Firm Profiles

For more than a century, Dechert has weathered the world’s ups and downs. And for most of the last two decades, it has been on a remarkable growth path. In pure economic terms, it left behind its traditional Philadelphia rivals, becoming an elite national player that grew its profits by shedding practices and focusing relentlessly on moving up the value curve. But it was hard hit by the downturn—it placed eightieth of 84 firms on The American Lawyer’s Recession Performance Index and suffered close to a 30 percent drop in revenues between 2007 and 2010. It imposed multiple rounds of layoffs, too (particularly on its struggling corporate side), and an attorney roster that had exceeded 900 in 2007 was down significantly by 2011. Clearly, changes were in order.

And they came. Dechert, which embarked on an ambitious international expansion beginning in the mid–1990s, began focusing more on cross–border work so that it could leverage its sprawling network of offices. It set recruiters’ sights on lateral partners who could bring this kind of work. Sweetening the pot, no doubt, was the firm’s consistently high profits per partner, which even during the recession had remained near or above $2 million a year (consistently ranking the firm in the top 20). Dechert announced a new office in Frankfurt (opening in early 2012) and started a new practice group in the burgeoning (and cross–border) area of outsourcing and off–shoring.

The results came, too. In 2011 the firm added 17 lateral partners and saw its first revenue increase—a boost of 3.5 percent—in four years. Profits per partner also jumped. There was growth in life sciences, international arbitration, leveraged finance, and litigation. But early in 2012, Dechert’s best–known trial lawyer, Diane Sullivan, left for Weil, Gotshal & Manges.

Dechert still has some work to do to improve morale among junior lawyers, according to our Midlevel Associates Survey. Nor does it hold bragging rights on diversity, coming in 163rd of 194 firms on the magazine’s 2011 Diversity Scorecard (less than 3 percent of U.S.–based partners are minorities). On the upside, Dechert continues its practice of urging all lawyers to perform pro bono work: It ranked twelfth of 200 firms in 2011, with lawyers performing an average of 89 hours. Granted, that’s a drop from the firm’s third–place ranking in 2010, but for the first time since Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers died, Dechert is seeing more key metrics go up than go down.

—Updated as of 1/2012