Firm Profiles

While Debevoise didn’t exactly breeze through the recent economic crisis—it finished seventy –fourth of 84 firms on The American Lawyer’s Recession Performance Index—the hard times didn ’t interfere with its status as one of the country’s most well–rounded large firm. Through 2011, Debevoise was the only firm to score in the top seven on each of our annual “A–List” rankings, which looks at revenue per lawyer, associate satisfaction, pro bono work, and diversity (in 2004 and 2007, Debevoise was ranked number one).

With 674 lawyers (143 of them equity partners), Debovoise, with gross revenue of $657 million, placed thirty–sixth on the 2011 Am Law 100. But it has long been a firm with a high partner compensation ratio. Its average partner compensation put Debevoise in the top 15 in 2011, while profits per–partner ranked in the top 20. These came, oddly enough for an old–line New York firm, without overtaxing the associates (or at least, without overtaxing them too badly): Debevoise scored sixteenth on The American Lawyer’s 2011 Midlevel Associates Survey, and came in at twenty –third in 2010.

With corporate work constituting its largest practice area, it’s no surprise that the economic crisis took a toll on Debevoise’s fortunes. Between 2007 and 2009, both revenue per lawyer and profits per partner saw a compound annual growth rate of minus 10 percent. It’s no coincidence, then, that Debevoise has beefed up its litigation practice in recent years. Among its high–profile partners are the department’s chair, Mary Jo White, who is a former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Michael Mukasey, a former U.S. attorney general (the firm can also boast a U.K. attorney general, Lord Peter Goldsmith, among its litigators).

While only two of Debevoise’s eight offices are in the United States (in New York and Washington, D.C.), the lawyers in those cities are a fairly diverse bunch. Twenty percent identified themselves as a minority, and the firm ranked twenty–sixth on The American Lawyer’s 2011 Diversity Scorecard.

Pro bono work is an integral part of the firm’s practices, with Debevoise placing twentieth on the magazine’s 2011 rankings. Says Michael Blair, the firm’s presiding partner: “Pro bono work at Debevoise not only satisfies our ethical obligation to help those in need, but is part of what makes our lawyers strong leaders in our practices and in our communities.”

—Updated as of 1/1/12