Firm Profiles

Many firms were hit hard by the economic downturn, but perhaps none as hard as Fried, Frank. A largely transactional firm, known for its practices in M&A, securities regulation, antitrust, and bankruptcy and restructuring, it finished last (out of 84 firms) in The American Lawyer’s Recession Performance Index. Between 2007 and 2009, gross revenue suffered a compound annual growth rate of minus 11 percent, and profits per partner was a negative 10 percent. More than 100 lawyer positions were cut (including equity partners), foreign offices were trimmed, and associate start dates were delayed. In 2008 alone, profits per partner plunged by 23 percent, to $1.23 million.

But Fried, Frank, it turned out, wasn’t down for the count. The firm learned to do more with less, and by the end of 2010, profits per partner were nearly equal their prerecession figure of $1.6 million. While that year’s revenue was slightly more than $471 million (putting the firm sixtieth on the 2011 Am Law 100 list), it was an 11 percent increase from 2009.

In some ways, however, this was not the same Fried, Frank. The head count, for example, wasn’t just lower, but also included—for the first time ever—nonequity partners. But in other ways, Fried, Frank was back to basics, benefiting from an uptick in the transactional work that has traditionally been its bread and butter. In The American Lawyer’s 2011 Corporate Scorecard, the firm ranked fifth in private equity (by number of transactions), second (by value) as counsel to investment advisers in M&A, and third (by value) as underwriter’s counsel in U.S. IPOs. Associate morale was still in need of a boost—the firm ranked 121st of 137 firms on The American Lawyer’s 2010 Midlevel Associates Survey and 101st of 126 in 2011, but at least that figure, like other key measures at Fried, Frank, was heading in the right direction.

—Updated as of 1/1/12