US firms' revenue growth trend continues unabated

Several more US firms have released their financial results for 2006, adding to the general picture of modest growth painted by the dozen or so that announced their performance last week (12 February).

While all of the firms experienced growth, on the whole most of the increases have been less than 10 per cent on 2005's financial results.

A notable exception was Paul Hastings Janofsky & Walker, whose turnover skyrocketed by 22 per cent, as first reported on www.thelawyer.com (15 February), with average profit per equity partner (PEP) also experiencing an impressive 21 per cent jump to $1.61m (£875,000).

Paul Hastings chairman Seth Zachary told The Lawyer that 15 of the firm's offices reported double-digit growth. This included London, which posted an incredible 84 per cent leap in revenue and whose average billable hours were 5 per cent more than any of the other outposts'.

Also differentiating itself from the pack was Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, where PEP smashed through the all-important $1m (£543,500) barrier, rising by a very healthy 14 per cent. This is despite the firm being landed with a $20m (£10.22m)-a-year bill for its new offices in New York's Bank of America Tower.

Akin Gump's turnover was just shy of double-digit growth, with a 9.9 per cent increase to $679.2m (£369.13m). This is a big improvement on 2005's results, which saw turnover increase by $6m (£3.3m).

Bingham McCutchen, which launched in Hong Kong last November, also shot up the revenue charts by posting a rise in turnover of nearly 16 per cent to $686.1m (£372.88m).

In stark contrast, Bingham could not grow its profitability by even 1 per cent, with PEP static on last year's.

Shearman & Sterling also suffered stagnant results, with global revenue up by less than 1 per cent to $842m (£457.61m). The London office met a similar fate with revenue up just £2m to $115m (£62.5) in 2006.