Revenue and profits trending downward at Am Law 100 and 200 law firms
The American Lawyer is over a month into its annual tradition of releasing Am Law 100/200 law firm financial results through the publication’s AmLaw Daily email newsletter.
Green Target, a strategic communications firm, has been compiling individual firm results as they are released to keep their clients and partners informed on industry reporting. John Corey (@jecorey), President and founding partner of Green Target, has been sharing the compiled results with me each of the last few weeks. Here is this week’s financial reporting summary (pdf) from Green Target.
Corey is seeing a downward trend in gross revenues and profits per partner as results continue to be released.
As more firms report their financials — 106 have had their results published through [March 22] — we’re seeing the average gross revenue and profits per equity partner (PPEP) trend downward. Both are at 4 percent today whereas a few weeks ago they were in the 7 percent range. The biggest firms tend to report early and we saw many strong reports coming out of the Am Law 50 in particular. While a number of firms have reported robust profits YOY, a number of factors have played into that such as reduction in equity partner head counts and contingency victories, among other factors. A major area of focus, however, continues to be on demand and revenue growth. As the industry navigates what continues to be a flat-demand environment, firms are aggressively implementing strategies to grow the top line through laterals with portable books of business, mergers and other growth plays.
In addition to these financial summaries, Green Target will soon be releasing its 2013 In-House New Media Engagement Survey with findings as to how blogging and other social media use by lawyers influence in-house counsel and Corporate America’s selection of legal counsel. LexBlog participated in the preparation of the survey so I’ll have a copy to share with you as soon as its ready.