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Seyfarth Shaw posted solid financial results across the board in 2012, with gross revenue increasing 7.4 percent, to $520 million, profits per partner jumping 11.7 percent, to $910,000, and revenue per lawyer rising 4.5 percent, to $690,000, according to The American Lawyer's reporting.
“It was an extraordinarily good year with revenue and profits being up,” says Seyfarth managing partner J. Stephen Poor, who points to demand for the firm's labor and employment and real estate practices as especially robust in 2012. Poor adds that the firm continues to benefit from its use of a Six Sigma–type program known as SeyfarthLean that he says has helped it "bring innovation to pricing mechanisms, process mapping, and other aspects of service delivery.”
There were slightly more Seyfarth attorneys delivering those services in 2012 than there were in 2011, as the firm's overall attorney head count rose 2.7 percent, to 753. The firm's equity partner ranks shrank 4.4 percent, to 194, while the number of nonequity partners increased 4.4 percent, to 167.
Seyfarth's lateral additions in 2012 included Stroock & Stroock & Lavan litigation partner Scott Pearson, a six-attorney real estate group from DLA Piper led by partner Richard Mendelson, and A. Donald Lepore, the former general counsel of private investment firm RNK Capital LLC.
Notable matters on the firm's docket last year included representing Allstate Insurance Co. in a wage-and-hour class action; Australia’s Dexus Property Group in the sale of a portfolio of U.S. properties to affiliates of Blackstone Estate Partners VII for $770 million; and Dubai-based Friendi Group in a strategic partnership agreement with Virgin Group aimed at establishing Virgin Mobile Middle East & Africa.
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 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.
