We had record-breaking demand for our services, across practices and offices.’
‘Through transformative strategic investments, we have achieved our goals of having market-leading practices in each of our five core practice areas (public M&A, private equity, litigation, white-collar regulatory defense and restructuring) and representing the most important companies in the world on their most consequential matters in every jurisdiction in which we practice. Our strategic investments paid huge dividends this past year.’
The Wall Street firm achieved the boost to PEP while adding 20 equity partners – an 11% increase on last year. The firm also introduced a non-equity tier in March 2024, ending the year with 19.5 non-equity partners.
On the introduction of its non-equity tier, Karp told LB the decision followed ‘years of internal debate’.
He added: ‘We made this adjustment solely for competitive and retention purposes. We had watched for years as our peer firms lured our talented counsel and associates by offering non-equity partnerships. Unlike many firms, we did not add a non-equity tier to extend our partnership track, limit the number of equity partners, and boost our profits per equity partner.’
More recently, however, the firm closed its Beijing office at the end of last year, joining a growing list of major US law firms scaling back operations in China.
Karp concluded: ‘I’m especially proud of the fact that while we increased our revenues by more than 30% and our net income by nearly 30%, we also increased our pro bono hours by more than 30% and launched the groundbreaking Paul, Weiss Center to Combat Hate. As we have grown significantly, we have remained true to our core values.’
