Reed Smith

Reed Smith's global revenue grew by 3.6 per cent from $958m in 2010 to $993m in 2011.

The firm's revenue per lawyer was also up 1.1 per cent from $661,000 to $668,000, but profit per partner dropped 2.8 per cent from $1.051m to $1.022.

Following a 2001 merger with UK firm Warner Cranston, a 2003 merger with California law firm of Crosby Heafey Roach & May and a 2007 merger with Richards Butler, today the firm has 25 offices across the US, Europe the Middle East and Asia and 1,477 lawyers worldwide.

Building on the 2008 merger with Richards Butler's Hong Kong operations, Reed Smith has considerably bulked up its Asian offering in recent years, having opened a new office in Shanghai in 2011 and launched an office in Singapore in 2012 following the hire of two partners from Holman Fenwick Willan. This brought the firm's total number of offices in Asia, which also include outposts in Beijing and Hong Kong, to four.

In 2013 the firm finally opened an office in Houston two years after rejecting a potential merger with Texan firm Thompson & Knight. Former San Francisco head David Thompson is the only partner known to have relocated so far to the new office.