WHITE & Case broke the $1bn (£549.45m) turnover barrier for the first time in 2005, joining the elite club of just 11 firms in the world to do so. But the firm was not able to replicate its outstanding 2004, when it raised turnover by some 17.5 per cent.

The 2005 turnover of $1.04bn (£574.7m) was a 10 per cent increase on the previous year. The growth was enough to keep the firm inside the top 10 of The Global 100, but rivals are nipping at its heels.</p> <p>But the real disappointment for White & Case was its flat PEP. The firm’s 2004 PEP of $1.22m (£670,000) barely increased last year, scraping up to $1.24m (£681,000).

In the UK PEP fell by 27 per cent to $731,000 (£401,600). The result was a deep trough after hitting the heady heights of $1m (£549,500) in 2004, a figure that was all the more impressive given it was on the back of a 74 per cent jump from the previous year. The firm attributed the dip in UK PEP to a “function of investment”, with 12 lateral partner or counsel hires in the year, as well as the effects of a first full year in new premises.

Indeed, the investment in hires had a serious effect on PEP firmwide, with White & Case’s management placing an increased emphasis on its German operations, with several high-profile lateral hires over the year. In Asia the firm suffered several setbacks during 2005, including the loss of the Shanghai office’s founding and managing partner and the firm’s former China practice head.

However, the losses were tempered in January 2006 with a number of hires, including that of Wui Seung Chong from Simmons & Simmons into Hong Kong. Chong immediately reaped benefits for the firm, landing the mandate for China’s first leveraged buyout (LBO), a $122.5m (£67.3m) acquisition.