Latham saw PEP rise but revenue fall in "tough" 2009
Latham & Watkins has posted a 5 per cent rise in average profit per equity partner (PEP) for the 2009 financial year but a similar drop in total revenue.
Latham’s turnover fell 5 per cent from $1.92bn (£1.22bn) to $1.821bn last year. Average PEP was up, from $1.8m to $1.9m.
Despite the improvement in profitability the firm’s chairman Bob Dell (pictured) admitted 2009 had been the toughest he had experienced.
“We’ve only had to lay off people twice in our history and at least from my perspective this was the most painful,” Dell said.
In March 2009 Latham laid off a total of 440 lawyers and staff.
Dell said it would have been impossible to predict 12 months ago that Latham’s end of year results would have been as positive as they were.
“We’re quite pleased we’ve been able to improve our performance given the economy,” Dell added.
The Latham chairman also said that the firm’s London office had been one of the strongest performers, with high yield, finance and restructuring proving to be stand-out practice groups.
Globally, Dell said the firm’s competition, government investigations and project finance groups had been particularly busy.
Readers' comments (2)
Anonymous | 17-Feb-2010 8:41 pm
Latham is managed by a bunch of ruthless people.
During the debt boom they hired a lot of people to work in the booming corporate areas and made record revenues and profits as a result.
Then, when the recession inevitably comes, they layoff 190 associates publicly, and a lot more stealthily for a total that's probably over 400
This layoff number included a lot of first years who had been at the firm for only four months. In NY, over half the first years were laid off several month in.
Latham management knows how damaging a layoff is for a lawyer's career, and for a first year it's practically a death sentence.
All this in response to a 5% drop in revenues and to boost profits a mere 5%? Latham management is awful.
Law students and future laterals, when the economy recovers and hiring picks up, remember which firms needlessly destroyed associates during this recession.
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Mutton Jeff | 19-Feb-2010 7:21 pm
Nobody's destroyed. Most laid off lawyers come back wearing another hat.
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment