The Lawyer Global 100 is produced annually by The Lawyer in association with The American Lawyer. It is the definitive ranking and analysis of the world’s largest law firms based on revenue. It is the only publication that provides, in one place, detailed financial data on the 100 top-grossing firms, wherever they are headquartered. This year, for the first time, the publication is being launched simultaneously with an extended online version, which will include editorial comment on all 100 firms. The groundbreaking initiative has allowed The Lawyer editorial team more scope for comment on each firm, with the top 20 included here.

All figures, including revenue, profit and headcount, are taken from the end of a firm’s financial year. This fact dictates that there are multiple financial years considered here. Most US firms operate on a calendar year, as do most Continental firms. UK firms operate predominantly on a spring year-end. This means there is considerable overlap between the reporting periods considered in The Lawyer Global 100 and The Lawyer UK 100 Annual Report, which is published in September. The financial period considered for the majority of firms (ie US) is 1 January 2005 to 31 December 2005.

The mix of financial years also has an impact in relation to currency rates. For reasons of consistency, both The American Lawyer and The Lawyer use the same rates for all firms based on the US Federal Reserve average for 2005 (£1 = $1.82, €1.24, A$0.76, C$0.82). This means that in certain cases, notably Baker & McKenzie (which has a June year-end) and all UK firms, a portion of their financial years have been converted at the 2005 rate. All year-on-year comparisons are in dollars.

Most firms have provided revenue and profit figures and almost all provided fee-earner numbers, although in several cases we have estimated equity partner numbers. However, in the interests of fairness and the fact that many partners spoke on background and not for attribution, we have not identified those firms that cooperated officially with the research and those that did not

Matt Byrne, associate editor