Top-30 global firm Reed Smith has seen its 2013 revenue grow by 6% to $1.075bn from $1.013bn, while its profit per equity partner figure rise by 5.5% to $1.14m from $1.08m in the previous financial year. In London, Reed Smith’s largest office, revenue reached $190m, an increase of around 5%.
Revenue per lawyer at the firm is unchanged at $690,000.
Continue reading “Global turnover nudges up at Reed Smith while London posts equally steady growth”
Expansive US litigation boutique Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan has posted conflicting global and London results for 2013, with overall turnover up by 14% to $972.7m while the firm’s City office has posted its first ever decline in revenue and profit since launching in 2008, both down by around 30%. Continue reading “Quinn sees London revenue and profit drop by around 30% as Weil Gotshal’s 2013 numbers decline”
Identified as one of a handful of firms based outside New York that have mounted a serious challenge to the Wall Street old guard, California’s Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher has followed posting double-digit revenue growth for 2012, with a slightly more modest but nonetheless impressive 7.4% increase in revenues for 2013.
Revenues for 2013 were $1.39bn, up from $1.29bn. This is particularly strong turnover growth, on the back of the 10.7% increase in 2012 on the $1.17bn revenues the firm posted in 2011. Successive increases in revenue has given the firm an impressive overall growth of 42% over a six-year period between 2007 and 2012.
Even for rapidly globalising law firms, the market remains challenging, it seems. Financial results for K&L Gates show the US law firm continuing to expand its global footprint in 2013, unveiling a 9.3% hike in revenues to hit $1.16bn, but also struggling to improve profitability for the second year in a row.
The growth is largely due to the Pittsburgh-bred firm’s takeover at the beginning of 2013 of Australian mid-tier Middletons and the launch of offices in Houston, Seoul and Wilmington.
Continue reading “Global growth for K&L Gates but profits edge down in 2013”
It was a performance that the Wall Street thoroughbred badly needed and at last Shearman & Sterling has proved its many doubters wrong to unveil a 9.1% hike in revenues and a double-digit percentage increase in partner profits for its 2013 year.
Under the first full year of the leadership of senior partner Creighton Condon, the top 50 global law firm has posted a 9.1% rise in revenue to $820.5m, from $752m the previous year. Profit per equity partner (PEP) jumped 18.4% to $1.8m from $1,521,000 in 2012 while revenue per lawyer hit $1m, a 13.4% annual rise. Continue reading “Revival watch – after a lost decade Shearman delivers pace-setting 9% fee hike as PEP soars to $1.8m”
A year of expansion has seen top 15 Global100 firm Sidley Austin post 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. The firm’s profit per equity partner (PEP) and revenue per lawyer both rose by approximately 4% to $1.87m and $954,000 respectively. Continue reading “US results season: Sidley posts a 7% increase in turnover as Mayer Brown sees a return to 2007 PEP levels”
Mayer Brown has released its LLP results for the year ending 2012/13 for the UK business, reporting a 9.5% loss in revenues while profits are down by 5.5%.
The top 30 Global100 firm’s UK results filed with Companies House on 3 February show its turnover dropped from £105.9m in 2012 to £95.8m last year. Profits also dropped from £22m to £20.8m over the same period, while its operating profits fell from just under £31m in 2012 to £29.1m in 2013.
The firm’s net debt however, also fell to £25.6m in 2013 from nearly £34m in the previous year. Continue reading “LLP latest: Mayer Brown sees revenue dip by 9.5% as Pinsents gains £20m from McGrigors merger”
Financial institutions report multibillion-dollar effects of post-crisis costs
Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Bank have become the latest major financial institutions to declare that their earnings have been hit hard by litigation costs with Morgan Stanley in January reporting a fourth quarter 78% drop in net income to $192m, compared to $890m in its third quarter, due to legal costs and weak fixed income trading.
Revenue for the period rose from $7bn to $7.8bn since last year but pre-tax legal costs of $1.2bn meant that earnings for the quarter were almost wiped out, the FT reported in January.
Continue reading “Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Bank blame litigation for drop in Q4 profits”
BLP bank debt up sharply as 2012/13 annual reports filter through
Growing debt was a recurring theme in the limited liability partnership (LLP) accounts filed in January, led by Legal Business 100 top-20 UK firm Berwin Leighton Paisner, which, after a year of partner departures and a significant drop in profit per equity partner, revealed a 223.7% increase in bank borrowing in the 2012/13 financial year.
The 790-lawyer firm’s borrowing ballooned to £45m from £13.9m in the previous year, on the back of new bank loans totalling £31.1m.
Continue reading “Latest LLP filings show increased borrowing”
Penningtons Manches is the latest top-100 UK firm to file its limited liability partnership (LLP) accounts for 2012/13, which in keeping with a host of leading City firms, reveal that its highest paid member took more than a £52,000 cut, taking home £286,642 compared with £338,759 in 2012.
The firm posted a turnover figure of £32.1m, down very slightly from £32.3m in 2012, with the firm’s profits more or less flat at £11.53m compared to £11.50m.
Long-term loans at the firm, which acquired Manches from administrators PwC in October 2013, increased from £3.7m to £7.7m.
