Firm Profiles
IN-DEPTH RESEARCH REPORT
on Nixon Peabody LLP
- - Financial Information
- - Compensation
- - Billing Rates
- - Lateral Partner Moves
- - Pro bono
- - Key Contacts
Nixon Peabody
- Designation: National
- Head Count: 612
- Gross Revenues: $436,000,000
- Revenue Per Lawyer: $715,000
- Profits Per Partner: $775,000
- Year Over Year Change: 1
In recent years, Nixon Peabody has focused on being more efficient and responsive to clients. The firm now offers alternative fee arrangements, has developed a proprietary legal project management program, and even named a “Chief Innovation Officer,” a partner whose job it is to advance ideas to improve client service and develop new business opportunities.
It’s easy to see why Nixon would want to change the system: The economic downturn was a potent, and unwelcome, wake–up call. The firm, which has significant transactional practices in areas including financial services, mergers & acquisitions, and private equity, laid off several dozen attorneys and staff in 2009, and even by 2011—when many other firms were recovering—its net income was below the firm’s prerecession peak. Revenues declined in 2011 and 2010. Perhaps not incidentally, morale among junior lawyers has been less than stellar: Nixon placed 127th of 137 firms on The American Lawyer’s 2010 Midlevel Associates Survey, and eighty–second of 126 firms in 2011.
Yet Nixon has a history of learning how to adapt. It is the product of two major mergers over the last decade and a half. First was the 1999 union of Rochester, New York?based Nixon, Hargrave, Devans & Doyle and Boston’s Peabody & Brown, both major firms with more than a century of history. In 2001 it merged with San Francisco’s Lillick & Charles, another century–old firm, but one with a focus on advising companies doing business in Asia. Nixon quickly embraced international work, opening a London office in 2007 and a Shanghai office in 2008, and forming an affiliation with a group of lawyers (now operating under the Nixon Peabody brand) in Paris. If Nixon’s strategies pan out, it won’t just be a more global firm than it used to be, but one that leverages—and prospers from—new ways of doing business.
—Updated 1/1/12
Firm Rankings
| Survey | Rank | Year Over Year Change | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Am Law 100 | 68 | 1 | Gross revenue |
| Am Law 200 | 68 | 1 | Gross revenue |
| NLJ 250 | 60 | 4 | Lawyer head count |
| The A-List | NR | N/A | Overall excellence |
| Pro Bono Scorecard | 61 | 8 | Pro-bono commitment |
| Diversity Scorecard | 128 | 5 | Minority head count |
| Midlevel Associates Survey | 82 | 45 | Job satisfaction |
| Summer Associates Survey | 89 | 8 | Summer programs |
In the News
A Nixon Peabody Staffer's Personal Take on Gun Control
Mark Obbie : The American Lawyer : May 22, 2013
After surviving a mass shooting, Ted Scardino testifies on Capitol Hill.
Personal Notes on Lawyers
: New York Law Journal : May 17, 2013
Barbara Hoey has rejoined Kelley Drye & Warren, where she had been for 20 years before moving to Littler Mendelson in 2010. Sullivan & Worcester, Fulbright & Jaworski, Morrison & Foerster and Phillips Nizer also announce new hires.
The Churn: Lateral Moves in The Am Law 200
Diane Jeantet : The Am Law Daily : May 7, 2013
Edwards Wildman Palmer expands its newly launched Miami office; a Department of Justice lawyer joins Steptoe & Johnson in Washington, D.C.; and Chadbourne & Parke loses a project finance partner in New York. The Churn is constant. Please send all announcements to thechurn@alm.com.
VOLS Firms Meet Pro Bono 2012 Pledge
Bill Lienhard : New York Law Journal : May 3, 2013
S&C's Work on Kodak Case Yields Key Deal and Big Fees
Julie Triedman : The Am Law Daily : May 1, 2013
In its first-ever representation of a debtor in a Chapter 11 case, Sullivan & Cromwell put Eastman Kodak on a path out of insolvency, kept the company's U.K. and global units clear of restructuring proceedings, and relied on an unusual fee structure to rack up bills totaling $44.5 million so far.
Reverse Commute
Elliott Hurwitt : Corporate Counsel : May 1, 2013
Heirs Sue to Recover Stolen Artworks
Zoe Tillman : The National Law Journal : April 29, 2013
An April 19 ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit represented the latest test of the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act in cases involving art and other property seized by foreign governments.
Can a Franchisor Have Employer Liability for Franchisee's Torts?
Craig R. Tractenberg : The Legal Intelligencer : April 29, 2013
The hallmark of a franchise relationship is that the franchisor allows independent businesspeople to share in the good will represented by the trademarks in the distribution of goods or services.
Can a Franchisor Have Employer Liability for Franchisee's Torts?
Craig R. Tractenberg : The Legal Intelligencer : April 26, 2013
The hallmark of a franchise relationship is that the franchisor allows independent businesspeople to share in the good will represented by the trademarks in the distribution of goods or services.
Law Journal Names 2013 Rising Stars
: New York Law Journal : April 22, 2013
Our esteemed panel of judges reviewed more than 200 nominations of attorneys 40 and under who have demonstrated that they are top contributors to the practice of law and their communities.
- Adams and Reese
- Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld
- Anderson Kill & Olick
- Arent Fox
- Arthur Cox
- Baker & McKenzie
- Brown Rudnick
- Buist Moore
- Cahill Gordon & Reindel
- Chadbourne & Parke
- Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton
- Clifford Chance
- Cooley
- Covington & Burling
- Cravath, Swaine & Moore
- Davis Polk & Wardwell
- Dewey & LeBoeuf
- Diamond McCarthy
- Dickstein Shapiro
- DLA Piper
- Dorsey & Whitney
- Dreier LLP
- Duane Morris
- Eversheds
- Fish & Richardson
- Freehills
- Freshfields
- Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer
- Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson
- Gunderson Dettmer Stough Villeneuve Franklin & Hachigian
- Heller Ehrman
- Herbert Smith
- Herrick, Feinstein
- Hogan Lovells
- Howrey
- Irwin Mitchell
- Jenner & Block
- Jones Day
- K&L Gates
- Kasowitz, Benson, Torres & Friedman
- Kirkland & Ellis
- Latham & Watkins
- Linklaters
- Mallesons Stephen Jaques
- McKool Smith
- Minter Ellison
- Moore & Van Allen
- Morgan, Lewis & Bockius
- Morrison & Foerster
- Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough
- Nexsen Pruet
- Nixon Peabody
- Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart,
- Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe
- Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein
- Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker
- Perkins Coie
- Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pitman
- Proskauer Rose
- Reed Smith
- Ropes & Gray
- Ruden McClosky
- Shea & Gould
- Shearman & Sterling
- Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton
- Simmons & Simmons
- Simpson Thacher & Bartlett
- Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom
- Slaughter and May
- Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal
- Sullivan & Cromwell
- Vinson & Elkins
- Weil, Gotshal & Manges
- Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr
- Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice
