Seldom has the strategic divide between The Am Law 100 and the Second Hundred been so stark. Faced with a tepid economic recovery in 2012, the big boys played it safe—and their smaller competitors gambled on growth.
After a disappointing 2011, the Second Hundred—firms 101–200 on The American Lawyer‘s list of the nation’s highest-grossing firms—took in $18.51 billion in gross revenue, an all-time high. It was a 3.2 percent increase from 2011, nearly on par with The Am Law 100′s gross revenue growth rate of 3.4 percent.
