Morgan Lewis grows revenue by 8.5 per cent

Morgan Lewis & Bockius has posted an 8.5 per cent rise in gross revenue, taking the Philadelphia-headquartered firm’s turnover to $1.12bn for 2008.

Although revenue per lawyer dipped slightly, by 1.2 per cent to $822,000, average profit per equity grew by 1.4 per cent to $1.45m.

While corporate work slowed during the year for Morgan Lewis, other parts of the firm's practice areas helped sustain the financials. In particular the firm's labour and employment, energy, life sciences and drug industry practice groups performed strongly.

"There is no question that this particular year, our breadth of practice areas acted as a hedge against the areas that are slower," said Tom Sharbaugh, Morgan Lewis' managing partner for operations.

Morgan Lewis has been looking to grow its US practice in recent months. Last November, the firm secured significant expansion in its New York office when it hired 17 energy lawyers from Thelen, which collapsed towards the end of 2008 (11 Nov 2008).

The following month Morgan Lewis hired Clifford Chance New York class action partner, James Moyle (2 Dec 2008).

In London, however, the firm was forced to review its local strategy after its only two IT and outsourcing partners - Richard Barratt and Rory Graham – left in September (1 Sept 2008).

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