For the second year, The Lawyer has quizzed the largest firms in Europe on their revenues, profit and the work that brings in the cash. And for the second year it is the UK and US firms that dominate the table, with just seven other countries contributing entries. The results confirm the success of the UK and US law firmmodel while emphasising the vitality and fluidity of the international legal market. The total revenues for Europe's top 100 firms comes to €16.07bn (£10.9bn). Of that, 80.2 per cent ( €12.89bn (£8.75bn)) is contributed by UK and US firms, which chipped in 63.7 per cent ( €10.25bn (£6.95bn)) and 16.4 per cent ( €2.63bn (£1.78bn)) respectively. More than half (54) of the top 100 are UK firms, including three Scottish-headquartered operations - Dundas &Wilson, Maclay Murray & Spens and McGrigors.

The results are, if anything, even more gloomy than last year's for the Continent's largest firms. They are up from 79 per cent of the total in 2003 to 80.2 per cent last year. DLA's mega merger with Piper Rudnick and Gray Cary has hardly helped the Continental cause, while the merger ofWilmer Cutler & Pickering and Hale and Dorr has also squeezed out another of the increasingly rare non-US and UK entries.

The UK magic circle firms ( Allen & Overy (A&O), Clifford Chance , Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Linklaters), like last year, account for the lion's share. Between them, the four global giants contributed €3.78bn (£2.56bn). This represents 23.5 per cent of the total European revenues. The UK and the US aside, it is Germany that has contributed the largest share of total turnover, once again closely followed by the Netherlands. Both countries are represented by seven firms apiece, down from eight each last year. But, as with last year, there is no German firm in the top 20 - the highest placed is Hengeler Mueller at 24 (although the firm snatched second place in the revenue per lawyer (RPL) table, with an average €809,490 (£549,200) per fee-earner, followed in third place by Haarmann Hemmelrath with an RPL of €764,710 (£518,800). The German market was sluggish at best during 2004, although Taylor Wessing did put on a significant growth spurt in terms of fee-earners and saw both revenues and profit grow by 20 per cent and 30 per cent respectively.

The Netherlands was once more the largest contributor of turnover this year along with Germany, although the exit of state attorney Pels Rijcken & Droogleever Fortuijn from The Euro 100 means its total firm number drops to seven. Pels Rijcken was edged out by the arrival of the new entries from the UK and the US, which included the expansionist Cobbetts and Hill Dickinson. Along with Pels Rijcken, this year's table also sees the exits of the German practice of EY Law , Dewey Ballantine and Trowers & Hamlins.

The prevailing trend among the leading Dutch firms was decreasing size. All the leading firms saw their headcounts shrink, while turnover increases were minimal at best. The strongest performer in terms of profit continues to be Loyens & Loeff, although it is important to point out that the firm's model (with approximately half the fee-earners accounted for by highly profitable tax lawyers) is radically different from the other leading corporate firms such as De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek, Nauta Dutilh and Stibbe .

France once again has the distinction of supplying The Lawyer Euro 100 with its least profitable firm. Fidal , the 100-office local behemoth, boasts a turnover of €250m (£169,600), a figure that places it comfortably within the top 20 of Europe's largest firms. The firm's profit per equity partner (PEP) figure is just €109,000 (£73,900) - however, that figure puts Fidal more than €100,000 (£67,800) behind the firm in 99th position. Incidentally, that too is a French firm, the former Deloitte & Touche-associated outfit Taj .

Spanish giant Garrigues also takes up the anchor position in one of the key tables. With an RPL figure of just €143,300 (£97,200), Garrigues lawyers bring in less per head than any other firm in the top 100. Cuatrecasas and Uría & Menéndez , the country's two other representatives, are also firmly in the bottom half of the RPL table, with €218,650 (£148.3) and €316,600 (£214.8) respectively.

It is left to the Italians to really shine in terms of the tables. Last year's three most profitable firms, Bonelli Erede Pappalardo, Chiomenti Studio Legale and Gianni Origoni Grippo & Partners all feature in the top 10 of the firms with the highest PEP. But even these dons of high profits have been hit by the dearth of big-ticket deals across Continental Europe last year. All three saw their profits fall, while Gianni suffered the biggest drop of all, plummeting from first place to seventh. But with a PEP of €1.3m (£882,000), the firm is unlikely to be considering a fire sale any time soon. Gianni's two rivals, Bonelli and Chiomenti, registered average PEP figures of €1.6m (£1.1m) and €1.4m (£949,900) respectively. Strong performances, but not enough to top the outstanding result of US blue-blood Sullivan & Cromwell, which takes the first place position with an average PEP of €1.8m (£1.22m).

This year The Lawyer has extended the research to include equity partner numbers; it also includes for the first time statistics on female partners, both total numbers and equity. Diversity and work-life balance issues are becoming increasingly important in the legal market, highlighted by the move earlier this year by Simmons & Simmons to introduce flexible working for all its lawyers, regardless of practice area or gender. As with many trends, the roots are in the US and the effects can take years to be felt more widely.

The results relating to the level of female partners at the Continental firms, in this context, are particularly illuminating. Of the 30 firms that made the top 100, only three had more than 20 per cent female equity partners. At Dutch firm AKD Prinsen Van Wijmen, which has just one female equity partner out of 53, the ratio of female to male equity partners is 1.89 per cent.

It may not have been a great year financially on the Continent, but it seems that it is not only the revenues that need attention.