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After coming close several times in recent years, Paul Hastings cracked the $2 million barrier in profits per partner for the first time in 2012 to hit $2.08 million, according to The American Lawyer's reporting.
In addition to posting a 5.9 percent increase in profits to reach its new high, Paul Hastings saw its gross revenue rise 2.8 percent, to $908 million, and its revenue per lawyer increase 0.7 percent, to $1.01 million.
“We are pleased to have achieved record profits,” chairman Seth Zachary said in a statement provided by the firm that highlighted the leveraged finance, securities litigation, intellectual property, employment, and antitrust practice groups as standout performers last year.
In addition to the increases it recorded in key financial categories, the firm also saw its overall attorney head count inch up 2 percent, from 881 to 899, and its equity partnership ranks grow 4.8 percent, from 189 to 198, last year. Those gains came on the heels of a 2011 that saw Paul Hastings post slight declines in profits per partner, gross revenue, and attorney head count (including equity partners).
The 2012 head count growth was fueled in large by the addition of 17 lateral partners, including four new corporate partners in London and four new partners in the firm's New York–based Latin America practice who joined from Dewey & LeBoeuf amid that now-defunct firm's collapse. The year also saw Paul Hastings open offices in Houston and Seoul.
The firm's notable 2012 assignments included advising Internet service provider Suddenlink Communications on its sale for $6.6 billion to a group that included members of the company's management team. On the litigation front, Paul Hastings represented UBS AG in a lawsuit brought in New York state court by HSH Nordbank, a German bank that accused the firm's client of committing fraud in connection with collateralized debt obligations.
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 2013 issue and on AmericanLawyer.com. The Am Law Second Hundred will be published in the June issue.
