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Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher posted solid financial gains across the board in 2012, with the firm's profits per partner jumping 13.8 percent to a new high of $2.81 million, according to The American Lawyer's reporting.
The surge in profits was aided by a 10.7 increase in gross revenue, which reached $1.29 billion last year. Revenue per lawyer rose a more modest 6.3 percent, to $1.19 million.
The robust financial performance came as Gibson Dunn's overall attorney head count edged up 4.5 percent, to 1,086. The firm's equity partnership grew 2.6 percent, to 281 attorneys, while the nonequity partner ranks increased 8.6 percent, to 38. The lateral partners added last year included Joshua Soven, who joined the firm's Washington, D.C., office from the U.S. Department of Justice's antitrust division; Catherine Conway, who brought her Los Angeles–based employment practice over from Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld; and former Vinson & Elkins litigator Tracey Davies, who joined Gibson Dunn in Dallas.
"We have managed to sustain our strong performance and growth through a very challenging period for the global economy and the legal industry by having a balanced mix of practices spread across relevant markets," says Gibson Dunn managing partner Kenneth Doran, who highlighted patent and antitrust litigation, real estate, compliance, and white-collar defense as especially strong practices areas in 2012.
Doran says other groups that launched more recently also enjoyed steady demand for their services including an international arbitration practice that expanded into Dubai in 2012, and a transnational litigation and foreign judgments group kept busy in part by the firm's ongoing role representing Chevron Corp. in the high-profile case involving its alleged contamination of the Ecuadorian rainforest.
Gibson Dunn's 2012 docket also included representing a Cablevision subsidiary in litigation against Dish Network, and NML Capital in its suit against the Republic of Argentina to recover on defaulted bonds.
On the transactional front, the firm advised MetroPCS Communications Inc. in connection with its $1.5 billion merger with T-Mobile USA, and Dole Food Co. on its $1.7 billion sale of Dole Worldwide Packaged Foods and Dole Asia Fresh Produce to Itochu Corp. (Both deals have yet to close.)
This report is part of The Am Law Daily's early coverage of 2012 financial results of The Am Law 100/200. Click here to see an interactive chart comparing this firm's 2012 finances to those of other Am Law 100 and Second Hundred firms that The Am Law Daily and its sibling publications have reported on to date. Final rankings and full results for The Am Law 100 will be published in The American Lawyer's May 2013 issue and on AmericanLawyer.com. The Am Law Second Hundred will be published in the June issue.
