Comment
From The American Lawyer's The Global 100: Profits Per Partner, Top 10:
2009
1. Wachtell
2. Quinn Emanuel
3. SullCrom
4. S&M
5. Freshfields
6. Paul Weiss
7. Cravath
8. Simpson
9. Kirkland
10. Linklaters
2010 isn't as rosy:
"For the Magic Circle as a group, profits per equity partner (PPP) were up 4.1 percent. But this number masks sharply divergent performances, with double-digit increases by Clifford Chance and A&O (25 percent and 10 percent, respectively) balancing out single-digit declines by the remaining firms.
From the perspective of partners with wandering eyes, the more interesting question is where in this new currency climate do the top U.K. firms fit in the American pecking order? Slaughter and May, with PPP of $2.412 million, roughly matches up with Simpson, Thacher & Bartlett, at number 10 in profitability on The Am Law 200. At the bottom of the Magic Circle, Clifford Chance, with PPP of $1.461 million, roughly matches up with Sidley Austin, number 32 on the second hundred ranking.
In between, Freshfields would nudge out Skadden for fifteenth on The Am Law 200 profits ranking with $2.202 million PPP. Linklaters would closely follow Latham as number 23 in PPP on the second hundred--the firm's equity partners averaged profits of $1.901 million last year. And, with PPP of $1.723 million, A&O would slot in between Shearman & Sterling at 26 and Dewey LeBoeuf at 27.
In terms of revenue per lawyer (RPL), Slaughter and May matches up well with any firm even with currency headwinds. Slaughter's RPL mark of $1.242 million would place it fourth on The Am Law 200, below Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz and Sullivan & Cromwell, and just a smidgen above its occasional friend Davis Polk & Wardwell.
However, currency conversions knock the rest of the Magic Circle well down the list. Freshfields, with an RPL of $872,000, would place forty-second on The Am Law 200. An RPL of $725,000 puts Clifford Chance below average among The Am Law 100. Throw in the stronger Am Law 200 firms, and Clifford Chance would find itself in an embarrassing three-way tie for seventy-ninth in RPL among U.S. firms, along with Atlanta's Sutherland Asbill & Brennan and Minneapolis's Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi. Neither are household names in the London Square Mile.
Perhaps last year's currency effects were distorting. Or perhaps the currency effects of the previous five years disguised the eternal truth that--lawyer for lawyer--Americans work too hard."
