Firm Profiles
IN-DEPTH RESEARCH REPORT
on Ropes & Gray LLP
- - Financial Information
- - Compensation
- - Billing Rates
- - Lateral Partner Moves
- - Pro bono
- - Key Contacts
Ropes & Gray
- Designation: Boston
- Head Count: 1,008
- Gross Revenues: $945,000,000
- Revenue Per Lawyer: $940,000
- Profits Per Partner: $1,585,000
- Year Over Year Change: no change
For much of the last century, Ropes & Gray was known primarily as a top–tier Boston law firm. But a pair of high–profile mergers during the past ten years has greatly expanded the firm’s reach and its expertise. A 2003 merger with Reboul, MacMurray, Hewitt & Maynard boosted Ropes’s private equity practice, while the 2005 acquisition of Fish & Neave made Ropes a major player in intellectual property. The mergers also gave the firm a major presence in New York City, and significantly added to its attorney rolls, now more than 900 (including 262 equity partners), and to its coffers, with just under $823 million in gross revenue. (Ropes & Gray ranked twenty–seventh on the 2011 Am Law 100).
Other strong points for the firm, which is spread out over ten domestic and international offices, include securities litigation, health law, labor and employment, and tax and benefits. And Ropes’s chair, R. Bradford Malt, does all the tax planning for Mitt Romney, whose former company, Bain Capital, is a major Ropes & Gray client. The firm represented Bain in its $26 billion acquisition of Clear Channel Communications in 2008, its $3.5 billion purchase of The Weather Channel in 2008, and a $1.8 billion transaction for Gymboree Corporation in 2010.
Yet even with all its recent growth, Ropes remains a place where lawyers aren’t continuously monitoring their blood pressure: The firm ranked fifth on The American Lawyer’s 2011 Midlevel Associates Survey and eighth on the 2010 tally. Ropes’s diversity score put in the upper quarter of Am Law 200 firms in 2011 (about 15 percent of the firm’s lawyers are minorities), and it ranked nineteenth on the 2011 A–List, which factors in revenues per lawyer, pro bono, diversity, and associate satisfaction.
Postmerger, Ropes also proved itself well positioned to ride out the recession. While it did cut about 10 percent of its nonlawyer staff (just over 100 positions), the attorney roster actually increased during the crisis, as did the firm’s operating income. Overall, Ropes fared better than many of its peers, placing eleventh (of 84 firms) on The American Lawyer’s Recession Performance Index. Between 2007 and 2009, Ropes saw its gross revenue increase by a compound annual growth rate of 4 percent, its lawyer roster grow by a compounded annual growth rate of 9 percent, and profits per partner increase by 3 percent. Not too shabby for a firm that has seen a lot of new challenges—and a lot of new faces—in recent years.
—Updated as of 1/1/12
Firm Rankings
| Survey | Rank | Year Over Year Change | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Am Law 100 | 23 | no change | Gross revenue |
| Am Law 200 | 23 | no change | Gross revenue |
| NLJ 250 | 24 | 2 | Lawyer head count |
| The A-List | 17 | 2 | Overall excellence |
| Pro Bono Scorecard | 41 | 1 | Pro-bono commitment |
| Diversity Scorecard | 55 | 9 | Minority head count |
| Midlevel Associates Survey | 5 | 3 | Job satisfaction |
| Summer Associates Survey | 20 | 1 | Summer programs |
In the News
Deals & Suits
: Corporate Counsel : May 1, 2013
Morrison & Foerster Adds Hong Kong Private Equity Partner
Tom Brennan : The Asian Lawyer : April 30, 2013
Morrison & Foerster has added Marcia Ellis as a private equity partner to its Hong Kong office. Ellis rejoins MoFo after working as a partner in the Hong Kong office of Ropes & Gray, where she was part of a team that advised Bain Capital Partners on its $1 billion investment in Indian business process management company Genpact Ltd.
The Churn: Lateral Moves in The Am Law 200
Diane Jeantet : The Am Law Daily : April 30, 2013
Katten Muchin Rosenman hires eight attorneys in its new Houston office; Husch Blackwell brings aboard a business litigation partner in Chicago; and Morrison & Foerster welcomes back a partner in Hong Kong. The Churn is constant. Please send all announcements to thechurn@alm.com.
Microsoft, Sidley Defeat Motorola's Demand for Licensing Fees
Jan Wolfe : The Litigation Daily : April 30, 2013
A U.S. district judge in Seattle has forcefully rejected Motorola's request that it be paid billions of dollars in royalty fees for its standards-essential patents by Microsoft, which calls the question: Did Google overpay when it acquired Motorola for $12.5 billion in 2012?
The Churn: Lateral Moves in The Am Law 200
Diane Jeantet : The Am Law Daily : April 26, 2013
Ropes & Gray hires five new partners in Hong Kong, London, and New York; a hedge fund general counsel joins Sidley Austin in London; and Cozen O'Connor takes one from Blank Rome in New York. The Churn is constant. Please send all announcements to thechurn@alm.com.
Gibson Dunn Turns Heads as It Climbs Am Law 100 List
Julia Love : The Recorder : April 26, 2013
Mary Murphy, who heads the S.F. office, has welcomed big-name laterals as the firm has moved from 20th to 10th place in five years.
Suits to Watch
Tom Coster, Julie Triedman : The American Lawyer : April 25, 2013
Starr International Company v. The United States; Cablevision Systems v. Viacom International; Dahl v. Bain Capital Partners et al.
Ropes & Gray Adds Hong Kong Capital Markets Partner
Jessica Seah : The Asian Lawyer : April 25, 2013
Ropes & Gray has hired a capital markets partner for its Hong Kong office. Victoria Lloyd was most recently the Hong Kong-based head of the Asia capital markets practice for Fried Frank. In 2011, Lloyd acted for American handbag manufacturer Coach Inc. on a secondary listing in Hong Kong.
Deals in Brief/REITs
David Marcus : The American Lawyer : April 25, 2013
Real estate M&A activity continued apace in the first quarter of 2013, with three transactions of $1 billion or more announced in January.
MoFo Adds Hong Kong Private Equity Partner
Tom Brennan : The Asian Lawyer : April 24, 2013
Marcia Ellis, most recently a partner in the Hong Kong office of Ropes & Gray, was also previously Asia legal head for the D. E. Shaw hedge fund group.
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