It is a well-established point in the legal industry that while much attention is paid to profits per equity partner (PEP), that metric is often substantially different to what most partners are paid.
The big four Magic Circle firms have posted their strongest performance in this year’s Legal Business 100 (LB100) since the recession, despite a subdued market overall.
While headline figures for revenue, profit and headcount in this year’s LB100 confirm another year of subdued trading, a look at how the top 100 UK-based firms by revenue have performed overall since the halcyon, pre-credit crisis days of 2006 makes interesting viewing. Not least as they are testament to the inherent strength of the industry, despite the hurdles it has seemingly faced in ten years. We also look at 2011 as a five-year mid-point, the stage when the global financial crisis had started to ebb. Continue reading “Going long: a ten-year view of the LB100”
Previously outpaced by US rivals and the UK mid-tier, some optimism has been restored by the global elite in London. Legal Business decides where to place its bets
‘I will tell you the secret to getting rich on Wall Street. You try to be greedy when others are fearful. And you try to be fearful when others are greedy.’
Warren Buffett
Five years on from its controversial Australian combination – and after a punishing 2015/16 – the storied City firm is still far from finding the form it needs in a competitive global market
‘We had known that the firm had been struggling for a while but we didn’t know, and certainly weren’t expecting, a 20% decrease to our [profit per equity partner] PEP,’ a recent Ashurst leaver tells Legal Business.
In this table we blend together the three key profitability metrics, PEP, profit per lawyer and profit margin, to discover which of the top 100 firms are the most profitable. The firms have been ranked according to their aggregate score across all three measurements.
